Resurrection (Domain Trilogy) [Hardcover]

When I first bought Steve Alten's Resurrection - based primarily on the back-of-the-book plot summary - I hadn't realized it was a sequel to another book called Domain. In an effort for completeness, I decided to buy and read Domain first...and was really disappointed. Domain was a subpar book and when it came time to read Resurrection, it was with no real enthusiasm; I'd forked over the money, however, so I felt I should give it a shot. I was happy and surprised to find that Resurrection is a far better book than its predecessor.

The story starts off where the first book left off (so if you haven't read that one, there are spoilers ahead). Dominique Vasquez finds herself pregnant with twins. After the world-threatening events of the prior novel, these future children are being regarded as potential messiahs, and even in infancy, it is apparent that there is something special about them. Both are highly gifted, but only Jacob is willing to embrace his abilities. For twin brother Immanuel, his destiny is more of a curse; all he wants is a normal life.

Meanwhile, another child is born at the same time with a background that is a twisted mirror image of the twins. For this girl - with the dangerous name of Lilith - there is the potential for great evil. Twisted by schizophrenia and a childhood filled with a vicious, perverted stepfather, she embraces the dark side easily enough. She is a threat to the twins, who eventually take desperate measures to stay away from her.

As the twins reach adulthood, Jacob prepares for an epic duel that is supposed to resurrect his father Michael (who either died or went to another reality at the end of the last book). It will only work if Immanuel participates, and he is both unwilling and unbelieving.

The story plays with the idea of destiny and time. Are these characters locked into their fates? Are they merely reincarnations about to replay the same story again? The answers to these questions lead to the twists and turns at the end of the story (and into the final book in the trilogy, the upcoming Phobos).

This book is not without its problems. New facts about the characters (especially Michael) seem vaguely inconsistent with the first story. In addition, the final confrontations in the book are somewhat muddled, as the battles are mixed with the warped logic of time travel and false realities. And, as with the first novel, Alten often relies on pseudoscience that has long since been debunked (such as the Bible Code).

But there are good things in this story, too. Overall, the story is well-plotted and the writing much more interesting than the first book. This is a fun tale of good vs. evil. It may be imperfect, but somehow, it works this time, and is a good reward for persevering through Domain.

I recently finished reading Resurrection, the first book I have ever read by Steve Alten. Well, I've found another worthy author that I can turn to when I need to escape the real world through the power of a good story. Although Resurrection, as I found out after I bought the book, is the 2nd installment in a trilogy, it is a great stand-alone apocalyptic sci-fi novel with a lot of history, technology, ecology and ethnicity woven into the plot in a very skillful way. I loved the way he gave very minutely detailed descriptions of the realms, the gadgetry, the natural phenomena and the technology that support the story, and also the fact that he is a very visual writer, making it easy to picture in your head the events that occur as the plot unfolds.

I love authors like Stephen King, Dean R. Koontz, Bentley Little, Clive Barker, and John Grisham. Now I can add Steven Alten to my list. I can't wait to get my hands on Domain (the first of the trilogy) and Phobos (the last).

First off I am absolutely stumped at the connection that some have made between 'Resurrection' and the 'Left Behind' series. What the...?!? There is NO similarity whatsoever -- other than they both deal with the end of the world -- trust me, no matter HOW close that may sound, the novels couldn't be any more different.

I have been a LONG time fan of Steve Alten, ever since I discovered 'MEG' I have devoured each and every one of his novels. As you by now already know, 'Resurrection' is a sequel to 'Domain', which ranks to this day as one of THE most researched novels I have ever read. It is also easily one of the most creative. To be able to connect a meteor crash on earth with the pyramids of Egypt, Stonehenge and just about every other ancient massive construction known to man -- regardless of where they may be located, is nothing short of incredible. However, the MAJOR difference between the original and this novel is that one takes us on an incredible journey back in time and back into the present, and the other looks primarily towards the future. No longer are we dissecting the journals of Julius Gabriel and the Mayan prophecy of the end of the world in 2012, but we are now focusing specifically on Michael Gabriel's twin sons, and their prophetic destiny to save the earth once again, just like their father did before. Let me be brutally honest: this novel is quite complicated, and if you read and place it on the shelf for a few days, it may be difficult to pick up where you left off and keep everything going along together without any problems. However long it takes you to finish this novel -- it IS worth it.

One more VERY critical thing to remember before starting this book: there are several passages that go into graphic sexual descriptions, assault and rape. It left a particularly bad taste in my mouth, mainly because I felt the story could have made just as large an impact without going into such extreme detail. Steve does this for a specific purpose in giving us a better understanding of what shapes the character, Lilith and a more inside view of how she comes to do certain things -- but I feel deep down it just went a bit too far. I do not enjoy thinking about those types of things at ALL, so why would I want to read about it? Even though I enjoyed 'Resurrection' and very much look forward to the trilogy conclusion in 'Phobos', that doesn't mean that the entire journey has to be completely perfect. On Mr. Alten's side, I see why he did what he did, I just would have toned it down some, that's all.

With that aside, this is an amazing journey worth taking. Some of what I enjoyed the most about this novel was the incredible creativity that Steve took in painting the picture of the future. Some of what he envisions will happen sound down right incredible, some of it a bit scary along the lines of Big Brother but it was ALWAYS facinating. In particular the idea of virtually eliminating racism by beginning the trend of dyeing your skin to exotic colors so that knowing a persons ethnic background was almost impossible to pinpoint from a basic first impression. The creative swearing was quite interesting, too. There is a LOT to enjoy in 'Resurrection', there really IS. It takes an amazing creative mind to be able to come up with a plot as wild as this, and tie it all together as well as Steve has been able to do. Kudos once again to one of the most underrated authors in print today. If you haven't read Steve Alten before, give yourself a little leeway, and just DO IT. You WILL be glad you did. I know I am.