More horrors from so called 'Literary Craftsman' Wendy Alec
http://www.midaspr.co.uk/news/437/chronicles-of-brothers-series-son-of-perdition-out-on-21-july-2011
Wendy Alec God TV uses Top PR Firm in Kensington to provide PR for her dire book.
PR Company is left with a difficult PR/Spin situation on their hands.
Friday, 22 July 2011
Thursday, 23 June 2011
English IGCSE First Language Standards Evidence from the Examination Boards
More horrors from so called 'Literary Craftsman' Wendy Alec
Designed for students for whom English is their mother tongue, IGCSE First Language English develops the ability to communicate clearly, accurately and effectively in both speech and writing. Students learn how to employ a wide-ranging vocabulary, use correct grammar, spelling and punctuation, and develop a personal style and an awareness of the audience being addressed. Students are also encouraged to read widely, both for their own enjoyment and to further their awareness of the ways in which English can be used. IGCSE First Language English also develops more general analysis and communication skills such as synthesis, inference, and the ability to order facts and present opinions effectively.
This is a resources list for Teachers.
I have just downloaded the pdf's and to my mind, this Course and the wonderful MIT OCW School of Writing and Humanistic Studies plus a lot of book buying/lending etc means that any Tom Dick or Harriet can teach themselves good english, both in linguistic terms and in terms of Literary Appreciation.
This means Wendy Alec is NOT excempt from the Laws that are attached to Writing and associated Literary activites though she may think she is.
The attitude to God TV towards the book series is that of profund delusions of grandeur, literary and intellectual assault (God TV and their ilk assaulting the flock is nothing unusual, you just have to wake up and smell the foul smelling roses). If any ardent readers had the books and critiqued them, English Teacher or not, God TV and especially Wendy Alec wouldn't have a leg to stand on and she would be forced to retract the book.
I have detailed God TV's numerous sins on my Blogs The Governmental Goals of God TV, if you read them and take time to think through conclusions of above you might be forced to come to some uncomfortable conclusions Wendy Alec's illiteracy and literary assault being one.
Blog links here
I am not exempt from practising and learning good English so please feel free to critique my style, my panoply of books from MIT OCW bears witness that at least I know how and where to look and by the grace of God I am also an ardent reader.
I can also show MY attempts to read and write in a concise clear and authentic manner to give voice to the peculiarities of my situation Books will be listed below or in another post.
Goodreads link here
I hope to get hold of Cambridge IGCSE Resources myself in order to immerse myself in such qaulity resources, and to provide a natural LEGAL argument that Wendy Alec should have done the same.
Tuesday, 14 June 2011
War is overdue on this literary assault by Wendy Alec of God TV who assaults us every which way
More horrors from so called 'Literary Craftsman' Wendy Alec
A war against her book, all authors claiming evangelistic credentials owe it to readers to submit to conventions, education and standards required by the profession. GP Taylor, Frank Peretti did it , is Wendy Alec above THIS LAW?
Defending my Thesis that Wendy Alec CANNOT WRITE did not bother to educate herself easy on it so she can produce decent books
More horrors from so called 'Literary Craftsman' Wendy Alec
The ONLY reason I will read that book let alone masochistically put me through the dreadful series is to prove a point and blog on it and see the sheep being led to pastoral waters of any bloody writer who can write who writes of spiritual nature eg Frank Peretti.
I will prove Wendy Alec is NO literary craftsman, is NOT a prolific writer, and is NOT experienced even at her TV craft, so many TV presenters ahead of her and Rory and wendy alec claims they love their God TV and want it's existence and they run it so they can avoid the viewers.
My legal defence is the standards out there for good reading and writing from self learning combinations of reading and writing to actual IGCSE syllabi with MIT OCW as I might as well have a nice high standard for us all to live up/learn as a formal basis of judgment and condemnation of these intellectually assaulting texts.
I will prove Wendy Alec is NO literary craftsman, is NOT a prolific writer, and is NOT experienced even at her TV craft, so many TV presenters ahead of her and Rory and wendy alec claims they love their God TV and want it's existence and they run it so they can avoid the viewers.
My legal defence is the standards out there for good reading and writing from self learning combinations of reading and writing to actual IGCSE syllabi with MIT OCW as I might as well have a nice high standard for us all to live up/learn as a formal basis of judgment and condemnation of these intellectually assaulting texts.
More horrors from so called 'Literary Craftsman' Wendy Alec
First things first Wendy Alec lacks imagination, her female character is Wendy Ale' a derivative of Wendy Alec. Her descriptions rely on breathing and she is in love with extravagant prose which is so badly written that I have decided to blog book and take it as I like it to warn people that God TV is flogging a book written by an functional illiterate and not a proper book like what Frank Peretti wrote.
I think the Christian Church does not make sure that any books written conform to basic good reading and writing pedagogy. Wendy Alec foists this dreadful series on us that should NEVER have been published and is been hyped up as a result of god tv marketing rather than readers spot all the evidences of bad writing, bad prose and numerous evidences that Wendy Alec cannot write nor is a Writer.
I think the Christian Church does not make sure that any books written conform to basic good reading and writing pedagogy. Wendy Alec foists this dreadful series on us that should NEVER have been published and is been hyped up as a result of god tv marketing rather than readers spot all the evidences of bad writing, bad prose and numerous evidences that Wendy Alec cannot write nor is a Writer.
The language is hard to follow because Wendy Alec is NOT a Writer and she is functionally illiterate. A Good writer, a writer who can pen posts etc like on GR shows evidence of reading by writing he or she does.
She uses God TV as a referential point and the theological views held thereof. hence exclusivist elitist power driven Revelation which the common mortals cadnnot access but Super Grade Five Prophets such as Wendy can.
With well written books you can read one page after another, regardless of the varying and unique demands of the book (some books slow, some fast, some normal, some well written but written philosphical abstraction).
With Wendy Alec's so called novel you need fucking antidotes to counter the awfulness just to carry on.
Her book is so unreadable I am amazed that mainstream booksellers have picked it up without critiquing it and shock horror wondering why it is in their stores at all.
Sales wise the sales are good 500,000, that it because God TV forces its desires on viewership, her book is made out to give us special revelation, evangelistic tool etc.
But what poor put upon readers fail to pick up is that the book is a literary assualt on their intelligence, English language and literary backgrounds as God TV effectively forces this assault of their products regardless of harms inflicted.
I would like to see Christians who claim that jesus lives in them see that jesus wake them up to the righteiousness and holiness of Standardised English Language and Literature conventions ie GCSE AND IGSCE and other standard qaulifications.
Self learning wise MIT OCW podcasts ways of upholding literary righteousness. Which is why I choose to campaign and wage war against these books that do not deserve to be published and Wendy prophet 5 grade joyner prophet sent back to School to the back of the class,duly punished to learn how to conform to the English standards and norms of the day.
I rest my case. I will furnish with examples of dire prose etc and give case for the Literary assult NOT literary craftsmanship as GP Taylor bribed? nice guy would claim she falsely has.
Friday, 10 June 2011
The helpful Negative Reviews of 'Chronicles of Brothers' that reveal Wendy Alec's atrocious prose and writing style
More horrors from so called 'Literary Craftsman' Wendy Alec GP Taylor who wrote Shadowmancer a decent book. She is NOT Master of Sci-Fi Genre. All Christian Authors are better than her.
This book was recommended by a dear friend, but I was disappointed by it. I'm no expert - but it seemed to me that the quality of the writing wasn't great. I don't have much patience for descriptive passages, and I felt there were far too many of those in this book. GR
poorly philosophized wendy alec does not spend a lot of time writing other wise her writing would be presentable as god tv hides everything.
The description of heaven sounds like a shallow Paris Hilton acid trip. Diamonds and rubies and unicorns, OH MY! USE PICTURES TO ILLUSTRATE CRITICISMS ie Paris Hilton on acid trip
The angels have servants, now who wants there to be servants in heaven? And why do the angels have physical needs in a spiritual world? I mean, footman to care for the horses the angels ride? come ON!
Lucifer is supposed to be this ancient being but comes off as a whiny teenager having a hissy fit. For the light bearing angel he sure comes off as a dimwit. (very narrow imaginative pallette of god tv and their everyday life)
Redundant prose, redundant descriptive paragraphs that repeat for no reason other than filler. ( I get it, heaven is diamond encrusted!) A good premise but just doesn't deliver.(less)
The description of heaven sounds like a shallow Paris Hilton acid trip. Diamonds and rubies and unicorns, OH MY!
The angels have servants, now who wants there to be servants in heaven? And why do the angels have physcial needs in a spiritual world? I mean, footman to care for the horses the angels ride? come ON!
Lucifer is supposed to be this ancient being but comes off as a whiny teenager having a hissy fit. For the light bearing angel he sure comes off as a dimwit.
Redundant prose, redundant descriptive paragraphs that repeat for no reason other than filler. ( I get it, heaven is diamond encrusted!) A good premise but just doesn't deliver.(less)
Too many weird character names are a distraction. I'm skimming it.....
The temptation of Christ was inconsistent with Scripture: she has Him
remaining silent; in fact, He responded to satan with the Word of God.
This was so poorly written, I couldn't finish it. I understand the second book is meant to be much better, so I should probably finish this one off and try the second one sometime.
This is another one of those books that was hyped up and was very disappointing. I found it really boring and badly written. I've since given it away (God TV is boring).
It took me two attempts to read this book. On the first attempt I don't think I read past the first 30 pages. On the second attempt it took a lot longer to read through than it should have taken but I finally finished it.
The story is an interesting one but to me it reads like a cheap romance novel which made it difficult to get though. Despite that I may attempt to read the other books in the series because the topic and approach capture my interest. Unfortunately the writing style makes it difficult for me to read.
The book has an interesting premise, almost like a Shakespearean epic of the turmoil between three princes, but gosh the dialogue is so badly written it’s hard to hack your way along after a while.. just tiresome. I’m sorry but it’s the truth!
I wouldn’t find it easy to recommend this book to anyone either, as a couple have already mentioned. To be fair, this isn’t an easy topic for a novel, much less any religious discussion (if one were to lecture on it, for instance), but there were too many problems in the book for it to be all that enjoyable a read. I’m used to overlooking such issues and giving books a better review than perhaps some have deserved, even if I keep those opinions to myself. But I’ve decided to give my first amazon review on this book, mainly as a balance for all the positive ones it’s received so far…it deserves some more constructive cricism.
If you’re one to be bothered by the unbibilical events and the like in the book, then I definitely wouldn’t recommend it. What happens in the book doesn’t make it so terrible, but I was not pleased with the way the angels seem to run everything in Heaven, as some other reviewers have also mentioned. I tried to get past that so that I could at least finish the book, but also what I found a hindrance and often an annoyance as well was the excessive descriptiveness of the environment and even the adornments and garments of the angels and places in heaven. I don’t say it to be picky, but as a warning, just the way the author uses such words to describe everything in heaven, (often it seems everything has a jewel on it), to attempt to portray the beauty of the place or to make for better richness of her description of it seems that she’s overcompensating for a lack of delivery in other areas, or just that there’s too much emphasis on these material goods because she has no other way to describe the beauty of that realm. It helps that another review said that the book was originally a script for a movie, which would have helped with the descriptivenss of the text, but much of the detail could have actually been left out for the book itself. I got really lost in just trying to imagine these really fantastical places, in and outside of heaven. It really came across to me as highly materialistic, as if the emphasis should have been more on the visual and material wealth of heaven, as if all that was the beauty of that (hope that makes some sense). Some readers might not be annoyed by that at all though. And I agree with one review that mentioned the lack of continuity or even a certain connection between the prologue and the epilogue.
*Some spoilers* Though the story does have a few good points, just events or explanations that I kind of liked, such as painting Lucifer as the “author of death” when he killed his pet panther, it seemed to me that the characterization wasn’t always that strong, not of Lucifer the deceiver, he didn’t yet come across as the kind of mastermind I’d imagined him to be. And it wasn’t too pleasing to read Gabriel as one who wavered in his loyalty to God and the Christos. Sure, the book’s about the familial relationship between the three “brothers” and even does well enough in portraying Gabriel as the youngest of the three and therefore one to look up to Lucifer, and one to find it the most difficult (at times) to eschew Lucifer’s advances and offers after the fall. But Gabriel did not at all come across as the strong, loyal and pure angel that he was even when he delivered the message to Mary before she was to conceive Jesus.
As was mentioned in some other reviews, especially the ones that gave the book fewer stars than most, which I do not disagree with, one problem I had with the story was the emphasis on the importance of DNA in the human race and the corruption of that DNA as the cause for the flood. It could make sense in some other ways, for one to kind of explain the cause for the Nephilim away, but it strays too much from Biblical truth, I believe, and that makes it less enjoyable, if not in some ways slightly disturbing. And the book had the angels handling way too much activity and decision-making processes in Heaven. Whenever there was a problem in Heaven or with the human race, it was always the angels who decided the solution for every situation, not God. God was nearly nonexistant. It was good that Christos had a place, but not as often as I would have liked or as would have made sense. And the angels had a place for science. It perhaps demonstrates the author’s use of Enochian texts (as another reviewer mentioned) since there isn’t much to go on from the Bible in regards to what angels knew of the practice anyway. It might be there to explain the origins of science (might happen later in the series), where humans might have obtained the knowledge from, but that the angels were working out specific equations even for the building of the ark (completely took out the part where God Himself gave those directions to Noah), and even with the DNA of Man shows too much of their involvement with the workings of the Universe, as if God were never even needed. It was all very weird.
I found the “Chronicles of the Host” series, by Brian Shafer, a much more enjoyable read. It covered the stories in the Bible from the perspective of the angels and had really great moments. I think it’s a much better read if one wants to imagine what it might have been like amongst the angels, etc. That’s the kind of book I’d recommend.
Let me preface by saying that I don’t normally read Christian fiction and I don’t normally write book reviews, so this is a double-first for me. I purchased this book because I think alternate views of Biblical mythology are good fuel to get me thinking. I’d never tell someone else that they would or wouldn’t like this book; this review is to tell you why I disliked this book so much. This may contain a few spoilers, but seeing as how this book is supposed to be part 1 of 5 I do not think it’s much of an issue.
First and foremost, the book is full of bad writing. Major writing mistakes are things like discontinuity (Michael takes off his cloak and then takes it off again), improper usage of expressions (Lucifer recoiling at the use of the word MAN but then a few pages later referring to another angel as “a man of their word”), typos that could have been found by a simple proofread, and redundant embellishment (…with jewels of every type one could imagine: rubies, diamonds, emeralds…). There were many chapters that were simply too short; a break in the chapter to go to a new one was completely unnecessary. Finally, the Prologue and the Epilogue portions were completely disconnected and pointless. You should be able to take them out of the story and still have it be complete, but they should still relate to the story (otherwise why have them?).
Bad writing I can forgive, to a certain extent, if the story, premise, plot, characters, or other elements have value. Unfortunately, the other major problem I have with this novel is that none of those things have value. The author has deviated so far from Biblical mythology that I was either scratching my head (or cursing aloud) through the entire second half of the book. A good example of this is the purpose of Noah’s Ark; Lucifer plans to eradicate the human race by having his fallen angels breed with the human women and mutate our DNA. Both here and much earlier in the book I questioned the motivations; if you can physically affect a human being via fornication, why not actually just kill them? A friend of mine said the fact that there were science labs in heaven and that Lucifer and Gabriel basically “held hands and skipped down the beach” made him stop reading the book 6 chapters in. He also didn’t like the fact that there were unicorns (and blue
I struggled through to the end, hoping (and praying) that I would find some kind of redeeming quality in the novel’s content, but it was not to be. You may be able to look past these things but, being an aspiring writer myself, I really take notice when things are done this poorly. The author is in dire need of a thesaurus and a good proofreader. I would imagine that the only type of person that could really enjoy this book is one who has not studied the mythology or read the Bible; the same kind of people who believe there is some element of truth to movies like Constantine.
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I first saw this book and I really thought it would be interesting, I’m a avid Christian fiction reader, and I study the Word of God daily, but with that being said I tried to read this book, and I kept saying come on now, and no way, it happened so much that I put the down, and I hope to sell it, to a used book store,
Some of the problems I have with the book are:
Gabriel actually couldn’t make his mind up and Michael the archangel thought he might side with Lucifer?
And how she (being the author) deals with the flood of Noah, the angels actually think that man has been completely corrupted, and God will destroy the whole earth, and that Lucifer will win, and someone at the last second, actually figures out that the genealogy of Noah was uncorrupted, now that’s was enough for me, she sell the angels so short that they actually think God, the I AM, the creator of the Universe, and Man, almost lost, completely sells God short.
Don’t read this one, at least that’s my opinion, God bless
By Tamilore (London, United Kingdom) – See all my reviews
My main problem with this novel is that it was severely lacking in substance. When dealing with a topic like ‘the fall of Lucifer’ which, has been dealt with by many an author, some level of finesse is required in characterisation and general plot. Wendy Alec fails to deliver any form of characterisation and instead relies on her rather suspect skills of description as she attempts to conjure up an image of the unimaginable, Heaven. I didn’t give this book 1 star because it was badly written or because there was no ‘meat’ to the story. I gave this book 1 star because it just utterly failed to captivate me. There was a great deal of repetition of language and imagery, I mean if I had to read one more sentence about hair ‘braided with platinum and lightning’, I would have screamed! Most sci-fi and fantasy novels try to depict too many events and characters and thus leave a disjointed product. In this novel, the cast is of a manageable size and the main players are clear. This could have potentially made it easier to understand and empathise with the characters but somehow it all falls flat here.
In ‘The Fall of Lucifer’, we are presented with a story that has essentially been told in the Judaeo-Christian religious writings. A story of how Lucifer, ‘Son of the Morning’ and archanagel of the Almighty, becomes the Satan we know today. The decision to tackle this subject matter as a fantasy novel intrigued me and I bought this book in the hopes of reading an interesting take on extant subject matter. That is not what I came to find. I feel that since the author clearly had nothing new to add, and didn’t take the time to craft realistic and interesting characters with motivations and agendas, she should just not have bothered writing this novel at all.
Alec is unable to display spiritual worlds. Lucifer is in rebellion at the idea of a material yet Heaven is described by Alec as being very much a material realm (they eat, sleep, draw blood from one another, have computers and electronic equipment!!!).
Furthermore, it seems silly and somewhat blasphemous for an evangelical Christian like Alec to even float the idea that God needs the help of billions and billions of sapphire armored, platinum braided, emerald tinged angels (this is the way Alec writes) to assist in creating the universe.
I was very disappointed by this book.
By cherie (new york) – See all my reviews
This could have been a great story! Instead Alec rather rip off Sword and Sorcery, Dungeons and Dragons (both of which she probably so piously disapproves).
She spends most of the book describing the walls full of diamonds and emeralds, describing the holgrams in the computer rooms of heaven! What is all that?
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Key Phrases – Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
angelic writings, angelic race, angelic assembly, angelic company, angelic warriors, pearl gates, sacred vaults, full league, crystal dome, angelic host, imperial figure, ancient monarchs, demon seed, sapphire eyes, chief princes
Key Phrases – Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Ancient Ones, Ancient of Days, Holy Watchers, Tower of Winds, Royal House of Yehovah, Sword of State, Second Heaven, Chief Prince Michael, Palace of Archangels, Crystal Palace, Darkened Councils, Most High, Mount of the North, Wendy Ale (Wendy Alec appears in Novel!!), Yehovah Himself, Black Citadel, Gardens of Fragrance, Seat of Kings, Slowly Michael, Chamber of Congregation, Cliffs of Eden, May Yehovah, Slowly Lucifer, The Stygian, Waters of Eden
Personally, I was very disappointed in the book. The idea was definitely worth exploring, but the angelic beings were nothing more than tall humans with “chiseled features.” They showed all of our emotions, they bled, they grew (even though there is no marriage or copulation–are they created as children, younglings, then grow up to stay at age 30 forever?) they ate, they worked on issues scientifically (as if their knoweldge was no greater than ours), they lived many “moons” before moons were created (what plenet were they on?), and they even took a dump at one point. They could change form, but could still be chained. They could be … Oh forget it, they’re just humans. How interesting is that?
Every character and scene was stereotypical of B-grade books and movies. Nothing remotely new or interesting. Human history passed in a haphazard thread that would make no sense to a non-Christian reader. She seemed in a big hurry to get to Jesus and then get really emotional about things that should be slowly and meaningfully explored in the next book. She really moved too quickly. This story should have spent more time in Satan’s head. Forget the stupid DNA scientists! How lame!
I could go on and on about the HUGE plot holes throughout, but…how can there be any good reviews about this book. It was so terrible!
Hope that helps!
poorly philosophized wendy alec does not spend a lot of time writing other wise her writing would be presentable as god tv hides everything.
The description of heaven sounds like a shallow Paris Hilton acid trip. Diamonds and rubies and unicorns, OH MY! USE PICTURES TO ILLUSTRATE CRITICISMS ie Paris Hilton on acid trip
The angels have servants, now who wants there to be servants in heaven? And why do the angels have physical needs in a spiritual world? I mean, footman to care for the horses the angels ride? come ON!
Lucifer is supposed to be this ancient being but comes off as a whiny teenager having a hissy fit. For the light bearing angel he sure comes off as a dimwit. (very narrow imaginative pallette of god tv and their everyday life)
Redundant prose, redundant descriptive paragraphs that repeat for no reason other than filler. ( I get it, heaven is diamond encrusted!) A good premise but just doesn't deliver.(less)
The description of heaven sounds like a shallow Paris Hilton acid trip. Diamonds and rubies and unicorns, OH MY!
The angels have servants, now who wants there to be servants in heaven? And why do the angels have physcial needs in a spiritual world? I mean, footman to care for the horses the angels ride? come ON!
Lucifer is supposed to be this ancient being but comes off as a whiny teenager having a hissy fit. For the light bearing angel he sure comes off as a dimwit.
Redundant prose, redundant descriptive paragraphs that repeat for no reason other than filler. ( I get it, heaven is diamond encrusted!) A good premise but just doesn't deliver.(less)
Too many weird character names are a distraction. I'm skimming it.....
The temptation of Christ was inconsistent with Scripture: she has Him
remaining silent; in fact, He responded to satan with the Word of God.
This was so poorly written, I couldn't finish it. I understand the second book is meant to be much better, so I should probably finish this one off and try the second one sometime.
This is another one of those books that was hyped up and was very disappointing. I found it really boring and badly written. I've since given it away (God TV is boring).
It took me two attempts to read this book. On the first attempt I don't think I read past the first 30 pages. On the second attempt it took a lot longer to read through than it should have taken but I finally finished it.
The story is an interesting one but to me it reads like a cheap romance novel which made it difficult to get though. Despite that I may attempt to read the other books in the series because the topic and approach capture my interest. Unfortunately the writing style makes it difficult for me to read.
The book has an interesting premise, almost like a Shakespearean epic of the turmoil between three princes, but gosh the dialogue is so badly written it’s hard to hack your way along after a while.. just tiresome. I’m sorry but it’s the truth!
I wouldn’t find it easy to recommend this book to anyone either, as a couple have already mentioned. To be fair, this isn’t an easy topic for a novel, much less any religious discussion (if one were to lecture on it, for instance), but there were too many problems in the book for it to be all that enjoyable a read. I’m used to overlooking such issues and giving books a better review than perhaps some have deserved, even if I keep those opinions to myself. But I’ve decided to give my first amazon review on this book, mainly as a balance for all the positive ones it’s received so far…it deserves some more constructive cricism.
If you’re one to be bothered by the unbibilical events and the like in the book, then I definitely wouldn’t recommend it. What happens in the book doesn’t make it so terrible, but I was not pleased with the way the angels seem to run everything in Heaven, as some other reviewers have also mentioned. I tried to get past that so that I could at least finish the book, but also what I found a hindrance and often an annoyance as well was the excessive descriptiveness of the environment and even the adornments and garments of the angels and places in heaven. I don’t say it to be picky, but as a warning, just the way the author uses such words to describe everything in heaven, (often it seems everything has a jewel on it), to attempt to portray the beauty of the place or to make for better richness of her description of it seems that she’s overcompensating for a lack of delivery in other areas, or just that there’s too much emphasis on these material goods because she has no other way to describe the beauty of that realm. It helps that another review said that the book was originally a script for a movie, which would have helped with the descriptivenss of the text, but much of the detail could have actually been left out for the book itself. I got really lost in just trying to imagine these really fantastical places, in and outside of heaven. It really came across to me as highly materialistic, as if the emphasis should have been more on the visual and material wealth of heaven, as if all that was the beauty of that (hope that makes some sense). Some readers might not be annoyed by that at all though. And I agree with one review that mentioned the lack of continuity or even a certain connection between the prologue and the epilogue.
*Some spoilers* Though the story does have a few good points, just events or explanations that I kind of liked, such as painting Lucifer as the “author of death” when he killed his pet panther, it seemed to me that the characterization wasn’t always that strong, not of Lucifer the deceiver, he didn’t yet come across as the kind of mastermind I’d imagined him to be. And it wasn’t too pleasing to read Gabriel as one who wavered in his loyalty to God and the Christos. Sure, the book’s about the familial relationship between the three “brothers” and even does well enough in portraying Gabriel as the youngest of the three and therefore one to look up to Lucifer, and one to find it the most difficult (at times) to eschew Lucifer’s advances and offers after the fall. But Gabriel did not at all come across as the strong, loyal and pure angel that he was even when he delivered the message to Mary before she was to conceive Jesus.
As was mentioned in some other reviews, especially the ones that gave the book fewer stars than most, which I do not disagree with, one problem I had with the story was the emphasis on the importance of DNA in the human race and the corruption of that DNA as the cause for the flood. It could make sense in some other ways, for one to kind of explain the cause for the Nephilim away, but it strays too much from Biblical truth, I believe, and that makes it less enjoyable, if not in some ways slightly disturbing. And the book had the angels handling way too much activity and decision-making processes in Heaven. Whenever there was a problem in Heaven or with the human race, it was always the angels who decided the solution for every situation, not God. God was nearly nonexistant. It was good that Christos had a place, but not as often as I would have liked or as would have made sense. And the angels had a place for science. It perhaps demonstrates the author’s use of Enochian texts (as another reviewer mentioned) since there isn’t much to go on from the Bible in regards to what angels knew of the practice anyway. It might be there to explain the origins of science (might happen later in the series), where humans might have obtained the knowledge from, but that the angels were working out specific equations even for the building of the ark (completely took out the part where God Himself gave those directions to Noah), and even with the DNA of Man shows too much of their involvement with the workings of the Universe, as if God were never even needed. It was all very weird.
I found the “Chronicles of the Host” series, by Brian Shafer, a much more enjoyable read. It covered the stories in the Bible from the perspective of the angels and had really great moments. I think it’s a much better read if one wants to imagine what it might have been like amongst the angels, etc. That’s the kind of book I’d recommend.
Let me preface by saying that I don’t normally read Christian fiction and I don’t normally write book reviews, so this is a double-first for me. I purchased this book because I think alternate views of Biblical mythology are good fuel to get me thinking. I’d never tell someone else that they would or wouldn’t like this book; this review is to tell you why I disliked this book so much. This may contain a few spoilers, but seeing as how this book is supposed to be part 1 of 5 I do not think it’s much of an issue.
First and foremost, the book is full of bad writing. Major writing mistakes are things like discontinuity (Michael takes off his cloak and then takes it off again), improper usage of expressions (Lucifer recoiling at the use of the word MAN but then a few pages later referring to another angel as “a man of their word”), typos that could have been found by a simple proofread, and redundant embellishment (…with jewels of every type one could imagine: rubies, diamonds, emeralds…). There were many chapters that were simply too short; a break in the chapter to go to a new one was completely unnecessary. Finally, the Prologue and the Epilogue portions were completely disconnected and pointless. You should be able to take them out of the story and still have it be complete, but they should still relate to the story (otherwise why have them?).
Bad writing I can forgive, to a certain extent, if the story, premise, plot, characters, or other elements have value. Unfortunately, the other major problem I have with this novel is that none of those things have value. The author has deviated so far from Biblical mythology that I was either scratching my head (or cursing aloud) through the entire second half of the book. A good example of this is the purpose of Noah’s Ark; Lucifer plans to eradicate the human race by having his fallen angels breed with the human women and mutate our DNA. Both here and much earlier in the book I questioned the motivations; if you can physically affect a human being via fornication, why not actually just kill them? A friend of mine said the fact that there were science labs in heaven and that Lucifer and Gabriel basically “held hands and skipped down the beach” made him stop reading the book 6 chapters in. He also didn’t like the fact that there were unicorns (and blue
I struggled through to the end, hoping (and praying) that I would find some kind of redeeming quality in the novel’s content, but it was not to be. You may be able to look past these things but, being an aspiring writer myself, I really take notice when things are done this poorly. The author is in dire need of a thesaurus and a good proofreader. I would imagine that the only type of person that could really enjoy this book is one who has not studied the mythology or read the Bible; the same kind of people who believe there is some element of truth to movies like Constantine.
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I first saw this book and I really thought it would be interesting, I’m a avid Christian fiction reader, and I study the Word of God daily, but with that being said I tried to read this book, and I kept saying come on now, and no way, it happened so much that I put the down, and I hope to sell it, to a used book store,
Some of the problems I have with the book are:
Gabriel actually couldn’t make his mind up and Michael the archangel thought he might side with Lucifer?
And how she (being the author) deals with the flood of Noah, the angels actually think that man has been completely corrupted, and God will destroy the whole earth, and that Lucifer will win, and someone at the last second, actually figures out that the genealogy of Noah was uncorrupted, now that’s was enough for me, she sell the angels so short that they actually think God, the I AM, the creator of the Universe, and Man, almost lost, completely sells God short.
Don’t read this one, at least that’s my opinion, God bless
By Tamilore (London, United Kingdom) – See all my reviews
My main problem with this novel is that it was severely lacking in substance. When dealing with a topic like ‘the fall of Lucifer’ which, has been dealt with by many an author, some level of finesse is required in characterisation and general plot. Wendy Alec fails to deliver any form of characterisation and instead relies on her rather suspect skills of description as she attempts to conjure up an image of the unimaginable, Heaven. I didn’t give this book 1 star because it was badly written or because there was no ‘meat’ to the story. I gave this book 1 star because it just utterly failed to captivate me. There was a great deal of repetition of language and imagery, I mean if I had to read one more sentence about hair ‘braided with platinum and lightning’, I would have screamed! Most sci-fi and fantasy novels try to depict too many events and characters and thus leave a disjointed product. In this novel, the cast is of a manageable size and the main players are clear. This could have potentially made it easier to understand and empathise with the characters but somehow it all falls flat here.
In ‘The Fall of Lucifer’, we are presented with a story that has essentially been told in the Judaeo-Christian religious writings. A story of how Lucifer, ‘Son of the Morning’ and archanagel of the Almighty, becomes the Satan we know today. The decision to tackle this subject matter as a fantasy novel intrigued me and I bought this book in the hopes of reading an interesting take on extant subject matter. That is not what I came to find. I feel that since the author clearly had nothing new to add, and didn’t take the time to craft realistic and interesting characters with motivations and agendas, she should just not have bothered writing this novel at all.
Alec is unable to display spiritual worlds. Lucifer is in rebellion at the idea of a material yet Heaven is described by Alec as being very much a material realm (they eat, sleep, draw blood from one another, have computers and electronic equipment!!!).
Furthermore, it seems silly and somewhat blasphemous for an evangelical Christian like Alec to even float the idea that God needs the help of billions and billions of sapphire armored, platinum braided, emerald tinged angels (this is the way Alec writes) to assist in creating the universe.
I was very disappointed by this book.
By cherie (new york) – See all my reviews
This could have been a great story! Instead Alec rather rip off Sword and Sorcery, Dungeons and Dragons (both of which she probably so piously disapproves).
She spends most of the book describing the walls full of diamonds and emeralds, describing the holgrams in the computer rooms of heaven! What is all that?
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Key Phrases – Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
angelic writings, angelic race, angelic assembly, angelic company, angelic warriors, pearl gates, sacred vaults, full league, crystal dome, angelic host, imperial figure, ancient monarchs, demon seed, sapphire eyes, chief princes
Key Phrases – Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Ancient Ones, Ancient of Days, Holy Watchers, Tower of Winds, Royal House of Yehovah, Sword of State, Second Heaven, Chief Prince Michael, Palace of Archangels, Crystal Palace, Darkened Councils, Most High, Mount of the North, Wendy Ale (Wendy Alec appears in Novel!!), Yehovah Himself, Black Citadel, Gardens of Fragrance, Seat of Kings, Slowly Michael, Chamber of Congregation, Cliffs of Eden, May Yehovah, Slowly Lucifer, The Stygian, Waters of Eden
Personally, I was very disappointed in the book. The idea was definitely worth exploring, but the angelic beings were nothing more than tall humans with “chiseled features.” They showed all of our emotions, they bled, they grew (even though there is no marriage or copulation–are they created as children, younglings, then grow up to stay at age 30 forever?) they ate, they worked on issues scientifically (as if their knoweldge was no greater than ours), they lived many “moons” before moons were created (what plenet were they on?), and they even took a dump at one point. They could change form, but could still be chained. They could be … Oh forget it, they’re just humans. How interesting is that?
Every character and scene was stereotypical of B-grade books and movies. Nothing remotely new or interesting. Human history passed in a haphazard thread that would make no sense to a non-Christian reader. She seemed in a big hurry to get to Jesus and then get really emotional about things that should be slowly and meaningfully explored in the next book. She really moved too quickly. This story should have spent more time in Satan’s head. Forget the stupid DNA scientists! How lame!
I could go on and on about the HUGE plot holes throughout, but…how can there be any good reviews about this book. It was so terrible!
Hope that helps!
Tuesday, 7 June 2011
Wendy Alec's Writing is awful
More horrors from so called 'Literary Craftsman' Wendy Alec
Wendy Alec relies on verbose descriptions. Wealth figures a lot. I surmise a poor Ministry will want to see
She uses Ministry References. From what I have read so far there is no demonstration of wide reading that you expect from all good authors. No Standards are met that are governed by Qaulifications such as IGCSE where the Candidate is examined on both Literary and Language Competencies.
She has not attempted to enlist an experienced Ghost Writer or an Editor.
I am gonna rush this or scan and dip in as unbelievably bad.
Wordy verbose She uses words and has poor powers of description
More horrors from so called 'Literary Craftsman' Wendy Alec
Where did Faust's Mephistopheles come in? PLOT HOLE. No introduction to Faustian Pacts whatsoever just an inappropriately added inspiration.
Should be 'letters' not 'missives' which sound pretentious and over wordy.
Gabriel has not been educated.
The Angels are wealthy. Smacks of God TV's Wealth Angels as seen in scandel ridden Lakeland Revival which saw fall of Todd Bentley and false restoration by Rick Joyner.
GOD TV BEING USED AS SOURCE MATERIAL, no evidence of NORMAL INTENSE READING OF MANY AND VARIOUS TEXTS ALL GOOD WRITERS HAVE AS LITERATURE APPRECIATION IS NEXT TO GODLINESS AND ENJOYMENT.
Gonna rush this, this is awful!
Musicians reference and Angels surprise surprise.
Jerusalem focus and indirect reference to God TV Jewish Pro Zionist Agenda.
Throne Room of God reference page 19.
Ended page 24.
Prologue Page 1 Very wordy Chapter Title 6 words very wordy
More horrors from so called 'Literary Craftsman' Wendy Alec
Ok so we are 2017.
The overuse of Hyperbole Nicks eyelashes are 'shockingly long'.
She likes to use the breathing device which is used unconvincingly.
Trust God TV to land the Heavenly Exclusive a Revelation to which only THEY AND THEY ALONE are privy. Smacks of Joyner to me.
Angels as instruments of Revelation nothing surprising here as one can expect reports of Angels so called from the mouths of various Prophets so called from God TV Elijah List, IHOP, KCP stable.
No need to repeat 'war chariots'. Wendy sets stage for rest of action.
No back story how you get to have this revelation for Top Class Prophets only I expect and Superior Elite Christians.
Wendy Alec's Chronicles of Brothers is Crap and it's about time someone spoke up for the defence of upholding English Standards in both Language and Literature
Wendy Alec of God TV's Book Series 'Chronicles of Brothers' is CRAP, utter turgid rubbish, pigs swill, vomit, verbal diarrhoeal etc. No descriptions are adequate to describe this utter load of diatribe that the Christian Church is FAILING to recognise in order to DEFEND THE SPIRITUAL NEED FOR STANDARDISED DECENT STANDARDS IN BOTH EXERCISE OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE.
Ratings of these appalling books are vastly over rated on respected Fora such as Librarything and Goodreads. This trend is carried over similarly on major web Retailers sites like Amazon with their excessive star ratings and inflated reviews, spurred on by I discover Andrew Dillon of God TV spamming 5 star Reviews on Amazon as God TV publishes it's own press and somehow does not seem itself accountable in both educational and literary terms, let alone subject to Journalistic Accountability. (Rick Joyner attacks Grady of Charisma Magazine exempting himself it would appear from Journalistic Scrutiny and Investigation)
As a result because God TV is its own Reviewing and PR Spin Machine God TV and its allies like Cross Rhythms are able to release shoddy workmanship from songs that attack people to Books like Wendy Alec's which NEVER should have been published..
God TV as a Joyner Theology inspired Practical Theology Machine as usual causes immense difficulties and problems to it's Readers and Viewers, Viewers unawares till they are woken up from their Americanised Slumbers to the US Centric FiveFold Acts of Global Imperialism highly commensurate with America's use of Client States (Chomsky Manufacturing Consent) which, as a Theology is highly agreeable to this dangerous bunch of Independently positioned people who think themselves a 'Movement' or rather a almalgamation of many Global Positioning Movements who command not only the World but the whole Body of Christ worldwide!!!!!
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