In SATI, a trucker picks up a beautiful young hitchhiker. She says her name is Sati. She claims to be God.

She soon gathers a steady following that starts with the trucker’s friends and slowly builds to a large congregation. She counsels them to let go of their baggage and embrace life, which was her gift to them. The God she portrays is all powerful but also loving of play. Her preaching invigorates her followers to find inner peace and live their lives in a new, more meaningful way.

It’s a great concept, and Christopher Pike writes beautifully with a great rhythm built upon simple, forceful sentences. The plot unfolds pretty much as you’d expect, but the writing and the spiritual content keeps you interested. I was attracted to the book hoping it would be as challenging to me as Richard Bach’s ILLUSIONS was when I read it back in high school.

Unfortunately, nobody challenges Sati to answer the big questions many people would have of a Creator, me at least. Why did God make evil? If God wants us to be happy, why is the world so challenging? How is knowledge of God the key to happiness if God does not intercede on behalf of the good and therefore offers nothing? Why do people die, and when they die, where do they go? Is there an overarching moral code with penalties for noncompliance? Pike sticks to safe spiritual material and presents it as provocative even though it is designed to be as inoffensive as possible.

In short, I enjoyed the book for the writing if not the spirituality. You may feel differently; based on the Amazon reviews, a lot of people found it meaningful.

KOKO by Peter Straub is one of the most powerful works of fiction I’ve read over the past few years. I wouldn’t classify it as horror, though it certainly contains horror elements. I would definitely classify it as literature, a work of art lovingly crafted in which every sentence is perfectly designed.

At the opening of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC during the 1980s, four survivors of a platoon that fought hard during the Vietnam War come together to renew their bond while remembering the horrific events they left behind in Asia. The Lieutenant tells the other men he believes another member of their platoon is still living in Asia, murdering people and signing each death by leaving a regimental playing card in their mouth. The men decide to go to Asia, find him, and bring him home.

Many people expect horror novels to be thrillers. This book is not like that. It meanders, it takes its time. The story unfolds in the mess of real life. But getting there is most of the fun in KOKO. It does deep. The most genuine moments of horror occur in the shattering memories of the men and what they had to go through in Vietnam, and the sadness of their living lives many years later that are still defined by what happened to them.

I was surprised to read somewhere that Straub did not serve in Vietnam himself. He tells his story of these veterans lovingly and with incredible pathos.

Recommended for people who like to eat words rather than sweep them into their head with their eyes, for whom reading is a real joy.