Rating: Summary: Be cautious of this blasphemy Review: I read about the first few pages before I couldn't take it anymore.
This book and its whole premise is sad and depressing. Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life. There is no way to Heaven but through him. Satan is a created being who is ultimately doomed. He will go to any length to take as many of us with him.
Rating: Summary: A boring, cliche, work of fiction Review: Yeah, it is hard to get through the first chapter.... because it's boring, desperate, and really lacks intelligence. This has got to be the sorriest attempt at intellectualism I have ever read. I hate wasting my money and this was such a waste.
So the writer says this is a work of non fiction. He states in the introduction that he found a badly molded box of moldy paper in a wall of a basement of a house that has been in his family for 200 years, in Italy. He says he photocopied the parchments and then they disintegrated after drying out. So now he has these photocopies and translates them. He then proceeds to say he was visited by the Devil Himself! He is charged to find 3 "beings" with the story he relates as this book. Well, I'm not an expert in preservation, molds, or intellectualism however, I will just point out this.
Why is the box and papers moldy and the papers are able to be separated and the writing is not blurred? He says that these papers belonged to his "Devil priest" grandfather. So that ages the paper maybe 100 years. 1 year of exposure to mold would blur the ink and disintegrate the paper a little. What would happen at 100 years? What would happen to the basement wall? A mold problem in the foundation would comprimise the intergrity of the structure. The house would have been deemed condemned, wouldn't it? My grandmother's was for that very problem.
Wouldn't you want to preserve proof of your finding by having the remains carbon dated? Or at least keep them as some form of proof? And why are there no pictures of the photocopies he made to add some validation to his claims?
His lack of evidenceto support his cliam, the cliché of "finding scared parchment paper" and being able to translate it, is so far fetch that it takes you out of the story even when approached as fiction. Please don't waste your money, it's boring , cliché, and a waste of time and money. You want to read about the devil, read something by Anton Szandor Lavey. Now that's interesting!
Rating: Summary: "The Devil's Apocrypha" Review: I just finished reading The Devil's Apocrypha by John A. De Vito. Wonderful book; I was really impressed. It does have the odd spelling or grammar error in it, which I guess is to be expected, but the storyline and writing is great. It was inspiring, and of course now I'm intensely curious as to whether or not De Vito is a Satanist himself or just very in tune to Satanic sensibilities. If I had a holy book, it would resemble something like this. In fact, so I've heard, there have been people who actually take this as "scripture" and started a "Church of the Fallen" (which is a little contrary to the aim of the book, I'd think, but oh well.)
Rating: Summary: Great book that needed a bit more editing Review: Regarding the actual subject matter and story flow -- EXCELLENT book, IMO. Whether or not De Vito is a Satanist, I don't know, but his overall thrust of the story is definitely in tune with a generalized Satanic worldview and mythos. I did not find the writing "forced" or "high schoolish" as some others have stated. The language is pretty simple, but the reason for that is stated in the text itself, when Lucifer is talking to Cain in the Book of Prophecies. "Wisdom," he says, "is always simple."
I had three minor complaints with the actual writing. The first is that some typographic errors did escape into the book. No more than 3-4 that I noticed, but still, they are there.
Secondly, the use of "Thee" and "Ye". However, unlike others I found this appropriate for the story and it did not jar me. My issue is that De Vito apparently is not aware of the actual grammatical rules defining the usage of them. "Thou/thee" is ALWAYS singular and usually rather friendly. "Ye" is plural. It's not uncommon in the book to find "thee" and "ye" addressed to the same person interchangeably without regard to that. If he's going to use archaic language, he should have used it correctly.
Thirdly, there's a portion in the book where Lucifer gives "words of power" -- the Lord's Prayer written backwards. It served no real purpose in the book and did not fit well with the other "words of wisdom" that Satan offered. It really seemed rather "thrown in" for no good reason and detracted from the enjoyment of the chapter as I tried to figure out what the point of it was.
Overall, however, for anyone who is interested in Satanism or the "darker side" of religious thought, I would recommend this book wholeheartedly.
Rating: Summary: Dear GRAMERCY , Review: A person who happens to fall upon a Single Answer and surrender to It as unarguablefortheagestruth is one with a 'closed mind'. Many things make 'a lot of sense' when seen from one angle. When dealing with powerful issues, it is easy for somone, who is being immersed for the first time into these new 'realizations', to let emotion bind them to whichever 'fact' is given first chance to present itself. This emotional attachment to Whatever is believed as truth is dangerous & passionately guarded (proof is in your defence-before an attack is made). I'm sure this new 'truth' has made you want to share it with others, as indeed you have (understandably enough, with one you care muchly for). Please do not be taken away by ideals that are not really yours. This is not a plead for you to be close minded- or to stop questioning-; this desire, this search, is amazing, and somthing i wish many others to be filled with. i only ask that you not take one source as undeniable truth-simply because it presented itself first-, then subsequently close the doors to all other thinking, but to instead keep yourself open.
Rating: Summary: Intriguing, well written and unexpected Review: For a self published book that probably had little in the way of professional editing, this work has a tight narrative, an intriguing premise and an easy to grasp structure. Taking the most well know book in the world, the Christian Bible, and retelling it from the losing party's point of view, we get some of the worlds most well known tales with a fascinating twist.
Starting out in another universe on the brink of destruction, the inhabitants of that dimension flee to our universe to survive. Finding nothing here, they create the world for a singular purposse. They need the power of faith to sustain them. This order of powerful beings splits when one (Lucifer) rebels against manipulating the forthcoming humans into becoming repositories of faith. They are hurled to the center of the earth for their efforts. (This event becomes the meteor that destroyed the dinosaurs.) Thus begins the twists on the traditional Bible stories all told from Satan's point of view. Satan/Lucifer may not be such a bad guy after all. The book goes beyond the end of the Bible and winds up with Satan meeting with an ancestor of Martin Luther, eventually provoking the reformation.
The author has chosen a neo-Shakespearean King James style of English to narrate his "recovered manuscript" that can be a bit difficult to get through initially. The concepts and story are strong enough to overcome this and you will find it adds to the overall experience. The book is short enough to read quickly and get the full impact of this remarkable premise. Go for it!
Rating: Summary: Not for the feint-hearted! Review: If you are Christian and easily offended, I strongly suggest you quell your curiosity and skip this book. It will only disgust you. Others might find it a fascinating read.
Within the first dozen pages, the bible is referred to as the "Book of Lies." God is portrayed as a parasite taking human faith for sustinance; an ancient, self-centered and cruel being of energy from a pre-universe that seeded the big bang. Other biblical or biblical-era charactors are also shown to be less than saintly. God receives sustinance from some pretty sick, depraved acts yet approves because the taste of fanaticism is so sweet.
If considered a work of historical fiction, it makes for a great story. The biblical verse style of writing is much easier to read than, say, King James Bible verse, so don't let that disuade you.
It really is quite a page-turner, and for those with a Christian upbringing, makes you feel a little guilty just for reading it. Is it true, or just an interesting retelling? It almost doesn't matter, for this can be an entertaining read either way.
It's a hard book to rate, star-wise. Those who find it offensive will give it one, those who find it interesting will give it more. I found it captivating and a little disturbing. Truth or fiction, it's gets a good grade from me for that.
As with the Bible itself, this also raises as many questions as it answers. I've read from iminent scientists that beings of energy simply aren't possible. Also, how does one draw sustinance from faith? Exactly what is being "beamed up" to God from a praying Christian? Given that the "original author" is the author's grandfather, the manuscript was probably written somewhere around the turn of the 20th century. Why, then, the cryptic references to the "New World" and "Old World?" Why not just call them America or Mexico or Brazil or Canada, and Germany or France or Hungary? It's such things which chip away at any chance for this to be real and smack of forced antiquity. But you can still decide for yourself.
True, there are some editing errors that should have been caught and the level of writing certainly doesn't rank with the literary greats, but I'm inclined to say "so what?" It's an easy, compelling read anyway.
Rating: Summary: The truth shall set you free! Review: I always thought it interesting and ironic how God told the Jews to kill your neighbors through people who were considered in the divine inspiration mode. Then Jesus says to love your enemy just like your neighbor. I guess God must be a woman because it's her perogative to CHANGE HER MIND! Better yet, this book explains it better. Jesus didn't want to believe the crap that some or most of the better than thou Jews wrote down as divine scripture. How much of the religious BS has been swallowed by people through history because they didn't have the spine to stand up to GOD? This is a divinely inspired writing putting the man made GOD in it's proper place. Makes sense to me. Clean your house, put your house in order, etc. That's what this writer was doing when fate, or GOD/SATAN, put this stuff in publication. Thank you John DeVito. This begins to bring to light that GOD and SATAN are the same. Why else does Jesus say that first is last and last is first, love your neighbor and enemy, the sun shines for good and evil alike? It reminds me of the two dry cleaning companies that were fierce competitors right next to each other on a crowded street in NY. Publicly,they fought tooth and nail with each other trying to win the business of the patrons, calling each other every name in the book and all out war saying the other one was rotten and they themselves were the best laundrymat. Then one day someone noticed the stairways in the rear of both stores led to the same apartment above and they were really brothers fooling everyone by causing a passionate fight to prod people in making their decision to pick one of them, when in actuality they got all the business. Great book John.
Rating: Summary: The De Vito Code Review: A darker, alternative history that reminded me of the Da Vinci Code in its interpretation of religious ideology. The taking of known information and giving it a more logical, humanistic spin was very well done. The twists make more sense than the stories we've become so familiar with. I enjoyed the blend of science and metaphysics, which lent weight to the historical re-interpretations presented in the book. The book is written in biblical verse, which adds a feeling of mysticism to the work. It begins with the origin of God, Satan and the Angels, follows through the early genesis stories, and ends with its own version of Revelations. A thoroughly engrossing tale that pulls you into its world and doesn't let you go.
Rating: Summary: Sorely Lacking! Review: The writing style of this book was very forced and uninspired for most of it. Overall, I believe the book was DeVito's way of trying to get across some personal philosophies in life that can be found in any new age book these days. It feels as if he tried to cloak it in the mystique of Lucifer and God. Sadly, DeVito forces much of the writing, making it seem as though it was an assigned project for a high school writing class. I became so sick of the thees and thous that I almost put the book down. The book was very short, lacking in detail and very poorly attempted. I'm not sure why it has gotten the high reviews it has. The only reason I give it 3 stars is for effort. DeVito had some moments of inspiration, but they were far and few between.
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