Slaves of the Shinar

by Justin Allen

Slaves of the Shinar is the story of a land consumed by war, of a people trying to survive, and of two men in the middle of it all, redefining themselves and their futures. The storied land of Shinar can be both brutal and forgiving. For two men making their way under its harsh sun, it is a land of fate, blood, and strife. Uruk is a nomadic thief from the jungles of sub-Saharan Africa braving the hard walk across the desert. His destination is nothing less than the fabled city of Ur, its temples swollen with riches. Ander is a slave, and has been since youth. But when a chance at freedom presents itself, he strikes, vowing to destroy his captors by whatever means necessary. As these two men navigate the world they share―an ancient world, which first-time author Justin Allen has painstakingly researched―their stories converge in a tale of destiny, triumph, and death. Set against the chaotic and bloody backdrop of the Middle East’s first great war, this fantasy epic―part Homer, part Tolkien, part R. Scott Bakker―brings us into a gritty, realistic world where destiny is foretold by gods, and death is never more than a sword-stroke away.

Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Fiction

432 pages, Hardcover

First published July 19, 2007

About the author

Justin was born in Boise, Idaho in 1974. He grad­u­ated from Boise State Uni­ver­sity with a degree in phi­los­o­phy, was named one of the school’s Top Ten Schol­ars, and invited to present the vale­dic­tory address at the com­mence­ment of the Col­lege of Arts and Sci­ences. Soon after, Justin moved to New York City, where he enrolled in Colum­bia University’s Writ­ing Pro­gram, spe­cial­iz­ing in fic­tion and sin­cerely hop­ing to become the next Jack Ker­ouac. While at Colum­bia he wrote what he has later come to call his ‘Bar­bar­ian Story,’ and turned it in for judg­ing by his work­shop class. He expected to weather a fear­some bar­rage of scorn, and was hap­pily sur­prised at how well they took it.

While work­ing on that story, Justin was first intro­duced to Uruk, a pre­his­toric hunter from the jun­gles of sub-Saharan Africa, and the hero of his first novel, Slaves of the Shi­nar. It took him fully six more years, umpteen rough drafts, buck­ets of tears and tor­rents of blood, to fin­ish the novel and get it placed with The Over­look Press. Dur­ing that time he also met and mar­ried his true-love, Day Mitchell, trav­eled with her to Tahiti, New Zealand, Kenya, Belize, Nicaragua, and a myr­iad of other, equally won­der­ful locales, and began work on two new nov­els, The Amer­i­can and Tomor­row­land, and a book of travel essays about the Amer­i­can National Parks.

Along with his writ­ing, Justin also has a pas­sion for clas­si­cal bal­let, tak­ing class as often as six times a week, and per­form­ing occa­sion­ally with such com­pa­nies as Dances Patrelle (for whom he has also worked as admin­is­tra­tive direc­tor), and Eidolon Bal­let in Con­cert. He first began danc­ing while a stu­dent at Boise State Uni­ver­sity, and first per­formed with Idaho Dance Theatre.

Justin is roughly six feet tall, weighs some­where around 185 pounds (often more, to his cha­grin), has dark-brown hair and eyes, and suf­fers from near-sightedness, motion-sickness, and a ten­dency to get angry at air­port per­son­nel. His wife, a licensed social worker, is try­ing to help him over­come this last item, but finds the going hard.

In 2001, Justin and Day adopted a house­plant and affec­tion­ately named her Phil. Wor­ry­ing that Phil was grow­ing up alone, last year they adopted again, and are proud to be the some­what neg­li­gent par­ents of a sec­ond plant, Phil Jr. They live in New York City.

Reviews

[David H.]

Why I didn't finish this: I just couldn't get into it for whatever reason (I believe I tried to read this around 2008-09).

[Jace D · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed my time with this

[Brady · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a debut novel, the book was surprisingly easy to read and kept me interested throughout. The story did not captivate, but did hold my attention. However, I was constantly reminded that the novel was from a new writer.

It took me longer than expected to figure out who the main characters where as well as the actual storyline. On multiple occasions, I felt like I invested too much interest into certain characters or sub-plots only to have them end without warning. There are parts of the book that detract from the true story and areas that need development to enhance the story and tie some of the loose ends.

One of the things that I could not figure out was why the novel was divided into books. The book groupings did not add anything to the story and many of the book introductions would have been better served to set the stage for the storyline in the beginning. In the end, I felt I “got” the storyline, but really couldn't figure out the point of the story. Why was this story written? What type of story was it? I liked it, but felt there could have been much more.

I think this is a good debut novel for a new writer. I felt like the author put in a great deal of effort to write a story that was easy to read and attempt to entertain his readers. Hopefully, the author will continue to hone his craft and improve with each new effort. If so, he may one day produce something special.

[Sdwolfpup · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book that suffered from a misleading book jacket summary. I spent the entire book expecting it to conform to what the summary hinted at but it never came together. Even without that summary, the book itself was disappointing. The characters never came together for me and I only barely cared about any of them. The writing was straightforward, but there were a lot of editing problems in the version I read, which I found very distracting. There is a good sense of place in this, and the idea of it was interesting, but the execution was lacking; I never felt any of the emotion the author seemed to want me to feel. Mostly I was disinterested.

[Michael]

This was an imaginative and relevant book. A fiction set in Mesopotamia around 2500BC. (Between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. In the general area of mythical Eden and the real Babylon.) There was a city there called Uruk that was ruled by Gilgamesh, and this book imagines it's founding.

[Susan Baumgartner · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't finish this. I just could not get into it- I didn't find a character I really connected or empathized with and that's a big negative for me.

[Janice]

actually I want to read Year of the Horse by this author. It was reviewed in the kdl sci fi and fansty newletter but I could only find a error record and it's not listed here...strange

[Sumayyah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting premise and story but WAAAY too much focus on the black-skinned people versus the pale/white-skinned people.

[Matthew William · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great book. It captured my attention from the opening chapter. It is a great account of what life and the battles were like in the ancient middle east. I highly recommend this book.

[Avery Burns · Rating 3 out of 5]

Historical Fiction. First novel. Fictional account of early cities and wars in Mesopotamia.