this was a fantastic read! Extremely well written, character development and plot development were fantastic! ( )

Revelation: Conquest (The Seals) (Volume 1) by Gothic City Press is a collection of short stories, most of which have a vaguely religious theme, though they did not seem to be about the end of days.

The Watchmen, the first story, left me wondering if I really wanted to finish reading this book. It was very vague and I cannot say that I could really follow what was happening. There was a battle between a dragon, beast, and watchman, but why? What was the point? I really don’t understand this story at all.

Next, The Tiniest Dragonslayer is an odd story. A village is plagued by a dragon, and in order to prevent it from feasting on the villagers, the village collects a fee from warriors who wish to fight it. An eight year old names Byron shows up with the fee and wants to fight the dragon. I am left with a couple of questions. First of all, what was Byron? Was he an angel or a demon? This is unclear. Can sunlight actually talk to angels and demons? This part was strange.

In The Fortune Teller, the Church asks Brother Willman to find a pattern to the atrocities committed by the church over the millennia and project likely future atrocities. After he finally finds the pattern, Brother Willman is visited by an angel or demon (not clear which it is) who tells him to consider the consequences of telling the church what he has discovered. Brother Willman must decide between telling the bishop what he has discovered or withholding it for the rest of his life. I did enjoy this story.

Moving along, From Whence Came the Courage has George Washington meeting an angel, who weaves a tale connecting ancient Israelites, revolutionary America, and modern-day America. It is an interesting premise and a good story that I would recommend to anyone that enjoys seeing hypothetical connections drawn between drastically different periods in history.

The Priest is the next short story in the book set in an Old West-style town (at least that was my impression). A fallen angel Simeon, a.k.a Vengeance, wants to redeem himself in the eyes of God. To accomplish this he must protect Jedediah from the demons that want him dead because he is a witness (to what, I don’t know). We are left with a few questions. What happened to Jedediah’s friend Bobby Ray? If he is to protect Jedediah, why does Simeon take him demon hunting through a portal? What is the end result of their hunt? Does Jedediah live? Does Simeon earn his redemption? This is an okay story, but it leaves too many unanswered questions.

In the story A Clean Room, “The Master” rids a storekeeper named Hyen, who many have long since decided was crazy, of the demons plaguing him. Hyen regains his position in society and earns a fair amount of wealth. He chooses to travel and comes across another man who had also met the Master. This other man tells Hyen that the Master had stayed in his home for a few days, commented that he should clean his home, then slipped away one day. Hyen chooses to try to follow after the Master and asks the man which way the Master had gone. I am not sure of the point of this story, maybe it was just too subtle for me.

Missa Pro Defunctis is an interesting ghost story. Two men are asked by the bishop to take inventory of a church that is being sold. Once they get to the basement, they come across people in old style dress. We find out the mystery of how the church caught fire in the early 20th century. This was a good story that I would recommend to anyone that enjoys a good ghost story.

In The Further Adventures of Jesus, the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church sends Father Anselm to solve the mystery of why several villages have become more devout than ever and Father Anselm vows to get to the bottom of it. He goes to the church (or barn that houses the services) and becomes just as enthralled as the other attendees in the new tales of Jesus that the clergyman told. Again, here is a story that I do not see a moral or point to.

My favorite short story in this book was Hell to Pay. A man named Peter recently broke up with his girlfriend Janet, who made a deal with the devil, but used a fake name and used Peter’s blood to seal the deal. The devil takes Peter to Janet, where he confronts her. This story I highly recommend to anyone who enjoys a great story of good vs. evil.

The final story is What Do You Want. Two women are travelling during a snow storm and their vehicle is stranded. A stranger named Belial picks them up and drops them off at a preacher’s house. One of them, Geri, decides to observe a mass and while the other goes to bed. At the mass, things begin to feel surreal to Geri and she gets frightened when she is asked what she wants. When she wakes up the next morning, she is told that she passed out at mass and things are not as she recalls them from the night before. The women’s car is waiting for them and they leave uneventfully. This is an okay story, but again what is the point or moral?

Though the some of the stories are much better than others, this is a book that I do not recommend for the typical reader. ( )

I was looking forward to reading this book. The intro was encouraging. Understanding that the book is fiction. I took this into consideration as I read the stories. From one story to the next I was disappointed. Why?? Although the stories are fiction everyone of the stories points to supposedly Biblical doctrine, This is the problem the theology is wrong,. Over and over the hope that is set forth in the Bible is twisted to what is taught by almost religious denominations, It would have been so refreshing for the stories to have brought forth Bible truths instead of the errors that are taught as truth. For these reasons, I cannot and will not recommend this book to others, ( )