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Odan the Half-God #2
Whetted Bronze
DAW Books No. 281; 1978. Second book in the "Odan the Half-God" trilogy; the other books are "Dream Chariots" (1977) and "Crown of the Sword God" (1980). Author Kenneth Bulmer was writing as "Manning Norvil," presenting his sword & sorcery epic.
- GenresFantasy
190 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published March 21, 1978
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 21, 2015
Note: This is the second book in the “Odan the Half-God” series, so this review will contain spoilers for the first book, Dream Chariots.
It is a time before recorded history, when what we call the Mediterranean Sea was fertile land, a basin between the continents. The cities of the River war against each other, both for reasons of trade and power, and also to appease their gods. One such city is Eresh, which worships the sword god Zadan. Their greatest hero is Odan, son of a god and the mortal queen of Eresh.
Odan seeks to become a full god, and this has led him to betray Eresh to its enemies, only to save it again when he realized he had been tricked. But politics is complicated. Odan’s feckless half brother Numutef is the heir to the throne of Eresh, but the king’s uncle wants his own son, the cruel Prince Galad, to become king. Both Odan and Galad are interested in marrying the beautiful Princess Zenara, but this is forbidden to Odan as she is his half-sister.
Various sorcerers have their own plans, and the love goddess Tia desires to become queen of all the gods. Can Odan’s great strength, battle prowess and mystic abilities prevail against all odds and bring him what he desires? Or will he be led astray by his hidden desires, to the woe of all around him?
One of the fads of the 1970s was “Ancient Astronauts”, the notion that aliens came to Earth in prehistoric/early historic times and were worshiped as gods, as well as teaching the early humans all the knowledge they needed to start civilization. The most famous book of this ilk is Chariots of the Gods by Erich von Daniken. Enterprising fantasy author Kenneth Bulmer (who wrote under many aliases) mixed the ancient astronauts with the pre-existing “barbarian hero” sub-genre and wrote the Odan trilogy under the name Manning Norvil.
It’s all great fun if you don’t take it seriously. The first chapter of this volume features a character named Kufu the Ox, a lowly shield-bearer who finds himself rallying his archery unit when it’s overrun. Prince Odan shows up at the end of the chapter to help out, and we follow him from there on. Odan is unsurprisingly in the Conan mold, a big brooding fellow who’s known as “Crookback” because he constantly has to slouch to talk to normal humans. (In a hilarious bit, his mother keeps telling him to stand up straight.)
Odan was kidnapped by barbarians as a small child, and grew up learning their ways; but he also has limited magic powers from his god side. The Zenara situation is kind of skeevy, but in fairness to Odan, he met and got the hots for Zenara (and vice versa) before he found out she was his sister. And he also has to deal with his best friend Ankidu likewise pining for Zenara, but unable to pursue her due to his lower social rank. Zenara is barely in this volume, being kidnapped as leverage against Odan by one of the multiple conspiracies working at cross-purposes.
One nice touch is that as the setting is a premature Bronze Age, the language used doesn’t have the words “iron” or “steel” in it, even as metaphors. Also, there’s an appendix with a legend referenced in the main text.
Overall, trashy fun for sword and sorcery fans.
It is a time before recorded history, when what we call the Mediterranean Sea was fertile land, a basin between the continents. The cities of the River war against each other, both for reasons of trade and power, and also to appease their gods. One such city is Eresh, which worships the sword god Zadan. Their greatest hero is Odan, son of a god and the mortal queen of Eresh.
Odan seeks to become a full god, and this has led him to betray Eresh to its enemies, only to save it again when he realized he had been tricked. But politics is complicated. Odan’s feckless half brother Numutef is the heir to the throne of Eresh, but the king’s uncle wants his own son, the cruel Prince Galad, to become king. Both Odan and Galad are interested in marrying the beautiful Princess Zenara, but this is forbidden to Odan as she is his half-sister.
Various sorcerers have their own plans, and the love goddess Tia desires to become queen of all the gods. Can Odan’s great strength, battle prowess and mystic abilities prevail against all odds and bring him what he desires? Or will he be led astray by his hidden desires, to the woe of all around him?
One of the fads of the 1970s was “Ancient Astronauts”, the notion that aliens came to Earth in prehistoric/early historic times and were worshiped as gods, as well as teaching the early humans all the knowledge they needed to start civilization. The most famous book of this ilk is Chariots of the Gods by Erich von Daniken. Enterprising fantasy author Kenneth Bulmer (who wrote under many aliases) mixed the ancient astronauts with the pre-existing “barbarian hero” sub-genre and wrote the Odan trilogy under the name Manning Norvil.
It’s all great fun if you don’t take it seriously. The first chapter of this volume features a character named Kufu the Ox, a lowly shield-bearer who finds himself rallying his archery unit when it’s overrun. Prince Odan shows up at the end of the chapter to help out, and we follow him from there on. Odan is unsurprisingly in the Conan mold, a big brooding fellow who’s known as “Crookback” because he constantly has to slouch to talk to normal humans. (In a hilarious bit, his mother keeps telling him to stand up straight.)
Odan was kidnapped by barbarians as a small child, and grew up learning their ways; but he also has limited magic powers from his god side. The Zenara situation is kind of skeevy, but in fairness to Odan, he met and got the hots for Zenara (and vice versa) before he found out she was his sister. And he also has to deal with his best friend Ankidu likewise pining for Zenara, but unable to pursue her due to his lower social rank. Zenara is barely in this volume, being kidnapped as leverage against Odan by one of the multiple conspiracies working at cross-purposes.
One nice touch is that as the setting is a premature Bronze Age, the language used doesn’t have the words “iron” or “steel” in it, even as metaphors. Also, there’s an appendix with a legend referenced in the main text.
Overall, trashy fun for sword and sorcery fans.
January 5, 2009
I was only going to give it one star, because you know, like, the author uses "hard" as a synonym for "road," as in "The horses pounded down the hard" and suchlike, but.... The plot of the book is thus: Odan wants to become a god, because that way he can marry his sister. Therefore: Two stars!
April 22, 2019
This follow-up to The Dream Chariots ends strongly, setting up the final volume, but sadly the middle third almost derails the entire thing.
Norvil (pen name for Kenneth Bulmer) creates a fun "world before recorded history" based on Bronze Age Mesopotamia, and in fairly economic fashion you get a feel for the lay of the land, it culture, etc. The magic has an Arabian Nights feel, replete with flying carpets, and some of the whimsy and quirkiness of those tales -- even while the magicians are actually quite dangerous. The small comments on one of the witch's nasty doings from the point of view of the spider familiar of the late "chief magician" is really charming, and the sort of thing that would only appear in YA books today. It is also fun picking out how elements of the tale are meant to be precursors to the stories of Gilgamesh, Prometheus, Loki, etc.
Unfortunately, the intentionally archaic language choices of volume one are still here and now become at times seriously overdone and needlessly repetitive, making it read like an 1890s historical novel, rather than the 1930 adventure tale it clearly was trying to emulate. The book is only probably 75K words, yet the middle section drags.The artificial voice isn't a disaster, but what nearly ruined the book is that the second act ends with the author literally using the same plot twist to dupe the protagonist that he used in the previous book -- it's even acknowledged that the hero is repeating history! Rather than being ironic or what not, we are really left being pretty sure that Odan is just...well...dumb, which I don't think was the take.
The resolution and tragic ending that comes from our hero doing the same stupid thing twice IS more satisfying and believable here, however, and nicely sets up the final volume.
Norvil (pen name for Kenneth Bulmer) creates a fun "world before recorded history" based on Bronze Age Mesopotamia, and in fairly economic fashion you get a feel for the lay of the land, it culture, etc. The magic has an Arabian Nights feel, replete with flying carpets, and some of the whimsy and quirkiness of those tales -- even while the magicians are actually quite dangerous. The small comments on one of the witch's nasty doings from the point of view of the spider familiar of the late "chief magician" is really charming, and the sort of thing that would only appear in YA books today. It is also fun picking out how elements of the tale are meant to be precursors to the stories of Gilgamesh, Prometheus, Loki, etc.
Unfortunately, the intentionally archaic language choices of volume one are still here and now become at times seriously overdone and needlessly repetitive, making it read like an 1890s historical novel, rather than the 1930 adventure tale it clearly was trying to emulate. The book is only probably 75K words, yet the middle section drags.The artificial voice isn't a disaster, but what nearly ruined the book is that the second act ends with the author literally using the same plot twist to dupe the protagonist that he used in the previous book -- it's even acknowledged that the hero is repeating history! Rather than being ironic or what not, we are really left being pretty sure that Odan is just...well...dumb, which I don't think was the take.
The resolution and tragic ending that comes from our hero doing the same stupid thing twice IS more satisfying and believable here, however, and nicely sets up the final volume.
February 19, 2016
So, in case you didn't know Manning Norvil is a pen name of Kenneth Bulmer. With that being said this book should have been right up my alley, but it wasn't the case. Odan is a demi-god and is being raised as a Prince, but he is in love with his half-sister. The king has expressly forbade Odan his sister's hand in marriage and for some reason Odan thinks if he attains full Godhood then he can have his sister. Beseeching his father the god to help him attain full god status falls on deaf ears. A neighboring city-state's Goddess hears him and tells him to conquer all the neighboring cities and she will aid him. So much like the first book Odan betrays everyone to attain his goal of Godhood and realizing his folly almost too late he turns coat again to save the people he loves. This time earning him banishment, and with the death of his sister he has lost all will to live. Pure rubbish, I do not think I enjoyed a single page of this.
July 25, 2008
Second in the series, and better than the first.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews