Rage Against the Machine by H. Meadow Hopewell

Rage Against the Machine by H. Meadow Hopewell
Series: Book One in the The Given Path trilogy
Publisher: Elk Lake Publishing, Inc. (November 21, 2024)

REVIEW BY PRISCILLA BETTIS

This is a Christian science-fiction thriller that takes place in the near future. It’s set in New York City, Melbourne, Australia, and Canada. The main character, Roare Murdock, is an Oscar-winning director of documentary films.

Roare learns that people with an evil agenda will use AI against humans. Hopewell, through Roare, is quick to point out the benefits of AI like articulate artificial limbs, food production in insecure food areas, use in surgical procedures, etc. (My own sister was operated on by a robot with real-time AI input.) Roare is asked to make a documentary exposing the bad guys’ use of AI (which of course puts her in danger).

Turns out someone she knows is an AI-enhanced human. You can understand why she freaks a little when he reveals the truth:

He wandered into the living area and stuffed his hands in his pants pockets. Finally, he stopped with his back to her and stared toward the kitchen. “I was turned into a superhuman weapon, a monster who can seek out enemies and destroy them with waves of various frequencies using my eyes.”
-H. Meadow Hopewell, Rage Against the Machine

Hopewell doesn’t shy away from incorporating spirituality into the narrative. We read characters’ prayers. We witness God’s direct words to several characters. There are angels who intervene in dangerous circumstances. There’s a prophetess. Characters get messages through dreams. At first, all this was too far-fetched for me. Then I recalled in the book of Acts that in the last days God will pour out His Spirit, people will prophesy and get visions, and old people will dream. 

However, despite the fun I had reading this book, the writing style didn’t jibe with my reading style. Conversations between characters include on-the-nose dialogue and overwritten speech (three sentences that basically say the same thing when one sentence of dialogue would do … just like how we get wordy in real life!). Also, one of the characters gets melodramatic at the end. So I took off one-and-a-half fish, but my complaints won’t bother other readers who like true-to-life dialogue and a little drama.

At the end, Hopewell skillfully wraps up the current storyline but reveals the mechanisms of the bad guys, leaving the reader with a sense of doom that can only be alleviated by reading the next book.:-)

Although this wasn’t the perfect story for me, I wouldn’t hesitate to read more from Hopewell.

p.s. Can we just notice the fantastic cover art for a sec? It fits the storyline and genre perfectly. Kudos to cover designer Kelly Artieri.
p.p.s. Inside, the chapter titles have a futuristic font, and the scene breaks are stylized DNA sketches thanks to interior designer Deb Haggerty. So cool!

I award Rage Against the Machine an entertaining 3.5 fish!

I read the Kindle Unlimited version of Rage Against the Machine.