Wormwood [Hardcover]

Good science-fiction books are novels that intensify your imagination and provoke your thinking. Wormwood by G. P. Taylor is classified as science-fiction genre. It is a book about a comet hurtling towards the Earth, an evil book corrupting people's minds, and a London scientist and his guardian angel trying to save the world from total destruction of London from the evil.

Sabian Blake receives a strange package from an anonymous person and finds a book called Nemorensis. One of its written predictions says that a comet Wormwood will strike London and the world will suffer from its bitterness. The Royal Society decides to keep this secret; the nobles want to get rid of all the thieves, beggars, and "worthless" people and rebuild the city with a fresh start.

An evil fallen angel named Yerzinia is Lady Flamberg, the wife of the leader of the Royal Society. She plans to control the Royal Society and change London into a new city of corruption and fear. Blake and his guardian angel, Abram Rickards, attempt to stop Yerzinia and retrieve Nemorensis, which was stolen by Yerzinia.

I gave Wormwood a four-star rating because I wasn't entirely satisfied with Taylor's his novel-writing skills. The first half of the book was quite disjointed and boring; however, the second half became fast moving and very engrossing. I was on the verge of throwing the book away, but my patience led me to the second half.

Also, there are several loose conclusions in Wormwood; for example, the comet crashing into the moon seemed to be important and end the conflict of the novel, but there wasn't enough writing suspense built up to give me that relief after reading an exciting book.

Like The Da Vinci Code, Wormwood is certainly a very interesting book. However, G. P. Taylor needs to work on his novel-writing skills -- scene setting/ambience, plot structuring, and character development -- in order to spark his potential as a writer. If he's publishing another book, I am looking forward to it.

"Wormwood" is the second novel from Graham Taylor (G.P. Taylor), following the success of his first novel, "Shadowmancer". If you've read "Shadowmancer", you'd probably look at this book as a "sequel of sorts". It's not strictly a sequel - the continuing bits are the "angelic" parts and the bits about Yezhina's brother.

As most of you already know by now, Taylor is actually a vicar of the Church of England and his books are very much patterned after the "religious fantasy" of authors like C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. By "religious fantasy", I think we should understand it as having a story primarily while reflecting the author's personal beliefs (unlike the more polemical or preachy "Left Behind" series). Taylor too stressed this in many interviews by outrightly denying that he's "writing a Christian book". For people like me, I'd consider that fortunate (for Taylor as well as his readers). Why do I say that? Well, to begin with, his theology is atrocious and terribly unorthodox in many ways. His characterization of angels are totally unbiblical and his good vs. evil themes are too Dualistic to be Christian (Dualistic struggles of good vs. evil - with good ultimately triumphing - makes good reading but lousy theology).

As for his story, I actually found it interesting enough to finish the book in two days. Some of the bits are truly scary and his depiction of magic and the quest for forbidden knowledge (a warning to esoteric-seekers and Kabbalists, perhaps?) are all very well presented. For the more widely read, you'll probably be able to trace his many influences to 17th-18th century occult movement in London (people like the Rosicrucians, Isaac Newton, Giordano Bruno and John Dee) as well as extra-Biblical literature like the Book of Enoch. The "Wormwood" comet in the story is, of course, a reference to the Book of Revelation.

My biggest gripe with his writing (apart from the atrocious theology) is his handling of characters. The characters do not appear "real" enough - they usually come off as uneven and sometime "manic", like mentioned by another reviewer here. Dr. Blake's supposed "conversion" after meeting Abram Rickards appeared very "forced". Agetta started as a strong character and ended up weepy and manic (Taylor attributes this to the evil influence of the Nemorensis). Apart from that, all of the characters are portrayed as selfish and manipulative (even the supposed good guys and good angels). In short, none of the characters are really "likable" at all! Finally, the "evil plot" of the fallen angel Hezrin is at best, very sketchy because we only get bits and pieces of it towards the end of the book - almost like Taylor was running out of pages already and he had to wrap up the book as fast as possible.

Good for a weekend's read but nothing very captivating. Some of the parts are quite scary and may not be suitable for younger children.

G.P. Taylor, an Anglican vicar who sold his motorcycle to self-publish his first book, "Shadowmancer," sounds like an interesting character. Unfortunately, he's not much of a writer. His characters change motivations more frequently than they change their clothes, and plot development doesn't seem to be a priority. Add to that overripe prose and a tendency to bring up interesting questions and then drop them without really addressing them, and you end up with poorly-written drivel. There are better ways to waste your time.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 19 reviews  3.1 out of 5 stars