Author	Shane Jiraiya Cummings
Publisher	Smashwords Edition	Tweet
Length	24 pages
Genre	Divine Intervention
Blurb	None Listed
Country

Review

“A second time the tyrant, Yahweh, has sought to destroy our offspring, the Nephilim” - Sammael

In the second of the Apocrypha Sequence works I'm looking at, you can read them in any order by the way, author Shane Jiraiya Cummings turns his attention to the divine. We get five pieces, ranging from short story to flash fiction, that focus on the concept of a God, hence the name Divinity. Just don't expect the subject matter here to be the Judea Christian concept of God, Cummings steps out from behind Western mysticism to approach the subject matter in wider terms. The Author is questioning our view of a benign being looking over us, and doesn't stint in giving opposing views to our commonly held ones. But lets not get bogged down here, on with the stories.

Sobek's Tears, good pun in the title there, kicks off the collection with the exodus of the Jews from Egypt, but importantly from the viewpoint of an Egyptian solider, Makhet, who has lost everything due to the intervention of the Jewish God. Makhet calls upon the Egyptian crocodile god Sobek to help him find some sort of revenge against Moses and the former slaves. Of course things don't pan out quite how Makhet wants, when do they ever when dealing with Gods, but then revenge is a dish best served cold as Sobek curses the Jewish people to unending suffering. Excellent story to kick off the collection, and a pretty unique take on one of the more famous biblical happenings.

Cummings follows up his opening salvo with two flash fiction pieces reprinted from the amazingly good Shards collection. Virgin In The Mist takes an entirely different spin on the whole appearance of religious symbols thing that seems to have Catholics overly excited in various Countries. The Author points out that an image that appears may not have the best result for all involved. Once again Cummings spins a standard Western religious happening to make a point, and I really got a whole “is an image what we think it is” vibe happening with the piece. Meanwhile Memoirs of a Teenage Antichrist starts where the Omen finished. The Antichrist is coming of age and a few people are going to feel the wraith of a troubled childhood. Good mixture of tween concerns with a burgeoning power, looking at the Crows there. One of my favourite pieces from Shards, I was more than happy to revisit.

Blasphemy On Eight Wheels caught me in it's headlights a bit to be honest. I wasn't sure where the story was going or what was being held in the back of the military vehicle. As it turned out my thoughts on what the soldiers might be escorting turned out to be as wrong as the guess of the leader of the orange robbed terrorists. An interesting yarn that mixes a number of genres in producing almost a one liner toward the end of the tale. Guess we could call this one Cummings going for a lighter take on what has been a fairly serious collection thus far.

The collection winds up with Genesis Six, another piece from Shards. Just a note here, you can read my review of Shards right here and I'll complete our Shane Jiraiya Cummings fire-storm with a review of the e-book edition. Where were we, okay Genesis Six sees a vengeful God exacting apocalypse on the world due to the birth of the Nephilim, various biblical interpretations of the beings, with a Mother racing to save her daughter. Mr Cummings might be on shaky religious grounds with his interpretation of the Nephilim, but hey we're talking a couple of minor biblical references so nothing is set in stone. Regardless of your thoughts, and write on in so I can ignore them, the story is a pretty decent yarn that had me getting my read on.

Divinity sees author Shane Jiraiya Cummings perhaps getting out of his comfort zone and heading into cosmic epic waters. Each of the five stories in the collection approaches the divine from a differing perspective giving the reader something unique in a market place that is too often crowded with reiterations of previous works. Whether or not your own religious beliefs coincide with what Cummings presents, you will be asked to question things you may have taken at face value. The Author joins a growing list of Down Under Writers that point out the Bible is simply a collection of stories, so why not take a differing view of it's content. In doing so Cummings demonstrates the dark genre's ability to undermine social norms, to question firmly held traditions, to wonder what else might be lurking within the tangled web woven around our society.

As the adage goes in horror, story is everything, and Cummings delivers on that requirement ensuring the reader is in for a good time. Each of the stories included in the collection are well written, well paced, and a pleasure to read. So although we aren't talking a huge amount of pages the ones we do get present excellent value for the time spent consuming them. I certainly had a great time with the stories, both the ones I had read before and the ones I hadn't, and have no problems suggesting that you might well find yourself immersed in Divinity and equally having a good time.

Divinity is available from all good online e-book sellers, including Amazon etc. I source my copy from smashwords.com, where it will set you back a low $0.99. Lets face facts here, that represents fantastic value for money in anyone’s language.

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