Prelude to Darkness

An Apocalyptic Novel

 by

Gerald Lee Gibson

 

Gerald Lee Gibson, author of Kingdom of the Cats, Alien Odyssey, Prelude to Darkness, and numerous short stories and poems.

To read this novel, press the adjacent cover to reach the Table of Contents.

 

 

 

 

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                                      Synopsis

Prelude to Darkness redefines the devil and its mission on earth. After leaving its throne in the care of the Serpent, Abbadon, the Gate Master of Hell, the devil surfaces unobtrusively and seeks out the Reverend Adam Leeds, its chosen vessel on Earth. The reverend’s wife, Cora Vale, has been spiritually corrupted by Satan into becoming the millstone around the reverend’s neck. Already, however, the reverend’s liberal, New Age, ‘feel good’ approach to religion has conditioned his mind for the interpretations of what will become the Universal Church. The frightful Apocalyptic visions of the fundamentalists could not convince him. Three portentous dreams and the prophecy of a televangelist fail to warn him. Even, as he wanders lost in Skid Row, the warnings of an itinerate preacher fail to detour him.

Failed ambition and the reverend’s feelings of spiritual inadequacy have been, over the years, exacerbated by his wife. Through such spiritual distraction and his own muddled theology, the devil enters and dominates the course of his life. After a period of temptation and soul searching, the reverend is driven, after being drugged by a mysterious stranger, into finally murdering his troublesome spouse. Satan’s blackmail, after the apparent crime, are but the finishing touches to his downfall from spiritual grace.

Not only is Satan amorphous in this interpretation, it is without gender, until it materializes once and for all in the flesh for its anointed. As a beautiful woman, who resembles in Adam's opinion, Mary, the mother of Jesus, she seduces him and consummates their bond, but she must still earn his trust. In stead of using the play script written by the prophets and apostles of Christ, it appears to Adam as if Satan appears to be making it all up as she goes along. There is little similarity between the events surrounding the new prophet and his followers and the False Prophet of the Bible, and yet a few wary souls suspect that this exactly who he is. The conventional stereotype fiend of Hell is literally turned on its head as Marie Roget (a. k. a Satan, Lucifer and Beelzebub) parades her parody of Christ and his Apostles on the streets of Skid Row.

 

 

 

 

   
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