Forbid Them Not: A Novel

Rating:
Summary: An excellent reading experience
Review: In this book Mike Farris tells a legally accurate and gripping story about the potential harm the U.N. can do if it improperly performs its role in the world. This book is a masterpiece of storytelling that holds your interest throughout the plot and contains refreshing views on society and the state of our world.

Rating:
Summary: Make it Stop!
Review: Is there a way to give zero stars?

The good: a creative basic premise (a Supreme Court fight about the rights of children v. parents).

The bad:

1. Badly written. The prose itself is clunky. There appear to be about four completely unrelated books that were somehow glued together to make this monster.

2. Too preachy. I don't mind a message, but beating people over the head with your moralistic message makes for bad reading.

3. Stilted dialogue. I'm sorry, people just don't talk like this.

4. Cardboard characters. The bad guys are "all bad" and have no legitimate reasons for their point of view. The good guys are the beloved of God, and everything they do is for a righteous reason. These characters are one dimensional.

5. Long. Did I mention 450+ pages of this?

Rating:
Summary: Sort of a "1984" in reverse
Review: Under the guide of a legal thriller, this book forcasts what would happen--or rather what conservative fundamentalist Christians imagaine would happen--if the "agenda" of the left becomes the law of the land. Chaos. If this wasn't so poorly written it might actually be funny--as a conservative take on "1984." As it is, the book will likely only appeal to those who both subscribe to the Christian right's dogma and love boring, preachy, over-long books.