• The Sounding by Carrie Salo
• Paperback: 478 pages
• Cost: $24.95
• Publisher: 23 House (September 23, 2011)
• ISBN-10: 0982477767
• ISBN-13: 978-0982477762
• Buy at: Amazon

In the Book of Revelation, a man named John has a prophetic dream. He dreams of the final prophecies that will come to pass – and the seven archangels that guard them. Each angel waits to sound their trumpet at God’s appointed time, preparing humanity to fight and win the final battle.

2,000 years later, Father Chris Mognahan is a member of the Hetairia Melchizedek, a secret society within the Catholic Church that studies Biblical omens. The society asks Chris to investigate an unusually grotesque crime – a murder on a college campus where the killer’s hand literally burned off the victim’s face. While the killing seems isolated at first, the society ties the murder to the final Biblical prophecy and a terrifying omen that the order of the prophecies is about to be disrupted. The final battle is coming too soon – long before humanity is prepared to win it.

Suddenly, Chris finds himself fighting against time and hell to keep the prophecies in order and stop an early Armageddon. He is joined by a band of unlikely allies, and together they find themselves in Rome above the Vatican Necropolis – the city of the dead – where the future is revealed to them in ancient texts.

They are not alone, however; an evil as old as time itself hunts them. As they travel across continents on their mission, the demonic force follows relentlessly, waiting in every shadowed corner, and every dark place.

As Armageddon descends, Father Chris finds that his only hope lies in a young woman within the group who has a secret gift – and their belief that God Himself may have sent her to keep the final angelic trumpet from sounding out the early end of the Earth.

Elise Moore has always known she was different, but has learned to hide the things that make her stand out. Turns out being able to heal yourself using the energy of plants and the people around you is a one way ticket to a psychiatric evaluation. So, she’s stayed quiet. Through the death of her parents, multiple foster homes, enrollment in college and working in a bar she has kept her unique gifts on the down low. However, after an assault by a classmates ends in his dead she is approached by Father Chris Monaghan and his assistant, the mute monk, Francis.  The two men explain that there’s a reason Elise is different, that she is, in fact, the angel Remiel, on earth to sound the trumpet that will begin Armageddon.  However, mankind isn’t prepared for Armageddon, the order, as laid out in Revelations has been disrupted and without Elise’s help to renew the order mankind will perish.
So, with the help of Chris, Francis and their comrade Allen they beginning training Elise for the task of righting the order of events that will lead to the end of days, while fighting off a deadly force that wants to keep Elise from doing just that.

The characters end up in the Vatican where their final training begins and where Elise is made more aware of the job she/Remiel has to complete and finally in Israel where battle lines are drawn and the continued existence of mankind is determined.

The Sounding is a heavy book. It addresses Armageddon, so it’s got danger and intrigue and action, but mostly it’s full of information. In my opinion, if you don’t have a basic knowledge or interest in Catholicism, Biblical scripture or the apocalypse from a Roman Catholic perspective you’ll be lost and probably bored. I’m a Christian, albeit Protestant, with years of Sunday School and many (mostly wacked out) sermons on Revelations behind me. I also have a history degree with a specialization in religious history and a lot of times I was lost and bored. There is so much information in this book that whether it’s direct quotes from Revelations, discussions on the Catholic Church’s hierarchy, description of the Vatican and it’s architecture or discussions between characters on appropriate research materials for Elise (should she read the Apocrypha or stick to the standard Biblical texts) the information almost puts a choke hold on the plot and story.  There are in depth descriptions and discussion of things that don’t even matter to the book. Over half the book is Elise researching and preparing to save mankind. So easily half the book is very heavy on information, with only a couple breaks for actions. All of this made it very difficult to get through The Sounding.

The action in The Sounding, when it came, was very well written, mildly gory, but also thoroughly believable. There is a fantastic scene in which the Pope and his cardinals ask Elise to prove herself and she does so with devastating results, ensuring no one doubts her abilities. My only problem with the action is that there’s too little of it and most of it occurs in the last quarter of the book.

The Sounding has a lot of potential, particularly for a debut novel. Carrie Salo clearly knows and has a passion for her material. Her descriptions of the art and architecture of the Vatican are beautiful and make you feel as if you’re there. The problem though is that there is so much description and discussion that, for me, I felt like I had to slog though three-quarters of the book before getting any action and then it was wrapped up very quickly.