Blurb:
It
is the morning of September 11, 2125. The New York City police commissioner
stands on the 170th floor of the Three Towers, clutching his chest in shock.
The sky goes dark, filled with dozens of them—the opening attack of World War
III. Not merely the planet’s third global war, but the first one of the Tek
Age—a hell we have never seen before.
How
did we ever get to this place?
In
2089, a former skin-runner-turned-star-reporter quietly investigates the
Washington DC daylight murder of the most powerful political king-maker in the
nation. It is just the tip of a wider conspiracy and the start of a chain of
events leading to this world catastrophe.
The
world is a very different place: Western Europe has fallen to the Islamic
Caliphate, Israel is gone, Eastern Europe has merged with Russia and Beijing
runs the anti-American Chinese-Indian Alliance. America is very different too.
The US Constitution has been found unconstitutional and replaced, presidential
term limits are gone, and the culture wars are over. The three-term American
president is obsessed with keeping the nation safe at all costs—by ending
religiosity. But the Resistance stands in his way.
Thy
Kingdom Fall is Book One of the epic After Eden Series.
Review:
I realize I’ve said I would not review a book until I
finished reading it, but I see no way this book can redeem itself in my eyes
regardless how it ends. The characters are well-fleshed out okay, and the plot could
be engaging. But Thy Kingdom Fall is full of political
rants and repetition, as each event is told from the point of view of different
characters. This is a four-hundred-plus
page book that could easily have been edited down to three-hundred pages or
less.
The book is told in flashback, which would be okay if the
author started at the beginning and told the story chronologically. Instead, he hops back and forth between 2089
and 2076 in Part One. He adds even
earlier dates to Part Two. A flashback
is fine, but here the flashbacks have flashbacks, and the transitions are
choppy. It’s dizzying.
The thing that really makes me want to throw my Kindle
across the room, however, is Mr. Dragon’s vilifying a group of people who do
not deserve it. Do your homework,
sir. The villains in this book are the Pagans,
whom Mr. Dragon paints as godless people trying to stamp out religion. The Pagans are the ones in charge of the
government who trash the Constitution, pass laws against owning the Bible, and
declare religious language (even the word “amen”) to be “hate language.”
That is not what Pagans are about at all. The word pagan is derived from the Latin word
paganus, or country dweller. Most people
today who call themselves “Pagans” believe in some form of deity and follow one
of the ancient polytheistic paradigms such as the Egyptian, Greco-Roman,
Nordic, Celtic, or Native American/Shamanic gods and goddesses. We honor the Earth, the sky, and all of
nature’s works. Most believe in
reincarnation, coming back until you get it right and then dwelling in Summerland,
or Nirvanna, or Valhalla, or whatever.
Pagans are also the most accepting people around. We don’t proselytize; we respect other
people’s beliefs. When was the last time
a Pagan knocked on your door and tried to convert you?
So, again, Mr. Dragon—do your homework before you vilify
a group of people. We Pagans are not the
villains you seem to think we are.
Length: 436 Very Long Pages
Prices:
E-Book:
$2.99
Paperback:
$13.51
Hardcover:
$24.29
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