Book Review – The Book of Joby
Author: Mark J. Ferrari
Publisher: Tor
Binding: Paperback
Publication Date: 2007
Mark. J. Ferrari’s debut The Book of Joby is an inventive spin on Arthurian legend and the Biblical story of Job. As the book opens, God is offered a wager by Lucifer, with the fate of all Creation riding on the outcome. Should Lucifer win – God will be forced to unmake Creation and remake it under the guidance of Lucifer, to eliminate what Lucifer sees as flawed and corrupt including humanity itself.
“Bad Dadaist painting, Neo-brutalist sculpture, Pop art, Op art, and original animation cells from Beavis and Butthead were displayed, not as expressions of Lucifer’s taste but as evidence of mankind’s depravity.”
The candidate personally chosen by God as the deciding factor in the wager is one Joby Peterson – a nine-year-old boy living happily unaware of the fate that rests on his shoulders and possessed of a vivid imagination fueled by a children’s book of Arthurian tales.
“I wager,” Lucifer smiled, “that this candidate, deemed faithful and steadfast to our Lord, will, when put to the test and left to choose of his own free will, unequivocally renounce the Creator, brazenly defy His will, and commit great wickedness instead.”
Following a visit by God and Lucifer in his dreams, respectively disguised as King Arthur and Merlin, Joby is given to understand that he has been chosen by Arthur to “fight the devil”. Unfortunately, Lucifer has stipulated that God and his angels cannot interfere with Joby’s life directly or act to help him, while Lucifer is free to do whatever he likes in his attempt to push Joby over the edge, short of killing him. Thus begins Joby’s transformation from a quintessential “golden boy” to a bitter and damaged man years later as Lucifer and his minions strive to win the wager in the time allotted. Joby’s only hope may lie in the quiet seaside town of Taubolt on the California coast…
If The Book of Joby has a flaw, it’s that a strong beginning draws the reader in quickly – depicting the wager between God and Lucifer and introducing Joby himself – a very likeable protagonist. His fantasy of being a Knight of the Round Table is touching and evokes nostalgia for the carefree days of childhood, which makes his eventual decline all the more saddening.
Ferrari’s portrayal of Lucifer also provides some of the best moments of the book’s first portion, as Lucifer gleefully directs his minions in various complicated schemes intended to bring about Joby’s fall from grace while quarreling with God on various technicalities of the wager – which usually results in Lucifer being made to look like a buffoon.
Unfortunately, the middle portion of the book sags somewhat in comparison. The tension build-up and the charm of the first third has faded by the time Joby arrives in Taubolt, which leaves the story wanting at times. However, the final third of the book does manage to pick up the pace and concludes on a strong note.
With that said, Ferrari’s attention to characters is excellent – Joby’s rise and decline is expertly handled and the book is peopled with a number of other memorable characters, which does help keep the middle portion of the story a bit more interesting than it would be otherwise. The vivid detail put into the descriptions of Taubolt and surroundings is also very well-done and easily convinces one that Taubolt could be a real place.
It must also be said in Ferrari’s defense that despite the subject matter, there isn’t an attempt to shoehorn a religious message into the story. The religious theme is used more as a framework for the story and could have easily been interchanged with any number of mythological or wholly made-up archetypes of good and evil – and the Arthur legends interwoven with the larger story are a nice touch as well.
In conclusion, a very impressive debut that might have benefited from some further editing to cut down the length, but the prose and characterizations are outstanding otherwise.
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