I am a fan of religious conspiracy
thriller novels. As a fan of the genre, I noticed in the past decade,
religious conspiracy thriller has been thriving. It all started,
when Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code gained mass popularity.
Today, the reading world is full of religious conspiracy thrillers.
Interestingly, these books often revolve around Christian extremism,
and we rarely see a religious conspiracy thriller with a story about
extremism from other religions. This is why, when I found out about
Sword of God, is a religious conspiracy thriller about Islamic
extremism, this book immediately grabbed my attention. I trekked to
my local library, borrowed a copy, and consumed it within the space
of 3 days. Today, I would like to share my thoughts about this book
in a (spoiler-free) review.
Synopsis:
In Mecca, a young archeologist works
her way to discover an artifact of unimaginable significance. In the
meantime, in South Korea, an elite special-forces officer was
murdered. To solve the mystery, the military called in former agents Jonathan Payne and David Jones on a black ops mission. The only
problem is, Payne and Jones have no idea where to start. In other
words, Payne and Jones are on their own.
As they gradually stripped away the
layers of mysteries surrounding the murder in South Korea, Payne and
Jones uncovered a plot that might throw the entire world into a war.
Payne and Jones realized, there is only one way for them to finish
this mission: They must uncover the truth before it's too late...
What I think about this book:
New York Times Bestselling author,
Chris Kuzneski, wrote Sword of God. This is my first time
reading Kuzneski's book, and I like the way he wrote this book. For
starters, Kuzneski's writings move at a very fast pace and the story
is packed with actions. The dialogues in this book are humorous,
bringing the characters to life. When I was reading this book, I
didn't want to put this book down or taking a break. This is because
the story is exciting, and I always felt the need to find out what
would happen in the next chapter.
Having said this, I do think a weakness
resides in the structure of the book. Let me explain. Sword of God is
divided into two major plots. In the first plot, readers follow the
journey of a young archeologist in Mecca. In the second plot, the
story revolves around the murder investigation in South Korea. While
these two plots did converge in the end of the book, but the
convergence came too late, and it did not feel natural. In other
words, when these two plots finally combined, it felt forced and
didn't connect very well. This means I also felt the ending was
anti-climatic.
The main characters in this book, are
Jonathan Payne and David Jones, both are retired special-forces
operatives. These two characters are very likable. Their dialogues
are humorous, and the humor further flashed out their personalities,
while reflecting their close friendship. However, like most thriller
novels, this book lacks character development. i.e. at the end of
this book, both Payne and Jones seem unaffected by the
life-threatening events they experienced. Personally, I think the
lack of character development is a weakness in this book.
In terms of this book's theme, Sword of
God stands out from other books in this genre. It is because this
book is one of the very few religious conspiracy thrillers about
Islamic extremism. Like all other books in this genre, such as The
Da Vinci Code, Sword of God is bound to be controversial
in the eyes of some people. However, I personally think Kuzneski
doesn't seem to be using sensationalism or controversy to gain
popularity for his book.
In conclusion, I like Sword of God.
This is my first encounter with Chris Kuzneski's books and it
certainly won't be the last. This book has a well crafted story that
is both fun and exciting. Meanwhile, this book will most likely pave
the way for a reader to think about the relation between religious
extremism and the modern world. If you like reading religious
conspiracy thrillers, then make sure you check out Sword of God.
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