Cloud Drops

by Nicholas Ifkovits

When a young man of privilege is contacted by an agent of God, his troubles are just beginning, the only world he knows rapidly disintegrating. But the "other world" beckoning from across the universe, isn’t a world at all—it’s a state of mind. A place in the heart. A shelter for the soul. A journey into another dimension where all is light and laughter, ecstasy and eternity. Where the beauty of youth never fades, and a trip across the galaxy is only a thought away…. Cloud Drops is about life. You are an electrically-charged, energy-generating walking talking solid fuel-consuming creature that speaks of "burning" calories. You are the embodiment of energy. Science tells us energy cannot be destroyed, only changed. Countless millions believe in an afterlife, and there are many instances, like the example above, where science supports commonly accepted spiritual beliefs, but the most interesting question is an age-old one; What’s on the other side? Cloud Drops will inspire you. It will make you laugh, bring a tear to your eye, and send you on a soul-searching journey that will last a lifetime.

224 pages, Perfect Paperback

First published November 1, 1998

Reviews

[Millerbug · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really hated this book. And I have quite a lengthy rant on it. OK, I am a religious person, just to get that out of the way. One day my husband and I were visiting a Barnes and Nobel and this loney author was selling his book that he said was Science Fiction... He told me that the aliens in this book fed off the calories of humans. Ok, I'll bite... it sounded kind of interesting. Turned out the author totally lied to me to sell his book. It had nothing to do with aliens and a lot to do with Jesus and His work. I didn't much appreciate being lied to. In my oppinion the book was very poorly written, poorly researched (except for the scriptures). At first Jesus was one of the main characters, but faded out later. His personality was very happy go lucky and PARTY, PARTY, PARTY. That's not the Jesus I know. Sorry. Again just my oppinion. The author had a "council" and his council members were people like John Lennon (who I don't think believed in God... I could be wrong), Malcom X, Princess Di, just to name a few. What happened to the truely spiritual icons? Like, for instance, the Apostles? Popes? Past LDS Prophets? Come on there are waaaay more spiritual people than those guys, I don't think being on a council with Jesus depends on how popular you were during your time on Earth. To the author's credit, he did mention Mother Theresa, Mohommed, Ghandi and Buddha. The author was very specific that there was no concept of time. I agree with this concept. But when some of the people in Heaven threw a party, everyone left at 12:15 a.m. Huh. Then the author's creepiness comes out pretty strong. Not Stephen King creepy, but stalking, pedophile, rapist creepy. He describes two boys who just meet each other masterbating in front of each other, another time a boy feeling himself up in front of 5000 people and a lot of other references of little boys genitalia. Creepy. Everyone in Heaven is very immodist. They all wear a pair of shorts, and that's it. Even the "girls". Everyone sleeps with everyone. Ok... this is what threw me, if this guy is a hard core Christian like he claims, then he's probably against homosexuality. But he painted himself in a corner on the everyone sleeps in groups and has orgies. Like I mentioned ealier, fasination with young boy's genitalia. I think this author feels women are inferior. In his idea of Heaven, women are all built like Barbies and are dumber than posts. There wasn't one strong female charactor and they run around naked. Every man has more than one girlfriend. they were nothing but playthings and the were only good for collecting newly desceased souls. Basicly, go felch... good woman! This book read like one of those little comic book pamphlets you get forced on you, depicting the little kid, dressed in rags, getting beaten by the alcoholic father in a dirty wife beater while getting beaten with a club. Totally sucky book.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first review posted here from the religious woman is hilarious to me. After reading Cloud Drops, I get the clear sense that Nick cared little about consistency. And I don't mean that in a bad way. I can just imagine he figured she would prefer a tale of calorie eating aliens to this weird one.

I met the author outside the used book store in GJ CO. He sort of aggressively sold his book to me by talking about how he's the best selling sci-fi writer of all time. The book went on my shelf until 12 years later.

I always kept this book around, even despite the terrible cover design that looks like it came out of Claris Works (anyone remember that program?), I was intrigued by the question whether this old man had any merit to his boasts.

So here it is-12 years later. I open up the front cover, it is addressed to Helene, wishes her Godspeed in Spanish,and is autographed by the author. The 2nd page is addressed to me with merely a Thanks! Maybe Helene didn't have the cash that day, or returned it. GJ is a pretty rigid conservative town after all, and heaven does have a council of social justice workers and prophets surrounded by the sterile- energy orgies of the denizens. Not sure if Helene wanted to imagine her after-life as an electric-field body in steady state of orgasm. But hell there's a chance right?

So I had a lot of fun with this book. The writing isn't terrible, I think Ken Follet is a lot worse if I have to compare. It's easy to sort of read the first two sentences of each paragraph and skip your way through the pages. It's not very dense. But underlying it, there is a sense of warmth and justice and fairness that penetrates the wild imaginings.

And I don't think Nick focused on the genitals of the little boys in an explicit way. The main character and his new friend rub their forearm across their erect dicks, like one time then the kids parents walk in.

I don't know, maybe that is weird. Didn't seem to glorify it or make it seem lustful though.

In all regards rip to this crazy dude. I just imagine him in some GJ shithole, on disability, all lonely, while he writes these wild things down with the dream of making it big. Doing everything to try to sell his books, his legacy is leaving behind a dozen reviews on goodreads. To my mind, nothing more captures the soul crushing spirit of GJ like this imagining.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a local Grand Junction author that I met one day walking down Main Street. He talked me into buying a few of his books and I loved them. This one is an interesting perspective on modern religion and what Heaven might really be like.