Like the above reviewer, I was a bit frustrated by the deception of the author (or publishers) but I stuck it out, hoping that I would come away with an understanding of a Christian's view of the future.

There were many occasions where I wanted to put the book down and pick up something that offered me more of a challenge, or arguments that made logical sense rather a long list of meaningless platitudes. I persisted till the end and was rewarded with a conclusion that gave all the pleasure of the latest range of shampoo commercials.

The sad thing is the author seems unaware of the picture he is painting of his faith. The first half of the book is dominated by poorly fleshed out characters that try to sound like an advertising consultant's view of the Dalai Lama. The only interesting character is a tragic prisoner named Paul who seems to perceive the pomposity of the novel more than the writer, as he rightly rebels against the ideological tyrants who oppress him.

Spoiler to follow. Although the main character travels into the future and has various perspective shifting experiences (which he seems to continually blunder into and learn nothing from - not much of an astronaut in my book) he is returned to the present with no memory of the experience. Whilst he is told that he has 'become something more' and even with the memory wipe that 'growth' cannot be taken away from him, he ends up at the end of the novel in the underclass of slave labourers working for the 'resurrected' super-beings. What the novel seems to be saying is that the 'afterlife' is obtained after God has shown you how unworthy you are and does not want you to have the skills to better yourself, or improve the struggle that is the human condition. A very unfulfilling read.

There is a major problem with this book. It's blurb makes the classic mistake of not warning you that, despite its appearances, this is not really a sci-fi book...and you're going to get some heavy preaching from conservative, Baptist-like Christianity hurled at you from arrogant, poorly executed characters.

The first chapters start off with promise, though with heavy borrowing from C.S.Lewis moral simplicity and concepts and Arthur.C.Clark's writing style. However, a couple of chapters in and you begin to feel betrayed. Apparently when the Christian god has returned to earth and made a lovey-dovey paradise resplendent with consumeristic mod cons and Logan's run styled clothing. Okay you say, this sounds like it could get somewhere. That's the great con of this book. It never does.

The 'tension' created by the authors verbose style is laughable; the characters are so pompous you wish someone would smash them in the face, the allegory is repetitive and flawed, the 'twist' predictable, and the 'message' is disturbing in it's guilt laden subtexts. The god who presides in typically absent fashion is unwittingly painted as a sadistic tyrant.

Sure, it's a scathing review. But it's what all cons deserve. Don't bother.