William Ferraiolo, Author, Visits! ... And Spotlighting His Latest, The Pope of Atlantis...

 

Welcome to Book Readers Heaven William! I'm so happy to have you visit here! But I'm also happy to have first connected through your book, The Ethical Assassin which as you know, set my mind adrift on what genre the book was...LOL 

And I do have the normal question as to how you came to write this story. A personal interest? An exploration of the mind of a killer?

The Ethical Assassin: A Vigilante's Memoir is my attempt to explore the mind and actions of a man who believes that he has nothing left to lose, apart from the possibility of God's punishment. He decides to kill evil people who has escaped man's punishment, or who have met with punishment that he regards as insufficient. There are three books in that series. Only the first has been published. He struggles constantly with the moral question of whether he is or is not morally justified in his executions of child molesters, murderers, and others who damage that most innocent among us.

Before getting into our discussion further, could you tell us a little about yourself...

My personal history is not particularly interesting. I was raised in an Italian, Catholic family, and I was baptized and confirmed, but I cannot say that I currently subscribe to Catholicism. Having destroyed my knee in my senior year in high school and lost my scholarship to college, I had to chart a new path and ended up, somehow, majoring in philosophy. After graduate school, I took a job in Stockton, California in 1997, and I taught there for 25 years before taking a somewhat early retirement. While I was still teaching I wrote a number of books about Stoicism. Those can be found on my Amazon author page. After I retired, I began writing fiction. We'll see how it goes.

Now, let's go on to my favorite of the two books, and which, in my opinion, is a very special book for a number of reasons... When I discovered what your book, The Pope of Atlantis was really about, which for purposes of this discussion to ensure we don't give away anything major from the book, was based upon religion... And, in particular, the end of the world... I also began to consider your book in light of today's world...

So, I still use the first question that I normally ask: Why did you, William, write The Pope of Atlantis? 

The Pope of Atlantis is an exploration of a man cursed to walk the Earth for thousands of years because he offended his Creator. He lives for centuries in a condition of rage and rebellion against God's commands, and this leads him to commit many atrocities. He is a lonely outcast everywhere he goes, but he has brief contacts with various historical figures. God breathes new life into this cursed man's despair by allowing him, once again, to hear his Creator's voice. With the hope that his curse might eventually be lifted, the protagonist of the novel tries his best to live the remainder of his life in a manner that is pleasing to the Lord. 

With the great cataclysm that opens the novel, this man realizes that his curse, and the world, could be coming to an end. He makes his way to one of the two camps in which there are a few survivors and tries to tell them his story. Of course, they do not believe him at first. I intentionally left their attitude about his story ambiguous until the very end. Do they have the faith to repent, and do they have the time to be saved through faith or deeds? I also wrote Pope because Cain's death is not mentioned in the Bible, and I thought it would be interesting, as the writer and readers, to explore the story of a man cursed to walk the earth until the end of time. I'm happy you enjoyed it!

For instance, Cain explains to Mike that he believes that the first books of the Bible are definitely written correctly, even arguing because the others can't see how the world could be created in a week... Now, yes, Cain, in your book, did not live much longer than that period, but it obviously raises the question as to whether you, too, believe that the Bible is the Word of God? 

As for the historicity of Genesis, I am convinced that the author(s) believed that the account offered is literally, historically accurate. Whether the account actually is accurate is, of course, a controversial matter. Part of the Genesis account mentions the protagonist of Pope. His death, however, is not mentioned. So, I thought it would be interesting to construct a narrative of one possible series of events that could link this cursed man from very near the Creation to The Last Day. 

Along the way, this man is repeatedly compelled to witness unfathomable human suffering as part of his punishment. He sees war, famine, genocide, and all of the rest of the things that humans do to each other, as well as the suffering cause by nature as it groans under the weight of sin. The world, it seems to me, is still groaning. We are all still witnessing the consequences of sin. Humans are the sinning species.

As for my own religious commitments, I believe in the God of Abraham, but beyond that, I remain uncertain. Whether the Jews, the Christians, or the Muslims have the correct account of the nature of God and His relationship to humanity is not clear to me. It is, of course, possible that they are all wrong, and that God does not exist. From my perspective, the fine-tuning argument persuades me that God probably does exist, and Rabbi Keleman's argument that the Sinai revelation almost certainly could not have successfully been concocted and marketed to the descendants of those who allegedly heard God speak in an audible voice, convinces me that God really did speak at Sinai (an event that lifts the protagonist of The Pope of Atlantis out of the depths of his despair).

My point is not to argue, but rather, that I personally have allowed myself to read beyond what I was taught in a particular church, have come to question the validity that God spoke all these words to the writers, as He did Moses, which was specifically spotlighted... For me, I simply acknowledge that I call myself a Thomas--a doubting Thomas who keeps my mind open for what God really did and said...and keep learning...

Consider this, just as you took license as a writer to create a fictional story, could you imagine that the original writers of the entire Bible could not have done the same?

Given that the world ends in your book, can you share a little about your thoughts in relation to today?

I don't know the future any better than anyone else, but I am not particularly optimistic. Currently political and social phenomena are, to my way of thinking, downstream from the "fallen" sinful nature of humanity. People cause themselves trouble. It's what we do best. Whether it's Noah's flood, or Egypt, or Rome, or the USSR, or any other socio-political configuration...it goes wrong. People suffer. People die. There is nothing truly new under the sun. God offered humanity the choice of obedience and life, or disobedience followed by suffering and death. Either that...or we're on our own.

Well, I personally believe there was an additional step. God gave His Son to the world and offered His Love. He also gave us free will and only asked in return for us to place the loving God first in our lives and to love our fellow man. Many of us are living as a follower of Jesus, knowing what that means and choosing our way of life based upon the recognition that all men are created as equal (by God) and should be treated in Love as God has directed. Millions of us are doing that daily. Some chose a different path... But none are ever on our own unless we choose to be...

Where do you see your writing headed in the future?

I write about our struggle to figure out what to do with our lives, and about our struggle to do the right thing in difficult circumstances...like the sudden loss of everything that one of us ever cared about, or a global cataclysm that destroys over 8 billion human lives and leaves the survivors with no idea what just happened, what (if anything) it means, or how to survive. What makes the morally good things good, and the evil things evil, and...how can we tell the former from the latter when we encounter devastation? These are the questions that fascinate me. Hopefully, I will find readers who feel the same way.

Time will tell.

William Ferraiolo

Thanks so much for visiting and talking about your fiction writing! Best wishes for your future!

GABixlerReviews

From the Author of The Ethical Assassin Now Comes The Pope of Atlantis by William Ferraiolo - A Timely Story!

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.”

Now recognize that Cain and Abel were two of the sons of Adam and Eve. In fact, the writer declares that he is positive the first creation chapters of the Old Testament were literally true. And that they were kicked out of the Garden of Eden after disobeying God.... And, God, as an all-knowing God, already knew that Cain had killed his brother and put a curse upon Cain to wander the earth until God saw that Cain had changed.

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

The Ethical Assassin: A Vigilante's Memoir by William Ferraiolo - A Philosophic Debate Presentation - Not A Novel

 Can the sudden deprivation of normalcy lead to similar symptoms as the sudden loss of blood and oxygen to the brain? Blood was lost, to be sure, but it was not lost from my body. It was all of the other blood that mattered to me that drained away far too quickly for me to be able to process what had happened. People disappeared from my life in, from my perspective, an instant.

There is always more to every story than the part that gets told or written down.

In any case, I have no idea how to characterize the change within my own psyche at the moment I heard the news, nor do I know what to say about my state of mind all these years later when I consider everything that happened on that day and the days immediately following. I know that things have changed over the years between that day and this one, dramatically from my point of view. Exactly how and when these changes took place is not particularly interesting to me. My life now is almost nothing like my life before I received the phone call. Everything about which I once cared so deeply was simply taken from me at that moment. It did not all disappear a little bit at a time, in a manner that allowed me to adjust gradually. What I thought of as my entire life just “went away” all at once. I “had it all,” and then I had nothing, as far as I was concerned. What would that do to any man? It played a central role, I am fairly confident, in turning me into a killer. Of that, I am almost grateful on some occasions. At other times, it feels like a corollary injustice or, at the very least, an additional facet of the crushing misfortune of losing my family. If my wife and kids were still alive, then I would probably not endanger them by doing the things I have done since I lost them. As things stand, they are in no danger. They are safely dead. I cannot speak for any man other than myself regarding the impact of this type of event. The phone call whereby I learned that my family had all died at once left me feeling like I was suspended in mid-air. 

I felt like a cartoon character who has run off of a cliff, but not yet fallen because he has just looked down. In the Road Runner cartoons, gravity only takes effect when the character looks down to see that he is now standing on nothing. Like Wile E. Coyote, I experienced that instant when I realized that the ground had dropped away and there was now nothing but the abyss beneath my feet. I felt the abyss yawning beneath me, but there was no experience of plummeting to the ground. Feeling as if I had touched something beneath me might have been comforting. I felt absolutely nothing beneath me or supporting my body. I just “hung there,” suspended above the nothingness where my family had been. Plummeting into the abyss and finally hitting something would have been preferable, I think. That would have felt like something, at least. The coyote in the cartoons falls, crashes, makes sounds like an accordion, re-establishes bodily integrity, as if by magic, and then goes back about the business of trying to chase down the Road Runner. He still has the same purpose he always had. He recovers quickly. Cartoon characters can do that. The coyote still knows what he is supposed to do. His purpose is written for him. He has a script, after all. Wile E. Coyote exists only for the sake of chasing the Road Runner. All of his efforts serve that endeavor. He is lucky that way. I envy him in that way. His “character” is fixed by the script in which he exists. He has no need to try to make sense of his life. He does not struggle to find a meaning for his existence. Everything is quite obvious for Wile E. Coyote. It must be nice to be a cartoon character existing within the confines of a script in which nobody ever really dies. After the crash in my life, there was no obvious purpose for me to pursue. Nobody showed me a script...

There were, to be sure, things that had to be done. Funerals do not organize themselves, after all. I have vague and indistinct memories of phone calls, visits from people who “wanted to help,” but who also knew that there was nothing really that they could do about anything other than helping to handle trivial formalities and fairly meaningless rituals. The relevant rituals are intended to be comforting, I suppose. Those rituals are also more lucrative than is decent, are they not? The sickness and death industries are the most reliable sectors of any economy, I suppose. People die more consistently than they do just about anything else. The old quip about “death and taxes” is no joke. The death part is a certainty indeed. When the caskets have to be closed for an entire family, then the whole affair is somewhat less comforting, I think. People just show up to “pay their respects” to boxes with photographs standing next to them on easels. They do this because they have been taught that they are supposed to do this. I did not need them to show up. Frankly, I would have preferred to dispense with the whole funeral. Of course, I have also been taught what one is supposed to do in such cases. There are cultural customs that must be observed, for reasons I simply do not understand. Why can we not leave the dead alone, for God’s sake? No family member wants to attend the funeral and perform the rituals. In any case, I hope nobody wants that. There is something positively ghoulish about a funeral. The show, however, must go on, I guess. There can be no dispute about whether the dead people are truly gone when the caskets are closed. Nothing says “gone” quite like a closed box, a photograph, and an expressionless erstwhile husband and father who has just ceased to be anything that matters to him anymore. My wife and children were not present at the funeral. Their mangled bodies were in those boxes, as far as I was aware anyway. A mangled, lifeless body cannot be my wife or child. My family was composed of living people. Those living people did not show up at the funeral. Where that left me was entirely unclear. What is a middle-aged man who, suddenly, no longer has a wife or children? Is there even a word for that? Children who lose their parents are orphans. A parent who loses his children is nothing-in-particular. There is, to the best of my knowledge, no word for that in the English language. I think I probably still am a nothing-in-particular, in many respects. No term is necessary, I guess. A husband who loses his wife is a widower, but he is no longer a husband, is he? What the hell is a husband the moment his wife dies? When, exactly, does he stop being a husband? This is an interesting question that makes precisely no difference at the moment it arises in a man’s life. No man wonders, at the funeral, “am I still married, or am I now a bachelor?” as he stares at a casket. Well, I hope no man wonders about such matters at that moment. Who the hell knows what other people may or may not think about at any given time? Frankly, I do not care.

~~~

If I can ponder semantics and motives at the funeral, then I guess other men can wonder if they are still husbands. There is something ludicrous about all of this, is there not?

In less than 20 of the 137 pages pages, I had already questiond the premise of this book. It is supposedly an anonymous memoir that was found by a server at a diner when he had finished his meal and left his money on the table...with the book I just finished reading...

Normally, I would play along with the author who chooses to create such a scenario. But the writing prevented me. I immediately did a bio search for the author of the book and discovered that what I had felt about the book was correct. I believe this might be the first fiction book written by the author... He has a number of nonfiction books available as well.While it is an interesting book, and certainly is fiction, I don't consider it a novel...

I took a course in university level philosophy many years ago... The one thing I remember was a question: If a tree falls in the deep forest where nobody lived, can it be heard... Of course, I said "Yes." Let's face it, there are many things in this world we live in about which we know nothing... On the other hand, I have personally heard and seen a tree fall in my 13 acres of forest, so even if other trees fall that I do not hear, I am confident that it can be heard, if somebody who could hear, such as an animal, was nearby... I decided that I wasn't interested in any further study of philosophy even though I had received an A in the course...

I decided to share this information because, if you choose to read this book, you will immediately realize that it is not a normally written book. The author claims that he can't write, yet proceeds on writing almost ad nauseam... Yes, that means there is much repetition, much more than the normal fiction novel. One phrase in particular, for example, is "Time Will Tell..." It is used throughout the book as a, perhaps, closing to a paragraph (?). Or is it to request that the reader pay attention to his arguments?

For that is exactly what the book is about... It is a beginning (stated to be a trilogy) of the story of a man who has become an Assassin after his entire family was killed in a car accident. After I realized that the author taught philosophy in higher education, I was interested enough to read the book--I don't call it a novel; in fact, it defies genre identification in my own experience...Except maybe as a nonfiction book of philosophical debate on important issues... The one and only character who talks is obviously biased related to facts...

That is not to say that the book itself was not interesting, but my first thought about any book is what is the author trying to tell us? I knew immediately that he did not know how to write a novel, even if he had written nonfiction. The writing is indeed different... But, as I read, I felt like the author had much to talk about... Or, even better, wonder, about...

Several times while reading I thought of this book. Although I had never taken the time to read it, by the time it came out, I was fairly certain what it would say, LOL But there were several issues that came to light in this book that were, shall I say, surprising?

First of all, there is little attention to an overall concept of the book except maybe chronologically. However, it is very clear that the man who became an assassin, even though he loved his wife(?) that he also blamed his wife for his losing his entire family...Notice that the entire book is from a man's point of view...

Let's explore how the accident happened. His wife became squeamish when an animal had been killed on the road, so much so that she didn't want to run over it and automatically swerved. This resulted in her driving off the road and down a hillside. Now, the husband knew about her problem... He had chastized her over and over about what could happen by her swerving... Readers, not once in this book did the husband ask her why it so upset her, or even offer that she get help in getting over this obsession. Now, me, a woman, immediately thought that she might have had a special animal in her early life who was beloved as well as loving to her when she greatly needed it... And, taking it a step further, she immdiately had a flashback of having that animal accidentally killed as she watched...and, for just a second was back in her childhood... Readers don't know, do we? But what I determined by the end of this book was that this Assassin was not only a possible sociopath but also, not an ethical, but fearful, Vigilante... And he had never really made any effort to know his wife... 

One clue was given to arrive at this feeling... Whether that was intentional by the writer, or not, it was a telling point of what followed... You see, quite often the memoir reveals that what he had done was because He Wanted To Do It Himself! Just as he had done to a bully in school! The point of view was even debated from both sides of the coin. That is, he recognized that he realized that murdering a few would not do much for saving the world, but, it had given him a sense of personal satisfaction in doing it... The word retribution came to my mind... He had used a knife but didn't kill the bully, now he had graduated to murder...

Readers will then learn of how he discovered the men he felt needed to be killed. They included child molestors--in fact, anything that affected children would set him off... Now here's where we get into the philosophical part of the story... Anybody reading the book will undoubtedly want to also get rid of anybody who chose to abuse children, in any way. I, of course, have written about this many times... So, the philosophical question would be... "If you thought you could get away with it, would you kill a child molestor, pedophile, etc.?"

Now the thing is that we are all human and have thoughts and free will... I willingly acknowledge that I have many times thought of having a life taken because of their pure evilness... That's why I'm so concerned about losing the Rule of Law... Especially at this time, those thoughts are directed every day as I see the damage being done to America... In fact, this book "kinda" included a section on these issues, but it was lacking in any type of emotional feelings, other than to acknowledge that his fear prevented him from even considering assassinating somebody who had power, money, and an evil spirit, but was protected... I wasn't impressed with his coverage of the issue...

What you will be reading is a somewhat close analysis of most of the issues that are facing each of us in our daily living... and deciding how you are going to respond... When I was working and then supervising a staff, I prepared in advance for mistakes to be made. When a simple mistake was made, it usually can be easily solved and I wanted to develop the decision-making skills needed for most jobs in my office...  However, throughout the book, there is occasional references to believing in God...but then later arguing the option "if" there is a God, or "if" there is not a God, then there could be no punishment internally. My thought was that the question being posed was "Can you be a moral person without believing in a God who is known to provide judgment?" At this point, I didn't see any significant response, other than to believe he was an "ethical" assassin, and that if he wre ever caught, although he went to great lengths to ensure that didn't happen, he would acknowledge his "kills" to prevent a necessary trial... Seriously?

Now, most of my readers will know that I am a "God Lives" person, while at the same time, also questioning what is happening now, using God's name often as a reason as "Christian Nationalism" is spreading...The question then is, would I be willing to read two more books like this?

This is a book where I am going to leave it up to potential readers... I found the book interesting from a purely academic exercise. Normally I would expect a fiction novel to at least provide some type of completion rather than "Time Will Tell..." which says nothing about the most important part of that phrase: When? will time tell...

No, I am certainly no “avenging angel,” or anything remotely like one. It seems that I am just another bit of human detritus polluting the planet with my weakness and selfishness. Hoorah for the human race.

Bottom Line for me was this: It confirmed my opinion that has existed for the latter part of my life, especially, that women, by nature, are more effective decision makers than men... More specifically, we are prone to be empathic, sympathetic towards others unless something has happened in their lives as well... I went into job burnout working to cover the work that should have been done by men in my office... At no time did I ever NOT responded truthfully to what was being worked on... Also, while the men were telling me to act as they said, no matter I knew that they didn't know what they were talking about... I did the job I was hired to do, as defined...

This man, who blamed his wife for leaving him helpless in all the things that his wife had naturally performed without requiring his assistance, suddenly resented the fact that he had to think to make decisions--normal decisions... He couldn't handle that. Women make decisions daily about small and large issues... To give you the best example that everybody would know about--consider that Kamala Harris unexpectedly was called upon to run for president... She immediately acted in response! Yes, she lost, I think, for a variety of reasons, but it was NOT for being unable to take on any task and riding the wave as far as she could go in a limited time... And, personally, I must add, that if her opponent hadn't lied through his entire campaign as the world is now discovering, I believe she would have won... Whether you agree about winning is not the point. Rather that, instead of continuing to lie over and over, and then pulling the stunts he has done this term, we know that his decisions were based on hate, retribution, prejudice and a desire for self-aggrandizement and power.... 

In his timid, fearful way, the vigilate assassin has done something very similar, because, let's face it, Trump's first action taking away USAID has already resulted in many children's deaths... Will the Ethical Assassin proceed to this next step? Frankly, in my opinion, he will do just that in his fearful, hidden way... but will be because he now admits he likes killing people... 

Finally, I have reviewed this book as nonfiction even if the author presented it as fiction... There is no storyline...there is no introduction of characters... etc. this is a presentation of one person's opinions set against a few examples... I've evaluated that presentation as I understood it...as a debate within himself... You might say a Memoir Journal...

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