God really is coming, and he is going to be pissed. Having left his son in charge, God treated himself to a well-earned break around the height of the Renaissance. A good time to go fishing. He returns in 2011 to find things on earth haven't gone quite to plan...

The world has been rendered a human toilet: genocide; starvation; people obsessed with vacuous celebrity culture; 'and,' God points out, 'there are fucking Christians everywhere.' God hates Christians. There's only one thing for it. They're sending the kid back.

JC, reborn, is a struggling musician in New York City helping people as best as he can. Gathering disciples along the way - a motley collection of basket cases, stoners and alcoholics - he realises his best chance to win hearts and minds may lie in a TV talent contest. American Pop Star is the number one show in America, the unholy creation of English record executive Steven Stelfox... a man who's more than a match for the Son of God.

Φευγεις για να πας στους Δελφούς στα χέρια της Delphi_Reader.

Χίλια ευχαριστώ GLAROS και aigliz για το υπέροχο πακέτο-έκπληξη!

Και τα δύο βιβλία φαίνονται πολύ ενδιαφέροντα, κάτι μου λέει ότι δεν θα αργήσουν πολύ να διαβαστούν...

A new to me author! The blurb seems interesting, let's see what I'll make out of this....

The Second Coming is a novel that I think the author meant it to be a satire on many things and an entertaining book, but obviously its theme might make it a controversial read...

Personally I found the idea of the book interesting, but the book its self not that great. While I feel that if I ever happened to meet the author and have a relaxed chat, we would had many views in common and agree on many aspects, John Niven seems to try very hard to make his points throught the book and this doesn't always work. Often the language doesn't feel very natural due to the fact that the author decided to place one more swearing word in a sentence, just to shock his readers or something - or so it felt to me-. Then, by trying to fit too many themes in the plot, the book turns predictable on many fronts and gets poignant and didactic on a bad way. There are tons of plot holes too and the narration feels often fragmental and disconnected. ( I try not to write spoilers here! )

While I enjoyed parts of the book, I found other parts pretty boring and a chore to read. The opening scenes in Heaven amused me, but Hell was like listening to bad jokes about...well, Hell, while I felt that next many chapters -on earth- fell from cliche to cliche and from non-sense to non-sense or were simply indifferent to me despite their sparks of humor or plot twists every now and then. The final chapters got far-fetched and predictable of course, but picked up my interest by adding some tensions and action and faster pace.

The original idea for this book was intriguing, but the outcome was so and so. I wasn't surprised to learn that the author has personal involvement in music industry etc but I was a bit surprised to learn that he is Scottish, because the book felt too US-centric to me.

I can see how some people, especially on the other side of the Pond, might find this book even insulting, but for me one has to read it with an open mind and as a light entertainment without many expectations created. An OKish book but not great. I would like to try something else written by this author sometime...

The Second Coming left Delphi this morning and is now on its way to USA through the First Sentences Virtual Book Box- Round 15!
And then... who knows?

Good Luck little book and don't forget to write your news from time to time : )

First Sentence: "GOD'S COMING-LOOK BUSY!"

A surprise in yesterday's mail. I selected this because I was intrigued by the first sentence and I am not disappointed. This looks like a very funny book. I can't wait to start it.