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THE STAR WAR FACTOR

A review by Danny Fahey

I think it was Colin Wilson who said that a writer starting on a novel must pose a problem; the novel is then the instrument for working out the problem. Robert Stanford poses many problems in his book THE STAR WAR FACTOR, the chief amongst them is what would happen if someone wrote a book describing `Armageddon' and then the things he described began to come true?

So we enter the world of the writer, drug taker, and delver into the Occult and twice married, Gilbert Morrison, the protagonist in the novel. Gilbert's world is frequently turned upside down in the novel and includes two failed marriages and a failed love affair. It also includes a... More > soul-searching journey through India and other places 'less travelled' and eventual escape into a fallout bunker when the nuclear war begins. This all happens, the reader begins to suspect, because of the manipulation of 'secret' powers that are attempting World Dominion.

They seek to manipulate Gilbert because he wrote a book (twice at least, with different endings) that describes Armageddon before the event takes place, an event being orchestrated by the mysterious (and callous) Prince Reinhardt and his second in command Virgil D'Aguilla.

In the novel we watch Gilbert's struggles and descent into madness (drug and alcohol induced and otherwise) while being manipulated by the Prince and Virgil. Gilbert is a wayward, almost anti-hero, at the start but by the end of the novel I was cheering him on each step of the way.

It is while in the bunker that Gilbert begins to fight to save the remnants of humanity and the lives those he loves. Along the way Gilbert is helped by Valerie (potentially a third wife?) his daughter Adelle, who at first hates him, Cosy, a soldier with a heart, and the Nephilim, Beings straight out of Biblical mythology. They escape and wish to make their way to Israel (as do the evil Prince Reinhardt and Virgil). It seems this story will come to a head in Israel. In Israel, having survived the nuclear war, is Elaine, Gilbert's first wife and the reader understands their story, like THE START WAR FACTOR itself, is not yet complete.

This first novel, in what I assume is a series, does not solve all the problems but it does set us up for the battle between Good and Evil to see who will decide Humanity's fate.

The Star War factor is well written and highly enjoyable. It plays with time, with ideas from the Bible, with politics (especially the politics of secretive powerful men and groups pulling the strings) in ways both novel and entertaining.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first installment and eagerly await Robert Stanford's next installment in this fascinating story. < Less