This is the story of Elijah Dove, who is said to have driven all the snakes out of Appalachia just like St. Patrick did from Ireland. He is also said to have called down fire from the sun.
His grandmother was a wild preacher woman who handled snakes. She’s the one who prophesied that the child would move in the spirit of Elijah of old. But, Elijah’s beginnings were that of an ordinary barefoot hillbilly boy from the hills of Harlan County, Kentucky.
After his grandmother died of a snakebite, is when his story begins. His road trip to “discover America” takes him on a truly mind-expanding journey. After time spent in the Air Force, where he learns computer engineering, he is assigned to work at Area 51.
The first thing he learns there is that the stories of crashed UFOs and dissected aliens is all hogwash. Life in the top-secret test facility is sombre and mundane — “The most boring place in the Galaxy”, says the first extraterrestrial he meets. Then, he suddenly finds out what’s really below the surface, as he’s given a special job working with the Galactic Ambassador to Earth.
On his excursions into the nearby desert for a bit of respite, he also gets to know a Navajo Franciscan monk who talks to the crows. From him, he learns that the crows call him, “Man who Waits by the Waterfall” — as well as a few other useful facts of life. He also gets to know the Wandering Jew, but also finds that we’ve had that story all wrong.
Elijah witnesses humanity’s ascent into the galaxy, the beginnings of what becomes the backdrop of the Rat Queen series (four books, so far, besides this one), and what happened to sever Earth from her interstellar colonies.
This is Christian fiction, but not what you’re used to. It may even be a bit controversial. But, wasn’t that so of Elijah of old? If you like a first contact science fiction thriller with a lot of surreal twists, then, hit the “buy” button.