MWSA Review
“What was done was done,” asserts the central character in Chapter Twenty-three of Jamison Whiteman’s The Shield Before Us; and most of us have said or thought the same thing at some time. But “Was it?” asks this novel provocatively, taking readers on a journey into a world of science fiction that involves time travel and the potential of changing history.
Dr. Murray Edgeton, scarred by insensitive treatment growing up in small-town West Texas, hates the church he was forced to attend, making him a devoted anti-theist. As a brilliant physicist, he later leads a team of world class scientists to a breakthrough anticipated by Einstein’s theories of relativity that inspires a scheme by which he can debunk Christian teaching.
Utilizing “wormholes” in space and time, Edgeton inserts a team into the moment of Christ’s crucifixion, anticipating that they will find that Jesus was just an ordinary, itinerant preacher of his age, not the actual son of God. With his agents’ return to the present—without the evidence they thought they’d find—he seeks other ways to undermine the Christian church and its influence. But romance enters his world when he meets a young woman who changes his mind about religion. While not immediately converted to her beliefs, he finds himself more sympathetic to the principles she explains—and demonstrates. What should he do now?
The conflict between science and faith continues to drive the story through twists and turns (like the “Portals” of the “Space-Time Continuum”) to a complex conclusion. Alternating scenes in present-day California with events in first-century Palestine, the novel tracks world-renowned thinkers battling to determine the future. At the same time, the book asks us to consider if, given modern technology, travel in time isn’t already close in the real world. Music, one of his characters explains, takes us to other countries and times. Another reminds us that modern cuisine connects ingredients, styles, and tastes from many cultures and periods. That the scientists working on the Einstein Project come from around the world underscores how information moves at light speed in a digital universe. The characters, all well established in their professional careers, seem able to drop what they’re doing, and fly across the country to a distant location after a phone call. Finally, the fact that early disciples were able to spread their teachings across the globe asks us how contemporary social media—Facebook, TikTok, Instagram—now affect the thoughts and behaviors of millions with amazing speed.
As characters with hidden motives pursue different ends, their friends and colleagues do not know that some are from other times and places. Receiving mental and physical shocks, other characters lose their grasp of the time and place they inhabit. Unable to predict the novel’s plot, readers are bounced from possibility to possibility until they reach the end and a strong message about religious persecution in the twenty-first century.
Review by Michael Lund (March 2024)
Author's Synopsis
In The Shield Before Me, the sequel to The Quietude of Calvary, we once again find Dr. Murray Edgeton; the most brilliant physicist in at least three generations who has unlocked the secrets of time-travel; accessing the Space-Time Continuum in an attempt to alter events from the past. His goal: prevent the spread of Christianity and its role in World history. To accomplish this, he plans to send a team back to First Century Jerusalem and eliminate the Apostles and the early Christian Evangelists. Navy SEALs Declan O'Sullivan and Toma Bodagh who had previously traveled back in time to witness the crucifixion of Jesus, discover Murray’s plan and return to the First Century to stop it. The Shield Before Me flows seamlessly from the research laboratories of the present day to Jerusalem and the Nineveh Plain of the First Century and then continues to the Great Fire of Nero’s Rome as Declan and Toma fight to protect the first Christian communities and the Evangelists as they spread the Gospel of Jesus of Nazareth.
Format(s) for review: Paper and Kindle
Review Genre: Fiction—Horror/Fantasy/Sci-Fi
Number of Pages: 364
Word Count: 126,717
