Book Review: Ground Zero

I love the Repairman Jack series by F. Paul Wilson. The series as a whole has it all; a nice mix of action, suspense, humor, conspiracies, nice character moments and development and, as the series progresses, more and more of a supernatural element. The series started off with each novel able to be read as a stand-alone; but as the series nears completion that's become impossible for the author to maintain as he moves pieces into place and continues the overall story of Repairman Jack and his fight against The Adversary.

I recently finished the most recent book in the series, Ground Zero, and in doing so realized I had missed the one before it (By The Sword)! Ground Zero finds Jack continuing his fight against The Adversary and his inadvertant earthly minions, the Kickers and the Septimus Order which has been part of the last few books. Jack even meets some old friends from his childhood (and the Jack YA novels).

Ground Zero is an excellent installment in the always entertaining Repairman Jack series and it hits on all the fine points I mentioned before: action, suspense, humor, character development, and that supernatural element that permeates the underlying achitecture of the series.

I'm currently reading By the Sword, and have Jack: Secret Histories(the first in the YA series) on my TBR shelf.



Disclaimer of Disclaiming: I picked up this book at my local library. No cash or freebies exchanged hands at all (unless I had to pay an overdue fine...). The link above is an Amazon Associate link: if you click it and buy something you help fund my "pay the bills" addiction.

The Facade by Mike Heiser

I finally - finally! - got to read The Facade, by Mike Heiser. I've been hearing about this book for what seems like years now at places like PIDRadio and FutureQuake, among others, touting how great this book is as both a fiction novel and a manifasto of sorts on what I call the fringe of Christian conspiracy theorists (of which I probably am a member...)

The Façade opens with a Roman Catholic priest-astronomer (yes, they really do exist) at the Vatican making a discovery and quickly being murdered by a supernatural something or other. Scene change to America and down-on-his luck ex-college professor now video store clerk Dr. Brian Scott is abducted by government agents telling him his country needs him just before he blacks out from being drugged. He awakens in a secret facility who knows where, along with several other scientists, psychologists, and a few other scholarly types, including a priest and Brian's mentor from his Christian college, who happens to be an undersecratary for the U.S. Government and part of The Group that runs the military facility Brian finds himself in.

Brian has become part of a secret program to come up with a way to convince the citizens of the United States of America that ETs are real, have been visiting Earth for awhile, want to move in and won't take "No" for an answer. Only, as more and more is revealed to Brian and his co-researchers, he begins to think that there's more to it than that.

Brian quickly finds his antagonist in UFO abduction researcher Dr. Melissa Kelley who does her best to discredit and embarass Brian at every turn, but she too begins to think there's more to the program they've been coerced into than simply aliens looking for a nice condo on the beach.

Soon enough, people around Brian are assaulted or killed, and he's led on a mind-twisting exploration of the ET phenomenon throughout recent history, and must make life-changing decisions both about aliens and his own lifestyle.

This is a good book. In between adventures, the characters of the research panel in the book participate in meetings where they are presented with a dizzying array of facts and historical documents all seemingly supporting or hinting at the existence of extraterrestrials among us. These meetings serve to present factual information to the reader as well as to present the author's viewpoint on the overall field of the alien agenda, which is necessary exposition but can slow the story down. However, the action scenes and character interactions make up for that by definitely keeping you turning the pages.

This is a book with true Christian characters among "normal" people; and it has a Christian message which I won't spoil. However, The Façade reads like a mainstream book, with very light cursing, sexual situations (but no sex), brutal murders, and "normal" people acting like normal people - not acting like Heathens or potential believers about to be converted like you'd find in many CBA books.

And the end? Remember that priest killed in the opening pages? His astronomical discovery that he was killed for could open the way to a sequel... if the author had the time and motivation to write it. I want a sequel!



Disclaimer: I bought this book with my own moolah! Nobody gave it to me free! (However, I did purchase it used.)

Book Review: The Watchers

I'm pretty sure I read a previous novel by this author called The Assignment and thought it was awesome (but reading the blurb at Amazon.com, it only vaguely sounds familiar). Recalling it as an awesome book, I recently went looking for something else to read by that author. At PaperBackSwap.com I found The Watchers, and decided to give it a read.

The main character, Abby, is a young California beach girl with a strong Christian faith. One night, she has a dream vision of a prophetess in Jerusalem seeing Mary and Joseph walking by with the baby Jesus and swears it was real. Before posting to her blog about it, she falls asleep. Her housekeeper is murdered and Abby gets poisoned and is slowly dying. A ancient organization of evil hires a contract assassin to find her and finish the job. But before he can, she posts her blog, has another vision, starts seeing the spiritual warfare going on all around her, gets on national TV, and soon is off on a world-spanning adventure seeking the reasons for her visions.

It took me a bit to get into the story, I'm not sure why. But I stuck through with it to end and I'm glad I did. There are great scenes of spiritual warfare between human prayer warriors and the powers and principalities of this world.

I like stories that acknowledge there's more to Christianity than going to church on Sunday. There's a war that's been raging since Eden with one side trying to convince the world that we can become god ourselves, and unfortunately, the other side is mostly doing nothing. However, there are a few spiritual warriors on their knees petitioning God through the blood of Jesus Christ for intercession against these powers and principalities. And even though we can't see it, the supernatural forces on both sides are fighting unseen for our souls all around us. Really, who needs fiction when you have that in reality!

Okay, I do like me some fiction. And these stories of the ultimate evil versus the Creator-God make some good reading.

Apparently The Watchers is the first of a series. I think I'll have to give the next book in the series, The Warriors, a try.



Disclaimer of Disclaiming: Sometimes publishers or authors give me their book or product free so I can review it. I didn't get this book from the publisher or the author ;-( I ordered it for my own enjoyment from PaperBackSwap. The product links in the reviews take you to Amazon.com, where if you buy the linked item I get a very small percentage of the purchase (because I like cash).

Book Review: What Happened To The Indians

Back in March I agreed to read What Happened to the Indians for the author, Terence Shannon. He sent me a copy of his book free of charge for review. I finally got around to reading it while I was on vacation this past week.

It's an alien invasion story, with a new spin on the solution. The main character, Doyle is a minor functionary to a politico in Washington D.C. As the aliens begin a quiet invasion, Doyle is called to the Oval Office and appointed to take notes at a secret meeting of top politicians debating what to do about the ETs. Doyle's responsibilities grow, and he eventually suggests a unique solution to the problem.

What Happened To the Indians reads almost like a Tom Clancy novel, without all the D-, E-, and F-subplots. There are a few minor subplots, but nothing that over-extends the novel like a Clancy story. Alien ships attack fighter jets and kidnap a 747. The U.S. President has to decide to whether to roll over and let the aliens slowly take over the county, or to make a stand and get rid of them. On his panel of experts are politicians wanting to take a wait-and-see attitude, others wanting to attack full force, some wanting to probe the aliens defenses slowly; and on the sidelines is Doyle, quietly researching the history of the aliens on Earth and talking to people with previous experience. Through those talks, he gets a plan forwarded to the president that almost ends in the destruction of civilization as we know it.

All in all, What Happened to the Indians is a pretty good book.


Disclaimer of Disclaiming: Sometimes publishers or authors give me their book or product free so I can review it. When they do, I'll mention it in the review. Sometimes I get books I want to read for my own enjoyment from PaperBackSwap. The product links in the reviews take you to Amazon.com, where if you buy the linked item I get a very small percentage the purchase (because I like cash).

Recent Reads and Things

I've been lucky enough to have this week off from work, taking a short stay-cation before my overtime really kicks in through the end of the year. I've been playing LOTRo quite a bit and enjoying it. Haven't really progressed far enough into the game to experience the meat of it, but what I've done has been enjoyable.

I've also caught up on my reading. I finished E.E. Knight's latest novel, Winter Duty. It's another installment in the ongoing Vampire Earth series and is pretty good. It was especially fun because most of the book takes place in and around my home town.

I also finished a Christian Fiction series by Austin Boyd set in the near future about the first manned missions to Mars and a possible presence of ET life. The Mars Hill Classified series - The Evidence, The Proof, and The Return - was a good series that asks plenty of questions about current topics in the world, and gives a great Christian response to them. These books also include a reading guide and group discussion material in the back. How cool is that?








Disclaimer of Disclaiming: No one gave me these products for free :-(. I had to buy LOTRo myself. I got the books through PaperBackSwap. The product links above take you to Amazon.com, where if you buy them, I get a very small percentage of the purchase (because I like cash).

Book Review: The Official Chuck Norris Fact Book

"Chuck Norris is so fast, he can run around the world and punch himself in the back of the head." Yeah those. This book isn't just another collection of Chuck Norris 'facts', it's a book written by Chuck Norris picking his favorite of the facts, offering a commentary about them with anecdotes from his life, and offering a positive view of patriotism, Christianity, and roundhouse kicks, among other things.

My three kids get a big kick out of reading the various Chuck Norris facts around the internet (on the websites that are kid friendly). When I saw this book available for review from the Tyndale Blog Network, I had to have it. I'm the last person in my house to read the book. My three kids and my wife all read the book before I got to it. They loved it, and still pick it up sometimes just to have something clean, fun, and meaningful to read. Each fact (and humorous caricature of Chuck Norris in action) is followed by a few paragraphs of Chuck Norris giving a rebuttal, or a life lesson, or an anecdote about the fact, followed by a related quote, and Chuck's Code that sums it up on how to relate it to life.

I don't think I knew that Chuck Norris is a Christian, and he makes no bones about it in the book, nor about his support of our troops, our constitution, etc. This was a nice refreshing read from the normal gloom and doom about our nation that permeates the mass media.

This book hands down gets a grand rating of 5 out of 5.

Disclaimer of dooooom:
For the purposes of review, Tyndale House Publishers has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book (because I like free stuff). Clicking on the book link at the beginning takes you to Amazon.com where you can purchase the book and I'd get a small percentage of the sale (because I like cash).