Fallen Masters

August 27, 2012
Who would guess that the end of the world could engender boredom? That's, alas, the case in this apocalyptic would-be thriller that is short on suspense and believable characters. Self-described psychic medium Edward throws everything he's got at the future of mankind. An astrologer with psychic powers, Mama G sees humanity facing the end of days, in both "metaphysical and astrological terms," and is tapped by the Council of Elders on the Other Side to help. With both "science and religion... reporting strange phenomena," the Vatican has created an ad hoc Council of Faith with representatives of the nine major religious traditions to combat forces "which may be called âevil.' " Astronomers fear a terminal event as an expanding cloud of dark matter approaches the solar system. A sadistic killer strikes in Belfast, Northern Ireland, removing the heart of a young woman before carving an elaborate glyph on her back. Against all these horrors, a Glenn Beckâlike television commentator, Dave Hampton, can only implore his followers to mobilize the good "within and amongst us." Most characters are walking clichés, as big a strike against the book as its forgettable prose. Agent: Corinda Carfora, Wildcat Marketing.

July 15, 2012
There's no psychic powerful enough to ferret out where celebrity medium Edward mislaid his writing talent, but it certainly isn't in this flaccid suspense novel. One wants to like, even praise, a novel in which both Adolf Hitler and John Travolta figure. Alas, the mere names are the best part of the ploy. Here's the opening line, at which the heart sinks: "Ten-year-old Charlene St. John glanced at the clock." As well she might, since dad's not home yet, and it's near six. Dad's from Scotland, and so, naturally enough, he says things like, "If men like me dinna screw in the bolts and tighten the nuts, the ship would come apart and sink to the bottom of the sea." Well, give her all she's got or no, and the fact remains that Scotty is just one of many people--everyone on the planet, really--who are entangled with some very weird events that, as the pope tells an assembly of stereotype-perfect world religious leaders, "taken together indicate the possibility of malevolent forces at work." Enter ace scientist Jason Chang, who tells the president of the United States (POTUS, throughout most of the yarn, presumably to save on typing wear and tear) that "what we at NASA have been calling Dark Matter has appeared from nowhere--or, more correctly from a point near galaxy cluster Abell 2744." Astronomy buffs may know that Abell 2744 is called Pandora's Cluster because of its curious properties, among them heretofore not having been the ability to conjure up forces of evil so bad that even the aforementioned Hitler (or, as POTUS endearingly calls him, "perverted piece of shit") hasn't sided with them. Can the world be saved from Dark Matter and the Dark Overlords? By a few pages in, only John Travolta, jetting his way over a ravaged land, might be moved to care, while those who prize good writing will pray for the end days--or at least the end of this grinding tale. Edward makes Dan Brown look like Shakespeare. And that's a powerful bit of conjuring indeed.

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April 15, 2012

The author of numerous New York Times best sellers, internationally famed psychic Edward here turns to fiction, creating a work billed as metaphysical suspense as Good and Evil duke it out both on Earth and on the Other Side.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.