Comes a Horseman
$1.86
- ISBN13: 9781595542298
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
The ancients saw Death as a blazing figure on horseback, swift and merciless. Those facing the black chasm often mistook their pounding hearts for the beating of hooves.Now, two FBI agents pursuing a killer from a centuries-old cult realize they have become his prey…. More >>
Book starts ambitious and it is thrilling at times. But concept doesn’t seem as deep as Davinci, but sure it would be better Movie than Davinci.
Rating: 3 / 5
Robert Liparulo
Westbow Press
ISBN 0-7852-6176-1
Comes A Horseman
Reviewer: Shelly Waxman for Bookpleasures.com
This book almost qualifies as NewPulp fiction, the requirements of which are related at http://www.newpulp.net . It doesn’t have any sex and it is too long and complex. But with these and other shortcomings, it is still a good, exciting and worthwhile book in the action/suspense genre.
The complex plot revolves around two rogue FBI agents (man and woman) who find themselves involved in a weird and bizarre non-stop action in a quest to find an imposter Anti-Christ and the cult that backs him. He is a murderer, who kills all who get in his way.
The duo needs to kill the Anti-Christ in order to save themselves and humanity. They have also been falsely accused of murder themselves and are being hunted by their own FBI.
It is an exciting romp and we are treated to a literate travelogue through Rome and Jerusalem, learning many things. It is action filled and the reader is on a non-stop roller coaster ride. Because it is so fast-paced one is only slightly put-off when something totally unrealistic comes up. The mind quickly skips these parts to continue on with the quest.
The story could be called incredible but the way the world is anything is possible. Anyway it is fiction. The protagonists get beat up pretty bad, but that doesn’t stop them. It would you or me. The battle scenes are a little overdone and sometimes difficult to follow.
The length of the book (478 pages) was a put-off for me. I realize that many publishers have required a certain word count and writers have to conform to it. But I believe a book is finished when it is finished and it should be done without word padding. This book could easily have dropped a hundred pages and the reader would be left at the end exhausted and excited. I found myself losing interest toward the end-enough is enough. There is too much detail, such as the unnecessary explanation on p. 299 of how a phony gun silencer was made.
Still, it is a compelling, clever, fantastic book and worthwhile read with literate writing and it is well researched. The author has ingeniously put together a real thriller and he has kept it together without flaws. It has many elements of Sci-Fi in it. The dialogue is excellent.
The ARC I received could use some corrections. First of all, the word “arcing” is overused and other typos, as follows:
At p. 118, top paragraph-”case” should be “cause”.
303, top line-”an” should be “a”.
427, third line-after “keep” should be “it”.
464, mid page-”yell” should be “yelled”.
The book title really has little connection to the book. It is tangential. The painting, “Rider On A Pale Horse” by Blake hooks up with the Book of Revelations-therefore, the Anti-Christ and the secret cult??
Rating: 4 / 5
This book started out as a scary thriller/mystery but slowed down considerably in the last half. The two FBI investigators become almost inept at the end and unbelievably survive. The author seemed to have lost focus and was writing more for a movie script than maintaining the tension. I couldn’t tell if he was writing about a conspiracy, murder investigation or religious dogma. It is a fair read, but I’d wait for the paperback.
Rating: 4 / 5
This book is interesting to read, suspenseful, but sometimes trite. I enjoyed it but did grow impatient with the contrived “just in time” saves that grew more common as the book progressed. If you are looking for an entertaining read and are willing to suspend belief, this book is a good way to spend the afternoon. If you insist on tight writing and something that is totally plausible, this book isn’t for you. The meta-message of good versus evil, with the Catholic Church as good, was there, but not terribly intrusive. I did at times wonder if the author had been reading too many Vatican press releases. Bottom line: an entertaining but not spectacular book.
Rating: 3 / 5
Do you remember the last scene of that famous Alfred Hitchcock movie, North by Northwest, when Eva Marie Saint is getting ready to fall off of one of the presidential faces and die–and the next thing you know the scene shifts from Cary Grant trying to pull her up to save her life to him pulling her up into a sleeper on a train for some hanky panky. I thought of this movie’s end as I was reading the end of Comes a Horseman. I really liked the book, even though I thought it bogged down a little during the story, but the end is why I gave it only 4 stars. It seems to me, and I do read a lot of modern fiction, that the authors of these books do really great, and then they seem to get tired (pressure from their publisher?) and finish in a real hurry. Still, I can’t wait for Mr. Lipaulo’s next book.
Rating: 4 / 5