English

   It’s not casual I named Eric Arvin The Constant Writer. He has always a case full of projects and this new novel, The Mingled Destinies of Crocodiles and Men is so vast, so intricate and well written, that overwhelmed me and ignite my admiration every time new material from him is published.

   And I do love his moves. I really do.

   But I don’t like Fantasy as a leit motiv. Sure I do love Magic Realism (at least with Latin-American accent, and The Rest is Illusion had it in its true core), but not Fantasy as a cornerstone of a story. Even though so, Eric Arvin finds his way to enchanted us through the Difficulties, the Obscure, the Hope and the Magic that enhanced his prose with tender poetry and deep notion of Men’s Destinies and Fate.

   This novel is vast. It’s really vast. I think it’s a river-novel, and that’s amazing. In this book he pours all his most beloved themes and develop a magic tale, full of details that needs a second lecture to people like me, with rusty English, just to really apprehend its richness, and its poetry.

   I love the Metaphor he used to show us Human History, first being trapped into Religion, now being trapped on Science, and the need we have to find the right middle point of equilibrium. For me, that’s the Message of this novel. The risk of suffocating Religions, the risk of turn our backs from Nature and from the very loving and perfect Equilibrium Nature has in herself and with us, Humans.

   Those are topics of his work as an Author: The Mingled Destinies of Crocodiles and Men is just the sumatory of all those topics. And it’s really impresive.

    Maybe it’s the first book he doesn’t develop true compassion for his characters. That shocked me a bit. I mean: bad guys are really bad; tortured characters are always in awe; Love is just a faint image in a world in crises. The end of an Era means destroying and forgetting and living in a world of ashes. The Mingled Destinies of Crocodiles and Men is all of this, but leaves us with a little ray of Hope.

   It’s a more mature novel, in a different ways. Technically, of course, and in the line of argument. Though it’s Eric Arvin’s pure and complete.

   The prose is divine. Eric Arvin writes like an Abundance Horn: flourish, preciously, precisely. I just love that. So, Destinies… is just a great novel. It’s a classic tale with Fantasy elements and full of Action and Love and Mystery. And that is magic!

   Eric Arvin is an extraordinary author. And he has a lot to offer. And we are in awe to read it.