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Showing posts with label supernatural. Show all posts
Showing posts with label supernatural. Show all posts

Monday, October 5, 2009

Triumvirate Surpasses the Predictable Formulaic Religious Conspiracy Thrillers


Shawna Ryan expertly juxtaposes the supernatural genre with historical fiction in the concluding volume of her Destiny’s Damned trilogy. Triumvirate of the Damned is a multi-layered story that surpasses the predictable formulaic religious conspiracy thrillers that currently glut the market.
Cutting quickly from scene to scene like an action-adventure movie, Ryan’s novel begins in the present-day Vatican City. A faction inside the Church follows an edict called the “Issue.” This ancient document contains Emperor Constantine’s instructions for setting in motion clandestine machinations to reveal the true nature and purpose of the Church, which is “to see that the Roman Empire survives in the Church” and is one day reborn “to enslave the world.” In Ireland, a group of women are imprisoned by the Roman Empire within the stygian depths of the “Sequenti.” They maintain a secret that can thwart the Church’s insidious plans. A select few of these women know the location of an artifact, called the “Christ’s Remnant,” that would topple the Church’s power structure. A pagan goddess named Sybil gathers her forces to stand against the faction within the Church. She picks individuals like reporter Alex Caldwell and Kevin James, a professor of Mythology. These courageous men search Turkey for the original Christ’s Remnant. Also called into Sybil’s fold is Alicia Cook. She is investigating the disappearance of Patrick Bodowski, who is being tortured and held as a prisoner by the Church’s Inquisition for trumped up heretical practices. Alicia is taken prisoner, and the women in the Sequentia entrust her with their secrets. Unaware of their role as pawns in a kind of predestination, Sybil’s chosen ones join together in an epic battle between good and evil.
Ryan’s novel is written for sheer entertainment. Pseudoscience and revisionist history is not passed off as fact here. Her prose isn’t bogged down with history lessons, and she doesn’t require the reader to take silly leaps of faith away from logic. Her characters’ actions flow logically and naturally. The premise behind her novel is unique and the characterization is excellent.
Three stars out of five.
Foreword Clarion Review

Thursday, August 27, 2009

The Thriller TRIUMVIRATE OF THE DAMNED Published


Triumvirate of the Damned by Shawna Ryan is the third book in a series described as being as "original and insightful as anything in the genre." Within the bowels of a timeless subterranean prison, a child, her face blistered, her hair burned away, stares at the body of a woman thrown inside. Sacrificing their lives, the women and the children in the prison are hiding from the Church a document personally dictated by Christ, which contains His last instructions to mankind. The woman is half naked. Her hands are tied. Dried blood is crusted beneath her nose and in her short, blond hair. Bruised and battered, she is the first new inmate imprisoned there for hundreds of years. With her and in her wake, come forces that would steel Christ's document and enslave the modern world.

Triumvirate of the Damned is now available at bookstores everywhere and from Amazon.com. It will soon be available as an ebook.

Friday, July 25, 2008

Our Lords, Tammuz & Christ

The similarities between the ancient god Tammuz and the Christian God are striking.

Tammuz was worshipped throughout Palestine and Mesopotamia, including Jerusalem, as early as 700 years before Christ was born. Tammuz worshippers called him “The Lord.”

The Church of the Nativity was built at the site Christian’s worship as the place Christ was born. It is located in Bethlehem. That same site was worshipped centuries before Christ was born as the place Tammuz was reborn.
In a letter from St. Jerome to Paulinis, St. Jerome writes, “This Bethlehem which is now ours, and is the most august spot on earth, was foreshadowed by a grave of Tammuz- that is to say, Adonis in the cave where the infant Christ once wailed....”

Tammuz was said to have been crucified. Tammuz symbol was the Tau, which was a pagan symbol for the cross.

Every year Tammuz’ was laid on a bed or bier and his death mourned by women. Afterwards, his resurrection was chanted and praised. Tammuz was said to have been a beautiful youth. The women who mourned him: the goddess Ishtar of Babylon and Assyria and the goddess Astarte of Phoenicia.

Many Christians, Muslims, and Jews reject any connection with gods like Tammuz that preceded their own. They call those gods “pagan.” For most of them that term is derogatory, particularly when the pagan gods are compared with their own. But why? Why are these “modern” religions so defensive? There is no reason to be ashamed. They may not be perfect, but Tammuz and the other pagan gods are the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim god’s ancestors.

Sources:
• “The Myth of the Resurrection” by Joseph McCabe (1925).(McCabe was once a Franciscan monk.) www.faithofyeshua.faithweb.com/crucified_sun_godno4htm
• “The Origins of Christianity & the Quest for the Historical Jesus Christ,” www.truthbeknown.com/origins.htm
• “Examining the Crucifixion of Jesus and Parallels to Crucified Sun-gods,”
www.faithofyeshua.faithweb.com/crucified_sun_godno4.htm.

© Shawna Ryan
Author: thrillers DESTINY'S DAMNED & SATAN'S SCAT
available:
www.pilchuckpublishing.com
amazon.com
books stores and libraries