Although my reading list this year has been majorly non-fiction books, my favorite genre is fiction. And my favorite type of fiction is fantasy. I am talking of Stormlight Archives, Lord of the rings, The Wheel of Time, kind of books. I got interested in Athanasia: The Great Insurrection by Thomas Coutouzis because it combined fantasy and Christianity.
Athanasia is a series of six partly allegory Christian books. In the story, the one and only God Sophos created a unique race called the Adelphos. And their sole responsibility is to protect the 21 kings of Athanasia and their royal lines. However, one of the Adelphos, Mardok, rebelled against his mandate. He orchestrated a plan to claim the throne of the 21 kingdoms to become the king of Athanasia.
Book one, The Great insurrection, follows Mardok as he begins to execute his plan and the heroes who oppose him.
There are a lot of good things about The Great Insurrection. It is faithful to Scriptures and is has some theology in it (more than many popular non-fiction books labeled Christian). The author weaved in several biblical teachings and Bible verses throughout the story that will edify you as well as entertain you. The story itself is interesting, but it heavily borrows from the Bible, so it’s not terribly original.
My biggest problem with the book was the lack of worldbuilding.
Worldbuilding —the process of constructing an imaginary world, is one of the most critical elements in fantasy (and my favorite). It helps draw readers into a book and retain them there. The author did not provide enough information about Athanasia, the people, the kingdoms, tradition, etc. to captivate me. This minimal background information made some events lack credibility and confused me.
For instance, some of the humans (I think they are humans) were 200+ years old, but there was no explanation of how they could live so long. (if there was, I must have missed it).
Also, there wasn’t enough character development. For the most part, they were either evil and hated Sophos or good and loved Sophos. I would have like to see more exploration of the characters. By the end of the book, I had no attachment to any of them, and they all seemed the same.
Lastly, I thought there was a bit too much going on, and the book moved too quickly. It went from one major event to another with little pauses in between. It seemed the author prioritized action over worldbuilding and interaction between characters. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, and some might prefer it that way. But I would have preferred more worldbuilding and learning more about the characters and a little less action. At least for book one.
With that being said, The Great Insurrection is only the first book in the series; the following books might have more details than the first. The cliffhanger ending seems to point in that direction.
If you are a Christian looking for Christian fiction, then you should give this book a try. It features a lot of Christian themes that you will enjoy.
But, if you are a serious reader of fantasy, and you have read all the books I mentioned in the intro, then I doubt you will enjoy this book. I think Coutouzis’s primary goal was to share the story of the Bible through stories as faithfully as possible. And it might have come at the expense of writing a proper fantasy book.
You may also want to check out Coutouzis’s commentary of Jude: Agonizing for the faith. I recommend it without reservations!
*The author graciously gave me a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review. *
