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The Faith Trilogy #1
Faith
When a streetwise sceptic discovers a cosmic long con, can he rescue humanity from a dark fate?
London. Jake is short on trust. After surviving for seven years in a gang, the twenty-three-year-old thief plans to buy his freedom with one last job at a ribbon-cutting for the mega-rich. But he can hardly believe his own eyes when a mysterious force crashes the prototype super-train into the station, killing everyone but Jake.
Tracked to the hospital by the terrible powers seeking to finish him off, the savvy conman flees with a young nurse determined to understand what he's up against. And Jake is certain he's the one being played when a doddering priest lays out a supernatural conspiracy as old as the universe.
Can this reluctant hero shed his all-consuming cynicism and undertake a journey to save humankind?
Faith is the thought-provoking first book in the Faith urban fantasy trilogy. If you like smart but flawed protagonists, exploring the nature of belief and religion, and plenty of action, you'll love Nick Nielsen's eye-opening tale.
London. Jake is short on trust. After surviving for seven years in a gang, the twenty-three-year-old thief plans to buy his freedom with one last job at a ribbon-cutting for the mega-rich. But he can hardly believe his own eyes when a mysterious force crashes the prototype super-train into the station, killing everyone but Jake.
Tracked to the hospital by the terrible powers seeking to finish him off, the savvy conman flees with a young nurse determined to understand what he's up against. And Jake is certain he's the one being played when a doddering priest lays out a supernatural conspiracy as old as the universe.
Can this reluctant hero shed his all-consuming cynicism and undertake a journey to save humankind?
Faith is the thought-provoking first book in the Faith urban fantasy trilogy. If you like smart but flawed protagonists, exploring the nature of belief and religion, and plenty of action, you'll love Nick Nielsen's eye-opening tale.
428 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 4, 2024
245 people are currently reading
188 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
May 6, 2024
Faith and belief!
A dystopian future London, a city wracked by violence as puritans, atheists and rampant capitalists fight for supremacy. Gangs roam the streets and an authoritarian government resides in Westminster. What no one yet realises is that unseen forces are at work orchestrating the chaos. A thief, a nurse and a simple priest are all that stands in the way of a global catastrophe. A well constructed story but, I found it hard going at times.
A dystopian future London, a city wracked by violence as puritans, atheists and rampant capitalists fight for supremacy. Gangs roam the streets and an authoritarian government resides in Westminster. What no one yet realises is that unseen forces are at work orchestrating the chaos. A thief, a nurse and a simple priest are all that stands in the way of a global catastrophe. A well constructed story but, I found it hard going at times.
May 11, 2024
Not finishing. Couldn't get into the story.
May 10, 2024
Faith, Believe
This adventure was so tantalizing and visual for me. I enjoyed the twist with the angels. Definitely a great perspective and one I have not read yet. I love finding books with fresh story lines and something that is interesting, exciting, scary at times, and has faith involved.
This adventure was so tantalizing and visual for me. I enjoyed the twist with the angels. Definitely a great perspective and one I have not read yet. I love finding books with fresh story lines and something that is interesting, exciting, scary at times, and has faith involved.
February 15, 2024
I won’t lie, it was a slightly tough read, this fantasy thriller from Nick Nielsen. Not because he isn’t a good writer, by any means; quite the contrary, in fact, he is an exceptionally good writer – in fact, I think this might actually be the issue for me; he is too good. This is a great story, with some fantastic writing, tremendously well edited, but, if I’m being as obtuse and simple about it as I can, the book simply felt too long. There is an exceptional number of words – so many, in fact, that I realized at one point the narrative was actually moving at a slower pace than real time, such is the minutiae level of detail in this book. We share every single thought, every action, every feeling with the profoundly layered main character. The detail is so intricate, in fact, that very long periods of page-time pass between events. Don’t get me wrong; this is a wonderful book for those who like to read meticulous creative writing, but I actually found myself so distracted by the continuous long action that I was forgetting what the characters were actually doing from one scene to the next.
The story itself is thinly applied, yet actually quite involved, about a career criminal who finds himself supernaturally chosen to survive a terrible disaster, then pursued by unstoppable beings, for a hugely significant reason he finds out later. Like I said, it turns out to be a very good story, but it takes an incredibly long time unfolding, and so wordy in between its bullet points that it feels somewhat diluted, which is a bit frustrating; to tell the truth, the book would have been significantly more gripping and easy to follow with a sizeable word cut. For this reason, it actually felt overall like a chase thriller, and I was struggling a touch to keep a grip. The narrative key points make up a tiny percentage of the content, the vast majority of it pursuit action. This proportional discrepancy, for me, undermines this book’s otherwise tremendous qualities, and indeed those of its writer.
I don’t want to appear critical of Faith; it is a work of genuine talent, by a smart author, and part of what I think is going to be a promising series. It would be very interesting, I think, to read this book with much of the superfluous trimmed, focusing more heavily on the story, for to me that imbalance is this book’s single biggest problem. If you can see past that, and are able to utterly immerse yourself in a highly descriptive narrative, without distraction – and indeed enjoy this type of writing – I think you’ll enjoy this book a great deal, particularly if you’re a fan of reluctant and unwholesome heroes, end-days threats and Dean Koontz-style supernatural chase thrillers.
The story itself is thinly applied, yet actually quite involved, about a career criminal who finds himself supernaturally chosen to survive a terrible disaster, then pursued by unstoppable beings, for a hugely significant reason he finds out later. Like I said, it turns out to be a very good story, but it takes an incredibly long time unfolding, and so wordy in between its bullet points that it feels somewhat diluted, which is a bit frustrating; to tell the truth, the book would have been significantly more gripping and easy to follow with a sizeable word cut. For this reason, it actually felt overall like a chase thriller, and I was struggling a touch to keep a grip. The narrative key points make up a tiny percentage of the content, the vast majority of it pursuit action. This proportional discrepancy, for me, undermines this book’s otherwise tremendous qualities, and indeed those of its writer.
I don’t want to appear critical of Faith; it is a work of genuine talent, by a smart author, and part of what I think is going to be a promising series. It would be very interesting, I think, to read this book with much of the superfluous trimmed, focusing more heavily on the story, for to me that imbalance is this book’s single biggest problem. If you can see past that, and are able to utterly immerse yourself in a highly descriptive narrative, without distraction – and indeed enjoy this type of writing – I think you’ll enjoy this book a great deal, particularly if you’re a fan of reluctant and unwholesome heroes, end-days threats and Dean Koontz-style supernatural chase thrillers.
April 20, 2024
A total fever dream. Its very action-packed with little emotional reflection. The characters' reactions felt repetitive and I don't feel anything in particular for any of them. It's a great concept but I think I just got lost in trying to keep up and figure out what was going on to enjoy it as much as I could have.
March 8, 2024
Religion and spirituality in general are always going to be a controversial topic to address in fiction because of how divisive they can be to a lot of people. This has been shown time and time again across several works of fiction, with people failing to give a story a chance simply because of its religious or spiritual context. Heck, even in music genres, such as heavy metal, a band like Stryper, whose lyrics were about Christianity, are oftentimes ignored simply because of what they sing about.
It is a shame because there are a lot of interesting works of art that explore and analyze these concepts, with the first book of Nick Nielsen’s Faith trilogy being a very good example of this. Considering the topic it was handling and the fact that this is the first release of a trilogy, it makes a lot of sense that the author was going to have an uphill battle of sorts, although he does stick the landing quite well.
Jake’s conflict is arguably the strongest aspect of the book and is much appreciated. Main characters have to go through a journey and this one is quite good as it explains what drives Jake and what his motivations are. He is not in a good place in his life at the moment and is presented with a lot of supernatural elements that only make things a lot worse, which adds to the tension within the story.
The element of faith in this story, from my perspective, is done in a very tasteful and respectful manner. It doesn’t try to offend believers nor undermine people with other beliefs, making it a much more organic and fascinating exploration of what makes a person believe in a higher power. This is shown through Jake, who is having a crisis of faith (well, he is having all sorts of crises at the moment), and has to question himself a lot of different things, making the story feel a lot more compelling.
Not everything is sunshine and rainbows, though. While the book is very enjoyable and there is much to like about it, the pacing can be a bit off. It flows way too fast and it can feel that some moments in the story are rushed, which is a shame considering that Nielsen did a very solid job with a lot of different aspects of the book.
The issue of pacing is very important to me because I feel that a story, no matter the style, needs a couple of moments to breathe and see how our characters are dealing with different issues that are taking place. However, it is also understandable if other readers don’t have this problem and appreciate the book’s fast-paced approach to storytelling.
All in all, Faith is a very good opener for a book trilogy and a very interesting take on religion and spirituality. The supernatural elements are introduced in a somewhat natural manner and Jake as a protagonist works really well. As mentioned earlier, the pacing might be a problem to some, but the book is still worth a reader’s time.
January 4, 2025
I wanted to like it....
This should have been awesome, but I never cared about the main character, he was for lack of better words just unlikable. The relationship between him and Natasha was so bizarre it felt forced and weird, and then the scenes were just like a weird dream where nothing makes sense. I read it to the end because I was truly hoping I could find something to like about Jake but it never happened. The idea of the book is super cool just kinda missed the mark with the characters.
This should have been awesome, but I never cared about the main character, he was for lack of better words just unlikable. The relationship between him and Natasha was so bizarre it felt forced and weird, and then the scenes were just like a weird dream where nothing makes sense. I read it to the end because I was truly hoping I could find something to like about Jake but it never happened. The idea of the book is super cool just kinda missed the mark with the characters.
January 23, 2024
As its Prologue says, ‘it’ll move fast’, but stick with it and follow protagonist Jake’s encounters with Mandem enforcers and supernatural beings in this compelling epic urban fantasy and you’ll be rewarded with a well-written and thought-provoking page turner. Nielsen explores important themes related to faith and human nature within a London-set narrative full of clever plot twists. Can’t wait for Book 2!
May 14, 2024
Unique
An interesting tale. The science and imagination behind it are solid. It moved a little slow for me. Probably won't read the rest of the series. But it's worth reading this one once.
An interesting tale. The science and imagination behind it are solid. It moved a little slow for me. Probably won't read the rest of the series. But it's worth reading this one once.
May 7, 2025
I hated this book
I don’t know where to begin. I like books involving the paranormal, thrillers involving religious themes but this book was a mess. Pages and pages of never ending descriptions of rooms, and corridors and more rooms and more corridors. And the story was just too convoluted.
I don’t know where to begin. I like books involving the paranormal, thrillers involving religious themes but this book was a mess. Pages and pages of never ending descriptions of rooms, and corridors and more rooms and more corridors. And the story was just too convoluted.
January 30, 2025
I was so lost trying to read and keep up with this book. I finally gave up. None of it made any sense to me. Was very disappointed.
January 7, 2024
We are 7 days into a new year and I’ve read two science fiction books. I’m like a new person.
Read this with The Pigeonhole but it’s not available to purchase yet. I think the author is likely to make some edits based on suggestions so this is a kind of holding review.
This is a cover, and thought-provoking concept- angels are not all that benign, faith is necessary to defeat evil forces and can result in miracles. Set in a future dystopia, where one con-man (and a nurse side-kick) must save the world.
It’s a bit long-winded in places at the moment but has the bones of something good with more Siri - the author can write and I quite enjoyed thinking about belief having power.
Read this with The Pigeonhole but it’s not available to purchase yet. I think the author is likely to make some edits based on suggestions so this is a kind of holding review.
This is a cover, and thought-provoking concept- angels are not all that benign, faith is necessary to defeat evil forces and can result in miracles. Set in a future dystopia, where one con-man (and a nurse side-kick) must save the world.
It’s a bit long-winded in places at the moment but has the bones of something good with more Siri - the author can write and I quite enjoyed thinking about belief having power.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews