ANTICHRIST

Global disasters plague humanity in BeauSeigneur’s apocalyptic thriller.

Dr. Harold “Harry” Goodman is part of a team tasked with an investigation of the famous Shroud of Turin. The Shroud is said to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ, but can such claims hold up under scientific scrutiny? Goodman and a group of scientists head to Italy to find out; Decker Hawthorne, a journalist and acquaintance of Goodman’s, tags along. Years later, Goodman shares some information with Decker that he isn’t quite expecting: Goodman has a theory that “Jesus’ reported abilities to heal and such, resulted from the fact that he came from an advanced alien race.” Additionally, Goodman found live dermal cells in the Shroud that he intends to clone. Goodman goes ahead with the plan and creates a child he names Christopher. Goodman pretends that Christopher is his grandnephew whom he has taken in, but Decker quickly figures out the ruse. While a living, breathing clone of Christ is certainly a big deal, Decker heads off to Israel when another major development occurs: Jerusalem’s Western Wall is destroyed with explosives. This is only a hint of the calamities to come—the biggest being something called “the Disaster.” As a result of the Disaster, people all over the world die suddenly—as is stated in a news report, “Thousands, hundreds of thousands, maybe more, are reported dead in what is undoubtedly the worst single disaster in human history.” The deaths occur simultaneously and seemingly without reason. As Decker and others come to realize, the Disaster is merely the beginning of more turmoil and momentous events to come.

Per the author, the aim of the narrative is to dramatize biblical end-time prophecies and portray how they “might find fulfillment in the real world, in ways consistent with Scripture, science, and modern geopolitics.” The novel includes many references to biblical quotations, such as this one from the Book of Revelation: “[The Antichrist] was given power to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them.” Decker’s adventure unfolds in a world steeped in strife (Russia occupies Israel, for example) and in a text full of scriptural discussions. (In an example of the latter, one character, referencing a passage from Exodus, argues that “Yahweh doesn’t want peace on Earth. The Bible itself proves it!”) BeauSeigneur arranges these elements in a meticulously constructed work that tackles everything from the Knights Templar to “the sum total of all the evil that had been done upon the Earth.” While the result is a vigorous story, it’s also a protracted one—the book comes in at nearly 900 pages. These pages often include unnecessary dialogue; when Decker goes to see Goodman, he’s told, “Harry is out in the backyard playing with Christopher. They probably didn’t hear you drive up.” At other times, the author’s tendency to overly describe things can deflate the narrative’s tension. Still, the book’s stated intentions do ultimately shine through, and fans of apocalyptic fiction are in for an unrelenting, epic journey.

A studied, compelling, and unapologetically lengthy depiction of the end of days.