The Giant Robots of Babel

The Bible is many things to many people. For the teachers and children that attended dual curriculum Hebrew/English schools, it is a literal accounting of the history of the Jewish people. Which means teaching that humanity spoke one language until they built a giant tower, the tower of Babel, in an attempt to rebel against God. There is a nice moral there, about how being unable to communicate peaceably was the worst possible punishment God could give, but also a hilarious bunch of questions.

Did people really think they could build a tower that reached all the way to God? What about oxygen? Altitude sickness? Where would the food come from? I can not help but think the whole venture seemed rather foolish. The Giant Robots of Babel by Maxwell Bauman embraces this hilarity. Leaning into the impossibility of it all, this retelling shares the story through the eyes of angel named Zephon that has come to stop the construction, and the human outcast named Eber that helps him.

Eber and Zephon encounter many light-hearted anachronisms in their journey, including giant mecha Gods powered by angel blood and piloted by human children plus one notable member of the tower’s janitorial staff, who is perhaps the true hero of the story. Eber’s son Peleg also serves a means of comic relief by inserting himself into the action at the worst times and talking like a walking comic book.

The story took the most ridiculous parts of the old story and found a way, through science fantasy, to make them plausible. It was quick and easy reading, especially for a fan of Bible retellings. My one complaint is that since we are playing fast and loose with the constraints of the text it would have been nice to have a role for women other than evil seductress witch and overbearing mother that is largely off-page. We got enough of that in the original version.

I’d love to see more stories like this one. Stories that breathe life into lesser known Bible tales by viewing them through a different lens. Mashing the modern and the traditional. To me, the Bible will always be the story of our people, whether you choose to take it literally or not.

Note: I received a free e-copy of this book from the publisher in the hopes I might review it.

E. Broderick is a writer and speculative fiction enthusiast. When not writing she enjoys epic games of trivial pursuit and baking. She currently lives in the U.S. but is eagerly awaiting the day a sentient spaceship offers to take her traveling around the galaxy.