Book Review: Terry James Speaks Loudly In 'The Rapture Dialogues'
Bruce Collins
April 05, 2007
Having attempted both fiction and nonfiction, I have a great deal of respect for those writers who are able to weave an inviting and coherent tapestry of fiction. Fiction requires a more complex sojourn into the fields of imagination. Sadly, my own works of the inventive sort have always crashed against the high cliffs of my wastebasket, never to return to the harsh world of edits.
Tom Horn’s ‘The Ahriman Gate’ and Lynn Marzulli’s ‘Nephilim Trilogy’ both tackle the UFO/ nephilim phenomenon with breathtaking, creative writing skills. Their outstanding books read like full blown, guns blazing, pedal to the metal, action movies. Horn and Marzulli’s similar writing styles are very visual.
By contrast, Terry James’ fictional ‘The Rapture Dialogues: Dark Dimension’ reads like a documentary piece. James achieves this effect by deftly incorporating real historical dates and events with fiction and nonfiction characters. He does a spectacular job pulling this off. At times, I felt as if I had broken the seal on a top secret dossier and was perusing transcripts of conversations held by key government officials in classified meetings. It’s that convincing.
I never thought I’d see the late President Lyndon Johnson leap out from the pages in an uncanny representation, sans the unnecessary colorful language often espoused by the President.
The Rapture Dialogues’ begins in 1947 with a young boy walking beside a series of caves in the Qumran region. I recognized this as the factual unfolding of events that led to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. In fact, it reminded me of the opening scene of Dr. Ken Hanson’s non-fiction account of the Scrolls in his excellent book.
This is the beauty of the author’s official looking novel- it melds the real with the creative seamlessly.
Twenty years after this initial discovery, our story heats up with the unusual life of Marines Captain Mark Lansing. Mark’s father, Clark, disappeared years before when two unidentified flying disks appeared above his airplane. This is way off subject but I’m wondering what the grandfather’s name was, as there are not too many names that end in A-R-K (Hark?).
Lansing tracks down Col. James Morgan, who was flying in the same plane when Clark vanished. It seems that Morgan has been sleepwalking and muttering in an eerie, guttural Greek and Hebrew dialect since the baffling incident in the sky.
Meanwhile, Rev. Christopher Banyon has felt a prompting to explore the strange world of dark entities at work on planet Earth. Choosing to serve God over parishioners, Banyon leaves pastoral duties for a ministry of a different kind. Close Encounters guaranteed.
All of the central characters lives are tied together harmoniously with careful blending of romance, action and intrigue. The conversations, nuances and emotions of the literary figures are realistic.
I don’t want to spoil the twists and turns of the book nor the dramatic conclusion but Terry James’ ‘The Rapture Dialogues’ has a chilling double meaning to the word RAPTURE.
This book is fun and frightening from cover to cover. ‘The Rapture Dialogues’ is yet another end times fictional novel that you will want on your bookshelf next to Horn and Marzulli (and others). I highly recommend ‘The Rapture Dialogues’ and I strongly hope for a sequel (or another top secret dossier).
Tom Horn’s ‘The Ahriman Gate’ and Lynn Marzulli’s ‘Nephilim Trilogy’ both tackle the UFO/ nephilim phenomenon with breathtaking, creative writing skills. Their outstanding books read like full blown, guns blazing, pedal to the metal, action movies. Horn and Marzulli’s similar writing styles are very visual.
By contrast, Terry James’ fictional ‘The Rapture Dialogues: Dark Dimension’ reads like a documentary piece. James achieves this effect by deftly incorporating real historical dates and events with fiction and nonfiction characters. He does a spectacular job pulling this off. At times, I felt as if I had broken the seal on a top secret dossier and was perusing transcripts of conversations held by key government officials in classified meetings. It’s that convincing.
I never thought I’d see the late President Lyndon Johnson leap out from the pages in an uncanny representation, sans the unnecessary colorful language often espoused by the President.
The Rapture Dialogues’ begins in 1947 with a young boy walking beside a series of caves in the Qumran region. I recognized this as the factual unfolding of events that led to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. In fact, it reminded me of the opening scene of Dr. Ken Hanson’s non-fiction account of the Scrolls in his excellent book.
This is the beauty of the author’s official looking novel- it melds the real with the creative seamlessly.
Twenty years after this initial discovery, our story heats up with the unusual life of Marines Captain Mark Lansing. Mark’s father, Clark, disappeared years before when two unidentified flying disks appeared above his airplane. This is way off subject but I’m wondering what the grandfather’s name was, as there are not too many names that end in A-R-K (Hark?).
Lansing tracks down Col. James Morgan, who was flying in the same plane when Clark vanished. It seems that Morgan has been sleepwalking and muttering in an eerie, guttural Greek and Hebrew dialect since the baffling incident in the sky.
Meanwhile, Rev. Christopher Banyon has felt a prompting to explore the strange world of dark entities at work on planet Earth. Choosing to serve God over parishioners, Banyon leaves pastoral duties for a ministry of a different kind. Close Encounters guaranteed.
All of the central characters lives are tied together harmoniously with careful blending of romance, action and intrigue. The conversations, nuances and emotions of the literary figures are realistic.
I don’t want to spoil the twists and turns of the book nor the dramatic conclusion but Terry James’ ‘The Rapture Dialogues’ has a chilling double meaning to the word RAPTURE.
This book is fun and frightening from cover to cover. ‘The Rapture Dialogues’ is yet another end times fictional novel that you will want on your bookshelf next to Horn and Marzulli (and others). I highly recommend ‘The Rapture Dialogues’ and I strongly hope for a sequel (or another top secret dossier).
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