Names are copyrighted, and our protagonist Aaron works for an outfit that tries to find new Names by permutation.
He finds one, and things turn sideways fast, sweeping him and his friends up in an all-encompassing struggle against evil.
Because it also turns out that if divine light gets in through a crack, so can evil forces; the devil is at work on Earth, and so are fallen angels and demon armies.
(2/n)
So, "Unsong" by Scott Alexander. In this alternate history, Apollo 8 never reaches the moon, because it hits and cracks the celestial sphere surrounding Earth.
Turns out the torah and kabbalah are literally correct in this universe.
The crack in the sphere is how lights gets in to Earth: divine light, Names of God giving the speakers power, but also magic, suddenly working. Of course, this being the US, this gets exploited for money-making.
(1/n)
The only thing missing for a true tumblr thing is the horniness. There is pleasantly little of that; one character is asexual, and the sexy robot girlfriend trope is subverted: young dude Aaron gets his, but she isn't his type.
There was much I liked (Uriel!), even though I still dislike the assumption that the world gets less infused by divine light when it runs on a mathematical framework. Thanks again @lizzard for the recommendation!
(4/n, n=4)
The worldbuilding is neat and thorough; the book takes its premise seriously and finds best ways to emphasize it by little details. It also is an absolutely WILD ride, full of ideas and puns and kabbalistic connections between anything and everything; a bit like a novel-length tumblr shitpost with a bit of storytelling and not much character development. If you like the "Illuminatus!" trilogy or Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum", this might be for you.
(3/n)
I like Ana's encounter with the Metatron. She stays true to herself, asking the question that's bugged her all her life, and it seems like a fuck-up: she doesn't get the Name.
Only she *does*. In the end, it's a win-win, and I think that's quite beautiful.
"Universal salvation or bust" ๐๐๐๐ผ๐ซก
"Father, Origen wrote that even the devils will be saved, in the end. Is this true?โ Father Ellis stopped, thought for a second. โPeople mostly think St. Jerome made that up to make Origen seem more heretical."
I think my headcanon is on Origen's side ๐ฌ
"I donโt want you to hate evil. I want you to love good. And good is hard to see sometimes. Except for love. The sky produces so many kinds of radiation, but our eyes are so limited, only made to see a few specific wavelengths, and we call those wavelengths light. And goodness is the same way. Itโs so vast, but God lets us feel a tiny bit of it viscerally, and we call that part love."
"Rabbi Tarfon said: it not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you at liberty to neglect it"
Gah, these speeches Ana makes at Simeon and how he's portrayed as sympathetic *shudders*
I just hate this dynamic, young, idealistic woman in a "discussion" with an older, more cynical man. It almost always turns out she's just naive and learns her lesson soon.
Gah. Cringe. Don't want.
Jules