A somewhat humorous take on the story of Noah's Ark. Maine did a fantastic job of bringing the chracters to life and giving them vivid personalities, and while I knew everything was going to turn out ok from the beginning, I still eagerly devoured the pages to see what would happen next. A great blending of an old story and some well-known characters with Maine's mischievous creativity and crude humor. A very enjoyable novel. ( )

i had never heard of David Maine. i just found The Preservationist at the half-price book store and it looked interesting. and it didn't disappoint. it's slow at times, but pretty fascinating. i love religious fiction that isn't ABOUT religion, and this was spot on. ( )

The Flood is a retelling of the Bible story of Noah and the ark. The original story is a good one anyway (whatever your beliefs, it is hard to deny that the Old Testament has some great stories) but the author has managed to bring the characters to life.

The story is told from different perspectives, which anyone who has read my other reviews will already know is something that I love when it is done well, as it is here. So we see the flood from the point of view of Noe’s wife, his three sons and their respective wives. There is also the occasional chapter written in the third person thrown in for good measure which shows us Noe’s story, but at more of a distance than the others.

The book starts with Noe receiving God’s message about the impending flood, through time on the ark (although that word is never used) and then onto the period afterwards, when the family are dispersed to repopulate the earth, which was less familiar territory for me as I think my school teaching of this tended to end with the flood receding.

I thought this was a great book. I found it very funny in place (there is a great discussion on how the animals should be kept on the ship) and it was just as much about how families react in crisis as it was about religion. However, I would be cautious in recommending this as some people may be offended by some of it (there is a lot of “rutting” in the book) and towards the end, there are questions asked about religion. So despite it being based on a Bible story, I think it might be enjoyed more by the less religious. ( )

A rewriting of the Biblical story of the Flood, told from the perspective of Noe [Noah] and his family.

The format was good - it was a very clear way of using multiple viewpoints, simply titling the chapters by a character's name and alternating between Noe and various other figures, his wife, their three sons, and their three wives. All nicely characterised - Noe was clearly a man driven by a God he did not understand, his wife was devoted and a little bemused, and the various sons and daughters-in-law all had distinguishable motives and feelings.

The plot - well, you know the story! The plot fleshed out the story with small incidents and detail, and the atmosphere of being crammed into a stinking wooden coffin with a thousand animals was neatly evoked. But on the whole... well, not my sort of thing. A little slight, I felt, but a good attempt at an unusual brief.

(Regarding "Noe", the book has the slight idiosyncracy of using a less common translation of the names, so the characters occasionally seem a little odd.)

Bought this after reading Fallen, I was so blown away. This is a fleshing out of the Noah story and every bit as brilliant as Fallen. ( )