Thankfully, Joshua is a return to form. God has turned on Moses and left him dead on a hilltop so Joshua can take control and lead the Israelis into war. The characters of God and Joshua continue to blur as they urge the Israelis to attack their neighbours with magic and genocidal frenzy: butchering men, women and children; killing and crippling animals. People pleading for their lives are treated as a betrayal of the bloodlust and are enslaved. God/Joshua still enforces his terror over the Israelis: forcing them to cut off their foreskins before they fight; demanding gold and silver from the dead, burning Israelis that try to take any. Echoing Leviticus’ style, its constant massacres begin to make its moral ambiguity seem normal, making you feel implicit, similar to reading the pulp fiction Gor series.
There is still some shoddy editing and the second half of Joshua is disappointing, it continues the trademark hypnotic lists, but without any hidden punch. Joshua feels like a near miss.
