From: mueller@owlnet.rice.edu (Ernest Conrad Mueller)
Subject: Peretti's Stuff (Prophet Spoiler)
Keywords: Spoiler!
Organization: Rice University
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1992 18:21:59 GMT

I have read all three of Peretti's books.  Into the Darkness was pretty
good, and the angels/demons interacting in normal life was interesting.
I disliked Piercing the Darkness, but probably only because I read
it second, and the two books are essentially identical.  When I talked
about them with others who had read them both, there was continual 
confusion over what happened in which book because the events and even
the characters were the same.  It would seem to me that reading PTD
without having read ITD would be confusing because of the lack of
characterization of the characters from PTD - it seems to assume you
read ITD and know about them.
Before I had read them, I was a little put off by some people who had and
took them as sound theological advice and were seeing their lives in terms
of the supernatural stuff in the book.  This I did and still do view
as a little insane.  However if you read them for enjoyment only and
can distinguish fact from fiction, I reccommend ITD (but not PTD).


Prophet spoiler follows...
^L
I was glad he decided on a new tack for his third book - another
"Generic Phrase the Darkness" type book would have been very hard to
justify to me without a severe change of style.

Prophet I found to have good and bad points.  The good is that the idea
of a modern-day prophet is interesting.  He apparently did a lot of
research on the news industry for the book and wasn't just faking it.
Also I felt it was courageous to use a "not everything turns out OK
in the end" ending - mass market Christian paperback is not known for
its tolerance of such things.

But the bad, IMHO, overshadows the good.

What bad?  First of all, Peretti's characterization stinks.  In the 
Darkness books it was not as noticeable because the overlay of angels
and demons gave everything a more polarized, absolute-good-vs-total-evil
slant.  Without this crutch, the casting of characters into the
"totally good and brave and going to become Christian in the end" and
the "totally evil, screwed up lives, gonna get theirs by the end of the book"
camps is unjustifiable and wooden.  The "good reporters" were always
unerring in the search for truth, the "bad reporter and bad politician" were
without fail trying to screw the good ones over, not always for any 
reason, but just because they were "bad."  

And then in comes the abortion theme (the only major theme of the work,
except for the "will the hero accept God?" theme which was predestined
from the first chapter).  It was so omnipresent as to be boring, and
it was artificially woven into the plot in so many ways it was ridiculous.
Not *only* does a girl get killed in an abortion clinic, but *also* the 
Senator's daughter gets one and *also* the "bad reporter" is just bad
because she suffers mental anguish from *her* abortion.  This is what
we refer to in literature as "laying it on thick."  *All* those in the
book who have had an abortion are mentally traumatized.  And of course,
the "pro-abortion" Senator has no problem with getting annoying people
killed off.

Judged impartially as any other novel, Prophet is poorly written.

Judged with ideology in mind, it seems unlikely to affect anything.  No
pro-choice person would read it past the first chapter.  Few non-Christians
would.  Its distribution is likely to be limited only to pro-life
Christians who will nod along righteously with the morals, and perhaps
spur some of these into greater action, but in terms of stimulating
thought or change ranks around the comic strip Nancy.

I am not being harsh for the sake of it.  However I do not think that
a book's moral points are in any way an excuse for bad writing.  I feel that
such things only serve to hurt the cause they advance, and truly, this
book is written to advance a cause.  

Perhaps the biggest moral problem I see in this book is that it says
"Pro-choice people are a lot of totally screwed up, murderous people."
It makes it harder to "Love thy enemy," as it were.

Be warned, my literary standards are set pretty high - since I was a kid
I've done nothing but read.  There's not much I haven't read, and so I
am pretty picky about what I consider decent literature.

Ratings: 1-10, 7-10 highly reccommneded, 5-6 OK to buy and read,
	       3-4  read in doctor's office or if bored, 1-2 just say no.

Into the Darkness rating: 5
Piercing the Darkness rating: 4
Prophet rating: 2
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU