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Following a world wide catastrophe, the shape of the world
has changed. Many nations have perished from the earth, whilst
others struggle for existence. Amidst this apocalypse a new
nation literally arises from the sea, when the long lost island
of Atlantis re-emerges from its centuries old slumber beneath
the waves. Sixty years later and some of the planet's survivors
have created what they hope is a utopia on the island, but
for President Ismailov a serpent has arisen in paradise, a
group of Mormons appear to be threatening everything that
has been created. With death and possibly revolution on the
horizon can the President unravel their intent before disaster
strikes...?
To
be honest as a premise this didn't sound too bad for a novel,
however, what you get is something all together different,
to be honest I'm at a bit of a loss where to start with this
book.
Let's
start with the bad stuff. For a novel of around three hundred
pages the actual plot takes up about twenty. There is no character
development, no thrills, little in the way of drama, certainly
no comedy. The language used gives the indication that conversational
English is not Ersevim's strong point; most of the conversations
are dull and unconvincing and grate in a way that make you
think that Ersevim has never listened to another human being
speak, which is odd as I believe he is a well respected psychiatrist
("I'm Listening...")
All
of the characters appear to have a single voice, that of the
author, making it difficult to believe that the book actually
contained single individuals. I have no idea of Ersevim's
ethnicity, and to be honest it's a moot point. What I do know,
as a therapist, is scientific journal speak and this book
is full of it. It's a great use of language to get over ideas
but absolutely useless at creating drama. There is a saying
that you need to engage your audience with the story within
the first paragraph or you loose them, Ersevim waits until
chapter sixteen before things really get started and as soon
as they do they end - leaving a bitter taste of disappointment.
Breaking
with tradition I'm going to offer this book two marks, as
a novel it is next to non-existent giving it a rousing nil
points However the book also contains a lot of very interesting
stuff.
Ersevim
is following in the grand tradition of Plato's Republic
and Thomas More's Utopia in constructing, in print,
the foundations of a different way of living. Like his forbearers
he is obviously unhappy about the state of the world and has
set forth a blueprint for a different kind of living. Though,
like the former two, he ignores the fundamental unpleasantness
of human beings, kind of why communism was never going to
work either. It really is interesting stuff but takes up way
too much of the first half of the book and to be honest will
put many people of who were expecting a Sci-Fi thriller.
Secondly,
without doubt, Ersevim obviously knows his subject, the subject
being the world's most popular faiths. If you strip away the
ephemeral plot what the book does contain is everything your
likely to need to know about Islam, Christianity, Mormonism
and Freemasonry. He provides a precise and insightful look
at these and other major modes of faith, more than that the
book is full of references to philosophy, psychology, art,
music and all the detritus of a so called civilised society.
I have no idea why they let Ersevim promote this book as a
novel, strip the plot away and what your left with is a well
constructed and thought provoking book about the way we live
and the way we could live, the interconnectedness of faith
and a hope that man can raise above his baser drives. And
for this greater part of the book I have no problem in awarding
the book a mark of 8, shame about the pointless plot though.
Charles
Packer
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