Noah Primeval is a novel about the Biblical ancient world in Noah’s time leading up to the Great Flood. The story primarily centers around Genesis 6:1-4 and the Nephilim, which many Bible scholars and theologians believe were a race of giants that existed in the ancient world that came about as a result of fallen angels pro-creating with human women. 

I had some hopes for Noah Primeval coming in because of its subject matter. It has some good ideas, but unfortunately, it reads like Bible fan-fiction, with Noah being the main character. The writing is sloppy and much of the dialog had me cringing and face-palming. The book is filled with modern-day contemporary language that is out of place in a story that took place thousands of years ago on the other side of the planet from where the author lives, and in a radically different culture. Plus, the book is riddled with adverbs. Stephen King’s famous quote ‘The road to hell is paved with adverbs’ came to mind more than once as I read through the story.

If one of the primary rules of writing fiction is ‘show, don’t tell’, Brian Godawa does a lot of telling and not a lot showing. He doesn’t spend nearly enough time explaining who the gods are and how Elohim is superior to them. The character and power of God are everything, but I didn’t get a sense of that in the story. There’s no real contrast drawn between the lesser gods and Noah’s God. We’re told the gods are evil and Elohim is good, but it’s never displayed. 

It also doesn’t help that the author name-drops C.S. Lewis in his introduction, indirectly comparing his novel with the Narnia Chronicles before you ever read a word of his story. Comparing Noah Primeval to any of the Narnia books is like comparing a children’s coloring book to Michelangelo. It’s not even close. 

The problem with most Christian novels is that you know going in that there are certain lines the author is not going to cross because of the audience the story is written for. If a novel is written for a Protestant Christian audience, which Noah Primeval is, you know serious issues like sex, violence, and death are likely going to be sanitized and kept family-friendly. It makes the story bland and boring. Not that those issues need to be exploited for the story to be good, but when the anticipation or possibility that something truly sensuous or horrifying could happen is gone in a world that’s supposed to be “filled with violence”, it makes for less compelling reading. 

However, there is a large set of essays at the end that explains the research that went into the ideas of the story that I found interesting. In fact, they were much more interesting than the novel, and written much better. It almost felt like two different authors. I got the book heavily discounted on a sale, so I felt like I got my money’s worth just from the essays. However, it would’ve been better if much of that information could’ve been infused into the story in a more interesting way. 

I will give Brian Godawa credit. He had some great ideas for a really fascinating tale in Noah Primeval, but it’s not told well. Apparently I’m in the minority though, because Noah Primeval is only the first book in a series called the Nephilim Chronicles. There’s at least eight books in the series by my count, plus he has two other spin-off series as well. So someone is reading his books. 

I don’t know what else to say about Noah Primeval. I wish I had more good things to say about it. I wanted to like this one because of its subject matter, and thought I possibly had found a compelling new series to immerse myself in. I might move on to other books in the series if they’re once again heavily discounted, but it’s not going to be a priority after how this one went down.