SOUND THE RAM'S HORN
By S. Joan Popek
Review Page

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RaveReviewsforSoundtheRam'sHorn

From US Time Best Seller List Reviews
Hullabaloo Or Hallelujah?
David Hepplewhite
SOUND THE RAM'S HORN
By S. Joan Popek

The irrepressible S. Joan Popek, author of THE ADMINISTRATOR, has done
it once again.  SOUND THE RAM'S HORN is a clever mix of Millennium hoo-ha and biblical  prophesy. Sometime in the very near future, a baby boy is born that flaunts all known medical laws. Doctors are amazed. Little Joshua's DNA defies all known existing medical patterns.

Who is this Golden Child? Is he the nest logical step in human evolution or
perhaps even mankind's last chance at divinity?  Those of you who enjoyed THE ADMINISTRATOR will not feel let down by SOUND THE RAM'S HORN. Popek has crafted a strong story that alternates with gut - wrenching tragedy as well as joyful hope. The question is .... are we ready for this?

SOUND THE RAM'S HORN is a big stretch from Popek's collection of shorts and it's one she takes with absolute grace and confidence. I suspect S. Joan Popek is just starting to hit her stride. So Joe, please do us all a favor and keep doing those dishes.

At an unspecified time in the near future, a Golden Child is born. Not the first of  the GC's but certainly one of the more important, Joshua, the offspring of a inter-racial marriage, isn't genetically possible according to the doctors--but he lives, thrives, and becomes, along with the rest of the GC's, terribly important to the survival of the human race. He is an empath and a healer--the other GC's have other talents.

The travails of the GC's present a vivid commentary on racial relations, humanity's reaction to differences, and the possibilities inherent in unconditional love. SOUND THE RAM'S HORN is science fiction, but it's not possible to read it without hoping the author has spoken with a prophetic voice, has envisioned a future that might lead to peace and harmony in the universe.

Ms. Popek has made an auspicious and moving debut with SOUND THE RAM'S HORN. Using prophecy, Biblical stories, and a penetrating look at the world's ills, she has produced a book that made me choke up with grief, smile at the future possibilities, and try to contain the feeling of awe that the writing and the author's wisdom engendered. It is an incredible book--one I will treasure.  —Patricia White (reprinted) Scribes World

Sound the Ram’s Horn   reviewed by Barry Hunter for Baryon, March 2000

In addition to being an up and coming author, Joan is a mother of five and the editor/publisher of the terrific ezine Millennium Science Fiction & Fantasy. Being able to do all of these things and write is amazing. She has produced anamazing book as well.

Sam and Laura are an interracial couple and when their child is born with a golden skin tone and from that moment on Sam knows that Joshua is a special child. He is extremely intelligent and able to heal to some degree. His Doctor introduces Joshua to Alice, another Golden Child, and here our story moves on as more of the Golden Children are found and discover their connections witheach other.

The story is one of hope and understanding as the Golden Children put their plan on saving the human race and teaching it not to hate, and to revive our feelings of empathy and compassion.

Popek has written a novel full of inspiration and a hope that the future turns out better than current trends indicate. It is well written, thought provoking and very literate. This book needs to be read by as big an audience as possible. This is one of those books that make you think about the human condition and wish that this is the way it should be.
 
 

Patricia White, Millennium Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine, January 2000
 

When Jo asked me to review this book, I had read a large number of her short stories and wasn't worried about writing the review of her first full-length novel--now I am. If I say what I really think, you will accuse me of partisanship, of being prejudiced in her favor, and hurl all manners of invective and other unpleasantries at a reviewer who is seriously striving to be objective.

This book is so good, so incredibly good, that I have to restrain myself or I would be pouring gallons of superlatives on the screen.

SOUND THE RAM'S HORN is a complex and intricately woven tale of hope, vision, and  truth. Based, if only tenuously, on Biblical prophecy, the book follows the turbulent life of Joshua, one of the Golden Children being born to inter-racial couples. Genetically, it is impossible for the children to  survive--and their other inborn traits aren't possible either (or so say the doctors of their time period). Joshua is an empath and a healer and what he
does for humanity made me smile, cry, and hope that Jo's vision was true.

Bookmice's Millennium book, SOUND THE RAM'S HORN should be on everyone's "Gotta Have This Book List." I was going to say if you like Arthur C. Clarke or Heinlein or any of the other masters of the genre, then this book is for you, but it isn't true. This book outshines them all and is destined to be the measure for future writers in the genre. It is peerless.

Enduring as yesterday, fresh as tomorrow, Joan Popek's work is excitement without peer. Strongly laced with unswerving honesty and unexpected touches of humor, irony, and pathos, her writing is a heady potion--and is addicting. --- Patricia White, Millennium Science Fiction and Fantasy

SOUND THE RAM'S HORN
By S. Joan Popek
Review by Greg F. Gifune

Highly Recommended

   Those familiar with the work of S. Joan Popek will not be surprised by the generous doses of strong social commentary and highly original content evident in her new book Sound The Ram's Horn.  Ms. Popek is known for challenging her readers, asking them to do more than simply follow her into the worlds and scenarios she creates.  In short, Popek dares the reader to think, not only about the work before them, but about themselves in regard to intense and often difficult aspects of the human condition.  And this new treasure, Sound The Ram's Horn, is exactly that, a study of the human condition, and the commonality, diversity, joy, fear, and hope that constitutes it.  If you're looking for light and fluffy mindless escapism, you will not find it in Popek's work, and that's not to say this book is not highly entertaining (it is), but a point exists behind it, a credible reason to read and experience this adventure.

Sound The Ram's Horn is not an easy book to review, because it is difficult to discuss the plot without giving much away, thereby weakening the experience of reading the story firsthand.  But, suffice to say, the book centers around it's lead character, Joshua, a literal Golden Child as it were, with the power to see that which normal human beings cannot, the power to heal, the power to see past the physical distractions of our world to a deeper meaning which resides within all of us.  When it is discovered that others like him have been born across the globe with no explanation as to whom, or perhaps what they are, the story kicks into overdrive and never looks back.  Gods, saviors, devils, aberrations of genetics, or a new step in human evolutionary of these are possibilities as you embark on this well crafted and endearing tale.  And in keeping in step with Popek's vision, the answers to these questions are not revealed for you, but rather presented and left for you to decide.  In a time when much genre fiction involves the darker side of life and plenty of doom and gloom, Sound The Ram's Horn approaches these subjects from a position of hope, while still managing to stay clear of the melodrama and nauseating, sickeningly sweet drivel found in similar works.

   The concept of race, religion, belief and faith are a controversial mix to be sure, but Popek tackles them with a ferocious and courageous tenacity seldom found in genre fiction.  Whenever one writes on these subjects, one is open to potentially offending readers (intentionally or otherwise).  One could ask why the concept that a blond- haired, blue-eyed child is somehow superior to others is perpetuated here in an image that clearly summons profoundly disturbing comparisons to the Third Reich's idea of a master race of fair haired supermen.  Why in the
opening sequence, where a mixed race couple chooses to marry, is the African American mother the one who so violently objects to her son marrying a white woman?  Did these aspects give me pause, did they bother me and make me think?  Honestly, yes they did.  But it is evident quickly, that it is Popek's intention to do just that to challenge and force all of us regardless of race, religion, gender, or even age to look at ourselves, our beliefs, our prejudices, our fears and ignorance, and even our very faith in not only ourselves, but in each other.  Popek's true power here is that she manages to do this without being preachy or making judgments herself. And I suspect some of what might be considered the less than politically correct areas of this book are in themselves attempts to make the reader think about many of the falsehoods, inconsistencies and doctrines of outright hatred many have been led to believe are truths.

   From the very start, to the thought provoking conclusion of this book, Sound The Ram's Horn is an experience unlike any other you're likely to encounter.  Strong Science Fiction? Sure.  But it's also much more.  I challenge you to read it and not come away with an ironic feeling of both disappointment in the shortcomings of the human race, and a renewed hope in our vast potential as thinking, feeling, essentially virtuous beings.

   In the Bible, the sound of the ram's horn sent the walls of Jericho tumbling down.  Ms. Popek, sounding a far more subtle but equally potent horn of her own, eloquently reminds us that it is our ability to transcend our differences and instead celebrate the power of our common emotions, dreams and desires for a better world that will send the barriers standing between the human race and a higher state of peace and enlightenment toppling as well.

This is the stuff of powerful fiction. If you listen, you'll hear the horn blowing...and I think you'll like what you hear. Greg F. Gifune, Thievin' Kitty Publications