10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Well told and engaging tale of the near future., September 9, 2004
This review is from: A Form of Godliness (Paperback)
This is an excellent book and is set in the near future. Matthew Bridger is President of the United States and he faces many severe situations. Terrorist strikes have killed thousands of US citizens on US soil. International stress is huge, and suddenly oil supplies are disrupted. Politicians are moving against the president. How will President Bridger deal with this? Interweaved and well told is the story about Bryson Lawe a Secret Service Agent. Exciting story lines and very believable situations. Superb secondary characters. Some of the cast of characters are sinister and the supernatural elements are well done by Johnson. One character, Randall Sullivan believes that after he survives a terrorist attack he can now communicate with the dead, but just who is in control in these encounters? In some ways "A Form of Godliness" is written in the same genre as "1984" or "Brave New World" in that Shane Johnson looks at current situations and follows them to their logical and unnerving conclusions. The descriptions of events and the detailed way Johnson writes paints vivid and thought provoking images. Johnson also has great dialogue and the story flows smoothly. I had trouble putting the book down. The cliff hanger ending leaves me eagerly awaiting Shane Johnson's next book!
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A glimpse into the future? God help us., November 29, 2004
This review is from: A Form of Godliness (Paperback)
Imagine a perfect world, where school children are completely healthy, churches offer unconditional love, acceptance and hope, and long-dreaded diseases have been conquered. Such is the situation as A FORM OF GODLINESS opens. Yet if you take the time to look beneath this benevolent surface, something dark and horrifying exists.
In this world, drastically changed long after 9/11, we meet Matthew Bridger, Christian President of the United States, Bryson Lawe, Secret Service agent assigned to the President, and Karen Foley, Christian activist. Despite increasing pressure, President Bridger steadfastly refuses to succumb to threats and pressures by those forces determined to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. Bridger knows what happens to those who oppose the Jewish nation, recalling the fate of the Philistines, Babylon, Assyria, Rome, and Nazi Germany-all determined to annihilate the Jews.
An oil embargo forces the United States to tap its own limited resources and rationing, angering the American citizens. This puts increasing pressure on the U.S. to withdraw its support of Israel. And the threat of nuclear war is an ever-present dangling sword.
Karen is hired at Sacred Child, an organization dedicated to the preservation and sanctity of life. When she discovers the horrible truth behind the benevolent façade of Life Quality, an organization diametrically opposed to everything Sacred Child stands for, despite all their lofty claims, Karen is determined to do whatever it takes to shut them down. But the cost of such opposition is high. Perhaps too high.
I found this book to be frighteningly real, and all too plausible. It is well-written, plot and character well developed. Even though set in the-perhaps not too distant-future it rings so true and the stage could very well be setting up right now. The world, the America, of this book has no room for God. His name has been removed from all currency, public places, the Pledge of Allegiance...sound familiar? Yet Christians continue to struggle against the forces of evil. But will it be enough?
A FORM OF GODLINESS should be read by every American. It is a glimpse into what is in store for us in America and around the world if we continue down the path we're headed.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An honest look at a possible future., November 27, 2004
This review is from: A Form of Godliness (Paperback)
First off, the only problems I had with the book were keeping the multitude of characters straight in my mind. Otherwise, it was a very honest look at the growing problems in the Middle East and the U.S. It shows the harsh reality of the ideology behind Islamic fanaticism. This is not Arabs, per se, as not all Arabic people are Islamic. As in all religions, there are people who consider themselves muslims who don't hold fast to their religion's ideology, but have their own, altered version of the religion. One such couple is also a part of the novel.
The moral and spiritual degradation of the U.S. is also a large theme of the novel and reflects well a possible outcome of our moral decline as a nation. It is truly frightening, even more so than the terrorists, in some ways.
After the escalating terrorist attacks on Israel, they finally respond to the religious enemy who seeks their annihilation, by using a nuclear response. Previously, a terrorist nuke was set off in the U.S., showing that the terrorists had access to those weapons now and would not hesitate to use them. The nuclear response is not shown as perfectly okay, but is shown as an act of Israel's national defense against the religious forces that seek their destruction.
The terrorists and those who support them will, of course, hate this novel for revealing the truth of their agenda. And they will also hate how Israel finally strikes back at them in the novel. This general theme is all laid out in prophecy and is now coming to pass. Mr. Johnson's novel is a vision of how this could possibly play out, and is also about the deepening spiritual and moral blindness of the U.S. It should serve as a wake-up call to all of us.
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