Categories
Books

A quest to save humanity

If there was one principle that could save humanity, what would it be? That is the curious question that faces the aptly-named David Ponder when he gets summoned to a peculiar “summit conference”, as described in The Final Summit, a novel by Andy Andrews. The summons comes by way of the archangel Gabriel, and at the summit conference David Ponder can call on the collective insights of a room full of famous people from history.

It is an interesting premise: if famous people from the past such as Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington Carver, Anne Frank, Joan of Arc and King David of Israel were gathered in a room and told to find the one principle that would save humanity, what would they come up with? As it turns out, they come up with several different possibilities, but struggle to find the one which the archangel Gabriel regards as the right one.

Novels typically require their readers to execute a leap of faith to accept a fabricated scenario as believable; this novel requires a greater leap than most. My own running long jump was not enough to make it over the chasm of sentimental cheese. I did not find the book dull, but the characterisations of historical figures were a long way from those generally conveyed by history books, and the narrative seemed overly-contrived.

I found it surprising that the author’s answer to the question of the one principle that could save humanity turned out to be a trite secular answer, given that the arbiter was the archangel Gabriel, who would surely only have accepted the answer (“Follow Jesus”) which is offered by the Christian faith. Notwithstanding these criticisms, the book is enjoyable in parts and will sell well, in view of the reputation of the author.

Disclosure: I received my copy of the book for free from BookSneeze.