Yesterday I started you with the first part of my three day posting about The Telling. This wonderful book by Mike Duran covers so very much! Tonight I will cover part of the book that seems to have thrown a few people off kilter thus far. (I have been reading other people's reviews you see!)
One aspect of this book is a very nice government cover up, or as I normally call it, a Conspiracy Theory. I tell you these things do happen! Probably not exactly as it was described in this book, but some powers that be are recorded having done horrific experiments. Monstrous things that were done during Hiller's regime come to mind. Many of those mind control techniques and much more didn't come to light till years later, and they were backed by the government at that time. Very sad, but true.
What this means for this book is that a cover up of this magnitude is not so far out there as to render it an issue for this book. Also, those who are like me, and love The X-Files will find the plot much to their liking in this area. When you are reading about Endurance, and the rift....Otto's Rift, you find that more people knew about what was happening there than you had considered. More people are interconnected with the secrets that lie in the rift than had been suspected. This brings me to the Ninth Gate of Hell. I know that isn't a spoiler because it is mentioned on the back of the book.
How can we say that ties into anything "Christian"? I am so glad you asked! I figure it works like this. Heaven has gates. They are spoken of in Revelations 21:21 where we read that there are 12 gates there, and that each made out of a giant single pearl! Matthew 16:18 says "And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." In Revelation 1:18 we find Christ saying "I hold the keys to death and hell." These and other verses give us the strong visual impact of both Heaven and Hell having gates, and that Hell has a key to keep it locked. This premise of Hell being sort of "inside" or accessible on Earth is not foreign to me. I was younger when I first heard about the team that was doing some major deep deep drilling, much like the mine in The Telling, and wound up recording screams that sound like they are from Hell. Below are two links about that.
http://www.angelfire.com/ut/branton/russhaft.html
http://www.amightywind.com/hell/aboutsounds.htm
So what all really lies inside of Otto's Rift, what it is doing to the land, and the people who live there is no small thing. It is massive, it is major, and it is not at all what you think. Even so, I am still drawn a good bit back to my first post's topic for The Telling. If you speak the Word, will you not also have a great part in saving lives from the gates of Hell?
More tomorrow night!
Carol
Book link - http://www.amazon.com/
Author Blog - http://www.mikeduran.com/
Author Facebook page - http://www.facebook.com/
In conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour, I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
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The government cover-up in the story brought to mind a sideways film that I liked more than expected, and was (weirdly enough) based on actual military experiments: "The Men Who Stare at Goats". So, even though I knew things were out of our hero's control and more than a little scary, I was mentally chuckling while reading certain scenes.
ReplyDeleteI like stories with government conspiracies, so that aspect didn't waylay me at all. I had read an Amazon review or two before I got my copy of the book so was sort of confused as to why people thought that didn't work. I think it could have been developed more. But I didn't think it distracted from the focus of the story at all.
ReplyDeleteDo you really think Mike was postulating that there's a gateway to hell here on earth? I took that to be pure fictitious imagining.
Becky
Hi Keanean,
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen that movie, but I have a friend who liked it allot. I found that the main characters knowing things were out of their control made it more realistic and moved the plot forward at a nice pace. :)
Thank you for your post!
Carol :)
Hi Becky,
ReplyDeleteI like stories with good conspiracies as well. I do feel that often there is some truth to them. (Depending on the theory of course!)
To answer your question - "Was Mike postulating that a gateway to Hell could be here on Earth?"...I would have to ask him. However, this being Speculative Christian Fiction, it is not a totally un-thinkable that this is possible. The screams that were recorded from the deep deep earth drilling have drawn many to Christ.
Hell is a place with fire and brimstone. Lava that flows up out of volcanoes is also fire and brimstone. It tends to make one think.
But no matter where Hell is actually located, in a "physical" realm, or only in a spiritual one, it is one place we do not want anyone going.
The Telling has only added to my resolve to be sure that the Light in me is shinning bright enough for those who see me, or known me to be drawn to the Father.
Carol :)