Silly, cheap, and fun: a garden-variety potboiler with a neat gimmick thrown in.
A debut thriller by a former NSA intelligence analyst, speculating on what would happen if the Second Coming of Christ were produced by cloning.
Harold Goodman thinks he can create God. A biochemist and atheist, Goodman became involved in a 1980s project to test the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin through DNA and Carbon-14 dating. Although he took the assignment convinced that the shroud was a fake, he discovered that it was, in fact, 2,000 years old—and, even more astonishing, that it contained live skin cells. Goodman now clones the cells and, with the help of a surrogate mother, gives birth to Christ’s genetic twin. He names the boy Christopher and passes him off as his orphaned nephew. But a handful of insiders know the real story, among them Goodman’s ex-student Decker Hawthorne (a journalist who covered the shroud investigation) and Israeli physicist Joshua Rosen (a “Messianic Jew” who accepts the divinity of Christ). The overriding question: Is Christopher the Son of God or not? We’re not saying, but we can tell you that he has nightmares of being crucified and seems to possess powers he can’t account for. Plus, his coming into the world coincides with a series of disasters (“war and rumors of wars”), including a strange plague that brings the instantaneous and unexplained death (in one day) of nearly a quarter of the world’s population. Then, almost as an afterthought, full-scale war erupts in the Middle East: The Arabs advance on Israel, and Russian forces occupy the entire region. The UN is called in, and Christopher, through the political connections of Decker Hawthorne, becomes involved in the negotiations. Will he be able to avert Armageddon? That may depend on whether Christ prefers to play the role of Prince of Peace—or Lion of Judah.
Silly, cheap, and fun: a garden-variety potboiler with a neat gimmick thrown in. (N.B.: The first of a trilogy, In His Image was originally self-published on Amazon.com, where it sold, Warner tells us, over 10,000 copies.)Pub Date: Jan. 29, 2003
ISBN: 0-446-53125-1
Page Count: 420
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
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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