3 stars, Metaphorosis Reviews

Summary:
In the heart of the Holy Land, ancient prophecies begin to come true. But whose prophecies, exactly, and to whose benefit?

Review:
I enjoy Harry Turtledove’s writing, though I’m not really a fan of the alternate history niche that he’s claimed as his particular specialty. Here, he’s strayed from the SFF field into what’s more of a religion-heavy pop thriller with supernatural overtones. It’s a quick, smooth read with strong characters, but it didn’t win me over.

The book is largely set in Jerusalem, and Turtledove does what I imagine he thinks is a painstaking job of presenting all viewpoints fairly. Unfortunately, he doesn’t really pull it off, and the Palestinians get short shrift, coming off as only slightly rounded villains. Most writers do worse, so I suppose we should be thankful that he tried at least, but that’s faint praise. Gender issues don’t always fare better, and while it’s possible to attribute some of these to character viewpoint, the story would have been fine without them. There’s also a tendency to believe that anyone who’s served in the military (especially the Israeli military) is and always will be a noble killing machine. In short, while I don’t know anything at all about Turtledove’s politics, the book fits comfortably in moderate right of center perspective. There’s nothing wrong with that per se, but because of nature of the book, the thin presentation of the Palestinian case undermines the entire thing.

The supernatural elements come up mostly toward the end. Most of the book is taken up with an examination of the characters and the political and theological questions they face. To Turtledove’s credit, he faces the political questions head on (if not with perfect balance). That makes it all the more disappointing that he avoids all the theological questions he so carefully tees up. That the end of the book is a cop-out is putting it mildly. He brings us and his characters along with the promise of revelations to come, and then … vanishes into the air. And even then, only the three main Abrahamic religions are addressed. Atheists, Hindus, etc. aren’t involved.

It’s a disappointing book. Turtledove introduces interesting, engaging characters, but then does little with them. While he tries for balance, he doesn’t succeed. Where he raises interesting theological questions, he avoids them in the end. If you’re already to the right on Middle East issues, this book will confirm your views, and you might enjoy it. I can’t really recommend it to anyone else.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Religious and non-religious have contemplated what the end-times will entail for their parfticular belief system. The most famous recent attempt, complete with movies, were the Left Behind series of books. Turtledove writes with much better fluidity and realism than Lahaye and Jenkins ever hoped to achieve. The question to be addressed is how will the population react when miracles happen and prophesies are fulfilled? Either there is no God and everything is faked or one of the major religions is right. Or is there a third option? Starts slow but becomes a page turner. Would have liked to read Turtledove's take on what the Pope's reaction to all of these occurrences would be.

Another excellent effort by the king of What if's. Mr.Turtledove has gifted his readers with yet another compelling read filled with characters that are interesting and a plot that kept me up way too late!

I am a huge fan of alternative fiction so I was excited to read this book. Eric Katz, an archaeologist, discovers a religious relic that could change the course of history and the way people look at religion. The book got off on a slow start but it quickly picked up. I enjoyed this book and look forward to reading his other books.

Well, Harry managed to avoid some of his word-count-boosting habits in this book, which makes it much more pleasurable to read (or at least less annoying). The story is strange and wonderful in many ways.. It takes a gutsy SF writer to concoct a story in which the Jewish Messiah appears--the actual one. And the Muslim Mahdi. And Jesus. And Yahweh, who remains unseen but apparently relishes animal sacrifice as prescribed in Leviticus.

Among the quirky touches are a Messiah who is a typical gawky teenager, rebelling against his fanatical upbringing, lusting after the first real girl he meets, and irritated by an accumulation of ghostly souls that rise from the dead at his approach. And he doesn't do much in the way messiahing for the Chosen People. Same with the Mahdi and Jesus.

The story is engaging, unique, and warm in its treatment of religious characters who would be easy to parody. If there is a major flaw, it would have to be the ending, which is extremely ambiguous, both to the characters withing the story and to the reader. One has to wonder if this is a one-off, or the launch of another Turtledove multi-volume opus.

Alpha and Omega by Harry Turtledove. Harry Turtledove as always delivers another fun read. Prophecy is coming true and the End of Days is occuring...

An archeologist travels to Jerusalem to go on an archeological dig. What they find is a religious artefact that no one expected. This artefact brings the question which religion is the correct one, and the answer is most surprising to most people. I was impressed with the knowledge of the author on the many different languages and history of many different peoples. I learned a lot while reading about the different ethnicities covered in this book. A very good read!

Wow! What a great end-times book! Excellent writing by the author, I truly felt like I was watching the text play out!

What happens when an a team digging under the Temple Mount finds the Ark of the Covenant? How will this change the lives of the team, religious leaders from around the world, and a young boy forever? What happens when the same young boy stands up for his feelings and what he thinks is right?

If you love end-times fiction, this book is for you! Told from multiple perspectives (Jewish, Muslim, Christian, non-believing, secular) you are in the middle of all of the action.

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this work!

I'm ambivalent about Harry Turtledove's Alpha and Omega. I found it very interesting from a biblical and historical perspective and any book that can make me (an avowed agnostic) root aloud for God has to have something going for it. However, it was very loooong and dry, especially the first couple hundred pages, so that I found it difficult to force myself to keep reading and actually kept falling asleep. I didn't come to care about any of the characters which was strange in a book of this length. I had never before read any of Mr Turtledove's novels simply because I get confused about real history if I read alternate history novels (thanks a lot, Dan Brown). Based on my experience reading this one, I can't say I would be likely to read any more offerings by this author.

I have always enjoyed Turtledove's alternate history stories and books. This book was very different in that instead of being about a change history, it was about a possible change in the future. Specifically, it is about the religious End of Days. One thing that sets this apart from other End Days books is the perspectives. First, instead of Christian's being the focus (as in common in America), the majority of the book is about the Jewish coming of the Messiah and what is predicted to follow. Turtledove additionally doesn't rely on one group's view but instead offers the book from the viewpoints of members of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam... often using members with varying amounts of piety.

Without giving anything away, I fell I can say that Turtledove does a good job (as always) of considering the small consequences of his "historical"change along with the larger. Not being at all religious, some of the emotions in the book were flatter for me. Still it was a good read and an interesting departure for Turtledove.

When Netgalley offered the opportunity for me to read his upcoming book in exchange for an honest review, I appreciated the chance.

I could not put the book down. Turtledove has created another masterpiece. The book was spellbinding.

Very straightforward story about what the blurb says. Fairly ordinary characters, events proceed as expected, and if you're into this kind of thing then I'm not aware of a better place to go to get it. I've read some of Turtledove's alternate worlds book and this is more like what-if. If you're into the Third Temple stuff, here you go.

This is just the kind of book I love: a very strong sense of place, a bit of history, and an adventure that takes the story somewhere unexpected. I love when regular people get caught up in extraordinary circumstances (at least on the page, not IRL), and this was a thrill ride with plenty of depth, too.

No matter what one's religious beliefs (or non-beliefs) I thoroughly believe every single adult should read ALPHA AND OMEGA. I cannot remember a work of fiction that has had this much impact on me in the matter of religion and the psychology of religion and of Eschatology. I believe Harry Turtledove to be a genius. He has taken the religious, social, ingrained, ancestral, and contemporary beliefs of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and of various ethnicities espousing those beliefs (particularly throughout the Middle East and in the U.S.) and has created a tapestry that weaves the unbelievable, the believable, the matters strictly of faith, the matters of science, and the impossible, together and created a syncretic synthesis that is greater than the sum of its components.

In Jerusalem, members of a team of archaeologists (some Israeli, one an American secular Jew, one an Israeli Muslim) excavate below the Muslim Dome of the Rock, where Judaism believes the Second Temple to have been. What they discover issues in a book that is mind-exploding and spiritually uplifting and terrifying (simultaneously). I am definitely not the same reader I was before I read this book. I started it two evenings ago and have not been able to stop. It is making me examine who and what I am in a way that is life-changing.

I am familiar with Harry Turtledove's long, illustrious career in writing. This is only the second book of Turtledove's I've read; the other was 'Supervolcano:Eruption'. My feelings about that book are the same as my feelings about this book - boring.

Perhaps Turtledove's style is just not for me. All I know is that he has the ability to take such interesting, adventurous, impactful ideas as the eruption of Yellowstone or the Second Coming of Christ and make it as thrilling as reading tax law. The characters were flat, the action non-existent, and the concept treated like a bad movie from the SyFy Channel.