Zion's Darkness: Where Faith Takes a Fatal Turn
by Lawrence Pratt
review by Mark Angel

Zion's Darkness is a novel written and published by Lawrence Pratt, who earns a hesitant three quills from this reviewer. First of all, congratulations, Mr. Pratt, for completing and publishing your novel. That in its self should be worth one quill.

This story slowly takes the reader into the dark circles of the American Church of the New Christ. Slowly, because one has to get about a third of the way through the book before it really starts to grab you; but, once it grabs you, it is a worth while read with intrigue, adventure, sex, murder and the like. The story has a fairly strong finish that is still somewhat unsatisfactory, but acceptable if not inevitable. Pratt makes a poignant political statement about fundamentalist religion/cult behavior and the fear based foundation of such philosophies. It could be seen as a heretical or heroic attempt at revealing the dark inner workings of modern theological oligarchies. On the downside, there are several unimaginative allegories and repetitive passages of pros to muddle through. Nevertheless, he earns three quills for taking the reader into a believable world and engaging the reader's emotions and imagination effectively during the journey.