Review: Dominion - Fall of the House of Saul
Above the planet Gibeah, capital world of the Dominion, powerful battle cruisers patrol the skies. On the surface stands Castle Gibeah, home of the Dominion ruler King Saul. It is night time and the king is plagued by bad dreams: memories of the moment he fell from grace...
Dominion - Fall of the House of Saul by writer and artist Dr Barron Bell is a space opera inspired by the Biblical story recounted in the First Book of Samuel. It's Old Testament meets Star Wars with a cast of anthropomorphic animal characters: Saul and his family are humanoid lions, the soldiers are cheetahs, panthers and wolves, the prophet Samuel is a very crotchety old crow and the enemy Philistines are sinister, warty toads.
A year before, Saul had just defeated the Amalekites and was celebrating his victory. Samuel was none to happy, however, because the King had not obeyed the commands of the Almighty to not only visit total genocide upon the Amalekites, but to also destroy every last vestige of them. Saul had instead kept the Amalekite king alive as a prisoner and had also added captured Amalekite warships to the Dominion fleet.
Bad move. Samuel informs the king that the Almighty has torn the Dominion from him and given it to "one better... a man after his own heart." He then proceeds to execute the Amalekite King (another warty toad) with a burst of lightning from his staff before marching off, leaving a bereft Saul in his wake.
The religious element is central to the story (the royal family appropriately leonine, like the allegorical Aslan in CS Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia), but don't be put off; this is solid sci-fi fare set on various alien planets with a satisfying array of spacecraft and technology. The ships are beaytifully designed and Dominion marines ('Seraphim') are encased in Warhammer style power armour.
Bell's artwork is tight, polished and suitably atmospheric. His designs merge the futuristic with the archaic - a lion-faced alien prince in finely detailed ceremonial robes consults a 3D holographic display - a perfect blend of ancient and modern.
Saul never recovers from his rejection and becomes brooding and conflicted. As the war with the Philistines continues, worrying signs emerge that the enemy may have a devastating new weapon that could spell disaster for the Dominion. Rather than take risks and push to fortify the outer colonies, Saul heeds the advice of his cautious generals to maintain a strong defence at home... much to the chagrin of his children, Prince Jonathan (himself a veteran) and Princess Michal (secretly engaging in an offworld rescue mission to the planet Bethlehem).
Dominion ticks all the boxes for an epic saga, the story of the flawed king also reminiscent of Greek tragedy. There is drama and action aplenty as our heroes grapple with issues of morality and responsibility: like Saul, his children disobey authority in order to do what they think is right, leaving the whole question of destiny versus personal choice hanging in uncertainty. The eternal dilemma of how to distinguish right from wrong, and how to decide how to act upon it, remains unresolved.
Those familiar with the Biblical original will have some idea of where the story is heading, but there are enough divergent elements here to keep any reader guessing. Mysterious shadows are rising on the horizon.... who will be the one to deliver victory? And what will it cost?
Zak Webber
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