I love this book. I love, love, love this book. Why haven't you read this book yet??? Stop whatever you are doing and read this book right now! I'm not going to lie, I'm really upset that you're still reading this review and not reading the book like I told you that you should. This is one of my all-time, most-favorite books of all time. Okay, so that was a bit redundant, but I feel like I can't recommend this book enough. I suppose, it should come with a few warnings though. The first warning is that it's really long. When I first read it, I did so with an old-fashioned, paper and print book and the font was small, the spacing was minimal and the pages themselves were larger than normal. And the page count came in, I believe, over 1000 pages. I am on record as not liking writers who can't get their story across in a reasonable number of pages and this would seem like it should be one of those books, but it's not. Here's why: This book is split up into three parts and in many ways, those three parts are like separate books in a series. However, those separate parts don't have endings. The story simply goes on. They are obvious closure points, but the story itself goes on and to have closed them off, only to continue in the next book would have been cruel. So, even though this book is very long, I actually commend Ferrari for choosing to make it all one book instead of breaking it up. It's a story told in three acts that could have been split up, but as they are all part of the same play, he chose to make it all-inclusive. The second warning I'll give you is that this book has Judeo-Christian themes involved in it and actually, I'd go so far as to call it a Christian book. HOWEVER, I also think it's an all-inclusive book because this book is far from the right-wing, conservative Christian point of view. In fact, that POV is blatantly fought against. This is a brand of Christianity that preaches love, acceptance and inclusion. For that reason, I think that people of any faith, or no faith at all, can enjoy the larger story. What is that story? Well, if you're familiar with the Book of Job in the Old Testament then you'll have an idea of the main premise of The Book of Joby. The cast of characters includes God, a few arch angels, the devil and his demon faithful. Those characters provide the framework for the very human story and characters who you can't help but fall in love with and feel for in the most palpable of ways. The characters in this book are simply outstanding. They are developed well, they are dimensional and full and interesting. The plotting is excellent. The story is amazing. The messages are pure and true and resounding. The pace...I won't lie. I don't believe the pace of this book is meant to be downhill, until the end. This is an intricately built story and things you read on page one will matter on the final page. You're not meant to devour this book without fully digesting it. That said, it's not slowly paced either. The story and the characters are so compelling that they pull you along. This is a tough book to put down. Even when you start reaching points, halfway through the book, where you feel like things SHOULD start moving downhill toward a conclusion, they don't. They keep moving on and building up and building up. That's on purpose too. But, while in the hands of a lesser author you might start screaming and pulling your hair out and throwing the book against the wall, in Ferrari's hands, you feel like you can trust him and where he's going with his story. I first read this book years ago and I loved it. I just completed a re-read and it certainly holds up and makes for an amazing re-read as well. This time around, I found that I enjoyed it even more--catching things I'd missed the first time through. However, a major reason, I think, I enjoyed it even more this time around is that I read it on my Kindle. Without the issues of small fonts and tight spacing, the book was a much better read for me (admittedly, I'm kind of a stickler for those things which is why I now prefer e-books). So, my final piece of advice on this book is that if you can, I advise reading it on an e-reader of some sort. But, I'll also tell you that for all it's aesthetic and readability issues in print, it was still one of the most worthwhile books I'd ever read, so don't deprive yourself based on that. Read this book. Read it now. It's brilliant. Easily, firmly and forever entrenched in my Top 5 Books of All-Time.
What an entertaining read! The basic premise of the book is that God and the Devil make a wager ("the same stupid bet") at which a little boy named Joby is the center. This time, however, the stakes are higher. Ferrarri tells Joby's story from about age 9 until 40. It is a long book. Yet, while not a particularly difficult read, it is one of my favorites. The reason I gave it four stars and not five is that the ending was a little uneven for me; there was such a dramatic and emotional trajectory for most of the book that I'm not sure if there would be an ending I'd have felt was ultimately satisfying. Suffice it to say, I loved the book enough to read it a second time only 2 months later.Ferrari's intentions with this book were also what drew me to read it. He writes on the FAQ's on his website that he found most of the sci-fi/fantasy novels he loved were "usually housed in veneers of some other culture's mythology. In most cases neither the writers nor their American audiences seemed likely to have much visceral understanding of, if even academic familiarity with, the Norse, or Celtic, or Asian mythologies being alluded to. It seemed to me that a lot of potential richness and meaning was being lost by housing our own myths and folktales in skins so devoid of more layered depth to their readers." Thus, he chose to use Christianity and Arthurian legend as his lens. Make no mistake, this is not a fundamentalist text! Unless you have some preconceived aversion to Christianity (or, alternatively, are utterly obsessed with it), this book is not a comment on what you should believe, but only uses the foundations of our current Western culture as its basis.Finally, this is not really a "fantasy" book. I've recommend it to friends and family who really dislike that genre, and they have all loved it and couldn't put it down. Overall, this book is a fantastic, entertaining read that I highly recommend.
Do You like book The Book Of Joby (2007)?
As a literature major in college, I am intensely passionate about reading. As a liberal agnostic, I don't generally find preachy books to be good. Thankfully, the Book of Joby was NOT preachy.This was one of the best novels I have ever read...and I have read many, many novels. I found myself weeping overly at parts, and at other parts, laughing uncontrollably. It was an intensely emotion- and thought-provoking novel. God and Lucifer make a wager they've made before, and now, all of existence is at stake. Reading that sort of thing on the back of a fantasy novel, of all things, couldn't make it sound more unappealing. However, after reading the first chapter (the prologue), I checked the novel out, took it home, and read it in awe. This book was filled with what I like to call "quiet moments"; meaning...instead of being filled with one major event after another, it spent its entire duration (600+ pages worth) in roughly three major areas, and half a dozen minor areas. In those areas, the novel focused on moments between a few people here and there, and all of those moments were meaningful. The language was accessable, but certainly not for neophyte readers. It requires a decently good understanding of the English language.All in all, The Book of Joby was extraordinary...the sort of book we should all happen upon every once in a while.
—Anthony St. Claire
After spending so much time with it and feeling so invested in the main character's tribulations, I really hate to give this book less than 4 stars. But in the end, I found its flaws outweighed its flashes of occasional brilliance and inventiveness. Overlong, and in dire need of a strong editor to help this talented first-time author tighten the plotlines and rid the dialog of some of its stiltedness. I sometimes had to wonder what decade the characters were supposed to be living in - even the ones that were fully mortal and not displaced in time from their origins - just based on their turns of phrase or attitudes. I did not know the background of the author before I read the book, only after. Now that I do, I can only hope that if he manages to sell the film rights to a good sci-fi film studio, the story is taken up by a screenwriter/director who can shake it of its self-seriousness (i.e., not anybody named M. Night anything, for instance ...) It could have been a great book; it could still be a great film, and that may be its destiny.
—Jennifer
This is the debut novel for Mark.J.Ferrari; published back in 2007. It was recommended and loaned to me by one of my young people I work with in my youth work job. It follows a wager made by Lucifer and the Creator, something they have done many times before. The preface of this particular wager was the existence of creation itself depended on the outcome. Unaware of the weighty decision that will be upon of him in the years to come, we meet Joby Peterson; nine years old and full of life infectious and carried through his love of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Throughout his childhood and adolsence, he is subjected to a life of crippling self-doubt and relentless mediocrity inflicted by an enemy he did nothing to earn and cannot begin to comprehend.Though imperiled themselves, the angels are forbidden to intervene. Left to struggle with their own loyalties and the question of obedience, they watch Lucifer work virtually unhindered to turn Joby's heart of gold into ash and stone while God sits by, seemingly unconcerned. And so when he is grown to manhood, Joby's once luminous love of life seems altogether lost, and Lucifer's victory assured. What hope remains lies hidden in the beauty, warmth, and innocence of a forgotten seaside village whose odd inhabitants seem to defy the modern world's most inflexible assumptions, and in the hearts of Joby's long lost youthful love and her emotionally wounded son. But the ravenous forces of destruction that follow Joby into this concealed paradise plan to use these same things to bring him and his world to ruin.I loved this story for the fantasy of King Arthur and the Knights’ Round Table, the way good and evil is exposed through a simple wager that depends on so many things, the way Ferrari intertwines the lives of all, exposes the twists and unveils the plot. I was hooked from the very first page to the last; rarely noticing the 600 plus pages to this extraordinary fantasy novel. I would happily encourage anyone who has a love of fantasy and historical fiction genres and are looking for something very different, this is a great breath of fresh air and a great story to get lost in... and so as the final struggle unfolds, one question occupies every mind in heaven and in hell and the reader. Which will prove stronger, love or rage?
—Nat
