At the end of this preachy near-future tale of a black messiah, the first of a new series, SF veteran Dalmas (The Lizard War
) acknowledges that he drew his hero's teachings from Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's four "Michael books," the Bible and thinkers ranging from Jacques Barzun to Paramhansa Yogananda. A blend of Eastern and Western prophets, Ngunda Elija Aran can heal others and levitate himself while offering love, rebirth and redemption in a violent, economically depressed America, where at least race and gender appear no longer to be issues (the U.S. president is a black woman). Many fear that Aran's Millennium movement is merely another cult out to make money and converts, and much of the overwrought narrative concerns his enemies' efforts to assassinate him. Insisting he's not Christ reborn, Aran predicts the imminent arrival of a vague "Infinite Soul" to coincide with a natural disaster—an asteroid on a collision course with Earth. Fans of apocalyptic fiction who can overlook the often clumsy, plodding prose will be in heaven. The icky jacket art, depicting a black man caught in the cross-hairs of a gun sight against an American flag backdrop, says it all. (Apr.)
