The Last Guardian
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- €9.49
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- €9.49
Publisher Description
In 1975, the life of Cornell graduate student T.G. Shass is forever changed when he finds himself in possession of a mysterious and ancient artifact. Unable to remember how he acquired it and powerless to rid himself of it, T.G. is soon shaken not only by the object’s presence, but by a chilling encounter with evil and a jarring journey to another world.
He was the most unlikely of all prophets.
His was the most critical of all missions.
Upon his return, T.G. discovers that Earth is no longer the home he knew. His sweetheart, Jenni, is missing, and all evidence indicates that she’s been caught up into the macabre, unnatural realm he’s just departed.
His determination to find Jenni overrides the bitter aftertaste of his otherworldly experience, and T.G. seeks a way to go back. But his second journey holds far more than he imagines. Can T.G. fulfill his key role in God’s plan to defeat the forces of darkness? Or will his imperfect faith lead to destruction as the last days draw to a climactic end?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In the tradition of Christian thrills-and-chills writers Frank Peretti (This Present Darkness) and Stephen Lawhead (Byzantium), first-time novelist Johnson offers a gory fantasy that is loosely based on the New Testament Book of Revelation. But where Peretti succeeds in creating heart-pounding scenarios of demonic warfare, Johnson's story falls flat, and where Lawhead's characters believably embody their hard-won spiritual truths, Johnson makes awkward attempts to pair those truths with his characters' too-sudden insights. Cornell graduate student T.G. Shass unexpectedly becomes the last guardian of an ancient artifact that holds the Creator's divine truth. When Shass proves too weak to resist demonic forces that threaten to seize the gift, a striking man who wears a brilliant blue robe and calls himself Ish (identified by the author in the afterword as Jesus Christ) transports him to a planet named Noron for his own protection. On the surface, Noron seems to be a paradise, but the society's moral depravity is evidenced by its citizens' enjoyment of a dish called Sholari (cooked from unborn children who are conceived in vitro and harvested at 18 months), and by gruesome funeral rites in which infants are murdered to bring the dead back to life. Despite a publisher's note suggesting that the novel's barbarous elements serve to illustrate humankind's depravity and need for spiritual regeneration, much of the violence is gratuitous, and many Christian readers will understandably be offended. The heavy-handed tome takes too long to recount Shass's determined attempt to redeem the fallen people of Noron and win them to Ish. Predictably, Shass triumphs, reunites with his true love and enjoys eternal paradise with other like-minded followers. Why aren't we more excited for him?
