Jesus and the Eightfold Path — Lavie Tidhar

Three wise men came from the East for the infant Jesus in The New Testament. Three brave companions accompany the Buddha in the Chinese classic A Journey to the West.


Could they have been the same three?


Guided by a star, three strange companions arrive in the barbarous land of Judea to seek a newborn child�"a possible messiah to some, and the reincarnation of the Budda to others. When the child's life is threatened, his family and new guardians escape to Egypt, returning years later, to a Jewish land on the cusp of annihilation by the Roman Empire.


Once a general in the Judean army, now a Roman agent, Josephus Flavius is sent by Caesar back to his home land to observe and report on the actions of the troubling young man now preaching sedition in the Galilee �" a boy with the unsettling powers of kung-fu. . .


Their lives would collide in a cataclysmic confrontation between Romans and Jews, between empire and rebels�"and change the world forever. . .


REVIEWS:


“inspired and fantastical” �" Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine


“A vivid and gonzo reimagining of the life of Jesus. . . hugely entertaining” �" Locus Magazine