Slow Boat To Purgatory, Book One [Kindle Edition]

Vernon Baker (Author)

Book Description

Praise for the first installment of this epic series:

"Vernon Baker lands a K.O. on his first try. Slow Boat will answer questions you didn't know you had about Angels and Demons, Heaven and Hell and the realm of the Boatman in between." David Beem, Author of Abyss of Chaos

"The series has a lot of potential and I can see it becoming a hit with fans of Dan Brown.." Book Monster Reviews

"It takes a very brave - some might say reckless - novelist to attempt a story of such magnitude as this - giving life to Good and Evil in an eternal battle for our souls. Vernon Baker has done quite an impressive job at it in this riveting epic tale spanning almost a thousand years." Pete Morin, author of Diary of a Small Fish

Slow Boat To Purgatory...

Gaspar De Rouse, a Templar Knight, a man murdered by his brothers for the secret he possessed, resurrected and made immortal. Given a second chance at redemption he has walked the earth for over seven-hundred years.

Dominicus Bureau, a renegade priest, torn between his vows and the secret he pursues, a secret protected by an immortal. He carries a silenced pistol and uses it. Often.

Alex Donovan, a modern day warrior thrust into an ages old war, a war between good and evil, heaven and hell. Armed with an ancient chronicle of the life of Gaspar, Alex searches for the immortal and perhaps his own destiny.

All three men, passengers on a Slow Boat To Purgatory.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Husband and father, voracious reader and entrepreneur, Vernon finally found the courage to put soul to paper. Slow Boat To Purgatory is his first novel. He lives with his wife and children on the coast of Maine and in the panhandle of Florida. Occasionally, when the need arises, he travels to Venice to see an old friend...a very old friend.

Product Details

• File Size: 466 KB
• Print Length: 302 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1463649312
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B005CX3ZU2
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #380,104 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling July 16, 2011

By readin' it

Format:Kindle Edition

A richly woven Templar tale that intrigues and moves. Fascinating history and compelling characters. A book Dan Brown fans will surely enjoy.

Description:

"Alex Donovan was a warrior once. Now he spends his days in a sedate and somewhat bitter existence combing Boston's used bookshops, drinking too much fine wine, and cursing a knee crippled by a terrorist's bullet.

But when Alex's grandfather dies, he discovers the old man has left him not only a vast fortune, but a mystical, ancient book which tells the story of an immortal Templar knight; a man named Gaspar de Rouse, a man who, according to his grandfather, still walks the earth.

Bewitched by the manuscript, written and illustrated by a 16th century Venetian artist who is befriended by the enigmatic Gaspar, Alex takes a journey through history that begins in the war-ravaged city of Acre in the year 1291. It is there that Gaspar is betrayed and loses his life, only to be resurrected by an Archangel and a Demon Prince. Given a choice, to spend an eternity in Purgatory or to serve both Heaven and Hell as a hunter of wayward souls, Gaspar chooses the life of an immortal marching across time doing battle with demons, angels and crushing loneliness.

The secrets of the book consume Alex and he comes to believe that Gaspar still lives. Alex's mundane world is transformed into a race to find the knight. It is a race that takes him from a quiet cove on the coast of Maine to Zurich's hidden banks and the dark waterways of Venice. Eventually helped by a warrior priest whose own secrets and quest to find the knight are shadowed in mystery, Alex struggles to distinguish between those who seek his destruction and those who would ensure his salvation."

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating journey into another world July 16, 2011

By Harvey Ardman

Format:Kindle Edition

Is it possible that another world, a world invisible to most of us, lies just beneath the surface of the existence we know? A world in which a titanic battle is taking place between good and evil, a battle fought between mysterious heroes and unspeakable villains? By the time you finish reading Slow Boat to Purgatory, I guarantee you that you will genuinely be asking yourself those questions and that you find that you have no easy answer. You will ask yourself...could it be? And you will find yourself suspecting there is more to this world than you can see. In this new book, Vernon Baker sends you into a a delicious nightmare, replete with fantastical, yet historical settings, and characters who seem like they could walk off the page and into your living room (but watch out if they do.) If you're looking for an adventure story that will take your mind off the world you know for a few hours, and help you forget its conventional problems and conventional pleasures, this is the book for you.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, Not Great January 7, 2012

By Sarah Smith

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Settings: The real life settings crisply and vividly laid before the reader. The supernatural settings were drawn-out, hyperbolized. Hard to be scary and shocking when it goes on and on and on ad infinitum. Author handled the book-within-a-book-within-a-book well.

Characters: Very well done. I found myself caring about Gaspar and Alex, and wondering what organization Dominicus was working for, to what purpose.

Plot: Interesting premise (though the goal of the plot was not clear), did not carry through on its promise the way it could, but author obviously wants to leave it hanging so you will read the next book. There's a trick to tying up a story so it is satisfying and yet still leaving the door open for further adventures. Author would do well to learn the technique.

Final thought: As with so many new authors, Baker needs a good editor, one who will check for story continuity, misused words, and correct grammar and punctuation. People who love to read do not like being forced to re-read paragraphs or pages to figure out what the author is trying to say.

One unintentionally funny: author uses the word "infinitesimal" where he clearly means "virtually or nearly infinite".

I'll probably read the sequel, unless it gets even more heavily religious than the first.

More About the Author

Vernon Baker, the author of Slow Boat to Purgatory and The Arimathean, lives and writes on the shores of Penobscot Bay in Belfast Maine. For the last few years he and his family have spent the winters in the panhandle of Florida and it was there, three years ago, while writing what eventually became Slow Boat to Purgatory, that he decided to become a published author. Taking advantage of the changing landscape of publishing he decided in 2011 to independently publish his first novel.

Slow Boat to Purgatory went on to become an Amazon.com bestseller both in the U.S. and the U.K. with over 10,000 copies in the hands of readers.

Vernon relies on his lifelong love of history and travel for much of his inspiration. The Slow Boat to Purgatory series reflects this with its forays into history, myth and legend, traveling across centuries and continents at a pace which keeps the pages turning. The series delves into the paranormal while exploring such themes as honor, salvation, good and evil and the immortality of the soul.

You can keep up with or contact Vernon at www.vernonjbaker.com, on twitter @VernonJBaker or on Facebook.