The Seraph Seal!

"I'll stop the whole world from turning into a monster... Don't you ever wonder how we survived?"

This book, The Seraph Seal, is about eight very different people all sharing one thing in common: Their birthday, December 21st, 2012. The eight are scattered all over the world, and it is up to Paul Binder to unite them.

It is now the year 2048, and an ancient prophecy comes to fruition. The United States is falling behind in STEM technology, and Matthew Serafino is destined to change things. With all the Americas, it is quite necessary to be referred to as USAmerica. However, black-eyed Serafino pushes things quite too far with his intense determination, and soon people start to notice. A series of strange events follow leading up to the apocalypse. This changes everything.

At the start of his journey, Paul meets a beautiful Irish woman named Angela when he travels to London, England. Almost instantly, the two show a romantic interest in each other (I think). When they dig deeper, they realize that not only were they born at the 21st hour of December 21st, 2012. There's six others.

How will Paul and Angela find the others (and possibly, love)? And what can they do to save a world that's already dying?

My expectation of this book was that it would be non-fiction and extremely technical. I probably would never pick this book on my own, but there was nothing else available, so I reluctantly picked this one. However, this book wasn't as complicated as I thought and it was fiction. But, I would only say this book was good, not amazing.

I would only recommend this book to certain people because this isn't one of those sit-down-and-read-it-in-five-hours kind of books. This book will only appeal to a very specific audience. It's like "The Hunger Games" versus "Twilight". Or "Harry Potter" versus "The Chronicles Of Narnia". It's not a vampire novel that several teens would want to read or a magical world anyone would want to enter. This book is definitely for fans of technical, apocalyptic books.

This story read like a one third-fantasy, one third-apocalyptic, one third-science fiction. It reminded me of the "Harry Potter" series (although I've never read or watched a HP movie/book, I know my stuff). Matthew Serafino was the anti-Christ, so he'd make a perfect Draco Malfoy. Angela Krall would be a great Hermione. And Paul, well, he'd be Harry. So if you're a fan of that series, I think you'd really like this. If you like the "Left Behind" series, you'll like this. If you loooooovvvvvveeeedddd "Inception", you're really gonna like this.

As for me, the book was alright. Not a waste of time, but not something I'd read again either. It had its share of interesting parts, so much that I was crossing the street in Phoenix traffic reading this book. It took talent--- no lie!

My complaints? The book was a little big for my comfort, both mentally and physically. Looking at the book, it seemed impossible to finish--- more than 527 pages... that was a serious mental block! And sometimes, just holding the heavy book made my thumbs ache terribly. Also, the book had its boring times. I admit to sometimes skimming. The book got confusing, and even though it told you where it was, like it would usually say "Washington, DC" when referring to Matthew Serafino, but it would only say the place, so it leaves you like "Who is this?" And the dialogue sometimes was a little too fast-paced. Plus, it sometimes got the tenses messed up, like it would go from past tense to present tense and ti was very noticeable and unprofessional. Maybe it wasn't that obvious, but I'm a Language Arts junky, so I know my stuff. And sometimes, the plot moved a little too slow (maybe that's why the book is so big?). Yeah. I'm a little disappointed with the book.

Three stars, no doubt about it. I still think you might wanna check it out, but DON'T BUY IT. Rent it from the library, but do not purchase it. I think it would have been an awesome movie and if this was made into a movie, I would rush to the theater. But as of being a book? Not reading it again.

Paperback.

(more than) 527 pages.

Published by: Thomas Nelson.

Note: Special thanks to Thomas Nelson publishers for providing me with a free copy of this book.