Get ready for a journey of epic proportions--rather, cosmic proportions. This book is a little treasure, a marvel. This is an adventure, a comedy, a tragedy, a turbulent odyssey and a peaceful stroll. Most of all, this is a love story like no other I have ever read. A new kind of love story. I'll see you inside...
 

--Michael O'Brien
Author of Father Elijah

Both those who loved this book and those who hated it are right.

This book is not Dante, it is not Dostoevsky, it is not Dickens, it is not even John Grisham on a bad day. I'm guessing that the writing is probably on a level with a lot of the trashy novels that you see around the airport (though I have to confess that I've never read any of them--one novel by Grisham or Mitchener every decade or so is about as much time as I can stand to waste).

That being said, a lot of people LOVED this book. I read it when a fellow Catholic pressed it into my hands and told me that it was the best novel she had ever read and that I HAD to read it. Even though I winced at some of the writing, I did find the book to be a page turner, and it was exhilarating for me, and I'm sure for many others, to read an action adventure story that is based on an overtly Catholic view of both the spiritual and material realms.

Vincent DiCarlo

(from amazon.com)

End time and apocalyptic thrillers are all the rage these days. Most of them are focused on various Rapture scenarios or the imminent rise of an Anti-Christ. The phenomenal popularity of the Left Behind series has many other writers, agents and publishers scrambling to capture lightning in a bottle.

The refreshingly different approach of Pierced by a Sword, by Bud MacFarlane Jr. (Saint Jude Media) is all the more enhanced because of this. This is a near-future thriller with prophetic implications coming from a different direction. The author is unabashedly Catholic and the plot revolves around visions and messages from Heaven based on the revelations from the Virgin Mary. It would be a mistake to reduce it to just a Marian theme, however. It’s also wrong to write off the storyline as appealing only to Roman Catholics. On the contrary, the story is riveting and the characters come from a variety of backgrounds, some grounded in a strong faith, others caught up in the events and grappling with the meaning of it all while struggling with personal, spiritual and materialistic quests.

All the heroes of the story are not immediately apparent. Several have a great deal of conflict to resolve and redemption comes in different ways. A hard drinking and smoking financial trader, a high-rolling drug dealer about to crash, a wise-cracking priest with a penchant for rubbing his superiors the wrong way, a beautiful unwed pregnant woman, a high ranking Mormon official, an Irish Pope who drives his own car and travels in disguise, a cigar chomping tycoon, a former NFL great, and a college professor from Notre Dame and expert on Marian apparitions: these are some of the characters involved in the unfolding plot of cosmic proportions. You may find yourself identifying specifically with one or more key players.

All good fiction is a combination of characters so real you identify with them and a story thick with conflict and trouble. This book delivers both and makes for a page turner. Anticipation at every chapter end kept me enthralled. It’s also difficult to predict what will happen so I found myself thinking about the book and its characters when I was away from the reading. This had the combined impact of keeping me caring about those characters and also thinking about the themes of the book. This is how evangelistic fiction becomes truly effective.
 

-- Tom Gilbert
from www.livingthesolution.com
 

I have little if any time to read. Someone left this book in a chapel where the Blessed Sacrament was exposed. I started to read it, and suddenly I was finding time to read. I couldn't stop. I was up most nights unable to put it down. The story is wonderfully told, rock solid, unpredictable, human, with characters very easy to relate to. This book changed my life. It's as simple as that. I'm giving copies to everyone I know (I don't share mine because I keep rereading it and it is getting quite worn). I believe Bud McFarlane, Jr. did such a phenomenal job with his first novel because he allowed the Holy Spirit to work through him. I also have read "Conceived Without Sin" and loved it. Now I can't wait for Bud McFarlane, Jr. to write a third book!

Jeff Matthews

(from amazon.com)