Book Review Of Apocalypse In Mind By Frank J. Roberts

You can almost taste the sulfur bubbling up from the fires and brimstone of Hell in this action thriller by Frank J. Roberts. It's 1968 again, God isn't dead, the Devil is tired of waiting, and the USSR and USA, locked in the Cold War, are searching for a paranormal path around the others' guard.

This is a very busy novel; there are at least two interacting parallel plot lines. (At least two...there are a couple others hinted at that I assume he intends to enlarge upon in his next book--according to the cover this is book one.) First is the oldest conflict of all, the supernatural one, good versus evil; and who better to play the protagonists in this fight than God and the Devil? Actually God stays in the wings (no pun intended); it's Lucifer that floats around, as he always has, causing problems. Then, of course, there's the conflict between the two earthly powers, the USSR and the USA.

The plots play out in Hell and on Earth. Hell is described in detail that might thrill Dante with tormented souls crying in the slag pits. While I don't know much about the biblical war between the angels of good and evil, I am willing to believe in the supernatural world created by author Roberts, and his Earth, while less interesting, is believably circa 1968.

Our hero, newly commissioned CIA Special Agent Brian Crawford, not long out of the jungles of Vietnam, arrives at a naval air base in March of 1968 expecting a normal counterintelligence assignment with the Soviet Union as the opponent; instead he finds himself over his head in a paranormal punching contest with the Devil himself. While Special Agent Crawford tries to find and destroy a Soviet paranormal research facility with the help of some buddies he met in Vietnam and several rather special paranormals, the Devil-tired of his number two position in the firmament-blindsides both the USSR and USA with the intent to destroy all mankind--and is blindsided in turn by the paranormals working with SA Crawford.

The Devil, Lucifer, realizes the paranormals working on the project with SA Crawford have stumbled onto his plan to destroy the world and he decides he has to get rid of them all; he can't afford God finding out about his plan. To this end he sends his demonic emissaries out into the world to corrupt and frighten politicians and wealthy industrialists into doing his bidding and terminating the project. The Catholic Church comes in for a bit of a beating too; the pope is killed and the altars of some of the world's great churches are corrupted. Then there's Dr. Mindhammer...but I'm going to let you read about him yourself.

As you may have guessed by now, the cast of characters is both long and at times confusing: there are multitudes of demons and spirits with conflicting agendas, good-guy scientists, bad-guy scientists and one scientist in the Dr. Mengele mode; there are paranormals with the ability to control the mind and burn you to a cinder; there's a swami and even an assortment of cheap thugs that do things the old way with a gun. We find clones, calculating millionaires and rogue US Senators. Throw in a few beautiful women--one demon possessed--and you've got a hard time keeping up. Not that that's so bad. You never get bored. You do, however, get distracted by the author's lack of attention to point of view. Occasionally you're not certain which character is talking much less emoting. This is something I hope he works on in his next novel. And there had better be another novel because he leaves us hanging in this one with the forces of evil in the ascendant! Find this book at Dog Ear Publishing