Acts of God

Acts of God by James BeauSeigneur
SelectiveHouse Publishing, 2012
Originally published by Warner Books, 2004
Price I paid: Amazon gift card funny money

Two nuclear wars. Three asteroids. Demonic madness that kills one third of the world’s population. Into this, a savior will rise, cloned from Christ. It’s not fiction. It’s prophecy.

It is the dawn of the New Age. After six millennia of stagnation, humanity stands on the brink of its final great evolutionary step. But it is a step that has come at tremendous cost. Half the world’s population is dead. The Pacific Ocean is barren. The forests of North and South America are a charred wasteland. Central America has been reduced to rubble. The planet’s survivors face a fundamental choice: follow Christopher Goodman, the Messiah of the New Age and clone of Jesus Christ, or cling to the very worldview and the God who has wrought this destruction.

Under Christopher’s leadership the world begins to experience miraculous recovery, and soon the first signs of humankind’s evolution emerge, just as Christopher promised. His fanatical opponents, however, charge that he is the Antichrist, and that his name, when written in Hebrew has the numeric value of 666.

Reluctantly, Christopher determines to use their own superstitions against these fanatics. He reminds the world that the prophecies of Revelation were written by the Apostle John, and it was John, who after using his dark powers to survive for 2000 years, is responsible for the near annihilation of the planet. It was John, whose writings in the Bible radically distort what is to come and who will emerge the victor.

Each person must choose. All that’s certain is that the world is catapulting toward a final apocalyptic conflict, and humanity’s salvation or damnation depend on the true nature of the Christ Clone.

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In His Image

In His Image by James BeauSeigneur
Warner Books, 2003
Price I paid: If you don’t have a library card, get one

Two decades ago, newspaper editor Decker Hawthorne joined skeptical professor Harry Goodman on the famed study to authenticate the Shroud of Turin. Years later, Goodman revealed to Decker an astonishing secret: Fragments of the Shroud contained human skin samples—complete DNA cells that were still alive, incorruptible, and invulnerable. Convinced he could manipulate the amazing genes as a cure-all for disease, Goodman began a secret program of experimentation.

Then catastrophes struck around the world, beginning with a mysterious plague that decimated the earth’s population. Terrorists destroyed the Wailing Wall, nuclear war erupted, and the United Nations became the dominant global power, even as the Israelis rebuilt the Temple of Solomon.

Now a grieving widower and U.N. speechwriter, Decker is raising the late Harry Goodman’s young nephew, Christopher. Only Decker knows the shocking truth about the boy—that he was cloned from the cells on the Shroud. Christopher has miraculous powers, prophetic visions, memories of life two thousand years ago…and wants to help guide the world to a better tomorrow. But who and what is Christopher? Would God permit the Messiah of the Second Coming to be created in a test tube? Could an impure being arise from the sacred living flesh of Jesus Christ? Or is the reality more incredible than anything revealed to prophets or science?

All that’s clear is that the world is staggering toward a final apocalyptic conflict—and humanity’s salvation or damnation may depend on the true nature of The Christ Clone…

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Weeping May Tarry

Weeping May Tarry by Raymond F. Jones and Lester del Rey
Pinnacle Books, 1978
Price I paid: 75¢

The landing was unlike any they had ever made. But then they had never before seen a planet so strange as this one—with its wild seas, scarred plains, and rubbled cities. It looked as if it had been totally devastated by some type of nuclear destruction.

And they were most curious—these aliens with their green-scaled faces and stubby tails—to explore this peculiar place where man had once existed…until their ship exploded and they were stranded with no means of survival and no hope of rescue.

Unless their high priest—Ama of the Keelong—prayed to the higher power they had rebelled against. For this was a spiritual mission…and the Alcoran had lost their way…

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The Rakehells of Heaven

The Rakehells of Heaven by John Boyd
Penguin Books, 1969
Price I paid: 90¢

John Adams and Kevin O’Hara are graduates of North Dakota’s great Mandan Space Academy. Both trained to be conquistadors of space, explorers in an age of interstellar imperialism, Adams and O’Hara are as different as any two space scouts could possibly be. Now, together, they are sent to explore a distant world called Harlech. The Harlechians are unclassified aliens; relations with their women are strictly forbidden by the Interplanetary Colonial Authority. Adams is willing to play by the rules—but whoever made those rules hadn’t counted on the lusty Red O’Hara, rakehell of heaven…From the Adams-O’Hara probe, only John Adams returns.

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