Location: United States
Member Since:
Feb. 08, 2011
Bill Tammeus
Smashwords book reviews by Bill Tammeus
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River of Possibilities
on March 01, 2011
(no rating)
This is what I said on my blog on 2-19/20-11 at http://billtammeus.typepad.com: This is an e-book novel by a Kansas City area writer. Indeed much of the book is set in Kansas City, and one of the characters was born the day the skywalks collapsed at the Hyatt Hotel in 1981. Why might it interest people who care about religious themes? Because it moves readers to think about the paranormal. I don't have much interest in or, frankly, respect for such things as Tarot cards and psychic readings, perhaps partly because the Bible itself suggests one should be wary of all that. Part of verse 28 in the 19th chapter of Leviticus, for instance, says people should not "practice divination or soothsaying." But over the years people have been fascinated by the capabilities of the human brain and by the idea that ghosts may inhabit the earth in some way. This story of mystery, murder and, well, mayhem at times has characters who seem to have psychic powers and characters who run into ghosts. The story itself is engaging, perhaps especially because of its local setting, and it moves quickly and easily. But it's impossible to read the 125 pages (in the pdf version) without asking yourself questions about the nature of any afterlife and about whether there is anything to the psychic mysteries that seem to defy understanding. It may make you want to ask leaders of your religious tradition what that tradition teaches about all of this -- and whether you buy into that teaching.