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Where to start? This is a very unusual book.

What do you get when you cross sci-fi /fantasy as in “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy”, with a budding romance, ambitious philosophical yearnings, theological history, Mexican drug cartels, murder, money laundering, and last but not least, an earthly visitation by God?

It all begins on a intergalactic moon station with our introduction to God, an ambitious but sarcastic new Milky-Way-Galaxy Inc. recruit who will take over for the retiring New Testament God, who has reigned over Earth for the past two thousand years. Without giving all the intricacies of this very clever plot away, let me just say that these opening scenes were my absolute favorite in the book. Hilarious, witty, and incredibly original, I can’t imagine a more compelling start to this story.

The pace and mayhem that follows is everything you might expect from the intro above. God may act in mysterious ways, but in this novel, he makes his earthly expectations crystal clear. Working through two selected humans mandated to see His ask through, we meet Ram and Brendali, two young T.V hosts, who must broker world compliance to the divine ask through command of video, social media, and other communications with key delegates as God’s plan for earth unfolds.

Other wonderful characters include Griff, the FBI agent, who claims to be “downright humorless” (that’s why, he says, he joined the FBI) and a whole cast of players representing religious leaders from every major faith and religious sect across the globe.

With considerable skill, the author manages complex and controversial religious and theological questions deftly, working a good deal of interesting religious history and scholarly insights into the story that expands to include themes such as:

• Just how far apart, really, are the worlds major religions (eg. Muslim vs Judaism vs Catholicism)
• Can an organized religion serve both a national agenda and one’s personal conscience.
• Is a unified view, endorsing tolerance for diversity across all faiths even a moderately realistic goal?

(Don’t let the heavy questions scare you off – the book itself reads mostly like a romp, or crime caper, with dashes of humor and many unexpected other-worldly side jaunts. )

A big thank you to the author for a review copy of this book, in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts provided are my own.