Sporadic Reviews: May 2009

Sunday, May 17, 2009

The God Conspiracy by Derek P. Gilbert - A Review

By kevbayer on Google ... 4:34 PM

The funniest line I've read in long time: "...pulled from the flames of hell by the four nerdsmen of the apocalypse..."

I recently finished reading The God Conspiracy, a Christian Thriller novel by Derek P. Gilbert of Peering Into Darkness. Overall, it was a great read - action, adventure, suspense out the wazoo, humor, and a great Christian message.

This book was scary; not in the horror movie scary way - but content-scary if you think about the events in the book and how easily they could happen in real life. What happens is that a secret cabal within the U.S. Government stages a series of "homegrown terrorist attacks" and blames them on so-called ultra-conservative fundamentalist Christians. But in reality, it's just a ruse to round up every day Christians into confinement camps for nefarious purposes. The novel follows not only victims of this round-up, and the perpetrators, but an FBI agent investigating one of the terror attacks, four computer nerds that inadvertently get involved, and a National Guardsman that gets stuck in the middle.

Overall, an excellent novel. I only had a couple of minor problems with the story that other readers might not mind at all. I felt there were too many characters to follow: the FBI agent, the pastor (and his family), the Sheriff (and his family), the store owner (and his family), the four nerdsmen of the apocalypse, the main bad guy, the assistant to the main bad guy, the leader of the bad guy's military team, the Weekend Warrior. All were enjoyable characters with interesting stories that added to the suspense and overall story as they all weaved in and out of each other's lives; but it seemed to me like there were too many.

The other issue I had was the addition near the end of character that seemed to have all the answers and a possible solution. If he had appeared briefly a couple of times earlier in the book - maybe monitoring the situation through his contacts or something - it wouldn't have made his appearance at the end so abrupt. I did like that he was in the book though - he's a character from an excellent book written by the author's wife, Sharon K. Gilbert. I think there were other cameos as well, but I didn't catch them. I like that the author and his wife share this world and characters. So far, all the novels I've read by them both have been excellent.

The God Conspiracy is available in traditional format at Lulu.com or for Kindle at Amazon.

Read it!

Friday, May 15, 2009

Dreamstone by P.A. Hendrickson - A Review

By kevbayer on Google ... 7:10 PM

Dreamstone, by P.A. Hendrickson, was a pleasant surprise from IJustFinished.com.

In a post-war galaxy, the planet Prothia is a backwater that resembles many fantasy settings - complete with rumors of mysterious creatures just outside the villages, and the pre-quest inn where everyone gathers. Joebin is a miner and has been having disturbing dreams and visions and hearing voices in his head that eventually lead him to embark on a quest to save his village from slavers coming from another planet. But the slavers are just a tool in the belt of a governor who fancies herself queen of the galaxy. To become this queen, she seeks the Dreamstone, the same object of the quest Joebin has been sent on. Interesting adventures and sad deaths follow the quest through to a surprising end.

Surprising is a good word for this book. It starts out in a setting similar to most fantasies as it follows the main protagonist, Joebin, but changes to a science fiction setting as it follows the slavers and other galactic citizens, and back again. Along the way we meet at least a couple of different alien races, and maybe even a deity of some sort. And eventually they all meet up and disaster ensues, followed by a surprising ending.

It was an interesting combination of settings, and worked really well.