Herbert's latest novel begins as a rather taut political thriller/horror hybrid, but it begins to
deteriorate about halfway through, becoming increasingly poorly paced and confused. The story concerns
Liam Holloran, a mercenary and the veteran of many violent encounters, who is hired as a bodyguard for
Fritz Kline, a psychic who has become aware that his life is threatened but doesn't know by whom. Kline's
psychic abilities, it is eventually revealed, are partly the result of an alliance he made long ago with
Bel-Marduk, a Sumerian deity who also shows up in Christian theology as the Fallen Angel, Lucifer. Kline
and his cohorts are a grisly but one-dimensional lot and Herbert doesn't have very much of a story for
them to show off in. The author increasingly relies on repulsive detail in lieu of solid plotting and
character development. After the intriguing beginning, a disappointment.

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