This is another fun John Deal story by Les Standiford. To start, I am a big Les Standiford fan. In fiction and non-fiction. This is the first book of his I would say is a disappointment.In 'Deal on Ice' there's lots of action and another heavy handed punch to religious faith by an author. When I read 'One More Sunday' by John D. MacDonald back when it came out it was the first MacDonald book that really disturbed me as it went spinning around attacking anything with faith. Since then I've read far more in the genre - Let's-Make-Religion-The-Bad-Guy. Even more specifically organized religion. It seems an easy literary device to build a story around. It might be OK if the angle was used with some intellect. But I've yet to read one where thought is involved, including MacDonald's turn. Someone is a religious "zealot" and they are out to destroy the world, the society, a family. Never is there a balance of someone else with faith who might redeem the bad religious guy, usually a murderer of some kind. Never is there a discussion by characters of any value of faith. It's just a wan ton machine gunning of religious faith...and ALWAYS Christian. There may be stories of bad guy rabbis or Hindu priests gone wild, but I've yet to find them. MacDonald went after a cult in 'The Green Ripper'. But my concern isn't with some fictional cult. My concern is with the bashing of a specific religion in the same way with no redeeming value given to the religious ideals.And here's the real crux of it all: The least the authors could do is balance the story with establishing the main hero or characters as atheists out to right wrongs. Or maybe a dialogue with characters as to their reasons for an inner hatred to those with religious beliefs. That would give more power as the religious bad guys are defeated.Or here's a thought!: How about a twist where the head of the religious organization is really an atheist and then the hero has a struggle with what he believes as he tries to bring the bad guy to defeat! Now that would be something fresh!I'm very tired of the technique. In this one there's some allegory of small bookstores, mega-bookstores, mega-churches and that reading more will save you from those with religious beliefs. Too bad the author didn't have the guts to step forward and just craft a story about atheism vs all faiths and be done with it than the silly attempt strung together in this book.
