Customer Reviews

The Event

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A Review: The Event
Author: Gene Frechin
ISBN: 1-4137-8011-3

Occasionally one comes across a book that truly engages the mind of a reader. At times a book will engage one to the extent that not only do you not want to put it down, but the content causes physical things to happen inside of you while you're reading. The Event was like that for me-it was an experience. It was not merely reading a novel.
Mr. Frechin writes in a style that to me is clearly a man's style-no getting around that, but one that anyone would enjoy. I prefer his style and have seen it rarely. The first person account is maintained throughout the upwards of what must be a 150,000 word novel (I mention that here because there is another pertinent reason that appears in this review) and keeps it on course. Third person is used for other characters that are added as time and developments take you on a post apocalyptic journey into some very heady human behavior and motivation issues before the final battle between good and evil.
The author takes you on an adventure-and fantasy of a kind-of what it could be like if the world suddenly changed and relatively few people were left to carry on life. What he writes, he writes credibly, sometimes he's tough, but he's real in this scenario all the time. The intrigue, tension, and excitement does not falter or slow down. His use of the language does not even come close to seeming redundant. It is crisp, clear, and realistic-somehow he manages to make every dialog, thought, interaction and every chapter fresh and new. These traits hold up through the entire text, an epic dreamscape of biblical proportions.
Mr. Frechin builds the story and brings the reader into the world one can only imagine and as forces from the spiritual realm-perhaps from inside each of us-a complex allegory of haunting human inner conflicts emerge-as major conflicts and challenges are faced to survive. He has sufficiently and expertly simplified a number of human elements to tell a great story.
To sum my impressions of this work: When the aging veteran battles the "Father," I felt nerves in my spine running up and down. That doesn't happen for me very often.
I recommend the book. It's not merely interesting, it's a gutsy adventure.

Andrew Huddleston