Official Review: Birthing the Lucifer Star by D e bartley

[RussetDivinity]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Birthing the Lucifer Star" by D e bartley.]

---

Share This Review

---

Birthing the Lucifer Star by D. E. Bartley is about Shirley Cohen, a woman who somehow gets involved with the Ulun’Suti, a diamond from Native American mythology; Eagle Flying By (sometimes called Eagle Flying Bye in the book), the grandfather of Dan Ghostwolf, who found the Ulun’Suti and was forced to send it to Shirley; and the Bilderberg Group, a club that, in this novel, has a conspiracy to bring America under its control and send nuclear missiles on Cassini II in order to make Jupiter a second sun. If this sounds like something of a mess, then you’re right, and I will only give this book 1 out of 4 stars.

The style of Birthing the Lucifer Star is for the most part told in a relatively traditional format, with omnipresent third-person point of view, though there are a few poems tossed in between chapters and at least two occasions where the style switches to something closer to stream-of-consciousness, which can be very hard to follow. I also had a hard time following the plot itself, though by the end I was able to grasp the majority of it. The chapters tend to skip around in time and space, with no hint as to where or when the reader is being taken, and I found myself thrown off several times and wondering why we were being shown this particular scene now. Several scenes felt out of place, especially in the context of later parts of the book, and the heavily polysyllabic prose did nothing to help. I have no problem at all with a writer using whatever words are necessary, but the language in this book felt far too rich, especially when juxtaposed with a horned snake who was also Lucifer saying things like “What the hell” and playing poker.

Shirley and Eagle Flying By(e) didn’t feel so much like characters as they did devices to move the plot along. I wasn’t given enough to understand their actions, such as why Shirley would kill her boyfriend rather than simply leaving him after he took her to a Masonic ritual or why Eagle Flying By(e) would suddenly want to save Shirley from the horned snake/Utkena/Lucifer and how the two could become so easily connected as to fall in love. The introduction of the conspiracy to make a new sun out of Jupiter appeared in the middle of the book with no hints at all that it might appear, and it felt like just another belief system tacked on to all the others.

Speaking of belief systems, Shirley was raised Jewish and makes a reference to the book of Ezekiel from the Bible, in addition to thinking that her kundalini (a Sanskrit term) needs to be raised to protect herself from evil spirits as she dumps her boyfriend’s body in a ditch. From Dan Ghostwolf and Eagle Flying By(e), we get a great deal of Lakota mythology, and a bit of Buddhism appears later on. All, or almost all, of the terms in the book are defined in a glossary at the end, but the glossary isn’t always helpful. It is arranged by chapter, but the sections in the glossary don’t always line up with the ones in the story, and definitions are given for things that other writers would assume are either common knowledge or easily identified, such as North Dakota and schizophrenia.

In short, while I do enjoy fantasy novels that are based on belief systems other than Christianity, I did not enjoy Birthing the Lucifer Star. Rather than complex and question-raising, I found it messy and poorly put together.

***
Buy "Birthing the Lucifer Star" on Amazon
Buy "Birthing the Lucifer Star" on Barnes and Noble

[highpriestess]

there are obviously plots to this story that you have completely overlooked, Darren, Shirley's boyfriend has sold his soul to the devil in a pact to reincarnate back into the same bloodline he now incarnates...Shirley refuses to be a part of this elite group and realizes that her own soul is in trouble...Shirley dumps Darren in a deep abyss, where a native american is mining for sacred and precious stones...the horned serpent gives the Ulun suti to Ghostwolf to lure Shirley back to him so he can claim her soul also...Chapter seven is the Witness, where Darren is completely given over to Lucifer... The whole story revolves around Shirley and the redemption of her soul..Eagle Flying Bye is a medicine man with special powers that decides to help shirley, who becomes enslaved by Lucifer...

[Skillian]

This is a great review. Even though you gave it a low rating you explained a lot of elements within the book.. which I totally like. haha. I think I will give this one a try. *adds to reading list* Thanks for taking the time to review it!