Review of “Codex Sohrakia” by KM Taylor

Score: 95(+)/100 (9.5(+) out of 10)

Codex Sohrakia by KM Taylor is one of the most unique, fascinating, and epic novels of the season!

To put this book in the simplest and most digestible terms possible: this is a book that takes the Biblical story of creation and various other cosmological origin stories (particularly Egyptian, Central American, and Mesopotamian) and presents them in a very different—dare we sat, contrarian--light (no pun intended), one that's supposed to make sense to a modern audience. It marries the popular creationist concept with some science and quasi-science including an explanation for the existence of dark matter, which is a major plot device in this book

This very epic and very complicated story ultimately centers around two twin Seraphon (comparable to Seraphim angels), Saham'a'iel (often shortened to “Saham”) and Sohrn’o’rak (often shortened to “Sohrn”), who came into being following the moment that the universe began with a thought, attempting to bring order and light to the inherent chaos of the primordial darkness.

It should be briefly noted that this book does contain a form of a supreme/creator god in the character of Ela'mah'dai (often shortened to “Ela”), likely inspired by the popular title for Yahweh, Elohim.

Saham is, fascinating enough, both the main character and the main villain of his own book, something only achieved by the likes of Felix the Fox in Tuula Pere's children's book series (as far as our contests goes). It is so rare (and so awesome) to have a main character be both a protagonist and an antagonist—a hero and a villain—as circumstances and motivations change. It's almost like performing a double-turn in pro wrestling where the heel becomes the face and vice-versa.

Let's just be simple for simplicity's sake (because, again, this book is hella complicated and like 85% lore), Saham'a'iel is pretty much Samael, the destroying angel or the angel of death in some Judeo-Christian traditions. He's pretty much the devil, Satan. We caught onto that pretty quickly. So, early on in this book when Saham was being such a great guy, we kept thinking to ourselves: how the hell is this guy going to become the angel of death and destruction—the ultimate evil in the universe?

Well, to our shock and surprise, this book actually pulled off a pretty satisfactory answer!

It is ironic how the title “Dark Lord” can be viewed in both a positive and negative light when it comes to Saham—he is both the keeper of the darkness and he is the master of evil, in a sense.

So, early on in this book, Saham—a god-like Seraphom with the profound gift of the Dark (think of it like the Darkside of the Force)—befriended a humanoid-canine name Anu'ver'os, bestowing on him some of the responsibility that was originally supposed to be his own, particularly the guarding of the gateway between the mortal and metaphysical planes. With Anu'ver'os becoming the guide of souls through the planes (a bit like Charon the ferryman in Greek mythology), this largely left Saham to his own devices, allowing him to freely explore the vastness of creation.

So what did he do with his gift? Well, he started meeting people and other creatures, giving them a portion of his Dark gift, effectively transforming them into magical, enchanted beings known as Darklings. For a while, this was satisfying and made him happy. It made him feel fulfilled, powerful, and proud. He gave his Dark blessing to a spider, a mushroom, a snake, an insect, and much more.

However, a life-changing/cosmic-altering event occurred when Saham fell in love for the first time with Thestra, the Unique One, who was divinely spared the fate of being sacrificed as a child. Saham and Thestra form a powerful romantic and intimate bond until it erupts in an overtly sexual episode. During this, for reasons that kinda left us baffled, Thestra revealed that she has some vampiric tendencies including drawing and drinking Saham's blood. So, like... is she a vampire or something? Cause we don't remember her sucking and drinking blood at any other time. Anyway... this got us thinking that Thestra might actually be partially based on Lilith, whom was mentioned in Jewish and Mesopotamian literature as being the vampiric first love of Adam. Oh, yeah, it turns out that Thestra's blood has healing properties similar to the vampires in The Darkest Side of the Moon by M.C. Ryder, so there's that too...

Anyway, in arguably the climax (no pun intended) of the book, this sexual act leads to a great rift for both Saham and the universe as a whole, presumably as it's a moment in which mortal and Seraphon flesh mixed in an act of pleasure and passion. Critically, Saham also bestows his Dark blessing on Thestra.

As far as we can tell (again, this book is really, really complicated and convoluted), this led to Saham having to be split into two separate but identical beings—Saham, the original guardian of the Dark, and Sohrn, who appears to represent Saham's lost light and innocence.

As a result of his mixing with Thestra and his spree of blessing unholy creatures with a sacred gift (the Dark), Saham is banished to the mortal plane on a world called Terrasan (which is pretty much Terra/Gaia or Earth). He quickly realizes that he has lost most of his powers and abilities. His wings stiffen. His physical movement is substantially slowed. He also realizes that he's now vulnerable and a target for the superstitious people who inhabit the land. The only power he seems to retain is the ability to understand and talk in different languages.

Ultimately, he is given an ultimatum by Ela'mah'dai: to rid the universe of the Darklings he blessed/cursed or never regain his Seraphon powers and status again.

It is in the wake of this decision that Saham sacrifices his old virtues like love and charity for selfish ends, effectively becoming the devil, the destroyer, and death.

He leads a bloody, vicious, and violent crusade to hunt down, persecute, and kill the many Darklings he previously blessed, all with the goal of regaining his angelhood, powers, and status.

He even must decide whether or not to kill his past love, Thestra, or how to deal with his twin brother in pursuit of his goals.

This part of the book really reminded us of the Order 66 sequence in Revenge of the Sith. It's tragic, powerful, and painful.

There's a scene, for example, in which a snake-man named Thetrasat is hunted down and killed by Saham and his men for really no fault of his own, having committed no crime other than the crime of existing as a Darkling.

This part of the book really seemed to take an anti-religious vibe, taking on some of the common complaints about organized religion like them being persecutory, discriminatory, xenophobic, and intolerant.

This theme seems to play out for the remainder of the story as Saham gradually realizes that his aims are selfish and that he has really been trying to play god this whole time—blessing people with a gift they never asked for (i.e. life or a Dark blessing) without gaining their permission or consent, then punishing them for it later (a popular argument against the existence of a benevolent God).

The middle-portion of this book centers heavily on Thestra as she rallies together some of the other Darklings who are in need of protection from Saham's rampage. They get rallied together and trained how to fight like they're the cast of Mulan. There's:

Schlix, a cute dog-like creature
Moogie, a cute, shy mushroom-like creature
Saulkuset, a cute preying mantis creature
Sirak, a cute giant spider

And, yes, they're all presented as very cute, very scared, and very sympathetic, almost overly so. They might as well be the Care Bears or the cast of Sesame Street. They might as well be Santa Claus and his reindeer. This part of the book becomes very heavy-handed with how cute and innocent the victims of organized religion and religious persecution are.

While the victims are presented as extremely cute and innocent, the bad guys are described as “frightening looking” and “cruel looking.”

Furthermore, you get lines like: “Tales would spread throughout the lands of the living, creating countless philosophies based on fear and ill-conceived understandings.”

The way we interpreted this was: screw organized religion and religious dogma.

And, well, that's justified to an extent considering things like the Inquisition and Crusades.

Ironically, this book almost reads like an anti-religious text with a religious undertone. Ok, well, it's more like New Age Creationist Cosmology. If that floats your boat, that floats your boat. If it doesn't, it doesn't.

It literally features more lore and mythos than any other book in this contest!

About 85% of this book is lore and exposition, which is both to its benefit and detriment. There were so many times when we just hoped we could move on with the plot and not have to have things explained to us for three hours at a time.

It really does feel like reading one of those ancient myths, especially the unabridged versions. This book is only about 300 pages long, yet it feels like it's over 700 pages long! It's like reading the entire literal Bible, Iliad, or Bhagavad Gita! It really does have that epic, overly-involved vibe that these texts often have.

The last third of the book focuses more on Sohrn, Saham's twin, as he tries to right the wrongs that Saham has done en route to confronting the fallen Seraphon himself.

This is a very ambitious book and a very interesting read!

Check it out on Amazon!

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