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REVIEW:
"The Days of Peleg" is a very intelligent book which is more original than anything I have read in a long time. Mr. Saboe combines his epic story of the title character with a most elaborate re-creation of an obscure historical era. He also takes full advantage of known OOPARTs and the mysteries surrounding them.
Based on a brash but well-articulated premise of the post-deluge deterioration of the culture and quality of the human race, "The Days of Peleg" takes you on several fantastic journeys at once. On the immediate level is an adventure story taking the reader around a world unlike any we have ever known. It is also a journey into the depths of the human soul afflicted by the same cataclysmic forces which are also at work in the outside world.
On a higher lever, I found it difficult to judge whether the book intends to be an apologetic; a Socratic philosophical treatise, or an attempt to give a rationale to its added human history. I can see that it would serve this volume well to expand it into a series instead of the one 'larger-than-one-life' epic which it currently contains.
However, the book makes a great read. It showers the reader to no end with surprising and intellectually gratifying insights into the inventions, customs, and culture of the ancients. Mr. Saboe's ability to write with an eye to the scientific and factual detail without getting disconnected from the plot is on par with those more famous in the bestseller lists today, bar none. His vocabulary is rich, and his descriptions are economical but sufficient. There is no lack of gripping, nail-biting action, and the character development rings reasonable and true.
Whether one subscribes to Mr. Saboe's subtle and not-so-subtle worldviews, he has provided a thoughtful and, at the same time, entertaining opportunity for anyone to give a second (and perhaps more favorable) thought to both ancient and Biblical history and allow one to imagine with him: What if it were really so?
Arto Nousiainen
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