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When Gods Bleed
When Gods Bleed takes you into the world surrounding three kings in the year 1496 at West Africa. The first balancing tradition and politics to stabilize a kingdom and remain in power, the second wrestling sacrifice and destiny to rule a kingdom and the third, observing the change of a nation by parties armed with honor, greed, power, loyalty and love, to change the hegemony.
A King dies leaving behind two underage sons, vying for the throne. We trail the journey of two powerful queens determined to coronate their sons as the next king
A King dies leaving behind two underage sons, vying for the throne. We trail the journey of two powerful queens determined to coronate their sons as the next king
- GenresBeninHistorical Fiction
402 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 27, 2018
Based on the legends of the Benin Kingdom, located in modern day Nigeria, When Gods Bleed is supposedly an epic story set in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The narration starts off with King Nwosa of an unnamed kingdom, who is greeted with a terrible prophecy on the birth of his son. The priest insists his son has to be murdered. But when he is saved by a split second decision, the destiny of the kingdom changes completely.
The story holds out a lot of promise and I was really interested to read the history of West Africa. But Njedeh Anthony could not really hold up to the challenges of the narrative. For one thing, there are too many characters who just come and go throughout the narrative. Other than Obi, Gbanga, and a couple of others, character development is pretty much nil for most of the characters. In fact, there are instances in which a character would say one thing and then hardly one page later would have recapitulated without any reason. The character motivations often appear to be quite random.
The writing was pretty clunky and basic. The book could have done with some good editing as well. The constantly shifting viewpoints also was pretty annoying. I would just about find something to hold on to and then the story would change focus. Considering that there were no well-fleshed out characters, this did not help the reading experience.
Ultimately, I did not even know what this story was about. Is this fictionalised history or real history or mythology? The supernatural elements point to the story being legendary, but one does not really know. The author does not bother to even name the kingdom in which the action takes place. Characters are randomly introduced in the middle of the story without much background and they turn out to be important.
The second half of the book degenerates into a civil war with people killing each other over trivial things. I don't care who becomes the king unless the author makes me care. And in this instance, he didn't. I left the story feeling as if they were all better off dead. Of course, the author also leaves us with a nice exposition on why polygamy is acceptable since it is the culture, and how women are too cunning to be left to do their own thing. I really can't merit this atrocity more than 1 star, and that is being too generous!
The story holds out a lot of promise and I was really interested to read the history of West Africa. But Njedeh Anthony could not really hold up to the challenges of the narrative. For one thing, there are too many characters who just come and go throughout the narrative. Other than Obi, Gbanga, and a couple of others, character development is pretty much nil for most of the characters. In fact, there are instances in which a character would say one thing and then hardly one page later would have recapitulated without any reason. The character motivations often appear to be quite random.
The writing was pretty clunky and basic. The book could have done with some good editing as well. The constantly shifting viewpoints also was pretty annoying. I would just about find something to hold on to and then the story would change focus. Considering that there were no well-fleshed out characters, this did not help the reading experience.
Ultimately, I did not even know what this story was about. Is this fictionalised history or real history or mythology? The supernatural elements point to the story being legendary, but one does not really know. The author does not bother to even name the kingdom in which the action takes place. Characters are randomly introduced in the middle of the story without much background and they turn out to be important.
The second half of the book degenerates into a civil war with people killing each other over trivial things. I don't care who becomes the king unless the author makes me care. And in this instance, he didn't. I left the story feeling as if they were all better off dead. Of course, the author also leaves us with a nice exposition on why polygamy is acceptable since it is the culture, and how women are too cunning to be left to do their own thing. I really can't merit this atrocity more than 1 star, and that is being too generous!
January 29, 2014
This is an interesting historical drama set in medieval West Africa. A complex tale of politics, diplomacy and manipulation as members of the aristocracy fight for control.
May 22, 2009
It was a different insight to Africa, the book reminded me of Shogun, it was a unique look into African aristocracy
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews