BOOK REVIEW
The Christ Clone Trilogy
We at "The Reason For The Hope...." read a lot. One of the most fascinating, can’t-put-em-down fiction books we’ve read in a long time is The Christ Clone Trilogy (In His Image, Birth of an Age, Acts of God) by James BeauSeigneur. In fact, we liked it so much that we’re sure you’ll like it too. By the way, we’re not affiliated in any way with Mr. BeauSeigneur or the trilogy’s publisher, SelectiveHouse Publishers, Inc. We just happen to REALLY like the trilogy. You can visit the web-site for the trilogy at http://www.selectivehouse.com/
Not long ago, PropheZine #63 featured a book review of the trilogy. With Ray Gano’s permission (Ray is the publisher of PropheZine and also wrote the book review) we have reprinted it below.
Book Review: The Christ Clone Trilogy
by Ray Gano
I just finished reading the final book to Jim BeauSeigneur’s "The Christ Clone Trilogy" and what a read it was! I was totally captivated, from his first book, "In His Image" to the last "Act of God." In the three books of The Christ Clone Trilogy, author James BeauSeigneur has accomplished what scores of other writers have attempted. He has written an intelligent, well-researched, and flawlessly executed end-times story that both Christians and non-Christians give high marks. In fact, even New Agers sing the books’ praises.
The thing that really drew me into the Christ Clone Trilogy is that he does not stick to the "norms" as most other Christian authors have done in the past. He has come up with some very intriguing plots that are interwoven as a master weaver would do. His use of documentation and footnotes is something else that I really liked as well.
One of the reasons I really liked his book is that it is written to many audiences. His primary target is the person who is involved in the New Age religion. In fact the New age community has openly accepted his first 2 books. The following is a review from NAPRA reVIEW...
NAPRA ReVIEW, the official publication of the New Age Publishing and Retailing Association, calls the Trilogy an "ingeniously constructed tale." Well-known New Age author, Barbara Meister Vitale, is even more effusive, "The only appropriate reaction to these highly creative and entertaining books is *WOW!’ I couldn’t put them down. Master story teller, James BeauSeigneur, holds the reader spellbound. His accuracy in presenting historical events makes The Christ Clone Trilogy incredibly believable. "
Jim doesn’t sacrifice the message to satisfy the broad audience. As physicist Lambert Dolphin, a Christian and frequent speaker at prophecy conferences, writes of the Trilogy, "Bible Prophecy books appear in droves every year. Most are dull and dry and do not begin to capture the actual dynamics of the huge upheavals that are surely soon to fall upon our planet. This trilogy stretches the imagination to the max, and captivates the mind, all the while staying within reasonable Biblical boundaries. This is not merely entertaining reading, it is spiritually stimulating and renews my own desire to better understand the end of the age."
(NOTE: Lambert was a guest speaker at the 97 PropheZine Prophecy Conference in Alta Loma CA.)
Jim also does an exceptional job of blending fact, fiction, and prophetic conjecture as he intertwines the novel’s characters into historic events to set up the premise for his trilogy. Recounting the actual events of a 1978 expedition of American scientists to examine the Shroud of Turin (an ancient piece of linen which bears the mysterious image of a crucified man), he introduces Professor Harold Goodman who, unknown to the rest of the team, makes a startling discovery: a microscopic cluster of dermal cells still alive after two thousand years.
Based on this discovery and the theories of real-life Nobel Prize winner, Francis Crick, Goodman, an atheist, sets about to prove that the man on the Shroud was actually a member of an alien race, four billion years advanced to life on earth. The incredible plan to prove his theory: clone Jesus! The cloning from the cells found on the Shroud sets in motion forces which trigger worldwide cataclysms and the ultimate battle between good and evil.
On the back of the first book it states, "The scholarship in all areas covered by the books (science, history, medicine, geography, politics, astrophysics, the Bible, the New Age, and many others) is impeccable," and from the Trilogy’s 200-plus footnotes, it appears to be true. At times the novel reads like a techno-thriller with high-tech games of mass destruction and intricate political maneuvering through the halls of the United Nations. Jim has spared no effort in getting his facts right and he seems as much at home with biblical prophecy as he is with discussing how Intuik Eskimoes hunt Beluga whales; the similarities of black holes and white dwarf stars; the fine points of politics in the 1917 Russian revolution; the mechanics of "Star Wars" technology (in which he is a nationally recognized expert); the inner workings of the United Nations, the Russian Kremlin and the Israeli Knesset; the combination of geopolitical, environmental, and religious influences on the conflict between India, Pakistan and China; and the specific capabilities of numerous astronomical observatories and even their planned improvements for the next 25 years.
All of these are a part of the amazingly rich tapestry of The Christ Clone Trilogy, and yet never does BeauSeigneur lose the reader’s attention in the details. Instead, the story moves briskly along with plot twists and surprises at every turn of the page and a gutsy, hard-driving pace that never lets up.
Though he insists the books must be read as fiction, BeauSeigneur has broken some new ground in the Trilogy. For example, by including not just biblical prophecy, but the prophecies of more than a dozen other world religions, he presents the reader with a startling discovery. Through this harmonization of prophecies, not only does he create a riveting tale of science, global politics, and intrigue, he reveals that either by amazing coincidence or Satanic design, the world is being prepared through these other prophecies for the coming of a messianic world leader, whom Christians know as the Antichrist.
One of the major attributes about The Christ Clone Trilogy is that for the first time we see an Antichrist character that is worthy of Jesus’ warning in Matthew 24:24, "For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect if that were possible." In many other books that I have read, the Antichrist has been easily identifiable by Christians and patently unbelievable by anyone who is aware of prophecy. So convincing is the Trilogy’s Antichrist that it suddenly becomes entirely conceivable that millions could willingly give their allegiance to this man who in every way matches the known attributes of Revelation’s Beast, even to the point of taking a physical mark on their hands or foreheads. In fact, one of the major concerns Jim BeauSeigneur hears from Christians is that his Antichrist is too convincing and might lead astray readers who don’t read the Trilogy’s third volume. The reviews he’s received from New Agers further demonstrates his Antichrist’s believability. In fact I found that I really liked the guy, so Jim did a VERY good job at this and was one of the major factors that captured me to read more.
Jim BeauSeigneur, a former intelligence analyst for the National Security Agency and former newspaper publisher, taught political science at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, and in 1980 was the Republican nominee for U.S. Congress running against Al Gore, now the Vice President. His other published works includes manuals on strategic defense and military avionics, and the lyrics to several contemporary Christian songs.
In closing, I HIGHLY recommend that you read these books. I enjoyed them greatly and they sucked me in like no other book of its ilk ever has. If you have been reading Tim LeHayes books, and have been enjoying those, I KNOW that you will enjoy this series. My advise is to buy all three at the same time, because as soon as you finish one, you will want to jump right into the next.
Ray Gano Publisher PropheZine
The individual books of The Christ Clone Trilogy * In His Image (384 pages), Birth of an Age (256 pages), and Acts of God (448 pages) are available in bookstores through wholesaler Baker & Taylor, on-line at www.amazon.com and www.selectivehouse.com, and from the publisher’s toll-free order line at (888) CLONE-99. Readers with access to the Internet can find additional information and read sample scenes from all three books on the publisher’s web page at www.selectivehouse.com.
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