Customer Reviews

House of Gold

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This is the third novel I've read by Bud Macfarlane Jr. The two books that I recommend to read prior to House of Gold are Pierced by a Sword and Conceived Without Sin. If you are a Catholic or not, I believe the story in House of Gold is very impressive. The story deals with many difficult and personal issues. The solutions presented by Marfarlane are amazing. God is definitely the main focus in the novel. It's about people's conversions to God. It's beautifully written, and the emphasis on the Catholic Church is great and informative. In this particuliar novel, there is a huge journey and decision that the characters are presented with. There are four main characters dealt with in the novel. Buzz Woodward is a divorced alcoholic. He has been through many trials in life and he finds himself beginning a journey that is against the impossible odds. Sam and Ellie Fisk are married, and have a profound love for the Catholic Church. Everyone pictures them as the perfect couple, when in reality, evil is trying to tear them apart. Mark Johnson is a big, strong FBI agent. He detects a very dangerous technological problem, and wants to face it in the best possible way. God brings these characters together. Will they be able to overcome their trials..or will they fall into human weakness and become defeated? I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in adventure and excitement. Word of Warning: you won't be able to put the book down after page 300 or so.

When I first read this book I admit it frightened me. The book was published during the height of global Y2K anxiety and its basic story -- where various characters struggle to survive in a post-meltdown world with only their Faith to protect them -- might have actually been a premonition of things to come. In reading of Buzz's fight, for example, to return to his family in a world turned suddenly savage without the luxuries we take for granted, was especially heartbreaking.

Now, with the mental anguish past, I think back on this book and remember how real the story and characters were to me. In particular I sympathized with Ellie's pain as she struggled to hold fast to her Faith despite her inability to have children, something I do often. Despite the dissipation of our Y2K fears, House of Gold should remain a relevant book for our times. More than just a survival tale, it deals with issues important to us as Catholics, such as procreation and keeping the Faith in a faithless society. Besides, who knows when the light will truly go out?

Bud McFarlane has done it again with House of Gold. I recently re-read his latest book and found it even better the second time. It offers everything. There is pain and suffering, to be sure, but there is also love, compassion, and courage galore. This book can change the way you look at the world.

Bud uses the y2k computer bug as a literary device to further the action in this thriller. While we all know that Y2k proved to be a bust, this book is not. Regardless of whether or not the lights are still on, this book can move your soul.

If you've not read any of McFarlane's work, this is a great place to start. It can change your world. It did mine!

This is the third novel in four years by a man who never intended to be a novelist.
House of Gold depicts a world torn apart by the effects of the millennium bug, which sweep over the North American continent in a wave of chaos like Noah's flood, destroying civilisation as we know it, annihilating much of the evil in the world but also bringing terrible hardships to the survivors.
I read this book in 1999, just 5 months before the dreaded bug was due to hit, ad even though I did not take the dreaded bug seriously and thought the premise of this book was way over the top, I still found it a disturbing tale about what could happen if civilisation broke down.
House of Gold is many things: an adventure story, a cautionary tale, an incisive insight into human nature, a work of faith. The real subject of the novel is people: good and bad, saints and sinners, faithful and faithless. It is an adult novel, in the best sense of the term, immersing itself in the lives and deaths, the joys and sorrows, the moral difficulties and the spiritual successes of people facing enormous problems. It deals with the nature of sanctity, the strength of Catholic marriage, the triumph of good over evil in the most unlikely of circumstances, and the inability of a spiritually impoverished world to cope with catastrophic change. Ultimately it is the faithful Catholics who cope best with chaos because they carry their peace inside them.
Perhaps above everything, it is about the Christian response to suffering. The author reveals that he "asked Our Lady to give us a book that would help prepare any reader, Catholic or non-Catholic, for the Cross."
The style is colloquial and (for an Australian reader) very American, sometimes even clumsy, but compulsively readable, occasionally poetic, and filled with spiritual insights. Macfarlane has an excellent understanding of people, a good ear for dialogue and a great love for the Catholic Church.
House of Gold is not as good as his two earlier works, but it is a work of faith, a novel about a world in which fallible people with real strengths and weaknesses live out their Catholic beliefs, even under terrible difficulties, revealing their faith as a beacon to attract the wavering souls around them. And writing about such a world is surely a first step towards bringing it about.

These were Bud McFarlane, jr's words about his book House of Gold after we entered the year 2000. This book was published 1999, one year before the dreaded Y2K came into effect. And many of us were ready for the worst even without this book! Although we're currently in the "new" millenium, this is an intriguing and captivating book with a warning that everything we take for granted in this world can easily be taken away. The only flaw in House of Gold is that some of the language has a lot to be desired, so it's definitely not recommended for young kids.

A lot of the characters from Bud's previous book Conceived Without Sin are back. Buzz Woodward, the bighearted eccentric, has remarried and has 2 children. Sam and Ellie Fisk are also back and they seem to have it all together (economically, domestically, and spiritually). Mark Johnson has long reconciled himself to his family. The Man has reluctantly opened up his private life to his basketball buddy Buzz and put his faith in God.

But with the new millenium on the way (remember, this story begins in 1999), serious danger is predicted. Buzz does his best to help out his friends and his family. And it's going to take a miracle for this plan to be pulled off!

I could not put this book down. I loved the characters, and the plot, which lets us know what life might be like in American should the power grid ever get destroyed by a terrorist. Normally fiction is a "guilty pleasure" in which I rarely indulge, but I am glad I did. Not only is this a page turner, it will feed your spirit, and help you in your journey with Christ. I started rereading almost as soon as I was done!

What a book! I couldn't put it down. This book is a story of people in trouble. It's the only book that I have cryed when something bad happened. This is a very sad book with a happy ending. Can't what for Bud's fourth book!

Buzz's journey. Part 2 or 2 - the lights go out and lives are changed. God has a plan for all of us

Survivalism and Catholicism. Interesting. Well written, too! This is the sequel to 'Conceived Without Sin.' There is some information in this little tome on surviving the coming times, including showing those who let loose their inner-evil-selves when there is no law. There is much more Catholic information as the main characters all are Catholic. Gives you much to think about.

Pros:
Great detail, absolutely wonderful characters, very relevant topics (so long as you heed the author's advice and look passed the actual 'catastrophic event' to the real point/theme behind the 'preparations'), and oh-my-goodness heart-wrenching at times. I didn't cry (duh!) but man-oh-man there were some times... well... let's just say it wouldn't have been pretty if someone took a picture right then and there.

I constantly found myself existing inside the book, along the main characters, and working through it all. Kudos to Mr. Macfarlane on the ease of immersion. A good trip. Did I mention the immense Catholic content and references? Very, very much appreciated.

Cons:
If the author's advice is not taken and this book is read as is (surface level, Y2K bug apocalypse), then it borderlines on despair and fear-mongery at times. Either way, there are some very gloomy, doomy times that may turn some people off.

Also, there are a lot of Catholic references (which is made clear by the author in the prologue), which might leave some people a little confused. This is the 3rd book in the series and kind of follows off of the character build-up in the 2nd book, Conceived Without Sin, but not so much that there is a significant detriment to the reader.

Assessment:
I would recommend this book, and I would also recommend passing them around to those interested (inserts inside).