Felt like the story really never found its footing. I kept waiting for the plot to kick in and get going but it never did. It would be easier to simply read the new testament from the Bible.

“HIM” – Geoff Ryman (audiobook narrated by the author)

Urgh, this book. So many issues with this audiobook. And not the ones you might think.

HIM is set in a multiverse, one where God sends different versions of the Messiah to slightly different versions of Earth. Thus, the book is set in a version of Earth where Maryam (Mary) has a virgin birth, but the child is a girl. Until the age of 6, where the death of a friend prompts the child to say that he’s a boy, Yehush, and also that he’s the son of Adam and of God.

The idea of a transgender Jesus is maybe not as subversive as it once was, but it still has many different avenues to explore that could hold the listener and make for an interesting experience. What I got, instead, was a long and boring experience, nothing like the counter to rigid theology that I expected, and nothing that was likely to offend or upset anyone. If you see a deeply religious person give this a bad review, they haven’t engaged with it, I promise you.

I could deal with that disappointment, put it down to marketing or whatever, but what broke me was the narration of the audiobook. I spent the whole time struggling to differentiate between characters, several of whom were given a voice not dissimilar to Ringo Starr for some reason (including the lead Yehush as a child, inexplicably), and the whole thing slows down to a snail’s pace where it felt like nothing happened. It was incredibly disappointing, and it was only at the end that I saw that the narrator was THE AUTHOR HIMSELF and that he made those choices himself. Unbelievable.

Maybe the book has merit, but this audio version was awful to me. You should spend your money elsewhere.

I don't really want to rate this book as I didn't finish.

The pacing was a bit slow and the narration was hard to differentiate between characters.


I might pick this book back up again at a different time.

A book about transgender Jesus? Yes, please! I love books with all forms of representation and was so excited to listen to Him. My excitement fizzled out pretty quickly once I started listening, unfortunately. I found it difficult to tell the characters apart because there were so many. I also thought the main focus of the book would be Avigayil/Yeshu (Jesus) being transgender, but it was more about their relationship with their mother Maryam/Mary. The pacing was also very slow and didn't hold my attention.

Thanks to Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for a review copy of this audiobook.

La verdad, espera algo más iconoclasta y rompedor de una nueva versión del evangelio con el Mesías nacido mujer pero autoidentificado como hombre. Pero la novela me ha dejado indiferente, que creo que es lo peor que se puede decir de un libro.


La version que yo he escuchado está narrada por el propio autor, lo cual la hace más interesante, pero al mismo tiempo más difícil de seguir, con un acento a veces indescifrable. Me ha sorprendido la capacidad de Geoff Ryman para modular su voz e insuflar de vida a los distintos personajes, veo que se está volviendo tendencia que los autores lean sus propias obras (como Emma Newman, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Cory Doctorow…)

Creo que el personaje más complejo y poliédrico de la obra no es Avigayil/Yeshu si no su madre Maryam. Desde la sagrada concepción a su rechazo acérrimo a la identidad de su hijo, pasando por su estudio de las escrituras y su conocimiento de lo sagrado, es sin duda lo mejor del libro, ya que es desde su punto de vista que asistiremos a todos los acontecimientos.

En cuanto a la trama, pues ya sabemos qué va a ir pasando, porque va narrando los puntos más conocidos y en cierto modo las controversias de la vida de Jesús de Nazareth, añadiendo detalles como el exilio de José por sus disidentes ideas religiosas. El principio del libro hace que resulte muy complicado empatizar con Avigayil/Yeshu, aunque refleja muy bien la cabezonería de un niño pequeño cuando se le lleva la contraria.

El novum de ciencia ficción sobre el que se desarrolla todo el libro es bastante común, la idea de que existe un multiverso y cómo cada uno de ellos tiene su propio Salvador, que no necesariamente ha de ser un hombre.

En definitiva, una novela con la que no he conectado, seguramente porque no me he encontrado lo que esperaba.