Added to my e-bookshelf … <em>Tesseracts Eighteen: Wrestling With Gods</em>

Added to my e-bookshelf … Tesseracts Eighteen: Wrestling With Gods

Posted on August 19th, 2016 by Jeff McDonald

Don’t let the title of Wrestling with Gods, a collection of short stories and poems assemble by Liana Kerzner and Jerome Stueart, fool you. It DOES provide an overlying theme for this latest installment of the Tesseracts series … but it provides only a hint of what the reader will find inside.

1770530681.01._SX142_SY224_SCLZZZZZZZ_ The idea of wrestling with gods is an old, even ancient tradition … just ask Jacob about his wrestling an angel, or Gilgamesh about his battle with Ishtar’s bullish minion, or Sun Wukong about his smackdown with Buddha’s palm.

Over the millennia, tablets have crumbled into dust and temples have been consumed by the jungle. But the belief in gods is still with us, and tales of conflict with said deities are still part of our shared literary tradition.

Wrestling with Gods is a good addition to that tradition. Story by story, we read of a protagonist’s conflict … with faith or religion, with family or community, with themselves or with a wide and colorful variety of gods and demigods, their priests and supplicants, their blessings and curses. These stories, their settings and their cast of characters are limited only by the imaginations of the contributors, and their ability to tell stories in a manner that draws readers in and entertains them … which in this case is to say, ‘unlimited.’

And the variety of ‘styles’ employed by the different contributors – their perspective, their language, their tone – was another attraction for me.

That’s not say there aren’t stories that will appeal to you more than others … there were, for me. My favorites included “Mecha Jesus” by Derwin Mak, “Come All Ye Faithful” by Robert J. Sawyer, “A Cut and a Prayer” by Janet K. Nicolson, “Summon the Sun” by Carla Richards and “Ganapati Bappa Moriya!” by Savithri Machiraju.

That’s just a small sample of the total offerings … I’m sure you will find some favorites of your own … and enjoy the book in general.
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NOTE: I received a free e-copy of this work through LibraryThing in exchange for a review.

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Jeff McDonald

There's a saying around here, something like, "I wasn't born in Texas, but I got here as fast as I could!" That's me. I'm a 'dang Yankee from back-east' who settled in the Lone Star State after some extended stays in the eastern U.S., and New Mexico. I worked as an archaeologist for a few years before dusting off my second major in English, and embarking on a 25-year career in journalism. Since then, I've embraced the dark side of the force, and now work in PR for a community college in Midland, Texas.