This is a difficult book to review. Not because it is not good - it is excellent. But because what it leaves you with.
I finish so many books these days, and that's it. I have left that authors mind and the universe of those characters, never to think of them again. "The Beggar of Beliefs" is wholly different.
I found myself looking up the historical events it references, the timelines, the chronologies, even village names and locations... and all because "The Beggar..." has left me with a gnawing sense of doubt that this is not a work of fantastic fiction... but it could very likely be true.
I'm not a conspiracy theorist per se. I enjoyed The X-Files, but that was it. But here we have a book the describes, in amazing detail, the Tunguska event, the nuclear tests of Starfish Prime, a mass poisoning in France - and many more - and links them all with a narrative so sinister that Stephen King must surely be jealous.
Because what the author has done is nothing short of remarkable; he has proved the existence of God... but then has also explained that pain and suffering is not just allowed to happen, but it is actively fermented by the shadowy Raven Men, who are heralds of a malevolent Creator.
Now I can sit here and scoff and jeer. But when I look at all the violence undertaken "in the name of religion", suddenly I'm not so sure. And when I start to look up key characters, the mocking leaves me completely. George Tate lives, as does Colin Denoon, Sam Cotrahens and a myriad of others.
And isn't that the mark of great book? Not just one that sucks you in from the first page, but makes you believe. And I sit here, on cold and stormy night, and I find myself believing in the realm of Sumerland and all its darkness. And that makes me very, very afraid.
One for open minded horror lovers everywhere.
