This present darkness

A story about the battle for souls. It is a page-turner.

An amazing story about the warfare between angels and demons, the battle of good against evil, and the fact that everyone, everywhere -- even in a quiet, small town -- has a hand in it. My favorite of Peretti's work!

spiritual warfare at its best. really makes you think

Kept me on the Edge Of my Seat Great Book

This Present Darkness was first published in 1986. The edition I read was in its seventeenth printing. It is a book that has proven itself shelf and read worthy by virtue of its universal theme of good versus evil. There are also themes of light versus dark, the big corporation versus small town

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business, and racketeering/intrigue versus the psychological and spirtual well being of community at large.

On the surface, this is about the small town of Ashton in which things are taking a downhill turn for the worse. The town is slowly leaving its typical activities for more nefarious shadow type dealings. A reporter and a pastor compare notes and discover a plan to control the townspeople and even all humanity.

What is unseen is the holy and demonic battle for all of earths souls. Angels and demons converse concurrently with the townspeople of Ashton. This creates two plots that eventually mesh into high stakes race for souls.

This book kept me turning pages well past my bedtime. It makes praying to God mean something. The book shows horrible consequences for actions that are not well considered. It was as if all the stories of the Bible were complied into one whopper of a meaningful tale. This book gets my big thumbs up as being an insightful morality tale for all.

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This amazing author does it again in this incredible book about the forces of good and evil!

I remember when I first read the book. I thought: Wow! Someone wrote down what I think goes on behind what we cannot see.

I loved this book so much that when CBD put it on sale a few years ago I got like 10 of them and gave them away as gifts. It not only entertains, but opens your eyes to the

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wonderful ministry of angels and the beauty of God's love for us, in spite of what is out there to try to steal, kill, and destroy from us.

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I read this book many years ago, and loved it and was completely enthralled by it.

This spiritual thriller is an enthralling read, although a little slow at the beginning. It centres around a ficticious town, Ashton that is being taken over by New Age forces. Much of the story occurs within the spiritual realm with battles between angels and demons. It is a powerful illustration

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of the necessity of prayer.

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Helpfull and encouraging,but there is nothing better than the real thing.

Excellent book on Spiritual Warfare

An interesting take on spiritual warfare and impressive descriptions of angels. Good to see the connection between prayer and success.

It's a Christian thriller/conspiracy theory sort of book. It's a bit dated and that is distracting. But if you can get past the dated-ness of the story, it's definitely entertaining. I might recommend reading it more quickly than I did (it was dragged out for me over a couple months, so I think I

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lost some of the momentum that might otherwise have built). :)

Briefly, it's about a small town that has big problems developing, with its university, the local newspaper, and a small church at the center of the conflict. Families are torn apart, lives are ruined and ended, and nothing is at it initially seems. The pastor of the local small church (there is also a big church) and the owner of the paper, separately and in their own lives, try to get to the center of what is happening that is ripping the small town of Ashton completely apart, and both find their own families, jobs, and lives in danger.

I liked a lot of the imagery of demons and angels, and I thought the spiritual group was well written and interesting (spiritual in the sort of new-agey, collective consciousness sense). It is certainly thought provoking, if nothing else.

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Rated: B
While we battle against sins of self, there is a greater battle being fought by angels and demons on our behalf. Good story bringing that reality to light.

Ashton is just a typical small town. But when a skeptical reporter and a prayerful, hardworking pastor begin to investigate mysterious events, they suddenly find themselves caught up in a hideous New Age plot to enslave the townspeople, and eventually the entire human race. The physical world meets

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the spiritual realm as the battle rages between forces of good and evil.

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At the time I first read this, the style of it was quite new and revolutionary to me. I would say it is a book that I enjoyed reading through the first time but found less interesting if I tried to read through it again. Though I did at some point also come across the Spanish version of this book

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and have it also, with the thought of trying to read the Spanish version, using the English version to help with unfamiliar Spanish words--in trying to revive the little Spanish that I had in high school and get some of that language back.

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The basic plot is that some strange and disturbing things are happening in a small American town called Ashton. Underlying this is some dramatic spiritual warfare - angels against demons, good vs evil in the ultimate sense. The one person standing against the rise of evil in Ashton is the pastor

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Hank Busche, well-supported by his wife Mary and a few faithful members of the congregation.

It's a thriller with an element of fantasy thrown in, probably closest in genre to CS Lewis's 'That Hideous Strength', although nowhere near as well written. The style is terse and exciting; in places rather gratingly informal. There's not much character development, the conversations seem stilted at times, and the plot is rather far-fetched. All in all, not my kind of book - yet I've just read it for the third time, and found it difficult to put down. No doubt I'll read it again in a few years.

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