Customer Reviews

Alpha, Omega

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A friend recently gave me a copy of two novels by Lori Stephens -- both "Deep Structure" (DS) and "Alpha Omega" (AO).

I started with DS, where the principle character Gatsby Donovan is introduced, along with her friend and practicing psychologist, Celia Devereaux. While I don't wish to offer comments on DS here, I found it to be an engaging book, a fast read and interesting from a scientific and technical perspective. I think one has to hand it to Stephens, she seems to have done her homework, when it comes to understanding, say, how a PET scanner actually works. That lent credibility to her work and increased my interest in it.

Having read DS, picking up AO was like meeting up with a good friend. But early in the book, I had the sense that Gatsby was in for a more intense -- and dangerous -- adventure. I was not wrong and I was not disappointed. I didn't read the book in a single sitting, but it wasn't more than three or four either. I liked the fact that Stephens kept her chapters relatively short; that helped me to better understand the interesting and dynamic interplay of the characters in the book.

My personal philosophy is not one that admits the possibility of the supernatural, and thank God, AO didn't try to take me down that path. It did, however, take me into an interesting world where the power of language to influence behavior at a very deep level was explored. While the book is definitely fiction, I had the sense that Stephens was sharing what must have been years of study and interest in this subject.

Bottom line, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and I don't hesitate to recommend it to anyone who wishes to begin contemplating the role of language in shaping behavior, while being wonderfully entertained at the same time.

I love the way Lori Stephen's brought the characters to life. A facinating glipse into the world of a fanatical and mesmeric religous group and the science that uncovers their mysteries...

Alpha Omega
Review by Decia Rowland, PhD, Scholar of Religion
Cults have never been good news for the religions they parallel. Evil fairly drips from this story of a PTSS victim who now must face her boogeyman again as a scientist-detective delving into the religious psyche of the Omega group. I read this book in one sitting, convinced that as a believer, I would find something to roar about in Ms. Stephens' gripping portrayal of a nasty man and his nasty companions. Nothing good could come out of self-serving religion, the author seems to say. But I was caught by the emotional struggle of her two protagonists to create a real relationship, in the rawness of the present, in the hope of something honest. While The Da Vinci Code asks the question, "Is our eschatological symbol for goodness who we think he is?" Alpha Omega asks "Come on now, what does it really mean to be human?"

Alpha, Omega
Review by Katy McElroy
Can you trust what you read? In this thrilling adventure, Lori Stephens explores the potential language has to influence our beliefs and actions, and how dangerous the knowledge of this potential can be in the wrong hands. When a strange book is connected with a grisly murder, Gatsby Donovan is selected to help decode its cryptic language. But as she deciphers the strange syllables, she discovers that there is much more to this text than just the words on the pages--and even she may not be able to resist its power. Alpha, Omega will keep you on the edge of your seat as you follow Gatsby along the path of an investigation which soon consumes her life, ultimately forcing her to confront her own hidden, painful past.