Judgement Day Archives

As garrulous and densely populated as a 19th century Russian novel, this spy adventure by a Soviet emigre who lives in the U.S. fails to deliver, either as thriller or satirical fantasy. The Judgment Day Archive, a bizarre sect led by a ranting Russian emigre priest, asks all true believers to donate $3000 and a drop of blood that will be frozen in suspended animation until the Resurrection. Leida Rigel, a Russian-Estonian scientist studying the effects of folk medicine on blood coagulation, is bludgeoned by the KGB into penetrating this American-based cult. Leaving behind her anguished son and ex-husband, she joins Enterprise International, a shadowy outfit that funds research on cloning so vital to the Archivists. The story of how Lydia turns the tables on both her Soviet and Western tormentors may be meant as a lampoon on cults, materialistic religion, the Soviet police state and New Age mysticism. But nothing clicks in this glacially slow chiller. (September)