Cataclysm... “What the hell just happened to Greenland, Nicholas?” a voice crackled over the speaker. “It is shifting dramatically to the southeast. The rate of change in its position is astonishing.” “Jesus, the Yellowstone Caldera just blew,” stammered a small, balding man as he stared at a large screen directly in front of him. “What?” “The whole Pacific Northwest is going to be impacted.” “Impacted? That’s putting it mildly, isn’t it?” “Yes. Impacted…as if it had been hit by a meteor. The devastation is going to be off the charts. There was no time to evacuate...”
The Tower of Babel... “Okay, what really happened at the Tower of Babel, with the confusion of languages, and all that? Are you telling us that really happened?” Barry asked. “I only saw the tower from a distance, and I did not join any of the groups that formed after the confusion of the languages. That is another part of my curse, I suppose. God will not allow me to live in fellowship with anyone for very long. Over the centuries, I have, of course, learned many languages, but I was excluded from the partitioning of humanity into linguistic communities. Everyone else, however, found themselves speaking in tongues that they had not previously known, and in which they had not previously spoken. Many spoken languages simply ceased to exist on that day. I seem to have maintained the language that I spoke with my mother, father, and brother, but that language has disappeared from the face of the Earth, apart from myself, as far as I can tell,” Cain said somewhat sadly. “Can you still speak it,” Barry asked. “Sure, but you would not be able to understand it,” Cain replied. “We just want to hear what it sounded like,” Mike sneered. “As you wish, brother,” Cain said.
He then launched into a lengthy utterance that sounded like a cross between birdsong, the howling of wolves, and a cacophony of other sounds of the animals of the forest. Mike and Barry stared at each other in amazement. Cain “spoke” for a long time, and then lowered his head and looked again at his hands folded on the table. “What did you just say,” Barry asked excitedly. “It was a morning prayer of gratitude to our Creator,” Cain replied. “Much of it is not translatable into any current human language, but look out that window,” and he pointed to his left. The tree that was visible through the window had become full of what seemed to be hundreds of birds. All of them were looking in the same direction. They were all staring at Cain through that window. Suddenly, they all seemed to burst into chirping and singing, as if they had become excited. Just as suddenly, they all departed in unison. Mike and Barry looked from each other to the tree, to Cain, and back to each other again. “I haven’t seen anywhere near that many birds in one place since everything went to hell, Mike,” Barry said with wonder in his voice. Mike waved away his comment dismissively. “Can you tell us what any of it meant in English, Pope?” Mike asked. “Part of it says, roughly, ‘To you, Lord, we freely submit, and we gratefully embrace this life you have offered us,’ or words to that effect,” Cain said raising his eyes to the ceiling. “Most of the rest of it is praise in the voices of the animals that surrounded us in those days. All of the natural world declares the majesty of the Lord in one way or another.
People today cannot understand most of these declarations. That is sad, I suppose. In the early days, we always knew when we were speaking to God. We were just aware of God receiving our prayers and our expressions of gratitude. We felt it, for lack of a better expression,” Cain said bowing his head again. “I have not felt that in many, many years.” “Can you still understand the animals now,” Barry asked. “No,” Cain said without looking up. “No, I hear them in much the same way that the two of you hear them. God’s curse does not allow me even to commune with the natural world in the way that I once did. My banishment to the land of isolation and wandering is quite thorough. Even at this moment, I am not experiencing this very conversation in the way that you are, my brothers,” he stated with a shrug. “It is difficult to explain, but I am, at all times, beset with the understanding that I will probably never see either of you again after I leave this place. Thus has it been with me for all these centuries. I always return to wandering alone.” The three of them were silent for some time. “By the way, a man of Brian’s tribe, one of the camps of the ‘outsiders,’ as you call them, struck me with the back of his hand. Immediately after he hit me, I looked into his eyes and saw that he was terrified. To strike Cain is to summon the Angel of Death to one’s own door,” Cain said pointedly. “I assure you that man if he is not dead already, will be dead very soon. His death, I am confident, shall be indistinguishable from any other man’s death. It will appear to everyone else that he died of disease, or injury, or some other natural cause; but that man actually died, or will die soon, because he struck Cain. I have seen that same terrified look in the eyes of many men and women who have attacked me over the centuries. They immediately feel death rushing at them, welling up inside of them. I tell you this for your own benefit. You cannot kill Cain, but you can strike him. Thus far, nobody has ever struck Cain twice. The first blow fills my assailant with paralyzing fear. So, my brothers, I beseech you, please do not lose your temper and strike me. You will not survive long after doing so. Although I will not kill you myself, there is nothing I can do to forestall the consequences. Even if I forgive you immediately, your fate is sealed nonetheless,” and he waved one finger as a warning. Mike and Barry looked at each other with wide eyes. “Do you really expect us to believe that?” Mike finally asked. “Brother,”
Cain replied, “I do not expect you to believe anything I have told you – at least, not yet. Please do not try to test this claim for yourselves, though,” and Cain pretended to strike himself with his right hand, balled up into a fist. “I would prefer not to watch either of you die. For my part, I have seen far, far too much of that kind of thing. Please do not die on my account, my brothers. More than enough people are dead because of me.”
“Well, I am not suggesting that there is anything wrong with the Bible,” Cain said reassuringly, “but I have experienced a lot of things that are not mentioned in the Bible, and there are a lot of events in the Bible for which I was not present, so I do not know much more about some of the events in your Bible than you do. On the other hand, I can tell you about some of my experiences that did not make it into that book.”
~~~
Author William Ferraiolo is proving to be a writer that is, perhaps, the most unique I've personally encountered... After reading thousands of books, I had thought no new writer could surprise me. I was wrong... You may recall that I declared The Ethical Assassin, perhaps, Ferraiolo's first fictional book... Almost immediately, I received info about his latest book, The Pope of Atlantis. Yes, I got it and read the first half the first evening... Needless to say, I was once again surprised... I can only conclude that William Ferraiolo is a writer that writes what he wants to write, regardless of genre, title, or shock value... This book was well written and written in a normal format... But, the Plot is simply extraordinary as well as mystifying... Is it Fantasy, Dystopian, Religious Fiction Historical, Adventure, Alternative History... there is NO WAY to fit this book, again, within the normal range of genres... Let's make it, simply, Multi-Genre... And then I realized that there just might be--yes--philosophical fiction is an established genre! And that's what makes it exceptional... Very, exceptional... Not to say that I'm "well-read" in the normal sense of the word, but, in fiction, I had never been even asked to read a book that was so clearly based upon a philosophical approach:
Philosophical fiction is a genre that builds its narratives on intellectual inquiry, using story and character development to explore fundamental questions about existence, morality, and human nature.As I think about The Ethical Assassin, I don't think I would change anything I provided on that review; however, this latest book proves to me that this author is a new writer in fiction to watch closely!
For instance, the title of the book is created within the dialogue between two main characters. You know, "I'm Mike--What's your name buddy?"
But let's start at the beginning, shall we, because the World is in the midst of being destroyed...some countries are sliding into the oceans; some are simply being buried upside down, perhaps by an earthquake or something similar... The book begins with the news announcing what is happening--at least until there is no more news... We then discover that there are only two small areas in all the world that has some semblance of normalty--except for lack of food and all the things we would normally have immediate access to. As we learn more, it appears that about Eight Billion People are dead... (Now, I think it was very important, to me at least, that later in the book Cain talks about God "disappearing" people; that is, moved off the planet--I happen to believe there are more good people on earth or those who do not deserve to die, than the number saved at the time of the Great Flood where only Noah's family, and animals, were saved--personal opinion, of course, and not questioning God's decisions... well, maybe, sometime my mind wanders...LOL.
“I will tell you, my friend,” Cain said as if Mike had asked him a question, “over all the centuries, I have never ceased to marvel at the inclination among the people to delude themselves and to believe what they want to believe, no matter what the evidence suggests.” Mike looked at Cain until he raised his head to look Mike in the eye. “What makes you say that just now, Pope?” “Although I sense that you may be coming around to taking my story seriously, at least somewhat,” Cain replied, “you still cling to the belief that I simply cannot be Cain. I simply cannot be Adam’s son. You will not allow yourself to believe that you could not pull the trigger on that revolver,” and he motioned to the gun that was positioned across the room, “because God has made it impossible for any man to kill me. You have no viable alternative theory to explain what you experienced, but you resist the one theory I have presented, nonetheless. Whether you believe it or not, I will live until God allows me to die, but you may never come to accept the story I have told you about my curse. Is the idea that God is watching so frightening to you? Is scripture really more implausible than any other explanation you may have entertained?”
(in my lifetime, this issue has never been more of an issue than ever...At least millions are protesting, now seeing the lies and violence that smothers our lives daily...)
Now is the time to introduce our main character, whose name is... Cain... Yes, that one... And if some of you may not know the Biblical story, here's a short refresher...
My only point is that the two of you gentlemen,” and he paused to look from one man to the other, “know what men are capable of doing to one another. Yet you ask me what I know about the devil? I know mankind. That, it seems to me, is enough.”
However, the author takes this opportunity to point out that Cain was indeed the first person to have committed murder on Earth. And then shares all that he did in defiance of God's curse, so that, more or less, those who murder or use violence in today's world are actually descendants of Cain... For me, and many of us who want to know why, this seems to be a simple logical reason to explain those we call the good and bad people... At least for purposes of considering a logical discussion...
So, where did the title of the book come from? Well, God had brought Cain to the only two places that still existed on earth. The first leader refused to even consider what they were told. Mike on the other hand happened to be where he was in Alaska because there was a military outpost he commanded there and when the world started disappearing, Mike had brought his troop and moved into the one community that survived, and took control. Because there were already cannibals living there... Yes. Truth... In any event, Mike and his second in command greeted their visitor and welcomed him--mainly because guns had not been able to be used to kill him. So Mike wanted to know more. But both of the military leaders refused to believe that Cain was still alive and wandering the earth since being born near the Garden of Eden from which Adam and Eve had been forced to leave... So, while refusing to accept Cain's real name, Mike threw out something like that he might as well claim that he was Pope of Atlantis... and then decided Pope would be Cain's name while they figured out who he really was...
In addition to the cannibals, which were surely people who were starving and turned to eating their neighbors when food was gone, there were also a group of Inuit indigenous people who had lived in the area as well. An elder of this group was involved in an exciting God Incident that took place as days went by. Days when they were working to figure out, and hopefully learn as much as they could from Cain, as to whether this was the end of Planet Earth... And while that occurred, readers will learn about the historical events to which God had directed Cain in order to observe what was happening to God's people... (See above re The Tower of Babel, for example...) All of these stories were fascinating...by the way... But, no matter what, time was moving on...
Cain indeed had changed and was trying to follow God's ways, but he was lonely and had not, for many years, been permittd to develop any type of relationship with humans. Until now... But nobody knew what that meant... And knowing that there was also a feeling of distrust by those surrounding him, did not really match his desire to again hear God's voice... Thousands of years had passed, Cain was still a young man, invincible, but totally controlled by the curse that he now knew he had deserved...
“I am on the path again,” he said much more quietly than he had spoken just a bit earlier. “There must be others. There must be something else coming. If God is willing, then I will do His bidding as long as He permits me to remain in His service.”
I can only tell you that I wish this book had not ended... So, I've done the next best thing... William Ferraiolo has agreed to participate in a discussion here on Book Readers Heaven to expand upon what was covered in the book, as soon as we can get it put together... So do watch for the announcement! This book is, in one way, heartbreaking, but also very inspirational. It is informative as the author's research has undoubtedly been used in the Bible, Qur'an and other religious and philosophy books to pull together this amazing story... But, do not think it is an ordinary story, a fantasy... unless you read it yourself... Personally, I found that the premise that Cain being th first murderer, and that he had many wives and children, was a logical basis upon which to discuss the "why?" of all the violence experienced on Earth... We may not like it but...it is worthy of explortion... Especially NOW when religion has been brought and used as a tool in the political chaos now happening... Highly recommended!
GABixlerReviews
In the early days, we always knew when we were speaking to God. We were just aware of God receiving our prayers and our expressions of gratitude. We felt it, for lack of a better expression,” Cain said bowing his head again. “I have not felt that in many, many years.”
God Bless
Gabby
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