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A Plethora of Deities
Oct. 30th, 2024 04:59 pmMarge Simon and Malcolm Deeley, 2009, The City of a Thousand Gods, Sam's Dot publishing, www.samsdotpublishing.com, $14.95, ISBN 978-1-935590-28-6, perfect bound paperback.
This book is like a deck of cards, if each card has an original painting on one side and a flash story on the other. This book was written around the idea of a city in which almost every faith is given a place. The idea is reminiscent of Fritz Leiber's street of the gods in Lankhmar, although Simon and Deeley 's City is nowhere near as gritty. Also, the street of the gods was created to illustrate the foibles of religion. "The city of a thousand gods" celebrates diversity. Colored watercolor and colored-pencil cover illustration and interior illustrations. These are evocative and appealing.
"The City of a Thousand Gods" focuses on the many different gods and religions the authors have imagined for it. It is not an encyclopedia, because each entry is a story, now that I think about it, that would be a wonderful kind of encyclopedia. I will admit right up front, the book does not cover all 1000 gods that are worshiped in the city. It does cover a good 29 of them. Perhaps there will be a sequel.
One remarkable thing about the book is the cover. Sam's Dot is notorious for less-than-thrilling covers. This book is an exception. Not only do I like the cover, which stands out as one of the best I've seen from Marge Simon, but I enjoyed nearly all the stories. Quite often in a book of this sort, where a certain minimum number of stories is needed, some stories are right on the mark, but others are as flat as pancakes. Not here. The authors stopped at 29 stories because they felt they were done.
Simon and Deeley have come up with some very engaging concepts. Priests of "The Sixfold Visage" spend their time learning about other faiths, which is how they practice their own. Reminds me of Unitarians. "The Dysur" believe that they can develop their mental powers to travel to other worlds. The Body of Family believe that the path to heaven requires one's body be made into a sacred brick, whereas followers of the Path of Light believe one's body must be scattered to the wind I thought Romeo and Juliet had it bad! Many of the faiths will remind the reader of some that we know exist or have existed in our world. The sacred prostitutes, the man-only and woman-only cults, and so on. But isn't this inevitable? Over the past half-dozen millennia for which we have at least a minimal records humanity has experimented with almost any kind of religion that could possibly be imagined. One might think of "The city of a thousand gods" as a compassionate review of these possibilities.
If the book strikes any false notes, it is that some of the stories seem to be a little too detached. Relatively passionless summaries are starkly contrasted with emotion-charged personal tales. The latter, which I prefer, outnumber and outweigh the former.
I am a sucker for books that explore alternatives. "The city of a thousand gods" does so very well.
This book is like a deck of cards, if each card has an original painting on one side and a flash story on the other. This book was written around the idea of a city in which almost every faith is given a place. The idea is reminiscent of Fritz Leiber's street of the gods in Lankhmar, although Simon and Deeley 's City is nowhere near as gritty. Also, the street of the gods was created to illustrate the foibles of religion. "The city of a thousand gods" celebrates diversity. Colored watercolor and colored-pencil cover illustration and interior illustrations. These are evocative and appealing.
"The City of a Thousand Gods" focuses on the many different gods and religions the authors have imagined for it. It is not an encyclopedia, because each entry is a story, now that I think about it, that would be a wonderful kind of encyclopedia. I will admit right up front, the book does not cover all 1000 gods that are worshiped in the city. It does cover a good 29 of them. Perhaps there will be a sequel.
One remarkable thing about the book is the cover. Sam's Dot is notorious for less-than-thrilling covers. This book is an exception. Not only do I like the cover, which stands out as one of the best I've seen from Marge Simon, but I enjoyed nearly all the stories. Quite often in a book of this sort, where a certain minimum number of stories is needed, some stories are right on the mark, but others are as flat as pancakes. Not here. The authors stopped at 29 stories because they felt they were done.
Simon and Deeley have come up with some very engaging concepts. Priests of "The Sixfold Visage" spend their time learning about other faiths, which is how they practice their own. Reminds me of Unitarians. "The Dysur" believe that they can develop their mental powers to travel to other worlds. The Body of Family believe that the path to heaven requires one's body be made into a sacred brick, whereas followers of the Path of Light believe one's body must be scattered to the wind I thought Romeo and Juliet had it bad! Many of the faiths will remind the reader of some that we know exist or have existed in our world. The sacred prostitutes, the man-only and woman-only cults, and so on. But isn't this inevitable? Over the past half-dozen millennia for which we have at least a minimal records humanity has experimented with almost any kind of religion that could possibly be imagined. One might think of "The city of a thousand gods" as a compassionate review of these possibilities.
If the book strikes any false notes, it is that some of the stories seem to be a little too detached. Relatively passionless summaries are starkly contrasted with emotion-charged personal tales. The latter, which I prefer, outnumber and outweigh the former.
I am a sucker for books that explore alternatives. "The city of a thousand gods" does so very well.
