The Assignment [Paperback]

Mark Andrew Olsen approaches this idea in a fresh way, and, in the process, gives us a suspenseful story with theological implications. The book opens with a group of old priests, a secretive Catholic order, who have been digging ceaselessly in their search for their immortal ward. The man they seek is one who has walked the earth for two millenia, living countless lives, and working as the one of who will restrain the spirit of the anti-Christ in godless times.

The story breaks open when this man is found, at last--buried alive in a Nazi tomb near Auchwitz. The havoc that ensues could've turned Hollywood-ish. At times, it does rely on gunfights and nick-of-time escapes. But the real accomplishment here, the beating heart of the story, is Olsen's ability to take us into the mind of his immortal character. We care about this man. We believe in his struggle. We feel at times that his struggle is the same one we face, daily trying to follow God despite our sense of hopelessness and uselessness in this fallen world.

Publishers Weekly accused the book of tiresome and confusing viewpoints, but I found the plot easy to follow. Even more importantly, I thought the characters were easy to sympathize with. Although the ingredients of the story seemed to promise more suspense in the finale, "The Assignment" is worth the effort. Without being preachy, Olsen reminds us that life is worth living--and that dying is nothing to fear when we are part of God's family.

The priests of the Order of St. Lazare spend decades trying to find him. When they do, he sees a world more technologically advanced but with the same old hatreds. The 2000-year-old man is tired and wants to go home for he no longer believes that the destroyer can be defeated. Nora, a Harvard graduate student, is almost kidnapped by members of Hamas and a Roman Catholic priest. He saves her and disappears but Nora tracks him down in Paris where she learns the truth about her long-living relative. The destroyer knowing he is loose, sets in motion a series of events that bring the world to the edge of war and he vows to fight him one more time.

Told from the viewpoints of many different characters including the hero, one can understand why immortality is as much a curse as it is a blessing. There is no sense of Divinity about the protagonist but he is a catalyst that sets events in motion the ongoing battle of good and evil. Surprisingly, this is not a preachy or apostatizing story but reads more like an urban fantasy in which the powers of good and evil fight for supremacy. Mark Andrew Olson is a talent comparable to Frank Peretti and Jerry Jenkins.

Harriet Klausner