Tuesday, May 25, 2010

The Last Christian by David Gregory



To start off, here is a little about what this novel is about...



In the future, it’s possible to live forever—but at what cost?

A.D. 2088.

Missionary daughter Abigail Caldwell emerges from the jungle for the first time in her thirty-four years, the sole survivor of a mysterious disease that killed her village. Abby goes to America, only to discover a nation where Christianity has completely died out. A curious message from her grandfather assigns her a surprising mission: re-introduce the Christian faith in America, no matter how insurmountable the odds.

But a larger threat looms. The world's leading artificial intelligence industrialist has perfected a technique for downloading the human brain into a silicon form. Brain transplants have begun, and with them comes the potential of eliminating physical death altogether—but at what expense?

As Abby navigates a society grown more addicted to stimulating the body than nurturing the soul, she and Creighton Daniels, a historian troubled by his father's unexpected death, become unwitting targets of powerful men who will stop at nothing to further their nefarious goals. Hanging in the balance—the spiritual future of all humanity.

In this fast-paced thriller, startling near-future science collides with thought-provoking religious themes to create a spell-binding "what-if?" novel.




I had the opportunity to review this novel and here are my thoughts...

When I first started reading this book, I was very confused by how many different characters are involved and trying to keep them all straight. I had to re-read a lot in the beginning to get myself acquainted with who is who. Once I got that all straightened out, I had to get past some of the things that gave me an uncomfortable feeling (such as all the technology stuff and the idea of life partners who you sign a contract to be with for 10 years and then can choose to renew it or part ways, as opposed to marriage). Of course, these were things the writer was using to set the stage for what would play out in this novel and I have to tell you that once I got into about the 3rd chapter, I was hooked! This book is filled with so many twists and turns and unexpected events that keep you glued to it to find out what will happen next. I was actually sad when I was getting to the end of the book because I didn't want it to end. As far as the ending goes, I wasn't overwhelmed by how he chose to end it, but it wasn't bad either. Overall, I think this is a great novel where the author has used a lot of imagination to take you to a place (where I hope our world will never actually go) and give you a sense of what life would be like if people stopped believing in God. My absolute favorite thing about this book is when the main character discovers something new and complete about the gospel that she has been missing and how she uses it. You'll just have to read the book yourself to find out what that is!


You can download the first chapter of The Last Christian here.



This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Well, you have me hooked ~ I *want* to read this book!

Thanks~