Ralph Norton is the highly successful CFO at FASTRAK, America\u2019s second-largest purveyor of Christian merchandise. Ralph is also the genius behind Word of God, an AI-based app that uses Scripture and religious doctrine to create a personalized spiritual experience in the form of counsel from \u201cGod\u201d himself. The app has catapulted Houston-based FASTRAK into the stratosphere of religious media, and everyone knows that Ralph is the driving force behind the company\u2019s success. However, the smarmy CEO, P.T. Mayo (\u201ca man who had transformed a struggling Bible distribution company into a global powerhouse through sheer force of will and an utter lack of moral constraints\u201d), is determined to oust Ralph from his position and take all the credit for the app. Tensions run high as the religious world grapples with the implications of an AI God, whose debut correlates with a drop in church attendance. Meanwhile, pious, mild-mannered Ralph and the admittedly \u201cGodless\u201d corporate snake Mayo continue to struggle for dominance, and their confrontations soon become physical. Slade\u2019s approach to the corporate thriller is refreshingly gritty and exciting, delivering some harsh truths about the mixture of capitalism, technology, and faith. Most of the characters are relatable and realistic; however, the slimy Mayo is decidedly two-dimensional, lacking complexity beyond his status as an atheist running a Christian company. The prose is biting and delightfully sarcastic, but falls into an overly self-analytical pattern that at times separates the reader from the story. But these flaws are inconsequential in the face of such a gripping concept and unabashed criticism of faith-based capitalism. Readers are sure to be swept up in the winding storyline and may walk away from the book with a new perspective on the intersection of money and religion\u2014as well as the perils of an increasingly technological society.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ralph Norton is the highly successful CFO at FASTRAK, America\u2019s second-largest purveyor of Christian merchandise. Ralph is also the genius behind Word of God, an AI-based app that uses Scripture and religious doctrine to create a personalized spiritual experience in the form of counsel from \u201cGod\u201d himself. The app has catapulted Houston-based FASTRAK into the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4519,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4518"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}