An innovative but uneven spiritual tale.
In this debut novel, an emperor establishes a clandestine order to protect and disseminate spiritual secrets that predate the birth of Jesus.
Aram is a nomadic trader traveling through ancient Syria. Isha, his caravan’s leader, encourages him to seek out the spiritual counsel of Murduk, a “silent observer of the universe,” who paradoxically turns out to be uncommonly garrulous and eager to impart his wisdom. Murduk shares with Aram a combination of cosmological and moral teachings, the former vaguely reminiscent of Christian eschatology. Apparently, the “ancient engineers of our species” have left instructions for their return, “when time and space interact in such a way as to open the stargate again.” In addition, there will a decisive battle between the forces of good and evil, which will “drive the planet into an obscure tunnel of death and devastation.” Aram is shown how to interpret the signs—the novel is filled with diagrams that illustrate the messages—and is given an amulet that contains a hexagram within a circle apparently encrypted with spiritual knowledge. The bulk of this tale is devoted to the aftermath of Aram’s spiritual enlightenment—he becomes a great prophet, and his legacy is continued by powerful men like Roman Emperor Traianus. Emperor Constantine eventually founds the Constantine Order devoted to the perpetuation of Aram’s work, and its illustrious membership includes Attila the Hun and Leonardo da Vinci. Consta makes this order the prime mover of world history—the Crusades, the Egyptian pyramids, and King Solomon’s Temple can all be linked to the group.
The tantalizingly inventive aspect of the author’s tale is the possibility of an “inner core” of “prophetic symbols received by the prophet Aram” thousands of years before the births of Jesus and Allah. But the ambitious expanse of history covered here has a price—Consta doesn’t create authentic characters. This isn’t really a novel in the usual sense of the term but an intricate history—it reads much more like an attempt to compose scripture than a literary production. This gives the entire work a ponderous feel, and the prose only reinforces that effect. The author’s writing is often densely packed and bewilderingly vague. The passages meant to elucidate the nature of the prophetic teachings are the most turgid: “Supreme Master, created from the same blood of Aram and the eternal perseverance and persistence of the crossed axis of the celestial globe and the sacred, unified will and wisdom of God, which humbly point us to the sacred points of the lights designated from our creators, ascend to the top of this temple and point us with the sacred sword to the right Blazing Star.” While Consta’s work is reminiscent of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, it fails to fully develop the intriguing novelistic elements of the story.
An innovative but uneven spiritual tale.Pub Date: Dec. 9, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-08-656829-5
Page Count: 275
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Jan. 4, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
