Good News from Outer Space

It is too bad that this book didn't get popularized in film or tv before the Millenium happened, as it is less likely to catch on now. This science fiction novel is actually a theological mystery. While a group of 80s style fundamentalists await the expected second coming of Christ (in a UFO, no less) the heroes discover that it may be already happening. People are encountering figures resembling significant people from their past, who confront their failings in ways that are sometimes judgmental and sometimes forgiving. Whether they are God or shape shifting aliens in a godlike role, the significant question is what meaning do they bring, if any, and will we be able to make sense of it? The result is a satisfying wrestle with these issues. It would be nice if this book got the attention it deserves.

I first picked up my copy of this book off the shelf of some drugstore some years ago, and was utterly blown away by it. Full of weirdness, holier-than-thou mob frenzy, millienial fever, and even an alien, this Lewis Carroll-meets-Televangilism masterpiece kept me spellbound through the fourth and fifth readings. It is one of those that, while good the first time through, gets even better on subsequent reads. I am warning you right now though, this book will be expensive for you. Why? Because you will be blown away by it, and you will make a friend read it. You will lend it to them, and never see it again. This is one of those books that will keep getting away from you until you break down and buy a copy to place in your secure book-vault.

Sure, this is a science fiction story of the end of the world, a genre I generally detest (but not as much as I detest =post=-apocalyptic novels) - but I couldn't resist. This novel is set in the two places I know best -- New York City and Raleigh, North Carolina. New York is more of an amorphous mass to deal with, location-wise, but Kessel gets Raleigh spot-on.The camp awaiting Armageddon on Fayetteville Street Mall brings back memories of days when I was a student at North Carolina State University, strolling through the Brickyard, being yelled at by Rev. Birdsong, one of the many brickyard preachers. You see, it was immoral for me, lustful temptress, to wear shorts around such impressionable young men. Let's ignore for the moment that my shorts stopped at my knees. I found it amusing to think of a fire-and-brimstone preacher denouncing the godless people on Hillsborough, given that of all the UNC system schools, NCSU must be the most conservative (it is, after all, an engineering and agriculture school).But I digress.This is somewhat of a comic novel, and the characters really aren't fully-fleshed human beings. But this is a very fun read -- a very strange virus, a confusion (for me, at least) of identity, and some good news from... well, you know the title. Even if you're not from Raleigh, you'll have fun reading this book.

This is a great book to read if you like dark social commentary, sharp wit, and stories about doom-sayers and doom-nayers. Kessel is able to capture the chaotic nature of apocalyptic events and make the reader feel as though the he or she has been absorbed into the scene. I would highly recommend this book to any avid sci-fi reader.