Astoundingly intelligent. Next volume: Acts of God, set for January 2004.
Christological SF from an author (In His Image, 2003) who thinks really big.
The trilogy was self-published in the 1990s and, we’re told, sold 10,000 copies before Warner bought it. It’s the science pages that catch you up, although the Christology is damnably inventive (an exact description). Chief villain of installment two, set in 2019, is revealed to be Yahweh himself. In the story thus far, live cells from Christ’s body have been found in the Shroud of Turin, and a twin Christ has been cloned by Harold Goodman, who raises the Christ twin as his own son, Christopher Goodman. Nuclear war breaks out between India and rogue Pakistani forces, with China and Russia stepping in, and now Russia is no more, while a strange plague kills a quarter of mankind. Christopher fasts for 40 days in Israel’s wilderness and, returning, tells his companions, Decker Hawthorne, a journalist (who turns out to be Judas), and Robert Milner, former bigwig of the UN, that God wants Christopher to fulfill his mission begun 2,000 years ago. Meanwhile, nuclear war has killed or radiated 420 million. That’s a lot. But far worse is coming. As the Italian Ambassador to the UN, Christopher hopes to become secretary-general and lead mankind to a New Age. But two psychics arise in Israel, saying they are the Apostle John of the Christian New Testament and John the Baptist, and they preach woe. Indeed, they attract three meteorites to Earth, whose impact is dizzyingly well-described, wiping out the entire Middle East but not one Israeli, followed by a plague of giant bloodsucking locusts, then a madness of phantoms on ectoplasmic horses spreading death everywhere. Assassinated in the UN, Christopher rises from the dead after three days and reveals that he’s actually an ally of Lucifer, the good angel, while Yahweh is a sadist to be despised.
Astoundingly intelligent. Next volume: Acts of God, set for January 2004.Pub Date: July 13, 2003
ISBN: 0-446-53126-X
Page Count: 264
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2003
BOOK REVIEW
These letters from some important executive Down Below, to one of the junior devils here on earth, whose job is to corrupt mortals, are witty and written in a breezy style seldom found in religious literature. The author quotes Luther, who said: "The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." This the author does most successfully, for by presenting some of our modern and not-so-modern beliefs as emanating from the devil's headquarters, he succeeds in making his reader feel like an ass for ever having believed in such ideas. This kind of presentation gives the author a tremendous advantage over the reader, however, for the more timid reader may feel a sense of guilt after putting down this book. It is a clever book, and for the clever reader, rather than the too-earnest soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1942
ISBN: 0060652934
Page Count: 53
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1943
Hoffman (The Red Garden, 2011, etc.) births literature from tragedy: the destruction of Jerusalem's Temple, the siege of Masada and the loss of Zion.
This is a feminist tale, a story of strong, intelligent women wedded to destiny by love and sacrifice. Told in four parts, the first comes from Yael, daughter of Yosef bar Elhanan, a Sicarii Zealot assassin, rejected by her father because of her mother's death in childbirth. It is 70 CE, and the Temple is destroyed. Yael, her father, and another Sicarii assassin, Jachim ben Simon, and his family flee Jerusalem. Hoffman's research renders the ancient world real as the group treks into Judea's desert, where they encounter Essenes, search for sustenance and burn under the sun. There too Jachim and Yael begin a tragic love affair. At Masada, Yael is sent to work in the dovecote, gathering eggs and fertilizer. She meets Shirah, her daughters, and Revka, who narrates part two. Revka's husband was killed when Romans sacked their village. Later, her daughter was murdered. At Masada, caring for grandsons turned mute by tragedy, Revka worries over her scholarly son-in-law, Yoav, now consumed by vengeance. Aziza, daughter of Shirah, carries the story onward. Born out of wedlock, Aziza grew up in Moab, among the people of the blue tunic. Her passion and curse is that she was raised as a warrior by her foster father. In part four, Shirah tells of her Alexandrian youth, the cherished daughter of a consort of the high priests. Shirah is a keshaphim, a woman of amulets, spells and medicine, and a woman connected to Shechinah, the feminine aspect of God. The women are irretrievably bound to Eleazar ben Ya'ir, Masada's charismatic leader; Amram, Yael's brother; and Yoav, Aziza's companion and protector in battle. The plot is intriguingly complex, with only a single element unresolved. An enthralling tale rendered with consummate literary skill.
Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4516-1747-4
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2011
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