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Cruel Logic: The Philosopher Killer
Charles Cullen, a brilliant university professor and ruthless killer, makes a daring escape from a hospital for the criminally insane. Dr. Joseph Kallinger, the psychologist who examined Cullen, is called in to help find him with a burnt-out cop who thinks Kallinger’s diagnosis is to blame for the situation they’re in. On the college campus, Evangelical Christian Danny Ranes arrives for his freshman year and falls for bold and beautiful Shavonda Jackson, who introduces him to social justice and identity politics. Danny begins a life-changing journey of deconstructing his faith and is drawn into a network of radical activism. He is forced to make a dangerous choice that may change his life forever. And then the frightening video recordings start to show up. Charles Cullen captures college professors and debates with them on screen. The his moral right to kill them. Can the psychologist and cop catch the serial killer and stop his philosophical murders or will their own inner demons break them first? When you read this novel, it will lead you on a frightening rollercoaster of deep thought and high suspense with pulse-pounding chills into the very meaning of the existence of God. Cruel Logic is the first in the Theological Thriller Novel series of riveting suspenseful novels about human nature, the problem of evil, and the existence of God.
408 pages, Paperback
Published July 31, 2023
14 people are currently reading
385 people want to read
About the author
Brian James Godawa
17 books6 followersBrian Godawa has been a professional writer and filmmaker for over 20 years. His creative versatility was born of a passion for both intellect and imagination, both left-brain and right-brain. The result: Brian is an artisan of word, image, and story that engages heart, mind, and soul. Just think, “Renaissance Man.”
Bestselling Author. But Brian is also an author and international speaker on art, movies, worldviews, and faith. His popular book, Hollywood Worldviews: Watching Films with Wisdom and Discernment, is used as a textbook in schools around the country. He is a contributing scholarly writer to various journals and professional orgs, and his articles on movies and philosophy have been published around the world. His Chronicles series of novels are his most important contribution by incarnating his worldview and theology in narrative unlike anything you’ve read before.
Hollywood Filmmaker. As an award-winning screenwriter, his first feature film was To End All Wars, starring Kiefer Sutherland. But his skills and experience quickly expanded to include writing and directing feature films, documentaries and video promotionals.
When he isn’t reading, watching movies, or loving on his wife, he is reading, watching movies, or loving on his wife. He knows, he knows: He should get out more.
Bestselling Author. But Brian is also an author and international speaker on art, movies, worldviews, and faith. His popular book, Hollywood Worldviews: Watching Films with Wisdom and Discernment, is used as a textbook in schools around the country. He is a contributing scholarly writer to various journals and professional orgs, and his articles on movies and philosophy have been published around the world. His Chronicles series of novels are his most important contribution by incarnating his worldview and theology in narrative unlike anything you’ve read before.
Hollywood Filmmaker. As an award-winning screenwriter, his first feature film was To End All Wars, starring Kiefer Sutherland. But his skills and experience quickly expanded to include writing and directing feature films, documentaries and video promotionals.
When he isn’t reading, watching movies, or loving on his wife, he is reading, watching movies, or loving on his wife. He knows, he knows: He should get out more.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 54 reviews
January 26, 2024
Let me be as blunt as I can be with this review. Holy shit! This book is hot garbage! But I simply couldn't stop reading it. Or to be honest here, most of it. I skipped over the hunting the serial killer sections because I wasn't interested in them to focus more on the trials and tribulations of Danny Ranes, the hapless non-character among many other non-characters infesting this novel, who goes to a scary LEFTIST college in CALIFORNIA and gets INDOCTRINATED. BOO! GET SCARED! Of the parts I did read involving the serial killer, they were not any better. They were filled with name drops of western philosophers to make the author sound smarter than he really is between his right wing fever dream gibberish.
I don't know where to start with what is wrong with this novel, so I'll just do a slight ramble of my own. At the end of it, you can find some choice quotes.
Enter Danny Ranes. He's just your usual, comfortable middle class white kid who comes from southern California to enroll in the fictionalized Thomas Burke University. Let me cut to the chase here. I fundamentally do not buy Danny Ranes as a believable character with flaws, struggles, and motivations - a common situation with just about all of the characters of the Philosopher Killer. But when it comes to Danny, he is the worst offender.
Does the author really expect the white, middle class, son of a Christian preacher and Christian housewife, who came to age in the 2010s to 2020s to not to have strong, often stupid opinions on anything involving sensitive culture war topics? Maybe I'm working off bad stereotypes involving young white men from Southern California, but In the words of my latest favorite acronym, BFFR.
Danny doesn’t seem like a real adult, much less a character. Anything he is told by anybody goes directly into his head and becomes internalized within moments with minimal hesitation. He is like a stupid child you could trick into believing the moon is made of cheese. Time after time, he is insulted, belittled, and told the nonsensical bullshit ever. But instead of providing even the smallest amounts of pushback to what he is told, he simply goes, “Okay, that makes sense, I guess.”
There is not a single actual thought going through this mans head. Danny exists as a vessel for everybody, especially to author of this novel, to carry out tedious, careless thought experiments. I will not even begin to get into Dannys “trans racial” arc because of how bizarre and offensive it is.
My theory with the writing of Danny and his so-called character is that he is how the author views people who go off to college and become people their parents don't recognize. This is why he isn't a character. He is just the mouthpiece of the author to rag on people who go to universities and colleges get "indoctrinated."
Enter Shavonda Charleston. She is a young black women that Danny Ranes meets and seduces him him in the ways of DEI. She is described as looking like Rihanna, which causes Danny to become terrifyingly horny with her despite her obvious and open disdain for him. She also gives her crabs later in the novel, but that's a whole other thing. What strikes me the most about Shavonda Charleston besides her hideously racist characterization, is that she's another mouthpiece character for how bad and evil DEI and (ostensibly) black people are. Most of the dialogue that comes from her sounds like nothing that would come from an actual human. She has this fascinating quirk where she speaks fine, gramatically correct english before going into full on ebonics that makes me, a black reader/writer, cringe to the bone. She just runs at the mouth of what the author thinks DEI is. Shavonda Charleston in a nutshell is basically the disgustingly racist jezebel trope but updated for more modern audiences with a rotten brained bone to pick with DEI.
This book is filled with brain rotting, conspiratorial nonsense. From the "Gays are groomers" bullshit from to 80's to the "Antifascists are the real fascists!" gibberish, this book reads less like an actual novel, and more like the inner mind of a right winger obsessed with online culture wars. For example, the author has a real issue with "cultural marxism." You know, that big antisemitic conspiracy theory that Jews are trying to replace all white people. In one of the strangest thing i've seen in fiction, the author decides to include footnote/citations of real life incidents where "liberal hysteria" has actually taken place. People do not do this in serious works of fiction for a reason. It takes you out of the experience and exposes how little you care about telling a good story, but pushing forward your agenda. Just terrible, terrible stuff.
I could go on to read more of this book and give an even more in-depth exploration of why this book is a waste of time for even those on the political right, but I'm not going to do that. This book has already stolen several hours from my life I will never get back. The only joy I got from this exhausting read was riffing on it with several online friends of mine. I suggest you find a copy of this from a certain online library and do the same. That is the only way to make reading this slop fiction an enjoyable experience.
Now for the choice quotes.
I could keep going, but I can't. So I leave you with this fantastic moment of minimal self awareness.
Phenomenal
I don't know where to start with what is wrong with this novel, so I'll just do a slight ramble of my own. At the end of it, you can find some choice quotes.
Enter Danny Ranes. He's just your usual, comfortable middle class white kid who comes from southern California to enroll in the fictionalized Thomas Burke University. Let me cut to the chase here. I fundamentally do not buy Danny Ranes as a believable character with flaws, struggles, and motivations - a common situation with just about all of the characters of the Philosopher Killer. But when it comes to Danny, he is the worst offender.
Does the author really expect the white, middle class, son of a Christian preacher and Christian housewife, who came to age in the 2010s to 2020s to not to have strong, often stupid opinions on anything involving sensitive culture war topics? Maybe I'm working off bad stereotypes involving young white men from Southern California, but In the words of my latest favorite acronym, BFFR.
Danny doesn’t seem like a real adult, much less a character. Anything he is told by anybody goes directly into his head and becomes internalized within moments with minimal hesitation. He is like a stupid child you could trick into believing the moon is made of cheese. Time after time, he is insulted, belittled, and told the nonsensical bullshit ever. But instead of providing even the smallest amounts of pushback to what he is told, he simply goes, “Okay, that makes sense, I guess.”
There is not a single actual thought going through this mans head. Danny exists as a vessel for everybody, especially to author of this novel, to carry out tedious, careless thought experiments. I will not even begin to get into Dannys “trans racial” arc because of how bizarre and offensive it is.
My theory with the writing of Danny and his so-called character is that he is how the author views people who go off to college and become people their parents don't recognize. This is why he isn't a character. He is just the mouthpiece of the author to rag on people who go to universities and colleges get "indoctrinated."
Enter Shavonda Charleston. She is a young black women that Danny Ranes meets and seduces him him in the ways of DEI. She is described as looking like Rihanna, which causes Danny to become terrifyingly horny with her despite her obvious and open disdain for him. She also gives her crabs later in the novel, but that's a whole other thing. What strikes me the most about Shavonda Charleston besides her hideously racist characterization, is that she's another mouthpiece character for how bad and evil DEI and (ostensibly) black people are. Most of the dialogue that comes from her sounds like nothing that would come from an actual human. She has this fascinating quirk where she speaks fine, gramatically correct english before going into full on ebonics that makes me, a black reader/writer, cringe to the bone. She just runs at the mouth of what the author thinks DEI is. Shavonda Charleston in a nutshell is basically the disgustingly racist jezebel trope but updated for more modern audiences with a rotten brained bone to pick with DEI.
This book is filled with brain rotting, conspiratorial nonsense. From the "Gays are groomers" bullshit from to 80's to the "Antifascists are the real fascists!" gibberish, this book reads less like an actual novel, and more like the inner mind of a right winger obsessed with online culture wars. For example, the author has a real issue with "cultural marxism." You know, that big antisemitic conspiracy theory that Jews are trying to replace all white people. In one of the strangest thing i've seen in fiction, the author decides to include footnote/citations of real life incidents where "liberal hysteria" has actually taken place. People do not do this in serious works of fiction for a reason. It takes you out of the experience and exposes how little you care about telling a good story, but pushing forward your agenda. Just terrible, terrible stuff.
I could go on to read more of this book and give an even more in-depth exploration of why this book is a waste of time for even those on the political right, but I'm not going to do that. This book has already stolen several hours from my life I will never get back. The only joy I got from this exhausting read was riffing on it with several online friends of mine. I suggest you find a copy of this from a certain online library and do the same. That is the only way to make reading this slop fiction an enjoyable experience.
Now for the choice quotes.
Shavonda started texting on her phone. “You know what. Come back in a couple hours when I’m done here.” She finished her text. “We need to pop yo white frosh cherry ass with some social justice.”
“Okay. See you then.” Walking back to his dorm, Danny replayed their exchange in his head. Had he said anything stupid? Had he looked as naïve and virginal to her as he had felt? “I like you,” she had said. I like you. “Pop yo white frosh cherry ass.” Cherry ass.
“Hey, y’all,” Shavonda greeted. “This is my new bitch, Danny Ranes. Pronouns, he/him.”
“Did you know that the Bible was written by Jews? Even the New Testament. Funny how Jews keep popping up in positions of power in institutions of oppression. But I won’t go down that rabbit hole right now. The point here is that Western civilization based on the Bible is the hegemonic power that oppresses blacks with systemic racism.
“Awright, so the world is divided up into two kinds of people: oppressor and oppressed. Now, the oppressor is the white man. And the oppressed is everybody else: minorities, LGBTQ+, the disabled, women. To get ahead here at the university, to get special preference and stuff, you gotta be an intersection of more than one marginalized minority. Think of it like a hierarchy or pyramid of status. Only the top is for the people who are the most victimized. The more minority groups you a part of, the higher up on the pyramid you are. So I’m black, which puts me almost on the top. But I’m also a woman, and women are almost as discriminated against as blacks. So that’s like one plus one equals two, right?”
Shavonda gestured with her hand as if it was ascending a pyramid. “Okay, I’m also bisexual, which makes me even higher on the pyramid. Two plus one equals three.” Her hand gestured up one more level.
Danny blurted out, “You’re bisexual?”
“You got a problem with that?”
“No. I just…” He started to have a harder time following her. Images of her kissing a woman assaulted his mind.
“Now, bisexual isn’t as many points as being trans,” Shavonda continued. “Trans is probably the biggest victim of oppression. So, like, if I was a black trans disabled lesbian Muslim, I would be, like, Queen Victim Bitch. Nobody could touch me. I could do whatever the hell I wanted. And if anybody criticized me, I could scorch they ass and get ‘em cancelled. Cause some people mo’ equal than others.
“But back to you. You, my dear Anglo ivory cracka, are on the bottom of the pyramid. White, male, Christian, heteronormative, cisgender. You are the posterchild of oppression. You get all the blame.”
Now it was his turn not to wait for an answer. “Dr. Bathory, I have stated and the professors and students who support this proposal have agreed that Western civilization has many faults we should not ignore. In fact, we should point them out. But the Greeks and the Romans, the Enlightenment thinkers and the Judeo-Christian theologians have shaped the course of history and provided the foundation for the very world we now inhabit. Western civilization brought us individual rights and religious freedom. It has produced liberal democracy and free market capitalism that, contrary to your objection, has brought most of the earth out of life-threatening poverty. It has given us education, knowledge of science, reason, and the rule of law.”
“Dr. Gunness, thank you for your lecture. I just had a question. You mentioned the racism and sexism of Western thinkin’. But in many Middle Eastern countries today, homosexuals are thrown off buildings while women are subjugated to men and forced to cover their identities with burkas. So, wouldn’t y’all call that problematic?”
Dr. Gunness’s smiling face turned serious. “I would not say all Eastern cultures are perfect. But they are nowhere near as oppressive as the West’s misogynistic, homophobic, and transphobic persecution of women, gays and trans folks.”
The student would not let it go. “But if we don’t accept the traditional categories of man and woman, how would we even know what a woman is?”
“A woman is anyone who identifies as woman.”
“But what is that? What is a woman?”
The professor’s face turned from serious to malicious. He placed his large, black trans hand on the petite girl’s shoulder and spoke with hushed venom. “If you are trying to misgender me, little twat, I would be happy to take your far-right-wing, stochastic terrorist, little white ass out back and show you just how a real woman responds to that hate speech.”
They smashed their lips against each other. They passionately probed each other’s mouths. He felt the urgency to move hard, fast, and forcefully. He wanted her so badly.
Then, she pulled away and pushed the piece of paper into his hand. “Hurry up and sign so I can deflower yo’ ass.”
Danny looked at the paper. It was a university-approved Sexual Consent Contract. With blanks already filled in, it read, “I, Danny Ranes, declare that I am at this time not under the influence of alcohol, drugs, or medication and agree to engage in consensual sex with Shavonda Charleston. By initialing, I agree to engage in all or some of the following consensual acts.”
A list with checkboxes followed, all checked in by Shavonda and already initialed by her. These included kissing, sexual fondling, oral copulation, vaginal intercourse with an FDA-approved condom, and anal intercourse.
The final section of the contract read, “I further declare that this agreement is of my own free will. I am not being coerced or sexually harassed in any way. I do not intend to change my mind before the sex act or acts are over. However, if I do, it is further understood that when I say the words CODE RED, my partner agrees to STOP INSTANTLY!”[19]
“Okay, bye.” He ended the call but pretended to still be speaking to his parents. “Oh, and one more thing, I’m fucking a beautiful, black goddess.”
I could keep going, but I can't. So I leave you with this fantastic moment of minimal self awareness.
As they left the exhibit, it struck Danny how incredibly unoriginal and derivative everything was. It was like a political campaign that ripped off other famous cultural expressions and piggybacked on them. Is this what politics did to art, cheapening its message like a tick sucking its host’s blood? Is this what the new generation of artists were, just parasites without an original thought?
Phenomenal
January 23, 2024
Brian, clearly, is living out his anti-woke fantasy in this novel by imagining horrible fates to the professors who teach woke ideology at woke universities. He, clearly, has written himself in as a proxy for the villain so that he can share his darkest desires with the world.
Finally, a conservative, anti-woke author who is 100% willing to let everyone know that evil comes from conservatives when they want to stop the "woke menace" from teaching about things like forgiveness and equality the way Jesus taught his disciples. Accusations are usually the best indicator of what people like the author think but this, this is a masterwork of blatantly confessing to what he wants to do.
Finally, a conservative, anti-woke author who is 100% willing to let everyone know that evil comes from conservatives when they want to stop the "woke menace" from teaching about things like forgiveness and equality the way Jesus taught his disciples. Accusations are usually the best indicator of what people like the author think but this, this is a masterwork of blatantly confessing to what he wants to do.
September 30, 2023
"Why shouldn't I kill you?" Like the late movie Nefarious, Godawa's Cruel Logic pins down the philosophies the world's been playing with for the last two centuries like bugs in a museum display. No skittering off into the misty speculations of comfortable, pipe smoke-seasoned faculty lounges or the "gotcha" ambushes on the naive in university lecture halls, the spokespeople for these worldviews must defend their beliefs at the cost of their lives. For those not versed in these philosophical strains, Godawa does a good job of differentiating these worldviews. This is a must to fully appreciate the novel, but it may seem a bit dry/academic at first, but hold on! It all comes together and you'll be very glad you did. Yeah, we're playing hardball now!
April 16, 2025
I'm in a bit of a quandary of how to rate this book. I'll start by saying that, overall, I really enjoyed it. I enjoy finding Christian Fiction that is "real life" with some healthy grit to it, not cotton candy and puppy dogs, swoony swoony, kiss kiss themes, because that's not how real life is, not even Christian life.
In the technical sense, it was well-written and well-edited, so props to the author for that.
It contains a lot of heavy issues that aren't for the faint of heart, including some graphic violence, murder, profanity, and sexual depictions. The story has a woke university setting, so obviously it heavily touches on nearly every woke agenda item known to man (critical race theory, LGBTQ, Antifa and BLM, "all white people bad, everyone else victims," so-called white privilege and white fragility, transgenderism, personal pronouns, etc). Basically, any and every nauseating and demented woke ideal is covered in this book in one way or another through the character's lives. I'm not saying this is a bad thing either. For Christians who don't fully understand the leftist side of our world, if you can get past the worldly carnality of the book, this would be a great way to introduce you to a different world perspective through a fictional narrative.
I like that topics delving into the leftist nature (as cringe as the left is) are covered in a Christian Fiction book. God didn't call us to be pearl-clutching prudes who hide their heads in the sand. In order to reach the world as God commanded, it's important to know how that world operates.
Overall, I loved finding a book that tells a real story that touches on the realities of the world in which we live.
For readers who are into intellectually charged philosophical conversations, you might particularly enjoy that aspect of this book. For me, the several lengthy philosophical diatribes turned the book into a cumbersome read. As the book progressed, I found myself skimming these sections because I didn't find it interesting.
Christian readers need to be aware that this book is FULL of unnecessary blatant profanity (especially continued use of the "F" word. This word is used not once or twice but continually throughout the entire book, which I did NOT appreciate.) The Bible is clear that no unwholesome talk should come from a believer's mouth, which means that Christian authors shouldn't include unwholesome talk (profanity) in their books. (To be clear, I'm not sure if this author actually claims to be a Christian or if he's an unbeliever who wrote the book and put it into the Christian Fiction genre simply because he knew woke non-believers would trash the book because it exposes their noxious belief systems).
I realize that the book's characters weren't Christians, but there are ways to indicate profanity in a book without actually using it. The simple fact is that most Christians read Christian Fiction to shield themselves from the debauched filthy language and imagery depicted in this book. So, Christian readers should read with extreme caution. If you're easily offended and prefer the more unrealistic "sweeter," and sanitized nature of most Christian Fiction on the market, be aware that this book is probably not for you.
This book will be a hard sell for both Christian readers and non-Christian readers. For most Christians, they will hate the extreme profanity and other carnal worldly elements that were built into the book. Non-Christians will hate it because it exposes the blatant immoral nature of their woke leftist belief system.
Honestly, I think the author painted himself into a corner with this book because he's managed to ostracize basically both sides of the political spectrum. If Mr. Godawa had kept the book on the cleaner side (since it's Christian Fiction), I would consider this a very important book for all Christians to read because I think it's important for Christians to understand the people of the world who believe and act differently than they do. Unfortunately, the ungodly language in the book prevents me from recommending this book to the other Christians in my circle.
If all the profanity had been eliminated, this would have been an easy five-star read for me. I'll still give it four stars because it was well written and an overall enjoyable read, but I can't stress this enough...CHRISTIAN READERS SHOULD READ WITH EXTREME CAUTION.
In the technical sense, it was well-written and well-edited, so props to the author for that.
It contains a lot of heavy issues that aren't for the faint of heart, including some graphic violence, murder, profanity, and sexual depictions. The story has a woke university setting, so obviously it heavily touches on nearly every woke agenda item known to man (critical race theory, LGBTQ, Antifa and BLM, "all white people bad, everyone else victims," so-called white privilege and white fragility, transgenderism, personal pronouns, etc). Basically, any and every nauseating and demented woke ideal is covered in this book in one way or another through the character's lives. I'm not saying this is a bad thing either. For Christians who don't fully understand the leftist side of our world, if you can get past the worldly carnality of the book, this would be a great way to introduce you to a different world perspective through a fictional narrative.
I like that topics delving into the leftist nature (as cringe as the left is) are covered in a Christian Fiction book. God didn't call us to be pearl-clutching prudes who hide their heads in the sand. In order to reach the world as God commanded, it's important to know how that world operates.
Overall, I loved finding a book that tells a real story that touches on the realities of the world in which we live.
For readers who are into intellectually charged philosophical conversations, you might particularly enjoy that aspect of this book. For me, the several lengthy philosophical diatribes turned the book into a cumbersome read. As the book progressed, I found myself skimming these sections because I didn't find it interesting.
Christian readers need to be aware that this book is FULL of unnecessary blatant profanity (especially continued use of the "F" word. This word is used not once or twice but continually throughout the entire book, which I did NOT appreciate.) The Bible is clear that no unwholesome talk should come from a believer's mouth, which means that Christian authors shouldn't include unwholesome talk (profanity) in their books. (To be clear, I'm not sure if this author actually claims to be a Christian or if he's an unbeliever who wrote the book and put it into the Christian Fiction genre simply because he knew woke non-believers would trash the book because it exposes their noxious belief systems).
I realize that the book's characters weren't Christians, but there are ways to indicate profanity in a book without actually using it. The simple fact is that most Christians read Christian Fiction to shield themselves from the debauched filthy language and imagery depicted in this book. So, Christian readers should read with extreme caution. If you're easily offended and prefer the more unrealistic "sweeter," and sanitized nature of most Christian Fiction on the market, be aware that this book is probably not for you.
This book will be a hard sell for both Christian readers and non-Christian readers. For most Christians, they will hate the extreme profanity and other carnal worldly elements that were built into the book. Non-Christians will hate it because it exposes the blatant immoral nature of their woke leftist belief system.
Honestly, I think the author painted himself into a corner with this book because he's managed to ostracize basically both sides of the political spectrum. If Mr. Godawa had kept the book on the cleaner side (since it's Christian Fiction), I would consider this a very important book for all Christians to read because I think it's important for Christians to understand the people of the world who believe and act differently than they do. Unfortunately, the ungodly language in the book prevents me from recommending this book to the other Christians in my circle.
If all the profanity had been eliminated, this would have been an easy five-star read for me. I'll still give it four stars because it was well written and an overall enjoyable read, but I can't stress this enough...CHRISTIAN READERS SHOULD READ WITH EXTREME CAUTION.
October 1, 2023
Fascinating premise. Loved the philosophical and religious discussions. But I can't recommend the book. It contains sadistic, gruesome and gory murder details. Sick, sick, sick. Wish I hadn't read it.
November 5, 2023
Did not finish. Unless you are a philosophy student or professor, this book is way too slow and too obtuse. I thought it would be fast paced, but it became mired in dialogue which was truly uninteresting.
October 16, 2023
There are two stories woven in this book. I kept waiting for these stories to converge (slight spoiler) they never do more than just lightly touch. The stories do not intersect but rather, happen in the same area.
One of these stories is an extremely interesting serial killer chase, similar to stories like Hannibal or Se7en or Thr3e by Ted Dekker. If this story was the entire book, it would deserve a place in the same discussion as those. It really felt similar enough to satisfy fans of those stories but it brings a unique aspect to the genre with it's debate of good and evil. It teaches ideas and philosophy of good and evil but in a way that is interesting and entertaining. Kind of like Sophie's World does with Philosophy, if anyone has read that.
However, this is not the only story in the book. The second story reads like God's Not Dead. Like a Christian movie made to talk to the converted. BUT… it would be hard to recommend it to that crowd because of the many uses of the F word. What I think is unfortunate is that the language would prevent the fans of stories like God's Not Dead from enjoying the book but the heavy handedness of the message would prevent the others from enjoying it…
Now here is where I am very torn and where some people might be confused about my opinion on this… I still think I'm going to give this book 5 out of 5 stars. Why? You might ask, especially given my harshness of the second story… well… for a couple of reasons.
#1 I REALLY enjoyed the parts pertaining to story one. Like… a lot!
#2 I am not as hard of films or books with a message, if that message is part of the story and not just thrown in there.
#3 Most importantly, though these stories actually never intersect and I began to become annoyed at that I soon started to realize that the author was using one story to parallel the other. They deal with different ideas but they are very similar stories from a certain point of view and the author was trying to show that. They intersect at the ideas… "Ideas have consequences." Once I realized his, it gave the book a layer of depth that movie like God's Not Dead simply don't have… and for me, it transformed it into something very enjoyable.
#4 The ending was very symbolic… and… I'm a very big sucker for symbolism.
One of these stories is an extremely interesting serial killer chase, similar to stories like Hannibal or Se7en or Thr3e by Ted Dekker. If this story was the entire book, it would deserve a place in the same discussion as those. It really felt similar enough to satisfy fans of those stories but it brings a unique aspect to the genre with it's debate of good and evil. It teaches ideas and philosophy of good and evil but in a way that is interesting and entertaining. Kind of like Sophie's World does with Philosophy, if anyone has read that.
However, this is not the only story in the book. The second story reads like God's Not Dead. Like a Christian movie made to talk to the converted. BUT… it would be hard to recommend it to that crowd because of the many uses of the F word. What I think is unfortunate is that the language would prevent the fans of stories like God's Not Dead from enjoying the book but the heavy handedness of the message would prevent the others from enjoying it…
Now here is where I am very torn and where some people might be confused about my opinion on this… I still think I'm going to give this book 5 out of 5 stars. Why? You might ask, especially given my harshness of the second story… well… for a couple of reasons.
#1 I REALLY enjoyed the parts pertaining to story one. Like… a lot!
#2 I am not as hard of films or books with a message, if that message is part of the story and not just thrown in there.
#3 Most importantly, though these stories actually never intersect and I began to become annoyed at that I soon started to realize that the author was using one story to parallel the other. They deal with different ideas but they are very similar stories from a certain point of view and the author was trying to show that. They intersect at the ideas… "Ideas have consequences." Once I realized his, it gave the book a layer of depth that movie like God's Not Dead simply don't have… and for me, it transformed it into something very enjoyable.
#4 The ending was very symbolic… and… I'm a very big sucker for symbolism.
September 16, 2023
I'm a massive fan of The Chronicles of the Nephilim series and was equally enthralled with Brian’s shift in direction with his new book Cruel Logic, which illustrates Brian’s great range of writing skills. Cruel Logic has fascinating characters wrapped up in a thought-provoking, sometimes jaw-dropping story. The book is a high-adrenaline, wild ride, with more twists and turns than a Formula 1 racetrack. Thoroughly enjoyed the read!
January 24, 2024
Not much to be said except there's no thrill and hardly any kill. An entire chapter is one character's lecture. But this is a book written for a certain group, one that circle-jerks a lot, so unless you want to hate-read it like I did, don't bother.
January 23, 2024
Absolutely ridiculous "anti-woke" drivel
November 14, 2023
This was an intense book! Definitely gives one things to really think about.
February 24, 2025
I agree with Godawa in his overall theology and philosophy. But I don’t agree that the ends justify the means: rampant swearing, exploitive details of seedy situations, vulgar story lines, etc do not make for an edifying read. This is icky and poorly written from someone who has shown better talent and thinking in other works.
June 28, 2024
To be honest, I didn't finish the book. I chose the book with the understanding that the genre was "Christian suspense". It definitely referenced a variety of theologies (too much for the average fiction reader, if you ask me). However, the sex and murders depicted in the book were a "no" for me. It may be a very good book, but I would not describe it as "Christian ".
September 15, 2024
A lot of language I didnt expect from a Christian author. However, my mouth was agape multiple times while reading. It shows humans for who they are and how easily one can fooled.
January 27, 2024
This is an ugly book. Ugly characters, ugly storytelling, ugly prose, and even an ugly take on philosophy and religion. The advertised plot, the one with the serial killer, is maybe half the book, and that’s mostly made up of long philosophical arguments capped off by by people the author doesn’t like getting tortured to death. The other half is about a freshman college student losing his faith and getting sucked deeper and deeper into the godless hellhole of uh, a normal liberal arts college, a storyline that only ever tangentially brushes up against what’s ostensibly the main plot. The author has managed to shove every single right-wing culture war grievance you can think of into that storyline, along with the most blatant racism i’ve ever read in an actual published novel. This isn’t even a fun bad read, it’s a sad, draining one.
November 29, 2023
I need one of my friends to read this, so we can talk about it haha! It was a little scary at the beginning… I would compare it to silence of the lambs, but it wasn’t too graphic that I couldn’t finish it. This book takes all of these insane woke ideas and puts them into a story, so there is a lot going on here. It shows how this poor 18 year old kid goes to college and is completely indoctrinated and totally abandons his faith and beliefs because of how woke all the students and professors are. It also goes down this path about a serial killer that makes his victims justify why he shouldn’t kill them. It’s a lot to think about. Everyone is struggling with their own “truth” and their own beliefs in God. It was long, but I sped through it.
January 1, 2024
I couldn’t finish this. Unless you are a philosophy professor or student it’s hard to even gain traction or interest. There are 2 stories that don’t mesh at all. I tried so hard and couldn’t get halfway through. It seems to focus more on “Gods Dead” and “everyone is horrible unless you fit this description”. I really hoped to have more regarding the serial killer who reminded me of Dexter. I really tried to like the book but it was to much dialogue and not enough of a story that I was expecting from the title and description of the book
October 23, 2023
Fascinating and thought provoking and fast paced - yet it all comes to one thing - God. Whichever way you look at things and this world, it is all about God. Cruel logic provided a different perspective from a different world. Yet the two worlds collided resulting in good reigning over evil. Evil exists in the absence of good. Evil cannot exist on its own. Just like darkness cannot exist on its own, darkness is because of the absence of light. Great read.
February 8, 2024
All I can say is wow!!!!!. Authors as a lot of twist and turns and outcomes that you would not expect. Expertly written and is appropriate for the climate of today. So intense, I could not put it down.
May 20, 2024
This is a book written for a time such as this!
It keeps you on the edge of your seat!
I pray that God will protect our children from the indoctrination of our education system. Some may say that this books exaggerates it. I hope it does, but sadly not for long.
It keeps you on the edge of your seat!
I pray that God will protect our children from the indoctrination of our education system. Some may say that this books exaggerates it. I hope it does, but sadly not for long.
July 1, 2024
This was a quick read, but unfortunately I can’t unread it. Pretty sure the author wrote this for shock value. The indoctrination and wokeness going on today needs to be seen for what it is, Godless destruction of America.
April 3, 2024
Don't let the bad reviewers stop you from reading this book. It captivates you from the beginning. It's a must-read.
August 10, 2024
This reader wants great Christian apologetic fiction. The world needs Christian authors who demonstrate how to teach people of all ages strong belief in God, strong evidence for His truth and authority, and strong protections and weapons against the onslaught of evil. Many, if not all, readers also want exciting, suspenseful, edge of my seat, page-turning, “unputdownable” writing.
I thought perhaps this book would be that book. Unfortunately, Godawa has written a mess, as another reviewer pointed out, less kindly.
“Theological thriller” is part of this book's description. Not sure what “theological” means in this context, though. The book is overflowing with philosophy but the theology seems sorely lacking. Maybe I got to skimming too much through the massive exposès of famous philosophers and expositions about the world’s beliefs and missed where the author presents any true study of the true God.
There is one small voice crying truth near the beginning, an African college student who seems unfortunately to fit the “Magic Negro” stereotype. Everything he says and does is perfect. I loved his boldness for God and His Word and truth, but his part in the drama is perfectly pointless since his words are dismissed by the teacher of the class and the character in the story who is supposed to be more important than he is. His voice is never heard or remembered again. Even Magic Negroes that follow the rules of tropes are usually treated better.
Godawa would have us believe that this book is meant to reflect reality. It is full of realistic language (the F-word, mostly), realistic events (lingering over heinous crimes and illicit sex scenes slightly before or slightly after they happen), and realistic people (though why we needed such a detailed description of a trans man's makeup is beyond this reader's ability to comprehend).
The serial killer only kills people who can't defend their liberal philosophies. Well, that’s not strictly true. At first he did something heroic. But when people began to applaud his heroism, he suddenly experienced some sort of psychotic break and turned to heinous, senseless torture and murder. He then went on to kill other people who failed his “test” that required them to give evidence of why he shouldn’t kill them.
His future victims (after the senseless killings surrounding his heroism) all default to “murder is immoral” when they are living rampantly immoral lives, which makes the reader think they deserve to die. One reviewer said Godawa identifies with this murderer, even wants to be him, and I agree that he seems to vicariously live through the heartless and pointless discussions and gleeful murders.
The acts of violence are horrifying, disgusting, and drawn out. It's a mystery why the author needed all this to be included except in hopes of personal catharsis. Clearly Godawa is desperate to change minds, heart, and lives. But there is no heart or soul to honor God here. God does judge sin and punish sinners, but has not the author merely usurped His position, much like his killer, calling himself “little g god?”
He wastes pages and pages of philosophical discourses on his parallel secondary character, whom this reader can only conclude is to be understood as a fake Christian boy. The kid swallows every contradictory, convoluted, and incomprehensible liberal argument thrown at him. He is utterly without resources to respond to nonbelievers, in spite of being raised in a pastor's family and educated in a Christian school. Godawa absolutely does not want us to miss his apparent belief that a Christian upbringing and education are worse than useless. What other conclusion can we draw, since we don't know the African student's antecedents? but our noses are thoroughly rubbed in our secondary hero's inadequate preparation for a nasty old secular university.
He certainly doesn't want us to think families can be good and strong. Repeated examples of abuse, neglect, and generally awful dads have no counterpoint. Messed up people invariably have messed up families or mentors. And apparently nobody in the book had a healthy, effective family.
Where is God in all this? The true God, I mean, the one this Christian author was supposed to be teaching us about in this “theological” thriller? Aside from the eloquent but ignored African student, maybe God is hinted at on the last page or so. Maybe.
I thought perhaps this book would be that book. Unfortunately, Godawa has written a mess, as another reviewer pointed out, less kindly.
“Theological thriller” is part of this book's description. Not sure what “theological” means in this context, though. The book is overflowing with philosophy but the theology seems sorely lacking. Maybe I got to skimming too much through the massive exposès of famous philosophers and expositions about the world’s beliefs and missed where the author presents any true study of the true God.
There is one small voice crying truth near the beginning, an African college student who seems unfortunately to fit the “Magic Negro” stereotype. Everything he says and does is perfect. I loved his boldness for God and His Word and truth, but his part in the drama is perfectly pointless since his words are dismissed by the teacher of the class and the character in the story who is supposed to be more important than he is. His voice is never heard or remembered again. Even Magic Negroes that follow the rules of tropes are usually treated better.
Godawa would have us believe that this book is meant to reflect reality. It is full of realistic language (the F-word, mostly), realistic events (lingering over heinous crimes and illicit sex scenes slightly before or slightly after they happen), and realistic people (though why we needed such a detailed description of a trans man's makeup is beyond this reader's ability to comprehend).
The serial killer only kills people who can't defend their liberal philosophies. Well, that’s not strictly true. At first he did something heroic. But when people began to applaud his heroism, he suddenly experienced some sort of psychotic break and turned to heinous, senseless torture and murder. He then went on to kill other people who failed his “test” that required them to give evidence of why he shouldn’t kill them.
His future victims (after the senseless killings surrounding his heroism) all default to “murder is immoral” when they are living rampantly immoral lives, which makes the reader think they deserve to die. One reviewer said Godawa identifies with this murderer, even wants to be him, and I agree that he seems to vicariously live through the heartless and pointless discussions and gleeful murders.
The acts of violence are horrifying, disgusting, and drawn out. It's a mystery why the author needed all this to be included except in hopes of personal catharsis. Clearly Godawa is desperate to change minds, heart, and lives. But there is no heart or soul to honor God here. God does judge sin and punish sinners, but has not the author merely usurped His position, much like his killer, calling himself “little g god?”
He wastes pages and pages of philosophical discourses on his parallel secondary character, whom this reader can only conclude is to be understood as a fake Christian boy. The kid swallows every contradictory, convoluted, and incomprehensible liberal argument thrown at him. He is utterly without resources to respond to nonbelievers, in spite of being raised in a pastor's family and educated in a Christian school. Godawa absolutely does not want us to miss his apparent belief that a Christian upbringing and education are worse than useless. What other conclusion can we draw, since we don't know the African student's antecedents? but our noses are thoroughly rubbed in our secondary hero's inadequate preparation for a nasty old secular university.
He certainly doesn't want us to think families can be good and strong. Repeated examples of abuse, neglect, and generally awful dads have no counterpoint. Messed up people invariably have messed up families or mentors. And apparently nobody in the book had a healthy, effective family.
Where is God in all this? The true God, I mean, the one this Christian author was supposed to be teaching us about in this “theological” thriller? Aside from the eloquent but ignored African student, maybe God is hinted at on the last page or so. Maybe.
June 23, 2024
I will not re-create the wheel with a review after I read Brett Nelson's review of this book. He says everything I would have said about the book below.
****
I'm in a bit of a quandary of how to rate this book. I'll start by saying that, overall, I really enjoyed it. I enjoy finding Christian Fiction that is "real life" with some healthy grit to it, not cotton candy and puppy dogs, swoony swoony, kiss kiss themes, because that's not how real life is, not even Christian life.
In the technical sense, it was well-written and well-edited, so props to the author for that.
It contains a lot of heavy issues that aren't for the faint of heart, including some graphic violence, murder, profanity, and sexual depictions. The story has a woke university setting, so obviously it heavily touches on nearly every woke agenda item known to man (critical race theory, LGBTQ, Antifa and BLM, "all white people bad, everyone else victims," so-called white privilege and white fragility, transgenderism, personal pronouns, etc). Basically, any and every nauseating and demented woke ideal is covered in this book in one way or another through the character's lives. I'm not saying this is a bad thing either. For Christians who don't fully understand the leftist side of our world, if you can get past the worldly carnality of the book, this would be a great way to introduce you to a different world perspective through a fictional narrative.
I like that topics delving into the leftist nature are covered in a Christian Fiction book. God didn't call us to be pearl-clutching prudes who hide their heads in the sand. In order to reach the world as God commanded, it's important to know how that world operates.
Overall, I loved finding a book that tells a real story that touches on the realities of the world in which we live.
For readers who are into intellectually charged philosophical conversations, you might particularly enjoy that aspect of this book.
Christian readers need to be aware that this book is FULL of unnecessary blatant profanity (especially continued use of the "F" word. This word is used not once or twice but continually throughout the entire book, which I did NOT appreciate.) The Bible is clear that no unwholesome talk should come from a believer's mouth, which means that Christian authors shouldn't include unwholesome talk (profanity) in their books. (To be clear, I'm not sure if this author actually claims to be a Christian or if he's an unbeliever who wrote the book and put it into the Christian Fiction genre simply because he knew woke non-believers would trash the book because it exposes their noxious belief systems).
I realize that the book's characters weren't Christians, but there are ways to indicate profanity in a book without actually using it. The simple fact is that most Christians read Christian Fiction to shield themselves from the debauched filthy language and imagery depicted in this book. So, Christian readers should read with extreme caution. If you're easily offended and prefer the more unrealistic "sweeter," and sanitized nature of most Christian Fiction on the market, be aware that this book is probably not for you.
This book will be a hard sell for both Christian readers and non-Christian readers. For most Christians, they will hate the extreme profanity and other carnal worldly elements that were built into the book. Non-Christians will hate it because it exposes the blatant immoral nature of their woke leftist belief system.
If all the profanity had been eliminated, this would have been an easy five-star read for me. I'll still give it four stars because it was well written and an overall enjoyable read, but I can't stress this enough...CHRISTIAN READERS SHOULD READ WITH EXTREME CAUTION.
--Review by Brett Nelson
****
I'm in a bit of a quandary of how to rate this book. I'll start by saying that, overall, I really enjoyed it. I enjoy finding Christian Fiction that is "real life" with some healthy grit to it, not cotton candy and puppy dogs, swoony swoony, kiss kiss themes, because that's not how real life is, not even Christian life.
In the technical sense, it was well-written and well-edited, so props to the author for that.
It contains a lot of heavy issues that aren't for the faint of heart, including some graphic violence, murder, profanity, and sexual depictions. The story has a woke university setting, so obviously it heavily touches on nearly every woke agenda item known to man (critical race theory, LGBTQ, Antifa and BLM, "all white people bad, everyone else victims," so-called white privilege and white fragility, transgenderism, personal pronouns, etc). Basically, any and every nauseating and demented woke ideal is covered in this book in one way or another through the character's lives. I'm not saying this is a bad thing either. For Christians who don't fully understand the leftist side of our world, if you can get past the worldly carnality of the book, this would be a great way to introduce you to a different world perspective through a fictional narrative.
I like that topics delving into the leftist nature are covered in a Christian Fiction book. God didn't call us to be pearl-clutching prudes who hide their heads in the sand. In order to reach the world as God commanded, it's important to know how that world operates.
Overall, I loved finding a book that tells a real story that touches on the realities of the world in which we live.
For readers who are into intellectually charged philosophical conversations, you might particularly enjoy that aspect of this book.
Christian readers need to be aware that this book is FULL of unnecessary blatant profanity (especially continued use of the "F" word. This word is used not once or twice but continually throughout the entire book, which I did NOT appreciate.) The Bible is clear that no unwholesome talk should come from a believer's mouth, which means that Christian authors shouldn't include unwholesome talk (profanity) in their books. (To be clear, I'm not sure if this author actually claims to be a Christian or if he's an unbeliever who wrote the book and put it into the Christian Fiction genre simply because he knew woke non-believers would trash the book because it exposes their noxious belief systems).
I realize that the book's characters weren't Christians, but there are ways to indicate profanity in a book without actually using it. The simple fact is that most Christians read Christian Fiction to shield themselves from the debauched filthy language and imagery depicted in this book. So, Christian readers should read with extreme caution. If you're easily offended and prefer the more unrealistic "sweeter," and sanitized nature of most Christian Fiction on the market, be aware that this book is probably not for you.
This book will be a hard sell for both Christian readers and non-Christian readers. For most Christians, they will hate the extreme profanity and other carnal worldly elements that were built into the book. Non-Christians will hate it because it exposes the blatant immoral nature of their woke leftist belief system.
If all the profanity had been eliminated, this would have been an easy five-star read for me. I'll still give it four stars because it was well written and an overall enjoyable read, but I can't stress this enough...CHRISTIAN READERS SHOULD READ WITH EXTREME CAUTION.
--Review by Brett Nelson
February 29, 2024
This book has some good things going for it. The author is clearly knowledgeable about politics and apologetics and philosophy. He gets a lot right in these areas; however, it’s presented in a heavy-handed way that tries too hard to fit every single leftist talking point into one story line. It’s just too cumbersome and ends up feeling preachy instead of subtle. If the author’s goal was to influence readers to see the ridiculousness of certain viewpoints, he is likely to turn those readers off long before changing their minds.
The story line itself is interesting and does a good job of being frightening. Some of the characters are interesting and three dimensional, but a lot are caricatures, which also feel contrived. If the author had taken the rhetoric and agenda down halfway, this would have been a much better book.
Lastly, this was presented as a Christian alternative to thriller fiction. As a Christian, I would not recommend this as such. The swearing and sexual depictions were just not necessary. I feel like the story was sexual without real need for it. It didn’t add to the story and could have been intimated instead of implicitly described. Also, some of the aspects of the murders are described in gory detail. While somewhat expected in a thriller, I don’t know that I would have chosen to read this had I known how violent it was.
It was an interesting book, but on the whole one I would not recommend because it ends up glorifying a lot of sinful behaviors under the guise of pointing out the need for God. I do agree with the author on that point. There are no inalienable rights without God. He did make that point well and pointed out the obvious contradictions in many liberal ideologies.
The story line itself is interesting and does a good job of being frightening. Some of the characters are interesting and three dimensional, but a lot are caricatures, which also feel contrived. If the author had taken the rhetoric and agenda down halfway, this would have been a much better book.
Lastly, this was presented as a Christian alternative to thriller fiction. As a Christian, I would not recommend this as such. The swearing and sexual depictions were just not necessary. I feel like the story was sexual without real need for it. It didn’t add to the story and could have been intimated instead of implicitly described. Also, some of the aspects of the murders are described in gory detail. While somewhat expected in a thriller, I don’t know that I would have chosen to read this had I known how violent it was.
It was an interesting book, but on the whole one I would not recommend because it ends up glorifying a lot of sinful behaviors under the guise of pointing out the need for God. I do agree with the author on that point. There are no inalienable rights without God. He did make that point well and pointed out the obvious contradictions in many liberal ideologies.
September 10, 2025
Where do Cultural Marxism and Secular Humanism lead? Why is murder bad if all things are relative? If killing someone gives the killer satisfaction, and there are no absolutes, killing becomes a good rather than an evil. But reality matters. Truth matters. Murder is evil. And when we try to create our own “reality” the outcome can be disastrous. No matter how many times people say, “that’s your truth, but not mine”, we can’t change the fact that objective (rather than subjective) reality exists. Throwing objective truth to the wind based on individual perception leads to the collapse of civilization because, to paraphrase a statement I read long ago, “whose truth are you going to judge by?” Both the highly educated Philosopher Killer and the naïve, sheltered College Freshman who bought into the “you create your own reality” philosophy promoted in academia today experienced the objective outcome of reality.
Well written and suspenseful, Cruel Logic kept me turning pages. I cannot say I “enjoyed” the read as the story is dark and gritty. Cruel Logic is not for the faint of heart. There is violence and foul language. Hence four-stars rather than five-stars. (Though I fully understand why Godawa wrote this the way he did, I personally have a hard time with that level of violence and foul language.) What I can say, however, is that this was a worthwhile read. Setting what might have been a dry non-fictional argument within a fictional story drew me in, exposed the underbelly of our post-Christian logic and culture, and put flesh and bones on the argument. It hit me on a deeper level than a standard non-fiction book would have. Well done.
Well written and suspenseful, Cruel Logic kept me turning pages. I cannot say I “enjoyed” the read as the story is dark and gritty. Cruel Logic is not for the faint of heart. There is violence and foul language. Hence four-stars rather than five-stars. (Though I fully understand why Godawa wrote this the way he did, I personally have a hard time with that level of violence and foul language.) What I can say, however, is that this was a worthwhile read. Setting what might have been a dry non-fictional argument within a fictional story drew me in, exposed the underbelly of our post-Christian logic and culture, and put flesh and bones on the argument. It hit me on a deeper level than a standard non-fiction book would have. Well done.
August 12, 2024
This was a Prime selection. The description sounded very intriguing so I thought I would give it a try.
I was not disappointed!
The story is about a philos0phy professor that escapes a mental institution. He then goes a murder spree in which he asks his victims - all college professors - why he should spare their lives. If they can convince him, they can go free. All are moral relativists and can't justify the objective standard that murder is inherently wrong. They are murdered violently.
It is also the story of Danny. He is the son of a pastor and is beginning his first semester in a liberal arts college. He associates amongst progressive activists who proceed to deconstruct his faith.
The first few pages start like a lot of Christian fiction. What sets this book apart is its explicit nature. F-bombs are dropped and the main characters have sex. No sanitization here! The situations don't fall neatly into place as other stories in this genre.
This is one of the few novels that has dozens of endnotes that (mostly) describe the real-life origins of the artifacts, events, and beliefs used in the story.
The storyline is much like a Stephen King novel. It is better than most of King's writings. My two knocks are 1) We are introduced to some characters whose stories need to be developed further and 2) the closure isn't quite complete. It's a very engaging story. I finished the last 60 pages during a bout of insomnia and couldn't put it down. There were plot changes that had me flabbergasted. A very entertaining read. I will sample more of Mr. Godawa's offerings.
I was not disappointed!
The story is about a philos0phy professor that escapes a mental institution. He then goes a murder spree in which he asks his victims - all college professors - why he should spare their lives. If they can convince him, they can go free. All are moral relativists and can't justify the objective standard that murder is inherently wrong. They are murdered violently.
It is also the story of Danny. He is the son of a pastor and is beginning his first semester in a liberal arts college. He associates amongst progressive activists who proceed to deconstruct his faith.
The first few pages start like a lot of Christian fiction. What sets this book apart is its explicit nature. F-bombs are dropped and the main characters have sex. No sanitization here! The situations don't fall neatly into place as other stories in this genre.
This is one of the few novels that has dozens of endnotes that (mostly) describe the real-life origins of the artifacts, events, and beliefs used in the story.
The storyline is much like a Stephen King novel. It is better than most of King's writings. My two knocks are 1) We are introduced to some characters whose stories need to be developed further and 2) the closure isn't quite complete. It's a very engaging story. I finished the last 60 pages during a bout of insomnia and couldn't put it down. There were plot changes that had me flabbergasted. A very entertaining read. I will sample more of Mr. Godawa's offerings.
September 25, 2023
Powerful and Provocative!
Brian Godawa's "Cruel Logic" is gripping, tragic, disturbing, thought-provoking, and difficult to put down. I give it 5 stars but with a huge warning...
This is not for the faint-hearted. It's dark, violent, gory (at times), jarring, and upsetting. The language is rough -- at times vulgar. And it doesn't serve up a HEA ending.
If you can handle that, I believe Godawa's book does something that few other books (if any) have done. It takes some of the ideological madness that's infecting our society -- especially our college and university campuses -- and examines it in a multi-layered fictional narrative that feels all too real. At times, it feels a little caricatured (no doubt Godawa will be accused of some strawman fallacies), but much of the incidents and episodes in this novel are inspired by actual events (which Godawa footnotes for the reader's benefit).
"Cruel Logic" shows us a world of angry, incoherent madness brought on by obsessive grievance and hatred, postmodernist "thinking," and a rejection of God. It's not pretty, but it's a picture we need to see.
Brian Godawa's "Cruel Logic" is gripping, tragic, disturbing, thought-provoking, and difficult to put down. I give it 5 stars but with a huge warning...
This is not for the faint-hearted. It's dark, violent, gory (at times), jarring, and upsetting. The language is rough -- at times vulgar. And it doesn't serve up a HEA ending.
If you can handle that, I believe Godawa's book does something that few other books (if any) have done. It takes some of the ideological madness that's infecting our society -- especially our college and university campuses -- and examines it in a multi-layered fictional narrative that feels all too real. At times, it feels a little caricatured (no doubt Godawa will be accused of some strawman fallacies), but much of the incidents and episodes in this novel are inspired by actual events (which Godawa footnotes for the reader's benefit).
"Cruel Logic" shows us a world of angry, incoherent madness brought on by obsessive grievance and hatred, postmodernist "thinking," and a rejection of God. It's not pretty, but it's a picture we need to see.
July 13, 2024
This book was deeply stupid. It was deeply offensive, and quite frankly it was deeply reflective of how completely dissociated from reality conservative Christians are. I don't think the author has set foot on a college campus since the 80s.
Most of the book is either gross exaggerations, fictitious strawmen, or fundamental and willful ignorance and misunderstanding of the very concepts the author seeks to rail against.
Every single trans character in this book is misgendered repeatedly from the moment they are introduced. Shavonda is a racist caricature. Joseph is supposedly Jewish and supposedly raised in a Jewish home and yet his world view and practices are DEEPLY Christian. The story is rife with saneism.
When not outright lying about trans healthcare and identity, the author is outright lying about something else. Much of the book is meant to insist that racism is no longer in existence.
This book takes place in a fantasy land that I wish the author would go to and not return from.
Most of the book is either gross exaggerations, fictitious strawmen, or fundamental and willful ignorance and misunderstanding of the very concepts the author seeks to rail against.
Every single trans character in this book is misgendered repeatedly from the moment they are introduced. Shavonda is a racist caricature. Joseph is supposedly Jewish and supposedly raised in a Jewish home and yet his world view and practices are DEEPLY Christian. The story is rife with saneism.
When not outright lying about trans healthcare and identity, the author is outright lying about something else. Much of the book is meant to insist that racism is no longer in existence.
This book takes place in a fantasy land that I wish the author would go to and not return from.
July 13, 2024
This fast paced novel follows two story lines. One concerns a preacher's son who goes off to college and converts to the Church of Postmodern Activism and Hedonism. The other, more interesting storyline, concerns a brilliant former college Philosophy professor who is also a serial killer. The professor escapes from a hospital for the criminally insane. He starts hunting colleagues. When he captures them, he does allow them to try to debate their way out of being murdered. Their Modern and Postmodern philosophical arguments do not impress him. He himself uses these ideas to justify his existence and behavior. Thus, the title of the book. If you are truly familiar with postmodern thought and its extreme subjectivism, you will realize it's not possible to determine who is insane in the discussions between the killer and his victims in the book. Will the authorities be able to catch the "philosophy killer" before he murders again? In addition to the action, the book is filled with deep philosophical and theological questions. Philosophically, it's sort of like watching Hannibal Lecter and Michel Foucault meet and argue with C.S. Lewis and Dostoevsky.
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