I, Messenger Takes on Science, Religion, and America’s Fractured Social and Political System With Unsettling Irony

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., January 3, 2024 (Newswire.com) - What topics dominated your holiday table conversations this year? Abortion? Transgender rights? Climate change? Gene editing? Racial injustice? Income inequality? Artificial intelligence? Unidentified aerial phenomenon? 

Those and much more are all on the table for wide-ranging, sometimes contentious discussions among members of Tom Reynolds’s family on two Christmas gatherings set 10 years apart in the new, two-part edition of I, Messenger, a novel by Russell J. Marks III. 

Intended to stretch the reader’s perspective on the scientific, religious, social, and political issues that are dividing the American people today, it is both thought-provoking and disturbing recommended reading for everyone concerned about civility in public and private discourse, the preservation of American democracy, and the very future of the egoistic species Homo sapiens. 

Book 1: A Heavenly Mission begins as Tom Reynolds, riding alone on a crisp December morning in the Shenandoah Valley of Central Virginia, suddenly and uncharacteristically curses. For the fifth time in as many rides, Tom’s iPhone had delivered the same anonymous message in a clear, emotionless voice—this time ironically following The Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil.” The message simply said:

“Dr. Reynolds, I’m a messenger from God. He has a mission for you. Please meet me at noon on Christmas Day in the videoconference room at your school. Come alone. More will be revealed.”

Whether prank, hoax, or divinely inspired, the message sets Tom in search of the truth about the origins of man, the mysteries of UFOs, questions of quantum physics, the nature of religious experience, and the search for meaning—or at least the meaning of search. 

Nearly a decade later, in Book 2: Seeking Common Ground, Tom renews the quest in search of common ground in the face of additional fractures in a growing set of ideological debates, including climate change, race relations, abortion, gene editing, identity politics, and a potentially changing world order.

I, Messenger by Russell J Marks III is available now on amazon.com in Kindle, paperback, and hardcover editions. 

Review copies available on request to qualified media reps.

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Source: Russell J. Marks III, author