My Review of The Zarion: Saving Mankind by JE Grace

This is a science fiction novel with a good dose of Christian faith--a rarity in my experience, and if you're into that sort of thing, then this might be the book for you. If you read my blog a lot, you'll notice I don't usually read sci fi, but when the author, JE Grace, contacted me and asked me to review her book, I obliged. It's not that I don't like sci fi--I love Star Wars--it's just not usually my genre of choice. I was intrigued by the premise, however, which equates the return of Christ as the savior of the world to a scientist in the future whose purpose is to save humans from aliens--or at least that was my understanding going in.

"Beam me up, Zarions!"

The main character, Davis, is slated to work for a shady company called Interplay. In fact, the book starts with his kidnapping and being instructed that he will be working for Interplay--which should have been a big heads up that something might not quite be right with this company. While Davis and his co-workers go about trying to solve some of Earth's most drastic problems--like running out of food--a sneaky member of their crew is sabotaging them. We find out later that this turncoat is not the only one, and that he, along with many other characters, is actually an agent of The Fallen.  This group of aliens, led by Lucifer, is trying to take over Earth.  As Davis begins to uncover what is happening around him, he also learns of a group working to save the inhabitants of Earth, the Zarion, and he also finds out his link to these benevolent beings is more than skin deep.
There is also a bit of romance in the novel, though nothing to make one blush, which gives another dimension to the story. Davis is intrigued by his colleague Janette from the moment he meets her. He'll have to wait a while to find out whether or not his feelings are reciprocated, and as a reader, it kept me interested to see what would happen between them.
There is a lot of action, lots of espionage, lots of intrigue. If you like sci fi, the description and dialogue regarding traveling into space, etc. sounds pretty right on to me.  In a lot of ways, it reminded me of one of those old movies you might catch late at night when invaders are coming to Earth and the strong hero-type astronaut guy has to come to the rescue.  The dialogue is sparse but sensible, and Davis and Janette are likable right away, though she is certainly not one I would describe as a strong, independent woman.
This book is not quite written in first person. It oscillates back and forth from Davis's perspective to the point of view of other characters. At first, this phenomenon only occurred between chapters, but then it got more frequent. Sometimes we get more than one point of view in the same paragraph. This makes it a bit hard to follow. Also, it is written in first person omniscient--which means Davis sometimes has the ability to know the motivation and private thoughts of other characters he is interacting with. Again, I don't mind omniscient, but  it does make the story hard to follow when Davis is talking but we suddenly know what another character is thinking. And, if he has some sort of mind-reading abilities, this is never mentioned in the plot line.
It is also written mostly in passive voice.  A lot of the action is explained to the reader, rather than shown to us.  There are whole scenes that are summed up after the fact, which took me out of the book a little bit. I didn't ever quite feel like I was in the moment with Davis, rather a bit more like he was giving me a summary of what had occurred much later in time.
I also noticed there is no editor listed.  There needs to be one--possibly another one--because there are a lot of errors, especially punctuation errors, but the mistakes aren't limited to that. There are some word usage errors, misspellings, etc.  A thorough read-through by a good proofreader should take care of that, but I would also suggest an editor go back and make some of the POV switches a little clearer.  My personal opinion--pick a POV and stick with it. Either first or third, but not both. I have read a few other books recently where this worked, but it's really tough to pull off, and I honestly didn't think it worked here as I was often confused about who was talking and how Davis knew certain things.
There is an overwhelming amount of coffee drinking in this book.... Just an observation.
I do like the concept, and as a Christian I appreciate the idea.  It's possible that this book could reach some sci fi readers who are not aware of our faith. There were some things that could have been better, but it was a quick read that kept me turning the pages. Other readers have given it four and five stars. You can read The Zarion: Saving Mankind for yourself on Amazon here. The current list price at time of post is $2.99.