[dead]

I have to agree with you. I know of three real anti-religious liberals who all told me that they thought the fiction was OK, but it was the "background history" that the story played out against that was so fascinating for them.

"I never knew all that stuff!" they all excitedly told me in one way or another.

I'm not particularly religious or anti-religious, so I started reading it. I got through about fifty pages, but I felt like I was reading a bad novelization of a Scooby Doo episode.

[7thson]

I have not read it. I asked my priest - who did read most of it - if it was worth my time. He said no. He said the "historical background" is basically bogus and the author has events and years out of place.