What do you think?
Rate this book
Pierced by a Sword #3
House of Gold
Soul and body. Water and blood. Death and life. Evil and goodness. A story about courage and suffering. A novel about our times. A vision for all time.
528 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published June 1, 1999
34 people are currently reading
159 people want to read
About the author
Bud Macfarlane Jr.
6 books37 followersOne of the most popular Catholic writers in America, Bud Macfarlane grew up in New Jersey with nine sisters and one brother and graduated with honors from the University of Dame. In 1991 he started the Mary Foundation, the world's largest producer of Catholic CDs and booklets. A father of four, his three best-selling novels are available from Saint Jude Media and on Kindle, and his long-running monthly email newsletter is read by tens of thousands worldwide.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
May 31, 2012
This is an interesting tale of survival and death in a post-apocalyptic world, once the author gets around to it. Once again, the author has let words run away with his story. Strangely, it is the computer guru who anticipates loss of all electronics due to programming that did not provide for dates after the millennium. Any such successful geek in 1998 would have known how easily the corrective measures would be accomplished. The epilogue extends so far in
To the future that no sequel can follow.
December 13, 2010
These were quick page turners. A bit extreme and a little unrealistic at times, but I enjoyed them while I read them. The frustration is that Bud Macfarlane has had less then an ideal faith journey since the publication of these books. It has unfortunately been a bit of a damper for me thinking about them more.
March 17, 2017
I don't know why I torture myself so, but after suffering through Bud MacFarlane's first two novels, "Pierced by a Sword" and "Conceived without Sin", I went ahead and read this, his third novel. Perhaps I hoped that MacFarlane learned from the experience of writing two previous novels, and perhaps the man would learn from his experience. I was wrong on both counts.
In his foreword to this novel, MacFarlane's buddy John D. O'Brien writes, "You won't read a more timeless novel than the one that you are holding in your hand - even if you are reading it one hundred years after it was published." These words are ironic considering that "House of Gold" is the most dated novel in recent memory. MacFarlane commits the mortal sin of using references from pop culture and commercials, along with slang, that place the novel squarely in the late 1990s where it is doomed to languish because these sins make it indecipherable to later generations. Besides this, the subject of the novel was the infamous "Y2K" computer crisis that seemed like such a horrendous threat at the time this novel was published. Now, with the benefit of hindsight, we see that the threat was empty, but at the time many people, including prominent Catholics like Father Gobbi and MacFarlane himself, warned people that Y2K would usher in the end times. In this novel, MacFarlane refers to those who downplay the severity of Y2K as "deniers", and holds the threat in such esteem that it would be an act of heresy to deny its power. The Y2K bug had the power to shut down computer programs and, consequently, shut down power, communications, the Internet and other computer regulated institutions. But in "House of Gold", MacFarlane's Y2K virus was much more than this. It had the power to contaminate rivers and streams, render internal combustion engines inoperable, spawn horrible plagues, make food supplies disintegrate and turn civilized men into savages. MacFarlane forgets that mankind had existed for millennia without electricity, and if needed mankind would do so again. Certainly a little ingenuity can overcome mountains. But in "House of Gold", none of this is possible.
And this leads me to the religious aspects of "House of Gold". What struck me most about this novel was the astounding amount of profanity it contains, considering that this is a work of religious fiction written by a prominent Catholic. And MacFarlane's characters are not your typical Catholics. They drink, they smoke, they vote exclusively Republican and they use a whole lot of slang. MacFarlane's "whiskey and cigarettes" version of Catholicism may confuse many readers who understand the Catholic faith in much less indulgent terms. But even more than this is the very premise of the novel; God speaks to the hearts of MacFarlane's characters, who respond by going into hiding. Think about this. When St. Theresa of Calcutta heard the voice of God, she went to live among the poor of Calcutta. When St. Francis Xavier heard the voice of God, he brought the gospel to the non-Christian people of India and the Far East. Do you see a trend here? In Acts Chapter 2 we read that the apostles, who were hiding in the Upper Room, went forth and boldly proclaimed the gospel, baptizing thousands of people in one day. When MacFarlane's characters hear the voice of God, they hunker down in the woods. MacFarlane's story is a reverse Pentecost, a return to hiding rather than a bold going forth and proclaiming the gospel. Such a siege mentality is unchristian and dangerous, yet it is becoming prominent among Catholics in the 1990s, and even today. This is a huge problem.
The story itself is bizarre. It starts with the characters deciding to go into hiding and looking for suitable hiding places. The main character Buzz is helping local nuns in Cleveland to install solar panels that they will need after Y2K, and as a result of an accident he goes into a coma for three months and revives after the disaster occurs. The second part of the novel is Buzz's journey, a short little hike from Cleveland to New Hampshire where his family are holed up. It was in this part of the story that I began to hope. How many great stories are centered around journeys and quests? Stories like the Odyssey, Huckleberry Finn or Lord of the Rings, even the Quest for the Holy Grail. Surely MacFarlane would take advantage of the journey motif to make the story interesting? But he didn't, he blew a golden opportunity. In this journey we see a series of inconsequential stops and morally ambiguous occurrences. One thing that struck me was how often MacFarlane threw in little observations and occurrences that didn't fit into the story, and which he didn't build upon. It was almost as if MacFarlane was simply trying to fill space. The last 200 pages or so of the book, when Buzz finally arrives at his destination, seemed to drag on forever. MacFarlane could easily have condensed the last 200 pages into 20 pages or so. Another annoying thing about the writing in this book was how MacFarlane insisted on describing every act of lust or violence in agonizing detail. There were pages that I quickly scanned because I truly did not want to know how many times a character was bludgeoned or which specific bones were broken. It seems that inexperienced writers feel that the sexy or violent scenes are the most interesting, so they think that they will improve their novel by indulging the reader in details. But such things can be tangentially mentioned, or not mentioned at all but only implied. In his novels, MacFarlane is not one to allow his reader any nuances or opportunities to use his imagination. Rather, he spells everything out for the reader.
I honestly had high hopes for this book, given the glowing reviews I saw on the inside cover and on Amazon.com. What a huge disappointment. If you are interested in religious fiction, there are much better works out there than this one. Please steer clear of it.
In his foreword to this novel, MacFarlane's buddy John D. O'Brien writes, "You won't read a more timeless novel than the one that you are holding in your hand - even if you are reading it one hundred years after it was published." These words are ironic considering that "House of Gold" is the most dated novel in recent memory. MacFarlane commits the mortal sin of using references from pop culture and commercials, along with slang, that place the novel squarely in the late 1990s where it is doomed to languish because these sins make it indecipherable to later generations. Besides this, the subject of the novel was the infamous "Y2K" computer crisis that seemed like such a horrendous threat at the time this novel was published. Now, with the benefit of hindsight, we see that the threat was empty, but at the time many people, including prominent Catholics like Father Gobbi and MacFarlane himself, warned people that Y2K would usher in the end times. In this novel, MacFarlane refers to those who downplay the severity of Y2K as "deniers", and holds the threat in such esteem that it would be an act of heresy to deny its power. The Y2K bug had the power to shut down computer programs and, consequently, shut down power, communications, the Internet and other computer regulated institutions. But in "House of Gold", MacFarlane's Y2K virus was much more than this. It had the power to contaminate rivers and streams, render internal combustion engines inoperable, spawn horrible plagues, make food supplies disintegrate and turn civilized men into savages. MacFarlane forgets that mankind had existed for millennia without electricity, and if needed mankind would do so again. Certainly a little ingenuity can overcome mountains. But in "House of Gold", none of this is possible.
And this leads me to the religious aspects of "House of Gold". What struck me most about this novel was the astounding amount of profanity it contains, considering that this is a work of religious fiction written by a prominent Catholic. And MacFarlane's characters are not your typical Catholics. They drink, they smoke, they vote exclusively Republican and they use a whole lot of slang. MacFarlane's "whiskey and cigarettes" version of Catholicism may confuse many readers who understand the Catholic faith in much less indulgent terms. But even more than this is the very premise of the novel; God speaks to the hearts of MacFarlane's characters, who respond by going into hiding. Think about this. When St. Theresa of Calcutta heard the voice of God, she went to live among the poor of Calcutta. When St. Francis Xavier heard the voice of God, he brought the gospel to the non-Christian people of India and the Far East. Do you see a trend here? In Acts Chapter 2 we read that the apostles, who were hiding in the Upper Room, went forth and boldly proclaimed the gospel, baptizing thousands of people in one day. When MacFarlane's characters hear the voice of God, they hunker down in the woods. MacFarlane's story is a reverse Pentecost, a return to hiding rather than a bold going forth and proclaiming the gospel. Such a siege mentality is unchristian and dangerous, yet it is becoming prominent among Catholics in the 1990s, and even today. This is a huge problem.
The story itself is bizarre. It starts with the characters deciding to go into hiding and looking for suitable hiding places. The main character Buzz is helping local nuns in Cleveland to install solar panels that they will need after Y2K, and as a result of an accident he goes into a coma for three months and revives after the disaster occurs. The second part of the novel is Buzz's journey, a short little hike from Cleveland to New Hampshire where his family are holed up. It was in this part of the story that I began to hope. How many great stories are centered around journeys and quests? Stories like the Odyssey, Huckleberry Finn or Lord of the Rings, even the Quest for the Holy Grail. Surely MacFarlane would take advantage of the journey motif to make the story interesting? But he didn't, he blew a golden opportunity. In this journey we see a series of inconsequential stops and morally ambiguous occurrences. One thing that struck me was how often MacFarlane threw in little observations and occurrences that didn't fit into the story, and which he didn't build upon. It was almost as if MacFarlane was simply trying to fill space. The last 200 pages or so of the book, when Buzz finally arrives at his destination, seemed to drag on forever. MacFarlane could easily have condensed the last 200 pages into 20 pages or so. Another annoying thing about the writing in this book was how MacFarlane insisted on describing every act of lust or violence in agonizing detail. There were pages that I quickly scanned because I truly did not want to know how many times a character was bludgeoned or which specific bones were broken. It seems that inexperienced writers feel that the sexy or violent scenes are the most interesting, so they think that they will improve their novel by indulging the reader in details. But such things can be tangentially mentioned, or not mentioned at all but only implied. In his novels, MacFarlane is not one to allow his reader any nuances or opportunities to use his imagination. Rather, he spells everything out for the reader.
I honestly had high hopes for this book, given the glowing reviews I saw on the inside cover and on Amazon.com. What a huge disappointment. If you are interested in religious fiction, there are much better works out there than this one. Please steer clear of it.
July 12, 2017
LOVED. the verse "your descendants will be as numerous as the stars" has taken on special meaning for me since this book
November 22, 2019
same characters as Conceived without Sin but we follow them as they go through an apocalyptic scenario with the power grid shutting down and most of the population dying. The last half of this book is such an amazing treatment of faith in action. Another very memorable and thought provoking book.
Dates read:
2013 - 3rd time reading
2007 - 2nd time reading
2001 - 1st time reading
Dates read:
2013 - 3rd time reading
2007 - 2nd time reading
2001 - 1st time reading
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 17, 2008
This is the last of the 3 books I have in this series. Anyone heard if there's more comming from Bud McFarlain?
After a lapse of a few year in between this and book #2, I enjoyed remeeting the characters and looked forward to a good, clean Catholic read. It didn't disappoint me.
After a lapse of a few year in between this and book #2, I enjoyed remeeting the characters and looked forward to a good, clean Catholic read. It didn't disappoint me.
February 18, 2008
This book was absolutely wonderful, spiritually and literally! It makes you kind of thankful really nothing came out of Y2K!
May 8, 2009
Meh.
January 11, 2011
Excellent! Couldn't put down but didn't want to finish b/c I did not want the book to end!
September 2, 2011
Wonderful..... Loved them all!!!!
June 16, 2012
I think it was more than a little unrealistic, but it got me thinking about my faith, and there was some pretty profound things in the book
September 19, 2012
Read years ago.
August 13, 2009
Riveting.... Love BM jr... Quick read, thought provoking...
August 6, 2010
Very good follow up to "Conceived Without Sin"
December 18, 2011
Strangely facinating of a read.
September 1, 2017
House of Gold was published in 1999 right before the whole Y2K scare. The world experiences a shut down due to the computer glitch so the book follows several families who attempt to find a safe place to survive. These are very smart people and some possess a vast amount of resources. It's almost as if the author is fantasizing about what he personally would do in the event of a shut down of the electric grid and all that would result from that. It is interesting to think about this and what would happen. What personal resources and talents could one draw upon? Would people go rogue? Would people help each other? No doubt there would be some of both. Macfarlane is a Catholic writer so there are many references and practices mentioned which form an important part of the story. I wasn't critical enough to think of what one reviewer said about the Catholic or Christian approach to a disaster like this: he suggested that instead of "hunkering down" for personal survival, the main characters should have been out there in a more helping manner to those who needed it. Good point! The book has been on my shelf for sometime so now I've satisfied my curiosity. It was an okay read.
November 10, 2017
Emotional Rollercoaster
Bud McFarlane is genius in keeping everything Catholic. His characters are believable in the real world. I see myself in them! I do wish he had more books like the three I just read!
Bud McFarlane is genius in keeping everything Catholic. His characters are believable in the real world. I see myself in them! I do wish he had more books like the three I just read!
May 15, 2024
House of Gold is a rare breed of novel. Bud Macfarlane takes a thrilling apocolapse and weaves Catholicism beautifully into it. You often find yourself urging characters on and cheering when they succeed... or mourning when they fail. In the end -- no spoilers -- God wins.
July 7, 2022
Excelent Catholic Novel. Kept me engaged and yearning for more.
April 13, 2015
Truly a house of gold!
Another riveting book by this author! Inspired,reaching into the depths of the human spirit, pulling out joy, sorrow, tears, and laughter.
Another riveting book by this author! Inspired,reaching into the depths of the human spirit, pulling out joy, sorrow, tears, and laughter.
May 2, 2024
A great Catholic apocalyptic book
It is gritty and realistic, but not hopeless and so very much like real life (as Catholicism is) . A good light read.
It is gritty and realistic, but not hopeless and so very much like real life (as Catholicism is) . A good light read.
December 26, 2023
Exciting, adventurous, and best of all— very Catholic!!
February 13, 2016
Interesting consequences of the computer glitches in the year 2000.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews