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The Fundamentalists #1
Exodus
A dark stranger arrives in the middle of the night, ripping open a centuries-old wound in post apocalyptic Harpers Ferry. Religious zealots have risen from the South, conquering all that stands before them. Now Jason must help his fellow villagers escape to a land far away to preserve their culture and buy enough time to build a defense. Can they succeed without any technology in the face of a rugged American continent? Blogger and author Geoff Livingston confronts America’s worst fears with a world destroyed by technology and dominated by Christian fundamentalism. Don’t miss the opening salvo in The Fundamentalists Trilogy. Visit Geoff Livingston at www.GeoffreyRobertLivingston.com.
288 pages, Paperback
First published August 8, 2013
4 people are currently reading
377 people want to read
About the author
Geoff Livingston
9 books47 followersA former journalist, Geoff continues to write, and has authored four books. Most recently he published his first novel Exodus in 2013, co-authored Marketing in the Round, and wrote the social media primer Welcome to the Fifth Estate.
Professionally, Geoff has advised more than 10 members of the Fortune 500, including AT&T, Cox, eBay, Ford, General Dynamics, Google, PayPal, Pepsi Co., Procter and Gamble, SAIC, Verizon and Yum! Brands. He has also advised numerous start-ups, mid-cap companies, and nonprofits, including United Way of America, Live Earth, The Case Foundation, Razoo, Environmental Defense Fund, the Philanthropy 2.0 Project, Tekelec, Network Solutions, Vocus, the Washington Nationals, and Sully Erna (Godsmack lead singer).
Geoff organized the first Give to the Max Day: Greater Washington in 2011, an event that raised $2 million for more than 1000 nonprofits using online media tools. He also started and sold social media boutique Livingston Communications (2009). He was won awards from the Society of New Communications Research, the American Marketing Association, the International Association of Business Communicators, as well as an Axiom Award for Now Is Gone.
Professionally, Geoff has advised more than 10 members of the Fortune 500, including AT&T, Cox, eBay, Ford, General Dynamics, Google, PayPal, Pepsi Co., Procter and Gamble, SAIC, Verizon and Yum! Brands. He has also advised numerous start-ups, mid-cap companies, and nonprofits, including United Way of America, Live Earth, The Case Foundation, Razoo, Environmental Defense Fund, the Philanthropy 2.0 Project, Tekelec, Network Solutions, Vocus, the Washington Nationals, and Sully Erna (Godsmack lead singer).
Geoff organized the first Give to the Max Day: Greater Washington in 2011, an event that raised $2 million for more than 1000 nonprofits using online media tools. He also started and sold social media boutique Livingston Communications (2009). He was won awards from the Society of New Communications Research, the American Marketing Association, the International Association of Business Communicators, as well as an Axiom Award for Now Is Gone.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 18, 2013
OMG what a great story!!! I am on pins & needles waiting for the next book.
August 28, 2013
I downloaded this book for free through a blog, in which Geoff wrote a guest post. I intended to check out the editing, because Geoff gushed about how much editing he went through, and it drew my curiosity. I ended up reading it and was impelled to review it.
Though, Geoff explains much about his editing processes, I found the editing was the biggest problem with the book. I can’t imagine Geoff has researched the subject of how to write fiction. He incorporates every “don’t” of writing. The advice helps writers move their story forward and keep the reader engaged. Extra words, such as to be verbs, passive voice, and prepositions make the writing drag from unnecessary words. It’s hard to get into the story.
The writing is also impersonal. The words on the page don't engage. They state the story but don’t really incorporate personalities or draw the reader into the story.
And the dialog isn’t realistic. For example one character is roused from sleep and says this, “Diane, you are quite the sight for any man suffering horrible dreams. Thank you for waking me. Tell me, have you any news of Mordecai’s whereabouts?” Who talks like that? No one. It’s super dry and unnatural.
Then there is the overabundance of life lessons, like an after school special. For example the dad says this to his son who is the leader, “No one man or woman has the strength, experience, or hope to successfully guide a town. They must work together and rely on each other’s strengths and knowledge to collectively guide the town.” Who is this directed at? Adults don’t need to hear this, maybe young adults or children. This “advice” is pretentious and demeaning to adult readers. The author would benefit from showing instead of telling. Plus, this same lesson is repeated through the entire book by multiple characters. We get it; we got it before you wrote it.
When Geoff isn’t relaying unnecessary life lessons, we see the main character talk to every person about his relationship with his wife. If he needed advice on how to be a leader, the first lesson: keep your private life private; showing your weakness with your wife makes you look weak. Jason is the weakest character by far; his wife is stronger than he is in this story.
Many opportunities for a good story present themselves, but the author has no idea how to use them to his advantage. Instead we get boring details that no one cares about. And the interesting parts are way overdone, like several chapters about a wolf attack. This is a one scene event, tops. This book, as written, should have been 50 pages. The rest is filler and boring.
The ending is awful, no resolution, no questions answered. It just stops. His afterword explains he broke it up to make it a trilogy and it is obvious. This isn’t a full story. Still, to think he has another 400 pages of awful writing is scary.
Now, I’ll talk to the Christian bashing aspect of the story. First, and foremost, he doesn’t understand Christianity (funny enough, he has another life lesson, where Jason is told to understand Christianity. Geoff should’ve taken his own advice.) For example the book states, “There’s one lord in the Christian religion, but he is divided into three gods: God himself, the Holy Ghost, and Jesus Christ, a son. Christ, who once was mortal, is the one they swear by and are named after.” This is not a Christian belief. It’s a heretical, anti-Christian belief. There aren’t three gods. There is one God and He is Trinity. God is one substance. Anyone who believes in more than one god is not Christian.
He also mixes up fundamentalists with Catholics. They are not the same group, nor do they have the same beliefs. Fundamentalists say they believe every word in Scripture is literal, Catholics do not believe such a notion. Yet, the author talks of Constantine (a figure fundamentalists despise and would never want to emulate.) The crusades were not part of the fundamentalist movement, as the fundamentalists didn’t even exist until the 1500s. And of course, the author got the crusades wrong, as there were more than one and they were not all equal. I’m sure he is referencing the time when the Roman government mandate that all people be Catholics, so when Islam threatened Catholicism the government sent soldiers to defeat them. As in any army, many did not hold the beliefs of the cause, they were there to kill and their sins against the people were not sanctioned by the Catholic Church. Constantine, himself, only promoted Catholicism because of his mother. He didn’t really grasp or care about the Church.
Saying a Christian who sins is a hypocrite is a total atheist belief. Christians see sin as something we will all do until we die because we are in a fallen state and succumb to temptation. However, we also need to Confess our sins for forgiveness and receive the Grace to prevent those temptations in the future, though in our fallen nature we know it’s possible to fall back into those sin, especially if we lack in Grace.
Fundamentalists may accuse a sinner of being a non-believer, which makes the fundamentalist aspect of this story unbelievable. It’s not likely they would follow a sinner who encourages raping and pillaging village to convert people. They are not devoted to their leaders the way Catholics would be. They will drop a pastor for sin, in a heartbeat. Catholics wouldn’t sanction such behavior either.
The whole “brainwashing” thing always makes me laugh. The same argument could be made for atheists. It isn’t as though Christians have people in rooms torturing them into believing Christianity. We are all free to believe whatever we want to believe. Atheists just want to view Christianity as a bunch of weak-minded people who fall for anything anyone tells them. However, I could make the same argument about atheists. Just because some college professor they admired said God wasn’t real doesn’t mean they have to believe it, yet they do. I would say it takes a lot more for a person to accept true Christianity than it does for a person to accept atheism, there isn’t anything intellectual, mysterious, or worthy of exploring in atheism. It is simple, straightforward, and easy to believe. Nothing requiring intelligence, true Christianity appeals to intelligent people like St. Aquinas because of the deep knowledge, exploration, and understanding required. You can’t be weak-minded and believe true Christianity.
If this author had hopes to change Christians than it would serve him better to learn about Christianity, otherwise he looks silly and makes Christian view him as a typical Christian-basher with no clue. If the point is the keep people from Christianity than all this ignorant information does is spread more ignorance.
Though, Geoff explains much about his editing processes, I found the editing was the biggest problem with the book. I can’t imagine Geoff has researched the subject of how to write fiction. He incorporates every “don’t” of writing. The advice helps writers move their story forward and keep the reader engaged. Extra words, such as to be verbs, passive voice, and prepositions make the writing drag from unnecessary words. It’s hard to get into the story.
The writing is also impersonal. The words on the page don't engage. They state the story but don’t really incorporate personalities or draw the reader into the story.
And the dialog isn’t realistic. For example one character is roused from sleep and says this, “Diane, you are quite the sight for any man suffering horrible dreams. Thank you for waking me. Tell me, have you any news of Mordecai’s whereabouts?” Who talks like that? No one. It’s super dry and unnatural.
Then there is the overabundance of life lessons, like an after school special. For example the dad says this to his son who is the leader, “No one man or woman has the strength, experience, or hope to successfully guide a town. They must work together and rely on each other’s strengths and knowledge to collectively guide the town.” Who is this directed at? Adults don’t need to hear this, maybe young adults or children. This “advice” is pretentious and demeaning to adult readers. The author would benefit from showing instead of telling. Plus, this same lesson is repeated through the entire book by multiple characters. We get it; we got it before you wrote it.
When Geoff isn’t relaying unnecessary life lessons, we see the main character talk to every person about his relationship with his wife. If he needed advice on how to be a leader, the first lesson: keep your private life private; showing your weakness with your wife makes you look weak. Jason is the weakest character by far; his wife is stronger than he is in this story.
Many opportunities for a good story present themselves, but the author has no idea how to use them to his advantage. Instead we get boring details that no one cares about. And the interesting parts are way overdone, like several chapters about a wolf attack. This is a one scene event, tops. This book, as written, should have been 50 pages. The rest is filler and boring.
The ending is awful, no resolution, no questions answered. It just stops. His afterword explains he broke it up to make it a trilogy and it is obvious. This isn’t a full story. Still, to think he has another 400 pages of awful writing is scary.
Now, I’ll talk to the Christian bashing aspect of the story. First, and foremost, he doesn’t understand Christianity (funny enough, he has another life lesson, where Jason is told to understand Christianity. Geoff should’ve taken his own advice.) For example the book states, “There’s one lord in the Christian religion, but he is divided into three gods: God himself, the Holy Ghost, and Jesus Christ, a son. Christ, who once was mortal, is the one they swear by and are named after.” This is not a Christian belief. It’s a heretical, anti-Christian belief. There aren’t three gods. There is one God and He is Trinity. God is one substance. Anyone who believes in more than one god is not Christian.
He also mixes up fundamentalists with Catholics. They are not the same group, nor do they have the same beliefs. Fundamentalists say they believe every word in Scripture is literal, Catholics do not believe such a notion. Yet, the author talks of Constantine (a figure fundamentalists despise and would never want to emulate.) The crusades were not part of the fundamentalist movement, as the fundamentalists didn’t even exist until the 1500s. And of course, the author got the crusades wrong, as there were more than one and they were not all equal. I’m sure he is referencing the time when the Roman government mandate that all people be Catholics, so when Islam threatened Catholicism the government sent soldiers to defeat them. As in any army, many did not hold the beliefs of the cause, they were there to kill and their sins against the people were not sanctioned by the Catholic Church. Constantine, himself, only promoted Catholicism because of his mother. He didn’t really grasp or care about the Church.
Saying a Christian who sins is a hypocrite is a total atheist belief. Christians see sin as something we will all do until we die because we are in a fallen state and succumb to temptation. However, we also need to Confess our sins for forgiveness and receive the Grace to prevent those temptations in the future, though in our fallen nature we know it’s possible to fall back into those sin, especially if we lack in Grace.
Fundamentalists may accuse a sinner of being a non-believer, which makes the fundamentalist aspect of this story unbelievable. It’s not likely they would follow a sinner who encourages raping and pillaging village to convert people. They are not devoted to their leaders the way Catholics would be. They will drop a pastor for sin, in a heartbeat. Catholics wouldn’t sanction such behavior either.
The whole “brainwashing” thing always makes me laugh. The same argument could be made for atheists. It isn’t as though Christians have people in rooms torturing them into believing Christianity. We are all free to believe whatever we want to believe. Atheists just want to view Christianity as a bunch of weak-minded people who fall for anything anyone tells them. However, I could make the same argument about atheists. Just because some college professor they admired said God wasn’t real doesn’t mean they have to believe it, yet they do. I would say it takes a lot more for a person to accept true Christianity than it does for a person to accept atheism, there isn’t anything intellectual, mysterious, or worthy of exploring in atheism. It is simple, straightforward, and easy to believe. Nothing requiring intelligence, true Christianity appeals to intelligent people like St. Aquinas because of the deep knowledge, exploration, and understanding required. You can’t be weak-minded and believe true Christianity.
If this author had hopes to change Christians than it would serve him better to learn about Christianity, otherwise he looks silly and makes Christian view him as a typical Christian-basher with no clue. If the point is the keep people from Christianity than all this ignorant information does is spread more ignorance.
November 1, 2013
A seriously imaginative story. Hundreds of years in the future, after a cataclysm brought about by fundamentalism and technology run amok, the village of Harpers Ferry is under threat from a tyrant and his army marching north. At the epicenter of the story is Jason, a young man with leadership thrust upon him. His mission: to lead the uprooted village towards the Rockies, battling wolves, flooded rivers, disease and his own crises of confidence along the way.
This is part 1 of a trilogy and I’m looking forward to the next installment. Disclosure: I know Geoff Livingston professionally. He's actually hinted at what lies in store next – it’s going to be good.
This is part 1 of a trilogy and I’m looking forward to the next installment. Disclosure: I know Geoff Livingston professionally. He's actually hinted at what lies in store next – it’s going to be good.
December 15, 2016
Thank you Goodreads First reads and Geoff Livingston for this book I won in the giveaway. Ok. Now where to begin. This was not what I expected it to be. Conversations were dry and weird unnatural , I felt I was reading opinion and not fiction Catholics Christians and pretty much every denomination I felt was confused for one another. I just think I would have like the book that the summary was about. Thanks!
July 10, 2014
I really liked this book and will be looking for the other two books in the series. It is a well paced and well thought out. I really liked the reference to George Bush! Very enjoyable. Thanks to Goodreads First Reads contest for selecting me to win this book!
October 20, 2013
Thought his was a pretty good book. The characters were pretty solid and the story moved right along. Absolutely am looking forward for the sequel :)
October 8, 2014
I won this book via the Goodreads Giveaway.
This book was interesting, but I'm not sure that it's my type of a book.
This book was interesting, but I'm not sure that it's my type of a book.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews