I’m still a little puzzled about what Seth Grahame-Smith’s Unholy Night is meant to be. On the one hand, it starts out as historical fiction and we get the story of the gospels from the perspective of a thief named Balthazar. But at about the halfway point of the book, a magus is introduced and the book turns into a horror story. And then there’s the violence. Grahame-Smith’s characters are injured and die in horrible ways–but in the middle of it, there’s a famous infant. So, your guess is as good as mine about what this book is. I had a good time reading this book though. After years of the standard story, it was interesting to see a little more historical realism (apart from the magus, of course).
The book opens with a chase across the desert. Balthazar has ripped off a local roman official and is now running for his life from the Judean Army. His camel dies and he is apprehended and hauled off to Herod‘s dungeon. In short order, he meets Gaspar and Melchyor. If you don’t recognize the names, they are the names given to the three wise men. In Grahame-Smith’s version, Gaspar is another thief and Melchyor is the greatest swordsman in the known world. In fact, they actually turn out to be pretty good bodyguards for the famous child when Herod goes on his horrific spree. The Sunday school lessons did pay off while reading this book, but Grahame-Smith brings those old stories to grim life. Herod is a ghastly villain and the rest of the cast have foibles that make the story fairly believable, apart from the supernatural elements.
I couldn’t help but compare this book to Christopher Moore’s Lamb. That book had a lot of soul to it, on top of the humor and warped history/gospel plot. I wouldn’t say that Unholy Night has soul, but it does have some heart. What I mean by that is, towards the end, when Balthazar’s internal conflicts come to the fore, you see the tragedy that drives him. This book isn’t about larger truths about faith, like I think Lamb is. But this book does talk about personal peace and vengeance. So while the book puzzles me, I enjoyed it because I love stories about vengeance–especially the kind that dig beneath the surface to ask what will really bring someone peace.