The Rogue (Planets Shaken, #1)

by Lee W Brainard

[phyllish]

The Rogue was jam packed with information, Biblical prophecy and suspense.  I was invested in the story from the first sentence, so when things started getting technical, it was worth it to press on.  There was a lot of technical information presented, partly to set the stage for the story and explain why this comet was a big deal, but I think partly because the author simply loves astronomy (from what I can see from social media).

Several themes found their way into the book.  Regarding Jesus, the theme of relationship being more important than religion was a point that was obviously important to the author.  Several characters ended up losing everything they owned due to the attempted cover-up of the danger of the Rogue comet.  Their attitudes despite this was a great reminder that possessions are meaningless in the scheme of things.

Here are some particularly good quotes from the book:

A premonition of darkness in high places sent a shiver down my spine.

 

It never feels right to do right when everyone thinks that right is wrong

 

don’t they understand that black SUVs and men in suits and ties are a dead giveaway?

 

he was numb . . . banging his head on the iron wall of cognitive dissonance . . . yet unable to deny the facts.

There were a few main characters that we followed from the near future to the recent past and back to the future again.  And there were a few minor characters that will most likely make longer appearances in the future books, judging on the way they were introduced.  The story was told from a third-person perspective - but only telling one person's thoughts at a time.  (I do wish the author used some sort of visual cue that the perspective was changing.  There were a couple of places where it changed and all of a sudden "her" no longer referred to the woman who was telling the story.  I was able to figure this out fairly quickly, but the some sort of divider between these sections would have been helpful.)

I did find it a little hard to keep my focus on the book through the technical parts.  The author did a good job in making it interesting, but despite this, I wish there wasn't quite so much time spent on explaining the astronomy.

This is the first book of the series.  The book ends with a cliff-hanger.  I am waiting anxiously for the next book and the next one now.  :-)

This review was originally posted on Among the Reads

I received a complimentary copy of this book from BookCrash in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.