Clash Of Star-Kings (Discovery) (2000) - Plot & Excerpts
Sturm und Drang! ancient god-aliens coming back to earth to raise the people up! it's a revolution, against the Mexican government and the terrible monster-god-aliens who come from the Evil Stars! the Aztecs rise again to commit bloody atrocities! hearts are pulled from chests! battles with lightning and thunder and rain! two mountains shall rise! original gangsters Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca and Huitzilopochitli battle it out with the kindly giants The Great Old Ones over the weaponized heart of the rain god Tlaloc! yeah baby yeah!oh I wish. all of the above is in the narrative, sure, but one could barely tell from the offhand, minimal descriptions. it is like Davidson is actually shy about recounting anything genuinely exciting let alone pulpy and over the top. this should have been a thrill ride and instead it is just waiting in line and then being told that that was the ride. I couldn't believe the amount of time he spent with three tedious Americans abroad who are barely even a part of the story. even worse is the amount of time spent hearing one the Americans talk in baby-talk about a cat and whine endlessly about having to do the dishes. why, Avram, whyyyyy? you had such a grand story here. but such piddly execution.still, this isn't a one star book because I do appreciate Davidson's gentle, culturally sensitive hand when depicting village life and in particular the various pre-Aztec races. he also seems to despise the revoltingly bloodthirsty Aztecs, which is fine with me.
I stuck with this but got half way through and realised nothing much had actually happened.The author's knowledge of Mexico did, however, impress.So I stuck at it and the story, such as it was, unfolded at what seemed a leisurely pace, and you never really got "into" the characters as you do in some books.Anyway (spoiler alert!), the good guys (well, Gods actually) won and, if I'm honest, by the end, I wasn't sure I cared!Toyed with a "2" rating, but was well written in parts, so a "3" it is.It's my first Avram Davidson book, so maybe there is better out there, who knows?
What do You think about Clash Of Star-Kings (Discovery) (2000)?
