6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thoroughly Engrossing, July 3, 1999
I purchased "Twilight of the Fifth Sun" after reading a list of books available from the small publisher Dark Moon Press with one-sentence synopses, and thinking "Now here is a remarkably unusual plot." I had no idea what the writing might be like, but I thought a story about a pirate's ghost, a journalist, and a little boy fighting an Aztec God for the survival of the world would either have to be very good or very bad. It turned out to be very good!
Several features were present that made this book rather more than a run-of-the-mill fantasy. I am interested in history and cultures of the past, and this book exposes the reader to a facet of Aztec culture that is both intriguing and quite new to most people, namely, Aztec religion. Yeah, we've all read that the Aztecs believe in human sacrifice, but just what their religion is about has always been something of a mystery to me. I don't have time or motivation to bury myself (literally) in some dry treatise on Aztec religion, but having an opportunity to learn about it, to have it made real for me, in an interesting book like this is great. (And I hope what I learned is something like the truth!)
Also, I enjoy reading fiction involving life after death and the supernatural. I'm not a fanatic about it, but those books are interesting. And here is a book whose premise is that all persons either remain as ghosts, or else their "souls" go somewhere else. Sounds like a commonplace idea, but a book telling within its pages of encounters with ghosts of knights, pirates, suicide victims, vikings, Aztecs, conquistadors, and highway accident victims is not such a common treatment. And the answer the author comes up with for where souls go is pretty ingenious.
One thing I hate is a book full of interesting ideas, but with no real point to it, no emotional impact. This book does NOT suffer from that shortcoming! I think most thinking people want to believe that there is a purpose to life, that there is more to it than living a few years here in a difficult place, and dying. The author puts life here into a context which, while being rationally unbelievable, is still very emotionally satisfying. Furthermore, the characters are depicted in sufficient detail to be fully believable, whether they happen to be alive or not. So you sit reading this book, and after you have read some mere twenty pages or so, you realize that you actually can relate to these people, that you want things to work out for them, and furthermore, that the story is acting on you on some deep emotional level. And you think to yourself, "I really like this character. It would be great to have someone like this in my own life." And then you think, "And this character is a ghost." It makes for an exceptional reading experience. And when I say the context is not rationally believable, I should add that it does not stand in the way of enjoyment, at least for me. One does not read a book of this type and then criticize it for not being rationally believable! The entire book is about an area of life that goes beyond rationality. The key point is that the novel premise is supported by characters that one readily comes to accept as real.
The book is not perfect. For me, its greatest drawback is related to the difficulty of treating its premise. The party fictionalized mythology was explained in great detail in order to make it more believable. The problem is that the premise of the book is essentially spiritual, even bordering on metaphysical, and when you try to explain that through some supporting mythology you wind up with a lot of words and symbols that get confusing, and I did find myself wishing he had either spared me or at least done a better job of explaining the symbolism in the mythology.
But despite the one shortcoming, I found the book to be one of the most fascinating books I have ever read. People without imagination should stay away from this book, because they won't enjoy it. But if you enjoy a book that puts your everyday world in a different light, then you will really love "Twilight of the Fifth Sun." I hope the author will continue writing! I am looking forward to his next effort.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
