What do I think of M. R. Leonard’s book? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.
We’re going to take a break from Ecclesiastes to review a sci-fi book I read recently.
So, aliens have said they are coming to Earth and will be here in five years and now the time has come.
Seems typical so far. Right?
Okay. Now for the twist.
Turns out when they arrive, we find out that they’re Catholic.
Well, when I saw that premise described and that the book was free on Kindle, I was intrigued and picked it up. I am going to do what I can to avoid spoilers from late in the book, but I will tell you that this is not the end of the story apparently, when this book ends. The author does plan on more.
So the protagonist is a young man named Austin DeSantis who is spending his time as the world prepares for the visitors dreaming of getting to be with a prostitute. It costs a lot of money to get a night with her and unfortunately, at the start he loses his job. A shame since he has a rare gift in that he is one of the few people who not only can read Latin, but can speak it as well.
In an attempt to get some money, he joins some people he meets in a break-in which in the midst of it, he tosses some pears against the wall just for fun, but the fun is interrupted. The man they are robbing comes back and one of his partners in the robbery kills the man before his eyes. At this, Austin is wanted by the police and goes back just to wait with his mother, Monica.
The parallels are intentional and if you are wondering what parallels, go read some church history.
Austin is given a chance to clear his name by interacting with the aliens as a translator alongside a Catholic priest at the request of the U.S. military. From here starts a story of intrigue that will honestly leave you guessing. At times I was wondering “Is this man a Catholic who is wanting to tell a Christian story, or is he an atheist wanting to impugn Catholics?” I could have looked online for that information, but I didn’t want to. The fact that he had me guessing tells you the book is not an open and shut case and there are quandaries that are faced.
I still also had questions. I can get the aliens known as Pilgrims seeing the evidence for Jesus from a distance using superior technology, but I wondered about all of them being Catholic. Are none Orthodox or Protestant? Do they keep up with all the church councils? Do they have a Bible that is translated from what they can scan of the original documents or perhaps ones just barely later? Perhaps these questions will be answered in later books.
As a Protestant, I did enjoy this. I read a chapter a day and the story moved along at a good pace and was not too difficult to follow. I definitely look forward to the next one and hope it will answer some questions. For now, you can get the original here.
If you like sci-fi, give it a try.
In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)