In the last few weeks I have acquired several books at Walgreens. Although I frequently bring books from our home collection, I also frequently finish them on the bus, the T, or during my lunch hour –it’s not like I’m reading anything of substance.
I really should know better than to pick up reading at Walgreens. They are on the same shelf as the bodice-rippers and chick-lit (and other things I usually avoid). None of the books I’ve read recently have merited being mentioned, but at the same time, I feel the need to warn others who might venture to Walgreens in search of reading.
Don’t do it.
In the interest of the greater public good, I will expose my poor literary choices so you don’t accidently pick up one of these books.
The Top 4 Bad Choices (in no particular order) are as follows:
1) Babylon Rising: The Secret on Ararat is awful. The first half makes no attempt to tone down the Evangelist Christian overtones, while in the second half, the Christianity takes a back seat while the members of the team are picked off by one of their own.
The idea is that a Evangelist Christian Professor goes searching for Noah’s Arc, but the CIA and other covert groups don’t want him to find it. There is also a shady group that is working together to bring the Anti-Christ back.
The book is lace with biblical trivia, and decidedly one-sided religious debate. I’m not the hugest fan of a fiction novel that essentially tells me I’m headed hellward because I disagree with the main character’s religious take on things.
2) The Templar Legacy is also awful. Chasing around France searching for hidden Templar treasures, it is “hard to put down” (because there are no good stopping places). The crazed Templar leader is searching for The Great Devise which will help launch the Templars back into mainstream power (instead of living in a monastery in the middle of no where.)
The Great Devise turns out to be the bones of Jesus and Simon’s (Peter) gospel (conveniently translated into Latin from the original Aramaic ). Jesus died on the Cross, but Simon and a few others “resurrected” his memory and his message.
Should this information be released to the public?
They never answer the big questions: Does it really matter? Can they really prove it? Are people really going to believe them? What are they trying to really prove, and, most importantly, WHY SHOULD I CARE?
3) The Romanov Prophecy was another terrible book. Why would the Russians want to bring back a Tsar? I can’t see it happening.
The novel relates the adventures of Miles Lord, an African-American lawyer in a post-communist Russia on finding the descendants of Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia and Tsarevich Alexei of Russia, who were thought to survive the massacre that took their family’s lives.
After weak governments and the communist era, the Russian people voted to bring back the new tsar, who will be chosen among the most closest relative of Nicholas II from the surviving Romanov clans. Miles Lord, our protagonist, is tasked to do a background check on the most favorite contender when he was almost assasinated in a plaza. Now Miles is racing across countries and continents, trying to find the direct descendant of Tsar Nicholas II and who with only a vision from Rasputin to guide him..
The Wiki is almost as muddled and bizarre as the book itself. I usually like Communists, conspiracies and action. This fell flat.
4) Deep Black: Jihad took on the terrorists and lost, badly. They captured an Al Queda operative and “bugged” him with a listening device behind his ear. The Deep Black team, working with the CIA followed him around, and tried to learn what they were planning next.
The entire book was confusing, hard to follow, and just plain weird.
I would give none of these books any more than 1 star, maybe 1 1/2, but I think that’s a little too generous.
