A.D.

by Craig G. Sarver

From the streets of a Midwest city to the dusty, fetid paths of ancient Jerusalem, a conspiracy unfolds that could forever change the world - and the past. Retired U.S. Army Major David Speer finds himself in a race against - and through - time to stop it while he leads the most daring and important rescue mission in history.
Consumed by guilt over an unspeakable act of violence he was forced to commit during the Iraq war, David is obsessed with finding forgiveness in the dark loneliness of the confessional of his boyhood Catholic Church.
This obsession has made him vulnerable to the machinations of one of the country's wealthiest men, M. Clifton Prather.
Prather has recruited David to lead a mission that he says will bring David the solace he so desperately seeks and at the same time will bring peace to the world.
Prather does not tell David that if successful, the mission will allow Prather and a cabal of powerful business, government and religious leaders to finalize their plans. Prather's loyal chief of security will stop at nothing, including murder, to see that the group's plot will come to fruition. This conspiracy will bring the plotters untold power and will change the world forever.

488 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 21, 2009

Reviews

[Alan Zendell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually found this book very difficult to relate to, with far more to dislike than to like. Then why three stars? Because there are a couple of messages worth reading, no matter how badly or unconvincingly they're written. One is that it's time the world stopped fighting wars over whose God is bigger or better. The other is that it's in the nature of religion (or perhaps human nature in general) that power breeds corruption, and corrupt religious zealots are among the most dangerous people in the world.

Now that you know why I reluctantly gave this book three stars, I'll tell you why, as a novel, it deserves only two. The characters, the most important part of any story, are simply not believable, not a single one of them. The bad guys are painfully cliched and the good guys are, to me, simply unfathomable. They're either childishly innocent or completely twisted. The main protagonist alternates between being hobbled by guilt to the point of disability and remarkably competent and heroic. On one hand, he's unbelievably naive and gullible; on another, he seems far too intelligent to be as dumb as he acts most of the time. The problem may be mine - I just don't buy the author's brand of blind faith.

The entire story is preposterous, the plot twists and turns far too predictable. The dialogue is often awkward and stilted and there are many places where the book was poorly edited. I kept asking myself why I finished it. I guess it was those two messages at the top.

[Angie Boyter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very impressive first novel. Sarver has written a book that REALLY kept my interest up.
Retired Army Major David Speer is wracked with guilt over an incident that occured during his deployment in Iraq. He is offered a mysterious job by an extremely wealthy Christian businessman that promises to make him financially secure for life AND to give him the spiritual peace he seeks, a quest that involves time travel back to the scene of the Crucifixion of Jesus.
The set-up for the plot was well-done, and David is a sympathetic character, but, as an experienced science-fiction reader I wondered if this book was going to be a cliche from an inexperienced author thinking he was being original. I am delighted to report that my expectations were NOT fulfilled.
I will say no more about the story lest I spoil the enjoyment of all the plot twists, but Sarver is a superb storyteller who has crafted an original tale that can be enjoyed by both SF readers and non-SF-readers who find the idea of time travel intriguing .

[John Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

Time travel genre with a biblical context.