World Famous Comics: The Prodigal Project: Book 1: Genesis (Prodigal Project (Paperback))
The Prodigal Project: Book 1: Genesis (Prodigal Project (Paperback))
By: Ken Abraham, Daniel Hart Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Format: Bargain Price Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 304 Publication Date: January 07, 2003
Book Description: For some the End Times are just the beginning...
On just another Sunday, a man joins a group of friends for a golf game. A working mother, trying to balance career and home, skips weekly services. An Internet junkie scours the Web looking for some comforting news but finds only unrest. Ordinary people who live their lives in an unsettled time, like most too overwhelmed by their own concerns to register the groundswell of changes taking place everywhere-until the instance when millions around the world disappear.
Immediately, life after the Rapture becomes a chaotic battle for survival. Into the void steps Azul Dante, the charismatic leader of the Prodigal Project. He shines a light in the darkness of the End Times, his new world order representing a return to the promised land of the past.
And in the beginning, seven hopeful men and women set out separately to find salvation in the Prodigal Project. Instead, they initiate a series of personal trials that will ultimately prove to be the sternest test of their souls...
I just could not finish this book :( I think that my title for this review say's everything. I always go through the reviews if I struggle with a book to see if possibly I am just being to "me." I have to agree 100% with the 1 and 2 star reveiws. This book is a knock off of "The Left Behind Series" and is too slow to follow. I would not suggest this book to fellow readers.
Very jumbled story and poor plot line leads to bad book I have never read the "Left Behind" books and so I thought I could read "The Prodigal Project" without a prior bias on the topic of the end times.
I really tried to get "into" this work, but I could not. After 100 pages I gave up. The writing is poor. There is a jumbled storyline that involves multiple people who experience an earthquake. Just as you are starting to follow the story of someone, the author changes the focus to a different person and event. These are NOT at all tied together in the first 100 pages. And maybe later they are, but I could not care less, as the story just does not flow. I think there was potential, had the story followed one character and then added others along the way, but as it is it is just a mess.
I had high hopes for this book, and as a Christian I was not offended by the evangelical side of some of the characters. I just wanted to get to know the characters in a sequence rather than as a bunch of puzzle pieces that were spilled onto the pages.
As you can tell, I was disappointed and I would not recommend this book to anyone. I do wonder what this book would have done without the coat-tails of the "Left Behind" books? Maybe "The Prodigal Project" would have stalled out at the first book?
This Work Should Have Been Really "Left Behind" I wanted to like this book, I really did.
Looking at the other reviews or the summary, you get the basic theme of this book. It is set at the the time of the Rapture, when the faithful get called to heaven and those that remain are yet to face the perils of Armageddon.
Those the remain are not only the "real sinners" but a number of people who have not fully accepted the Lord into their lives. These are their stories.
To assist in this time there is a mysterious "Prodigal Project" that has been set up by several Christian leaders and led by the unseen (in this book) Azur Dante. The purpose of this project is unclear, though it leads me to believe that those who remain can still be saved in some way (Disclaimer: I have not read the rest of the series, so this could be completely wrong).
Unfortunately, this book dragged, the writing was fairly stilted, and the characters are wooden. There were other reviews that talked about many issues left unresolved, though in fairness, this is the first of a series. Still it did seem like the book ended not between books, but between chapters.
The book also did have an anti-Muslim overtone that I found a bit troubling. Yes it is a Christian work, but the Muslim characters were portrayed as being very cruel and one dimensional.
If you're interested in this theme, read the other series that are out covering this right now. This one can be passed by.
Couple Hundred Pages of Evangelism It is obvious what it was that inspired me to buy this book- it is religious in nature and about the end of the world, two of my favourite subjects (along with World War Two and nuclear warfare). This is part one of seven, as you can tell by the subtitle, and I am still unsure whether I will read all of the instalments even though I am curious. I am curious as to how of if Abraham is going to pull himself out of the reliance on time worn stereotypes, leading into racism and a clearly misogynistic point of view. It is a story about the Rapture, the time when all the good-hearted Christians are taken from the world to be with God. Millions are left behind but this story focuses on seven people, from a covert government worker to a mother with a disabled child. Most of them are non-believers, or rather not devout going-to-church-every-Sunday-and-reading-the-bible-every-day Christians, unlike their families; they are the ones who couldn't fully accept what God, Jesus and the bible are all about. Then there is Dante and Noir, the faces of good and evil, respectively. Azul Dante is attempting to establish the Prodigal Project, a corporation of sort that will try to reunite the world following the Rapture, the project to which all the characters are drawn to or will be drawn into at some point (as you could have discerned by the title). This was novel published in 2003, which was after the planes hit the World Trade Centre and written, I assume, before the invasion of Iraq. It is riddled with thinly veiled attacks on Muslims, lumping them all into one category and trying it's hardest to not look racist, sort of in the same manner that someone say "I'm not homophobic, I just don't think its right." It infuriates me that he tries to justify it but continues to push the stereotypes, not least of all by having them as the enemy to the Western world, run by the devil himself. Abraham is clearly a Republican; his disappearing President is a barely concealed Bush, which pushes the idea that he is infallible. You get glimpses of intelligence shining through at times, Abraham having strong female protagonists who are destined to do something worthy (but it is yet to be seen what it is that they do, I see a [...] of Babylon shining through in one of them), but he brings that crashing down by insinuating that the only way that a woman could be perfect was to stay at home and succumb to her husband's every whim. I will read the following book in the (desperate) hope that Abraham is just a good writer who is toying with the reader, leading them down a path that will lead to a completely different conclusion (and hopefully stop being so racist), but that is yet to be seen. This instalment is basically the opening chapter to the following books, setting the scene and character development- it is very little other than a couple of hundred pages of evangelism. It's almost like trying to review a book after reading the first chapter. Oh, and I have never read Left Behind.
Not Too Bad This review has to do with the first book. I liked the stepped-up action that starts slowly, but then gets going later on in the book. The disappearances are a little more in-depth and there is a lot of good characterisations. I especially liked the villain of this first book, Izbek Noir, who could be a reflection of Osama bin-Laden or Saddam Hussein of current events. He's ruthless, charismatic, and fromn the first revelation of him, is a guy you really don't like all that much, but is such a powerful presence. The flip side is Azul Dante, who is the exact opposite of Izbek Noir: charmning, approachable, likable.
The main charachters in this story are well-described as well. John Jamison the "I-wish-I-could-tell-you-my-job-but-then-I'd-have-to-kill-you" secret agent is deep, thoughtful, powerful! The Pastor, Henderson Smith is also deep, moving, and charsimatic. I could go on about the other characters as well, but I think I'd basically be parroting what everyone else has written about them. Basically, if you liked the characters in "Left Behind" or "Christ Clone", you'll like the characters in "Prodigal Project".
The only detractions I would add to this first book revolves basically around one of the characters and the action following the disappearances/rapture. First, the only character I didn't like was Catherine "Cat" Early. Felt like the authors spent a little too much time on her, and she ended up being pretty tedious. I'll admit that when I first read the book, I kept waiting for her to get "offed" by someone, as her character was annoying. In the second read, my view of her improved a great deal, but still felt that there was a lot of time devoted to her that really wasn't necessary. My view on Cat Early may change if and when I am able to read the rest of the books in this series, but personally, from the outset, they could have devoted less time to Cat and more time to other characters, say, for example, Shannon Carpenter, especially her voyage to Alabama from Ohio. Lot of space there that could have been filled-in, as it was with Ivy Sloan-Underwood (DEFINITELY, her trip from Cali to `Bama was harrowing and Mad-Max-esque!!!).
My second detraction has to do with the action following the rapture. I am a Chroistian and am of the belief that following the rapture, there will be chaos such as this world has ever seen resulting directly from the airplanes that are pilotless, the cars that are driverless, and the ships that are without direction and crew. Had the writers of this book carried on the theme of utter chaos immediately following the rapture (something that "Christ Clone" and "Left Behind" did fairly well with), this first book n my opinion may have overshadowed both "Left Behind" and "Christ Clone". And what better opening for Izbek Noir to fully and totally launch an offesnive with the chaos that would have followed had that been the theme of the writers. Alas, as the rapture came and went in this book, there was just too much calm that really isn't upheld by Scritpure, especially when considering the stories of the Flood and Sodom and Gomorrha.
Those two points having been said, I will conclude that this book -- despite the detractions -- is still an exciting and enjoyable read, with lots of action, and a ruthless villain that truly does make the overall formation of characters very interesting and deep. I recommend the First Book (Genesis) of the "Prodigal Project" series!!! Can't wait to read the rest!!!!
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