Description
Incarnate
Antony Barone Kolenc
October, 2007. Joshua Christiansen thinks he’s just an ordinary teen, ready to graduate high school and infatuated with his best friend Rachel…until Agent Samson shows up and tells him who he really is. Now, while dodging ruthless zealots and evading government plots, he must test the limits of his mind and body as he seeks the truth about himself.
Was he truly cloned from the blood of a Eucharistic miracle? Does he really have the power to trigger the End of Days? Or will he be killed, captured, or brainwashed by one of the many people who want to use him for their own ends before he can learn the truth?
laurenthellauthor –
This book will make you think. A lot. This is a Christian YA psychic thriller with a touch of sci-fi and romance. It took me a few chapters to get into it simply because I wasn’t sure where the story was going with the whole Jesus-incarnate thing. But once I understood, I was locked into the need to know what happens in the end.
Joshua Christiansen is an ordinary teen living an ordinary life until suddenly guys are following him, trying to either kill him or kidnap him, which is when he learns of his disturbing origins. It’s a story of learning about who you are and what you’re capable of.
I am Christian but not Catholic and there are many elements specific to Catholicism in the story (as to be expected in a book published by Chrism Press). Anything that raised a red flag for me in the beginning was mostly settled by the end and I found it to be accurate to the human experience with religion. (On a serious note, the book was a disturbing reminder what misguided humans will do.) I appreciated the underlying message of how a person chooses who he will become rather than succumbing to someone else’s idea of it.
I assume there’s a sequel in the works and am curious to see how that one pans out…
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher. I was not required to provide a positive review. All opinions expressed are mine alone.
laknermegan –
I wasn’t quite sure what to think about this book when I first started reading it. I always approach books like this with caution, only because some authors can take a lot of artistic license with such a story. Knowing it was published by Chrism Press, a really good Catholic publisher, I figured I didn’t have to worry too much though. And I was right.
Right from the first page the action starts and it kept me turning the pages to see how the story was going to continue. I admit to not quite getting where the story would go right away, but the author did an excellent job with keeping me interested so I just couldn’t put the book down. I needed to find out how it would end.
Joshua is your typical teenager whose life gets upended when some really bad guys come after him. The author did a great job keeping me guessing as to who was trustworthy and who wasn’t, and I appreciated how he tied in Joshua’s life with Jesus Christ’s time here on earth. The similarities were well done. I would recommend this book for anyone who enjoys a good thriller, with a twist. The ending was perfect and sets up the next book in the series very well. I look forward to seeing how it will all end.
*I received an early ARC from the publisher. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.
Maggie Rosario –
Anthony Barone Kolenc flourishes his authorial skills in his newly released novel, Incarnate. I found the work a thrilling page-turner, hurtling readers into a new peril with every chapter – be it psychological or horribly physical. Kolenc begins with the fascinating, if shocking, premise that modern cloning abilities might one day extend to the DNA of Christ himself – a premise which sprouts a plethora of alarming possibilities. Joshua Christiansen could be the product of such cloning, though readers are never told for certain Joshua’s true nature.
With a premise of such horrible significance to me as a Christian reader, Kolenc weaves a work both deeply disturbing and intellectually intriguing. In particular, the several responses from the groups of people whom Joshua encounters is a wise reading of human nature. How might the modern world, Christian or not, respond to a miraculous anti-Christ figure? And on another level, what is an ethical approach to the modern reproductive technology, no matter if the child is a clone of Christ’s human nature?
While for the most part I read with an enrapt, fascinated horror, there is a hopeful turn at the end of Incarnate which leaves readers with more peace of mind. Kolenc leaves an open ending, and manages to fill it with a subdued hope. The march of scientific advances seems a hopeless, morally fraught sphere, yet Kolenc inserts some glimpse of the final triumph of truth and Christian morality.
I will certainly be on the lookout for the next installment of Kolenc’s series – wondering the while what will become of Joshua Christiansen.
Disclaimer: I was provided a complementary copy of this novel so that I might give my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.