Eggs for the Ageless - Kyle A. Massa

Author: Kyle A. Massa

Genre: Satire.

Rating: 3.75 stars.

In a Nutshell: An interesting religious satire that mixes light humour with serious thought-provoking points. But it should have been shorter to create an even greater impact.

Story:

Zeggara “Egg” East is an aspiring writer who has just completed a manuscript with an anthropomorphic penguin in the lead. Unfortunately for Egg, her mother is a “Holy Devoted” believing in the “Ageless” and wants her daughter to follow on the same path. Somehow, Egg’s draft gets published and even becomes a success, to everyone’s surprise. However, while Egg had meant it to be a fictional book provoking thought and reflection, it ends up creating a whole new religion called “Penguinism”, which leaves many people dissatisfied with Egg. The conflict spans the entire world as they know it, involving the immortal Ageless; a local power-crazy king and his glutton son, a man who has twelve gifts and loves to remind everyone of this fact; and of course, the God of Waste Management. How does a simple fictional novel generate so much of chaos and how will the chaos be resolved?

Where the book worked for me:

😍 The author’s imagination never ceases to amaze me. Right from the names to the concepts to the humorous retorts and the fantastical situations, everything feels novel.

😍 The fun element is quite strong in the book, especially during the first half. Several scenes reminded me of the Monty Python movies.

😍 There are many elements borrowed from Greek Mythology and then there is a “Massa-ive” twist added. This leads to hilarious outcomes. Of course, there’s no “God of Waste Management” or “Goddess of Punctuation” in Greek Mythology. Points to team Massa.

😍 There are so many characters and yet, each of them is developed well. Not once would you doubt why a character behaves a particular way. I especially loved the portrayal of the Ageless; though “gods”, they were depicted with all their flaws spotlighted. That element of irreverence feels refreshing.

😍 Through the façade of light-heartedness, the author presents several thought-provoking ideas about religion, the so-called faithful who interpret holy text literally, and the followers who are blind to everything except what their leaders say. If you peel through the layers of fun and focus on the core content, the book delivers a stinging slap on the face of religious bigots who claim their own faith is the best and the only true religion. Loved it!

😍 Though there are umpteen story tracks, the ending ties them all together and brings things to a satisfying conclusion without going over the top.

Where the book could have worked better for me:

😔 At 488 pages and a slow-medium pace, this book isn’t a smooth read. It would have been much more impactful had it docked off at least a hundred pages off of the minor subplots.

😔 The story comes in the third person point of view of multiple characters. While this is done neatly and each chapter focusses mainly on the story track of one character, it gets a bit tiring in between to remember what’s happening where when so much is happening everywhere!

😔 The content becomes too heavy in the middle one-third of the book, with the fun aspect minimal and the intense philosophising maximised. I would have preferred a steady balance of jocularity and sobriety throughout.

All in all, this is a religious satire filled with enough funny elements to make the heavy subject palatable. It starts off very well but by the time the book reaches the halfway mark there's a sense of fatigue. But the final section makes up for the dip and delivers a fitting finale. Definitely recommended if you want to read an unusual indie novel.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author at my request and these are my honest thoughts about it.