Soul and body. Water and blood.
Death and life. Evil and goodness.
A story about courage and suffering.
A novel about our times.
A vision for all time. ( )

I just don't know! This is the 3rd one I've read of Bud MacFarlane, Jr's, and I think it's his last? It took me a *long* time to read this because of being a full-time college student, with college reading to do, but I was able to pick it from where I left off after being away from it for a good 3 months.

As I recall, I absolutely hated the 1st novel in this series -- I felt like Bud was being very opinionated in his writing and, for him, this was the only way you could be a "good" Catholic. The 2nd novel I actually enjoyed quite a lot, as I recall! I honestly don't know if this is any better than the 2nd one (certainly better than the 1st one). I don't know if Bud's writing is getting better or I'm getting worse -- becoming more conservative in my beliefs of what it means to be a "good" Catholic -- I do consider myself to be conservative.

Just as a story, without the Catholicism in it, I felt like you *really* had to ignore a lot of things! Like, for example, your memories of 1998-2000. I know I found myself having a hard time reading the start of the book because I kept stopping to say, "Oh come on! Was it really that way?!" (I don't remember it being that way.) When/If you get passed that, it gets better. Then you just have to completely ignore the other petty things, like, "Okay, obviously this man has never had the power go out in his neighborhood. There is not immediate, mass-hysteria!" Even when the power went out in NYC, after 2000 at some point, people were fine and walked home! The other thing that really annoyed me about this book -- greatly as it continued -- is how everyone immediately dies because the flu or pneumonia. It's the middle of winter! He should have said it was a mild winter and, therefore, the bacteria was able to travel between "hosts", because when it's bitterly cold, germs can't survive. And another thing, the FLU is a VIRUS! Penicillin or any other kind of antibiotic isn't going to cure you! If anything, this book becomes a warning about overuse of antibiotics.

And the last section of the book was the absolutely worse! I probably would have given the book a rating of "Fair" if it had ended a good 20 pages before hand ... absolutely horrible!!

Well, after that kind of review, I don't think I'll be passing this book on to any friends :-)

Adrianne ( )

Next on my list following Bud's first two novels. Can't wait to read this one and see what is in store for me this time! He's an amazing Catholic Christian storyteller!! Finished this in record time! It was as good as the first two. ( )