The Force, written by mother/daughter team, Alexandra and Joyce Swann, is a Christian sci-fi thriller. This book is the sequel to The Fourth Kingdom but can stand alone.
Unabashedly Christian, Jarrod and Joshua Sinclair, are brothers who are tasked with discovering who is responsible for the deaths of the world's most beautiful women. They follow on the heels of their childhood nemesis, Josef Helmick, until they uncover years of evidence of human cloning for profit and are brought just to the edge of the unleashing of a more powerful force that will usher in the New World Order.
The theme of end times is an old one, but the Swanns present it in a new way. They tackle the idea of cloning from a noncontroversial (plants) and controversial way (humans). Human cloning is depicted as evil with the clones being expendable like a worn-out pair of shoes. This does not sit right with the Sinclair brothers, but there is not much emphasis on whether clones have any rights or humanity in themselves. They are simply depicted as creations of Josef who is himself a clone.
As I read The Force, I found myself rooting for the Sinclair brothers to defeat Josef. I wanted there to be justice for everything he got away with in The Fourth Kingdom and The Force. I wasn't completely satisfied with what happened to him, however. I would have liked to have seen more of a break down of his character.
I felt there were some inconsistencies in the book. Even though human cloning is not currently a reality, the Swanns present it so well that it is completely believable in their two books. Once Josef begins to tamper with the minds of the people, his methods for doing so seem quite unrealistic. There is a lot of senseless killing. It isn't explicit in the first book or the beginning of the second, but the description becomes increasingly gruesome as the book nears the end. There is also a discussion about how Karl Helmick, Josef's "adoptive" father, did not like art, but Karl and Alexander Sinclair had a long conversation in The Fourth Kingdom about Karl's Native American Art collection.
Despite the inconsistencies, far-fetched turn of events, and horrific details, I was still able to enjoy reading The Force. It provided a very fresh scenario in the battle of good versus evil. The Sinclair brothers were strong characters who were not afraid to share their faith as was Fred Kowalski, the retired detective we meet in the second chapter. He traveled to Dubai to investigate Josef for the Sinclair brothers and was able to lead a small child to Christ.
The Force is available in paperback on Amazon for $12.95 and Kindle for $4.99.
