Jerome and the Seraph

Robina Williams

Average Rating 8/10 (1 Review)

Brother Jerome's death came as a surprise to him. So did the afterworld. There were no cherubs, no harps, no fluffy white clouds. Jerome had pictured the afterworld as a traditional sort of place. Leo, Jerome's pet cat from the friary, turns up to say hello - literally. Jerome is shocked, for he hadn't known that the cat could talk. Nor had he known the cat's real name was Quantuum - "You can call me Quant," the cat says to Jerome. Is Quant dead or alive? Jerome doesn't know, for Quant still lives in the friary, yet he pops along, as if through an inter-dimensional cat flap, to see his friend in the afterworld. What is Quant? Jerome hasn't a clue. And what is this strange world he's now in? Is it a new world or an old world? The Hound of Heaven is here, the Christian friars are here, but so are the centaurs and the Greek gods. And everyone seems to get along together just fine.

Review by Paul Lappen (070107) Rating (8/10)

Review by Paul Lappen
Rating 8/10
At a rural friary in Britain, Brother Jerome slips and cracks his head open on the gravestone of Brother Aloysius. Jerome is killed instantly. When he wakes up, he is not in Heaven, but alone in a grey, featureless sort of place. The first person he meets is Brother Aloysius, who apologizes for the circumstances of Jerome’s death. Jerome eventually meets up with all the dead Brothers of the friary. The "leader" or "guide" of the group is Leo, an orange tabby cat who wandered into the friary one day and made himself at home. In the other world, Leo is named Quant, short for Quantum, and can talk. Jerome realizes that Leo/Quant is not your average cat, if he can move between dimensions with no trouble at all.

Meantime, back at the friary, Brother Fidelis, the "boss" of the friary, has been spending a lot of time with a middle age woman new to the parish. When men become friars later in life, some are good at keeping their religious vows while others are not so good at it. By this time, Jerome has made a few visits back to the friary. He makes contact with one of the living friars, and is asked if he could possibly find himself inside the woman’s cottage while Fidelis is there; just for a peek, of course. He does, and finds a totally innocent scene of two people at lunch. Whether or not Jerome can be seen by the living friars on his walks around the friary seems to depend on the cat, Leo/Quant. A lot of things seem to depend on that dimension-hopping cat.

This is a very "quiet" novel (set at a friary, there will not be much in the way of action). It has little bits of weirdness here and there that will keep the reader interested. This belongs in that large grey area of Pretty Good or Worth Reading.
Paul Lappen (7th January 2007)