The Reckoning [Hardcover]

Thomas F. Monteleone (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1999

The previous Pope died in his arms, blessing him with his last breath. He can perform miracles. His mother was a virgin. His DNA came from the Shroud of Turin. Peter Carenza is the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy and a secret, Vatican-sponsored experiment. But is he the Second Coming, or something far, far worse?

Believers the world over hail Carenza as the new Pope and rejoice as he creates a new church for the new Millennium. Few people know the truth -- that mixing science with the works of God has created not a Savior but the Anti-Christ.

Now the latest -- and last -- Pope scours the world for the human guardians of the Biblical seven seals, which must be destroyed before the final cataclysm can begin. Opposing him are a lone Archbishop, the female American journalist who chronicled Carenza's rise to power, and Peter's mother, a nun who truly hears the Word of the Lord.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The imminence of biblical apocalypse sustains this ambitious but overstuffed sequel to Monteleone's millennial thriller, Blood of the Lamb (1992). In that novel, Father Peter Carenza, who was cloned from a bloodstain on the Shroud of Turin, first showed his dark side, using his awesome supernatural gifts to self-serving ends and raising fears among Vatican higher-ups that imperfect human efforts to engineer the Second Coming had produced the anti-Christ instead. As the newly appointed pope, Carenza has now begun to overturn the foundations of the Catholic religion, revoking clerical vows of celibacy so that he can marry Marion Windsor, an increasingly reluctant lover whom he accidentally kills in anger but then resurrects. Carenza's outrages coincide with the secret resurgence of the Knights of Malta, miracles performed around the globe by seven ordinary people who share a vision of a spectral "Lady in the Light," and cataclysmic solar flares that suggest all is not well in the firmament. Monteleone compresses an impressive quantity of religious and political history into the fast-paced narrative, but the provocative questions of faith and philosophy the story raises are brushed aside in the headlong rush to tie together the numerous subplots in an extravagant finale. His engagingly varied characters are reduced by the novel's broad historical and geographical terrain to props in a plot cribbed from Revelations. In effect, he has crafted a tale of intrigue and espionage whose clerics and ecclesiasts are nothing less--and, somewhat disappointingly, little more--than the cops and crooks of conventional suspense fiction. (Dec.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Sequel to Monteleone's The Blood of the Lamb (1992), about Father Peter Carenza, a Catholic priest cloned in the womb of a virgin from molecules of Christ's blood taken from the Shroud of Turina lively premise squandered in banal blood-and-thunder as the Vatican's Secret Service hit squad chased Father Carenza, who was revealed as a spiritual dunderhead . . . and also the Antichrist. Now Carenza is back, having escaped assassination at the Los Angeles Palladium Convocation, and Rome has made him Pope Peter II. Does a millennial First American Pope mean the End Times are near, as Nostradamus predicted? After all, Pope Peter II has decided to wed ex-TV anchorwoman Marion Windsor and to proclaim that all Catholic clerics may marry. Is God in such a fit about this that he'll allow Peter to bring on Armageddon with a huge sun flare that will crisp the planet in a snap? Dont look for Graham Greenes wistfully bitter wisdom here: this allegedly spiritual novel is all about power games and plot, plot, plot. Catholics may well see Monteleone himself as the Antichrist, piddling away their faiths essence in dumbfounding melodrama. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Forge; 1st edition (November 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312869312
• ISBN-13: 978-0312869311
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,938,961 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fitting conclusion!, February 21, 2000

By 

P. Legerski (Corona, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Reckoning (Hardcover)

Moteleone picks up where he left off in BLOOD OF THE LAMB. The first reviewer misses the point of the novel. It IS unheard of for a Pope to wear slacks and a skull cap...THAT WAS THE POINT! Pope Peter is restructuring, or even trying to kill, the precedent of the role of Pope. Anyways, Monteleone has outdone himself and writes some vivid action sequences and some beautiful land settings. Good stuff! Now go out and buy the damn thing!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Science, Religion and Action Galore!, October 24, 2001

By 

"pdquick" (Tampa, Florida United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Reckoning (Paperback)

Television is full of full of strange and wierd stories. Newspapers provide vivid accounts of macabre and sinister events. It begs the question: 'can the average person any longer be shocked?' Fortunately, the answer is a resounding YES! Thomas Moneleone has done so in "The Reckoning."

Consider developments of the past few years. What are the implications of the cloning of a sheep named Dolly? Almost immediately following that event there began debates regarding the efficacy of cloning human beings. But, if human beings WERE to be cloned, whom would the world first want to clone? The author of this masterful novel takes a stab at the answer.

Suppose, dear reader, that the scientific community were to take a small strand of DNA from dried blood on the Shroud of Tourin that may have covered the dead body of Jesus. And, suppose, for a moment, that the person conceived from this scientific exercise were to grow up to become a Roman Catholic priest. And suppose he were, one day, become the Bishop of Rome...the Pope?

This is a gripping tale that gives the reader an adventrous story as well as a look behind the scenes at the Vatican. There is action galore that takes place on a worldwide scale. Anyone who enjoys a gripping story of intrigue and also fanticizes about possibilities in our modern world will find the two combined in this novel. Truly the story grabs the reader from the first page to the very end. Well worth reading.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Cartoonish, Yet Oddly Compelling, May 4, 2001

By 

Jan P. Dennis "Longboard jazzer" (Monument, CO USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Reckoning (Paperback)

I wanted to like this book a lot less than I did. After all, it's got just about everything in it that bothers me about bad writing: gratuitous action (see INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DUMB for the ultimate gratuitous action cultural artifact), whirled views (New Age-ism on the half-shell: the Seven Churches of Revelation turn out to be--surprise!!--holy sites of the world's major religions), bad theology (Catholics spouting tired works-righteousness views), a dodgy premise combined with shaky metaphysics (a clone from DNA from Jesus' blood equals Superman), etc. But somehow the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. I know it's probably a really stupid book, but I generally liked it anyhow. Maybe Monteleone is the Clive Cussler of theological thrillers. One could do worse.