EVER BOUGHT A BOOK ON THE STRENGTH OF THE REVIEWS ON THE BACK???

If you are like us (and probably one of the many thousands of book lovers across the globe) and have had the misfortune of spending your hard-earned cash on an apparent "best-seller"; you will probably also have experienced the dull thud as you bang your head against the wall, thinking "Why did I listen to the reviews on the back?!" The truth is: reviews found on books are usually self-promoting, PR stunt-type hype and not necessarily a true reflection of the books' quality at all.

It is our aim to tell the truth about books, but don't for one second assume that that is synonymous with us creating a blog to 'diss' authors' work - to the contrary - our intention is to provide an honest appraisal of each and every book we read. If the book is any good - it'll get a good review. If it's awful and a tragedy to the literary world - then it won't. It's that simple.

Thursday 27 September 2007

The Fall of Lucifer (The Chronicles of Brothers - Book 1) by Wendy Alec (ISBN 0-9552377-0-X)

A tale of biblical proportions... no really, this is a reincarnation of the bible, with some artistic addendums of course.
For those who have never read any version of the bible, or by some chance never heard tell of the Christian belief that God created Man and that Lucifer (or you might know him as Satan) went on an all out war against God's latest creation (that being Mankind - i.e. US) - then a) I have no idea what planet you have been on your entire life and b) you'll find this book quite unique... unlike the rest of us who have heard it all before.
Basing the story around the three Archangels, or brothers, is clever and does help draw the reader in... and despite my cynicism, I have to admit that I HAD to read this book from cover to cover. That said, I found it irritating in parts, a little preachy in others and I personally got tired of the over use of bejeweled everything - Heaven is loaded - we get it.
The prologue introduces us to Nick, a twenty-six year old archaeologist who is extraordinarily frail and seems perpetually close to death (I suspended all disbelief whilst reading this book) who finds some treasure - then it launches into a kind of diary of Archangel Gabriel - and it is not until the last couple of pages that Nick reappears... which was disappointing. I think rather than reiterate biblical stories of old testament time (Noah and the great flood feature at one point); I would have preferred the author to concentrate on the year 2017, when Nick finds the treasure and the secret of the origins of sin. Now THAT would be a novel tale. At least we can tell that there is more to come - 'chronicles', 'book 1' kind of give that away...
Whether you see this as fiction or non-fiction depends on your personal beliefs, but I will still hazard a guess that this book will (if it has not done so already) sell in its millions. Something about a scary God and demons fighting over your soul makes compelling reading - no matter how many times the story is regurgitated.

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