This book promised to be as moving and monumental as Dan Brown’s Da Vinci code, but the opening scene was even more compelling.
I was hooked on this book from the very beginning. A professor was being chased by his students before jumping in front of a train after examining a strange artefact.
But that was a fast-forward to a scene that happens mid story. The book tells of Catholic Dr Consuelo and his happy, loving family. But sadly His son becomes irrevocably ill with a deadly disease and is taken before his time, with his mother, unable to take it, parting shortly after.
Dr Consuelo turned to his pastor for counselling, but in the end, he can simply no longer believe in a benevolent, all-powerful God.
Then the real story begins when a miner discovers a glowing, purple, levitating artefact buried deep underground.
A buzz soon follows as people learn about it, but attention to it is quashed as much as possible.
Dr Consuelo, however, is a leading para-archeologist (I didn’t even know that was a thing), and he can think of nothing else.
Although Consuelo fails to get his hands on it at this point, he does take part in a video call where the artefact is examined by another colleague.
The artefact is no ordinary manuscript. It automatically converts to the language of whoever is reading it.
As the manuscript is read, it turns out the author of the manuscript is proclaiming himself to be an overlord of planet earth, placed here to implement change and control society.
But before anymore can be learned, the electricity goes out and the video call seizes, cueing the actions of the original opening scene.
Consuelo now wants more than anything to get to the bottom of all this, and before you know it, he’s visited by two members of the Vatican, and is invited to the Vatican to examine the artefact, which has now come into their possession.
This is the point where the nature of the writing changes and is concentrated on fierce, blunt, rigorous debate. And it’s worth reading the book for this element alone, especially if you are or have ever been religious.
Consuelo agrees to examine the artefact at the Vatican, and hopes to have the artefact delivered to his university for further analysis.
When Consuelo does examine the artefact, a strange phenomenon occurs (don’t worry, no spoilers).
Consuelo is convinced that the artefact is genuine, and during his audience with the Pope, he seeks to back up what the manuscript says.
As time progresses, more and more people in this select audience appear to become convinced by what Consuelo (and his assistant) have to say on the matter.
I won’t give away the ending, but I will offer up my opinion. I really enjoyed reading this book, and being open to the sorts of events that the manuscript suggested.
However, I am not a religious person, and believe that a story like this would be even more powerful to a reader who was.
I did find some flaws in the book. I wondered why the artefact wasn’t immediately dismissed as a hoax by the Vatican, and I don’t understand their motives in inviting someone to examine, unless they thought said individual would declare it a hoax.
The story also failed to get into what the true motives of the “overlord” were, which I felt ought to have been a key part of the story.
The story also left out any discussion of why the manuscript existed in the first place, since it claimed that the contents of the manuscript were deemed to be so secret.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in religion and ethics, so long as any religious people reading are not easily offended.
BookBlogbyCari 