Customer Reviews

The Devil's Apocrypha: There are two sides to every story

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

I almost didn't make it past the third chapter. Certain conventions - "lost" manuscript, quest for mysterious prophetic chroniclers blah blah blah - and the forced Elizabethan writing style were almost too hackneyed to get past.

But, I paid for the darned thing, so I decided to stick with it.

And it got better, in later chapters. I liked the Chapter of Philosophies for its rationalistic take on the Beatitudes. I would really have liked an expanded treatment of the relationship between Pharoah and Moses, and more on the relationship between Jesus and the-rest-of-God (it was a bit like Kazantzakis-light, here and showed real promise; alas, abandoned too quickly). When De Vito writes characters with conflicts and emotions, and allows them a bit of actual character development, he does well. It just seems like he hadn't decided what kind of book to write here, before he actually started typing.

In the end, literally, it disappointed. I suppose a book purporting to be prophecy of the end-times can't get too specific, but the conclusion was really unsatisfying.

So, 3 stars for some nice speculation on the motivations and struggles of some well-known characters. No more than three stars because of the trite packaging and tonal inconsistencies.

First of all, what disappointed me most in this book, is the quality of writing. The entire book is written in the language of an average high school student. In addition to that, it is based on generally known stories from the bible, "popular science", and some history that you would learn in 10th grade. For a book that is getting such high reviews I really expected the authour to have done some genuine research and brought forth some insight that you don't find in online forums.
Also, references to "science" that appear throughout the book really annoyed me. I just expected that a book that claims to have been written by Satan himself, would incorporate more than just "Discovery Channel" level of science.
Finally, there is really nothing in that book that an educated person would not already know. Hence, short of pouring a lot of dirt on Christianity, this book accomplishes very little.

I ended up getting this because it seemed rather intriguing. I really enjoyed "To Reign in Hell" by Steven Brust and I thought maybe this would be on similar lines. I was sort of confused at first when I was reading through this book, mainly in terms of if this was fantasy or if the author actually thought all of this was real? Personally, I think its fantasy, but I don't know about it because he goes through lengths to actually include pictures of these ancient and lost manuscripts. So maybe he is trying to tell the world something?

Basically this book deals with the finding of a lost manuscript in Italy, supposedly found in an old house that was in the author's family. It recounts the meeting of a man and Lucifer. Basically Lucifer tells the man the true story of what happened and basically says that everything that was passed down in the Bible was a lie or twisted in some fashion. Lucifer isn't the real enemy of our souls, but it is in fact the deity a lot of people worship in Christ/God. The story is actually pretty interesting, but sorely suffers from the lack of having an editor go over the material. This book mostly had me until it started delving into the alien theory, where God has left this planet and is now mounting an army on another, it reminded me quite a bit of some story line concepts from Area 51 by Robert Doherty. However, I found the inter-dimensional beings saying they are Gods/Angels a far more plausible concept to stomach. Overall it's a very ambitious story and I really did enjoy reading it, because its concepts are very close to my own. I do like how the author took Biblical passages and then told the story from another point of view; it's something we certainly don't get from the Bible. Whether this is told from the point of view of someone who thinks it's real, or from fantasy, I still found the tales enjoyable and I liked their twist on things.

On a philosophical note, I have to completely agree with this books core concept. Now I'm no devil worshipper by any means, but the demonizing of the Bible did make sense. This book certainly didn't convince, nor was this a revelation to me; I concluded these things a long time ago. I know there will be many that might say my soul requires saving after reading this, but this books premise is true and I cannot deny the possibility. After all the premise of their "devil" seems to be based on a being coming in the guise of something wonderful and beautiful, but instead wreaks complete havoc on the Earth and ruins people's lives. Has this not happened because of worshippers of these religions that profess love for thy neighbor? I simply cannot deny the reality of the situation and if you are a like minded individual and enjoy fantasy/science fiction this book might be quite a breath of fresh air for us that oppose. I have to give this an extra star simply for its bold move in this light for I quite enjoyed how it painted a reality so close to our own.

For a self published book that probably had little in the way of professional editing, this work has a tight narrative, an intriguing premise and an easy to grasp structure. Taking the most well know book in the world, the Christian Bible, and retelling it from the losing party's point of view, we get some of the worlds most well known tales with a fascinating twist.

Starting out in another universe on the brink of destruction, the inhabitants of that dimension flee to our universe to survive. Finding nothing here, they create the world for a singular purposse. They need the power of faith to sustain them. This order of powerful beings splits when one (Lucifer) rebels against manipulating the forthcoming humans into becoming repositories of faith. They are hurled to the center of the earth for their efforts. (This event becomes the meteor that destroyed the dinosaurs.) Thus begins the twists on the traditional Bible stories all told from Satan's point of view. Satan/Lucifer may not be such a bad guy after all. The book goes beyond the end of the Bible and winds up with Satan meeting with an ancestor of Martin Luther, eventually provoking the reformation.

The author has chosen a neo-Shakespearean King James style of English to narrate his "recovered manuscript" that can be a bit difficult to get through initially. The concepts and story are strong enough to overcome this and you will find it adds to the overall experience. The book is short enough to read quickly and get the full impact of this remarkable premise. Go for it!

The basic idea behind this book was to replace the muddled mess of immorality, inconsistencies, and contradictions found in the Bible with something that makes a little more sense.

And if you can suffer through it long enough to tell, the author does succeed to some small degree -- not that that is really saying very much.

I'm sorry to say it, but for the most part this book is just downright boring. For example, was it really necessary to emulate language found in the KJV ("As Ye have spoken..." etc.) throughout the book? I can only guess this was done to make the book "look" more authentic. But not only does this style make the book a tedious read for the modern reader, it actually makes the tale _less_ convincing, I think.

However, I suspect the worst thing about this book may be that because of the way the story is presented, a few misguided souls will take it seriously (as appears to be the case from reading reviews here); when in fact it's just a _story_ more consistent with our modern sensibilities, but with no more basis in reality than the Bible has.

I'm giving this book two stars because it does a decent job of pointing out the Bible's moral bankruptcy. But there are many other places to discover that simple fact, all of which require a lot less effort on the reader's part.

I've always felt a book of this nature needed to be written, as it is definitely true that there are two sides to every story. However, this wasn't how I envisioned it to be. I'm not religious so I have no hang-ups to prevent me from enjoying this in a neutral sort of way, but occasionally I found myself rolling my eyes at some of the passages.
It is more or less a retelling of certain biblical books (Genesis, Exodus, and some New Testament) but with certain thematic twists in the plot. Some of it is quite clever (the use of the term "Black Mass" in a non-Satanic context for example) but other parts require some serious suspension of disbelief or you may find yourself thinking "Oh, come ON!" I cracked a smile here and there at some of the more ludicrous statements made within, but those were few and far between.
It seems that this tome--broken up into "books" and not chapters--really has the "Book of Philosophies" as its centerpiece. This is basically a shopping list of almost Buddhist-like ethics and behavioral patterns which are recommended by Satan, as told by him to Cain, believe it or not.
Particularly intriguing is the concept of Jesus and his "coven".
Overall an admirable attempt at a long overdue story.

In a universe separated from this one by time and space some sentient beings evolved so far that they left their material bodies behind. The came from different planets, some are even a collective mind and they speak to each other and contemplate many subjects. One day Lucifer tells He Who Is Three that he senses a change in the universe and the being that is three-in-one discovers that their universe is dying and he doesn't want to die with it.

Using their combined mental energy they open a portal into this universe and their entry ignited the big bang. Planets and stars, light and dark came into being. Eventually a special planet formed and those sentient creatures created a creature who worship them for their prayers are fuel that is needed to keep them alive. When Lucifer objected to using man as sheep, they entombed him and his followers to stop them from revealing to man that they can transcend the material realm if allowed free will. Millennium later a priest was directed by Lucifer to find the tablets of the three mad prophets if he wanted to learn the true purpose of man ant to warn the world what they face.

John A. De Vito's premise for this book is a very clever one based on the concept that history is written by the winners so the loser Lucifer is cast as the evil serpent whose sole purpose is to tempt man into the sin. The Apocrypha is Lucifer's story told from his point of view from the birth of our universe to the teachings of Martin Luther. This is a very imaginative colorful science fiction tale that shocks the audience with its suppositions and historical interpetations.

Harriet Klausner

I suppose those who have a big chip on their shoulder against traditional monotheistic religion are the primary audience for this one (and the author said that he doubts "religious fanatics" will even make it past the first chapter).

As a Christian, yes, I had philosophical problems with the message of the book. I did, however, read it through, and did find the story to be clever, though not as original as others claim. The "God is really evil, his enemies really good" trope is very old in science fiction/fantasy, and this one is not the best take on it I've seen. Its gimmick is its pseudo-Biblical language, which, honestly, is a pretty poor imitation. The book seems to have had fairly poor editing in this edition, and I found the ungrammatical and awkward thou's and thee's and hath's very annoying by the end of the book.

The book does best when it sticks to the often dramatic and clever twists on the plot of the Bible story. When it gets preachy, it becomes as annoying and hard to stomach for me as I suppose Christian literature is hard to stomach for hardcore atheists. The chapter that's nothing but a series of unpoetic platitudes descrbing the author's ethical and political beliefs bugged me, and I was really turned off by the chapter of "prophecy" at the end which shoehorned Hitler and Muslim terrorism into the scope of the story.

An okay read, a nice mythology for radical atheist/humanists, but not superb literature and yes, tough slog for anyone who disagrees with the author.

A great idea, but it could have been as good as any of Dan Brown's books with some work shopping and professional look.

The material is there to have a great historical thriller: a man has a vision that tells him to find the 3 parts of a gospel and ordered to go forth and find them. What a tale that telling would be, perhaps hounded and followed by the Religious Right that doesn't want him to find them. Then a scene with some immediacy as he finds each of the three and the last one dies before he learns all he must! And he has to understand what these gospels are saying.

Instead that man easily finds all three parts and when the third person dies before he gets the last of the gospel, that part is literally handed to him by someone who knocks on his door! No suspense.

And to lower suspense even more, the book is put to print by the supposed current-day grandson of the man who did found these gospels.

And the fantastic suspense could be drawn out by him having to have someone help him understand the gospels, comparing them to the Bible and implying what the difference means.

Or, if the gospels were really all from Lucifer's view point, instead of omniscient.

As it is, the gospels are 3/4 of the book and not fast reading, nor as beautifully written as the Bible. It has all the pronouns referring to all the deities capitalized which makes you pause. Trying to compare the writing as in the book with your memory of the Bible (and mine is good) makes it slow reading.

And the ending is such a let down!

The writing itself needed a few more passes to even up the writing. Some parts are fairly well done and could have been great; most are acceptable and could have been brought up to at least good.

Now for some nitpicking.

I mentioned the capitalized letters above. Any line editor would have said to kill these. Maybe they did and he ignored the advise. Any book editor would have insisted these not be capitalized because it implies that the teller of the story, Satan supposedly, thinks that they are gods.

The Thee and Thou is way overused. It has its place, but not as used.

If there were line editors, they missed a bunch of errors.

I love his answer to some of the Bible's unanswered questions and inconsistencies. The ideas are great, but the book could have been really great with more work.

Self publishing is the rave, why pay an agent 10-20% of your royalty, when you can have it all? Why wait 2 years for your book to come out from a main stream book club, when it can come out in 90days?

Most of the time, I agree. But this is a book that would have be benefitted greatly from the reviews and suggestions made during that process. As it is, he published with iUniverse/Writers Club Press.

I'm sure he's made a good bit of money. He could have made ten times more, net to him after agent fees.

I had previously read "I, Lucifer," and enjoyed the story about Satan's fall from grace, as told by Lucifer himself. After finishing "I, Lucifer," I was anxious to read another book along the same vein, so I purchased "The Devil's Apocrypha." What a disappointment. This book is basically a re-telling of certain Bible stories where the saints of old are nothing but a bunch of simple minded buffons who are hateful and bloodthirsty. The author has simply given Lucifer the attributes God is supposed to have (except for being all powerful) and gave god the characteristics of Satan (except here, Satan is the wisest of beings). There was nothing original nor very interesting in the book.

Wm. Powell