"Here eclipse of the sun means blockage of God's light"

Michael D. O'Brien's ECLIPSE OF THE SUN is the third novel in his CHILDREN OF THE LAST DAYS series covering four generations of the Delaney family. The Delaneys live through a period from 1900 to the near future while their country's government and social pressures become more and more anti-Biblical and eager to re-engineer human society. The author cites social trends we all see in our own countries. His novel shows how the trends, if unchallenged, could easily pave the way for an oppressive totalitarian state, intent on one society, one all- encompassing religion, and one world government. O'Brien's novels are similar to the LEFT BEHIND series. O'Brien, however, doesn't try to interpret Scripture to predict future events. His novels are purely fictional. They draw on situations we all see and should find ominous. His novels show what could happen, and show this in a way that forces one to think.

Aaron Delaney starts the narration in ECLIPSE OF THE SUN: "My name is Aaron, though, in the beginning, I was called "Arrow." Even I am growing old. Soon my memories will be submerged . . . I am not very good at this, but I shall try . . . be still, and I shall tell you a little story about the end of the world." The novel then falls back to when Arrow was eight. ECLIPSE OF THE SUN is an intense novel, 856 pages, covering about one year of the near future, when the government ruling over the Delaneys becomes totalitarian. The novel, set in Canada, could be set in any Western country. ECLIPSE OF THE SUN mentions an up-and-coming political figure in Europe who might be "the one," the Antichrist. The next novel in the series, FATHER ELIJAH, covers the Antichrist's rise to power. Taken as a whole, the entire series makes fascinating reading. Each novel, however, is self-contained and can be enjoyed without reading the other novels.

The two main characters in ECLIPSE OF THE SUN are Fr. Andrei and Arrow. Fr. Andrei is a friend of the family and appeared in the first two novels. He tells Arrow about Arrow's father, Nathaniel, how Nathaniel rescued Arrow's brother and sister and was pursued and arrested. Arrow had been living in a drug commune with his mother and her boyfriend, a statement of how far human society had drifted from Biblical morality. The government raided the commune and a nearby convent, killing everyone they found. Fr. Andrei rescued Arrow and helped him escape.

This gripping and thought-provoking novel introduces the reader to many characters, confused and frightened as their government becomes more and more totalitarian. Most simply do nothing. They can't believe the government's ultimate aims even when they see the government intruding into family life, protecting and promoting the abortion industry, and enforcing a state-sponsored, politically correct, unified one-world religion. We see some of these things appearing in our own countries. What if they precede the "last days," Antichrist leading the final rebellion?

Fr. Andrei helps Arrow escape by pushing him from the police van. Arrow runs through the woods, then hops a freight train. He gets off and wanders into a junkyard, where he hides. The owner, Alice Douglas, "Queen of Junque," discovers him and takes him in. A compassionate woman, Alice has already rescued a "junk" baby discarded alive in her junk yard by medical researchers who no longer had any need to continue experiments on him. The baby was born with hydrocephalia, water-on-the-brain.

Fr. Andrei is tortured by pain and drugs to reveal where Arrow went. He doesn't know. He tries to convert his interrogator. The interrogator tries to recruit Fr. Andrei. The interrogator takes the priest to "The Temple of Understanding." A modernist Catholic Bishop celebrates Mass. Concelebrates are clergy from a Hindu, a Christian Spiritualist, an Anglican, the Gaia Center for Spiritual Renewal, and the United Churches of the Americas. The first homily speaks of the third covenant of the Cosmic Christ. The second homily is delivered by Brother Ryan of the Inner City Alliance of Gay Ministers. The interrogator tells Fr. Andrei that Jesus was a foreshadowing of the Christ of these times. "Fall down and worship the Christ of the new age!" The novel ends with Arrow accepted into a hidden, remote village to wait out the demise of Antichrist.

O'Brien is very good at developing characterization and doing much of it through crisp dialog. He is deeply articulate. His characters use the political freedom still in place to fight for justice and true liberty. O'Brien describes people taking political action through parliamentary procedures and lobbying. Others act on their own, both within and outside the law, to halt the move toward ruthless people gaining total control.

In O'Brien's own words: "A novel tries to make the dizzying complexities of life more intelligible. When the subject matter is apocalyptic, the risks are high." I agree with him that an end-times novel should not try to predict the future, but should raise the essential questions that may be asked by every generation: Are we living in the decisive moment in history?" Many people think we are. Whether you think so or not, you will find ECLIPSE OF THE SUN interesting, intellectually challenging, and sobering. Once you get into it, you will not want to set it down.

Reviewed by Maurice A. Williams
Posted November 25, 2003