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One Destiny
Witness the explosive debut novel from Edward J. Friel - One Destiny! In these turbulent political times, many nations have been susceptible to the rhetoric of populist politicians. Marcus Shelldon has a dark new vision for the United Kingdom, a country destabilized by endless economic difficulties and austerity. The British people are eager for drastic change, and Shelldon's British Popular Alliance promises exactly that. Shelldon's party quickly transforms into a vibrant political movement which sweeps across the country. The movement is well-financed and the leadership is utterly focused on achieving power. Marcus Shelldon's strategy and goals will shatter the prevailing political structures and alter British society for decades to come.
294 pages, Paperback
Published November 28, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 3, 2022
One Destiny, by Edward J Friel was a pleasant surprise!
What I thought was going to be a story too political to my liking ended up being a realistic, fast-paced novel of intrigue, addiction to power, inevitable diversity and racism at it's worst.
Set in the United Kingdom during turbulent political times Marcus Shelldon introduces the "British Popular Alliance" indicating promises for drastic change. Sheldon's party is well-financed and focused on achieving power. This political movement sweeps across the country shattering the current political structure and altering British society in a devastating way.
Well-written with a compelling cast of characters I look forward to the continuation of this story with Mr. Friel's next novel.
What I thought was going to be a story too political to my liking ended up being a realistic, fast-paced novel of intrigue, addiction to power, inevitable diversity and racism at it's worst.
Set in the United Kingdom during turbulent political times Marcus Shelldon introduces the "British Popular Alliance" indicating promises for drastic change. Sheldon's party is well-financed and focused on achieving power. This political movement sweeps across the country shattering the current political structure and altering British society in a devastating way.
Well-written with a compelling cast of characters I look forward to the continuation of this story with Mr. Friel's next novel.
October 6, 2022
This is the author’s debut novel. I found his use of the English language engaging and his ideas thought provoking.
I would characterize One Destiny as a dystopian novel with an action-based story line supported by a worldview theme that diversity in cultures is inevitable and beneficial.
Our unlikely hero, Daniel Silvermann, is fighting for the very soul of the British people who are being corrupted by the charismatic Marcus Shelldon, leader of the British Popular Alliance, and the man proposing fascist-like solutions to Britian’s economic problems.
Daniel, an insecure journalist, suffers his first defeat to Shelldon in the form of lost love as Marcus lures away Sophie Marwick with bold new ideas on how to bring Great Britain back to the forefront of the world stage. Ideas that are in direct conflict with Daniel’s core values.
As the story progresses, the protagonist must overcome his lack of self-confidence and use the power of his pen to discredit Shelldon’s manifesto and tactics.
The premise of the storyline is very timely, set against today’s worldwide political stage, containing themes which hold a lot of personal interest for me.
The reading of this novel gave me the impression that it is #1 of a series. If I am correct, I am curious whether certain aspects of the storyline would have been more entertaining for the reader if saved for a prequel and replaced with additional conflict or conflict resolution. Two unresolved items included the discovery of unethical financial support of criminal activity and the murder of innocent immigrants. As they were written, these scenes did not move the story forward for me. Without the full disclosure of their relevance, they were like planted seeds that never germinated from the reader’s purview.
Although there were many fine qualities to this piece of work, it was not the page-turner I had anticipated.
I would characterize One Destiny as a dystopian novel with an action-based story line supported by a worldview theme that diversity in cultures is inevitable and beneficial.
Our unlikely hero, Daniel Silvermann, is fighting for the very soul of the British people who are being corrupted by the charismatic Marcus Shelldon, leader of the British Popular Alliance, and the man proposing fascist-like solutions to Britian’s economic problems.
Daniel, an insecure journalist, suffers his first defeat to Shelldon in the form of lost love as Marcus lures away Sophie Marwick with bold new ideas on how to bring Great Britain back to the forefront of the world stage. Ideas that are in direct conflict with Daniel’s core values.
As the story progresses, the protagonist must overcome his lack of self-confidence and use the power of his pen to discredit Shelldon’s manifesto and tactics.
The premise of the storyline is very timely, set against today’s worldwide political stage, containing themes which hold a lot of personal interest for me.
The reading of this novel gave me the impression that it is #1 of a series. If I am correct, I am curious whether certain aspects of the storyline would have been more entertaining for the reader if saved for a prequel and replaced with additional conflict or conflict resolution. Two unresolved items included the discovery of unethical financial support of criminal activity and the murder of innocent immigrants. As they were written, these scenes did not move the story forward for me. Without the full disclosure of their relevance, they were like planted seeds that never germinated from the reader’s purview.
Although there were many fine qualities to this piece of work, it was not the page-turner I had anticipated.
September 28, 2022
I picked this book up and put it back down several times before I actually began reading. It wasn’t the subject matter, although I don’t usually pick books that are political in nature, it was the font size! I feared by the time I was done, I’d be upgrading my prescription glasses, but I found if I read in my front window, with the sunlight coming in behind me, in the morning when my eyes were fresh, I managed quite nicely.
One Destiny examines a world where the desire of some extremists is to create ethnic and cultural purity in the UK and the limited forethought the political parties had on the reality of the outcome.
For me it was an echoing of Hitler’s world with random extreme acts of violence and genocide. A horrific world that didn’t belong in modern times and I would hope the leaders of the world would band together to prevent something like this from happening. The possibility of something like this truly coming to fruition is terrifying.
The authors verbiage throughout the book demonstrated his strong understanding and connection to the literary world and the English language as a whole. He is descriptive and has created characters the reader cares about and those the reader loves to hate, which is the goal of all authors.
The only thing that bothered me was the repeated use of the term One Destiny. I think it would have been better for the reader if Friel had used initialism instead and just put OD in place of ’One Destiny’ 90% of the time. But that’s just my opinion as the reader.
One Destiny examines a world where the desire of some extremists is to create ethnic and cultural purity in the UK and the limited forethought the political parties had on the reality of the outcome.
For me it was an echoing of Hitler’s world with random extreme acts of violence and genocide. A horrific world that didn’t belong in modern times and I would hope the leaders of the world would band together to prevent something like this from happening. The possibility of something like this truly coming to fruition is terrifying.
The authors verbiage throughout the book demonstrated his strong understanding and connection to the literary world and the English language as a whole. He is descriptive and has created characters the reader cares about and those the reader loves to hate, which is the goal of all authors.
The only thing that bothered me was the repeated use of the term One Destiny. I think it would have been better for the reader if Friel had used initialism instead and just put OD in place of ’One Destiny’ 90% of the time. But that’s just my opinion as the reader.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews