Goodreads Review: Sep 6, 2020

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This was a very well written exploration fiction scie fi novel. and I gatta say I can buy alot of what the author is selling knowing ful well that is what the book and story is designed for to illustrate and demonstrate how if in a perfect world with a perfect veneration a like minded co op and other like it around the world could take technology and knowledge both old school and new school together and create a uptophain like society for those lucky enough to be "enlightened. the issue here is no way this could ever happen on the scale described on in the book without greed ego and other negative emotions getting in the way. that said still worth my time and interesting concepts. Alexandra Stafford

Goodreads review: Mar 29, 2020

Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars

I’m not going to summarize the book. That’s what the blurb is for. This review is intended to convey my impressions of the story’s message as I interpreted it. Imagine a world removed from radical actions and violence perpetrated in the name of God, country or self. Imagine a world that uses science, reason and goodwill as the foundation for its endeavors. As a logical thinker myself, this book resonated very strongly with me because I, too, could never comprehend all the terrible things that people have committed throughout history against other people, in many cases both sides believing they were right. Righteous would probably be a better analogy because, of course, religious beliefs were responsible for many of the atrocities, but not all. Many people think that science and religion cannot coexist. Perhaps that is because science is perpetually questioning everything that we know and challenging itself to prove it. Religion is defined by the tenets and knowledge of the past which was based on what humans perceived as the truth thousands of years ago. “The Fifth Prophet” proposes instead that science and spirituality can, and do, exist. In fact, the more science discovers about the universe the more it points to an underlying plan, fundamental laws that stitch together not just our space but multiple planes of existence that we can only guess at. If all this sounds very deep and philosophical, good. That’s what this book is supposed to do, make you think. The ideas presented in this book are not radical. Rather, I like to believe that this is the direction that mankind should be evolving toward, a world where all people realize we aren’t here to fight and compete against each other. Rather, that our enlightenment can only come from understanding and acceptance of each other. It is our differences that truly unite us. Kudos to the author for weaving together many ethnically different characters and doing it well, preserving their beliefs, cultures and sensitivities in a way that maintained their individuality. The book ends with many questions still left unanswered but continues as part of a series of “The Family of Man.” As an added layer of reality, I started reading this story before the Corona virus pandemic began but the parallels between it and the author’s fictional “Bin Laden’s Breath” were both astonishing and terrifying. G. R. Paskoff

Amazon review: Broad Concepts to Consider, Feb 14, 2020

Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars

Nice flow and an totally unpredictable journey but with familiar stops along the way. Covers connections in science and philosophy wrapped within a science fiction story. Recommend! John Bush

Amazon review: An interesting look at God, religion, science, and the universe, Mar 18, 2019

Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars

Have you ever heard that you shouldn’t discuss religion and politics with your friends? Well, throw that out the window. Dr. A.R. Davis doesn’t shy away from these tough subjects with his speculative fiction novel The Fifth Prophet. We follow Sam, a seemingly normal scientist and average Joe until one day God chooses him to be His next prophet. One of the things I loved about this novel was how much depth and scientific knowledge Dr. Davis adds to his work. This is a cool story, but especially in the way it makes you think. If you’re looking for a novel that’s not necessarily easy but worthwhile, then check out The Fifth Prophet! Joshua Grant, diabolicshrimp.com

Goodreads review: April 21, 2013

Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars

The Fifth Prophet is an epic. It brings forth many incredible questions that all people should be asking themselves. What if it all changed and we went another direction? I found the writing a solid four-stars, but the ideas and originality were worthy of 5-stars. I wish more authors and readers would consider philosophical fiction an important part of their library. By Zoltan Istvan

Amazon review: The Foundation Book to a Great SF Series, Dec 14, 2011

This is the first book in a long project to follow the "Family of Man", from this Order's conception in the mind of lottery winner Sam. Vague ideas grow from the tiny seeds of concern Sam has for the future of Mankind. Eventually, in the subsequent books Davis takes us on a journey out into hyperspace as from small beginnings the Family comes to be the saviour of our species. As I write this review, there are already an additional two books in this series. At this point in the grand saga we suspect that ideas were planted in the mind of Sam by a creative spirit, or a dying civilisation, but will we ever know for sure? Imagine a just passed time-line, which is the history here, a chronology that in the next book heads off into outer space.

Imagine a present that had gone just slightly differently than it did from the 2008 U.S. presidential run. Imagine a new order that grew not out of mirrored and combative fundamentalist religious doctrines or out of our traditional political philosophies, but out of the work of those who look to the most substantive inheritance of our forefathers. I mean our fundamental science. I take you back to Capernicus and Galilao, to the new religion of scientific logic which grew out of the Renaissance. By October 2007 ideas were cementing themselves in Sam's head. "What we need to do is kill Religion, and let God live!"

This is a fantastic, and a fantastical idea. Davis has created a huge concept, of which this book is its "foundation". It could never have been mathematical exactitude, but then it would be rather frightening if science fiction ever could be. However, there is still the probability that this story could still have many parallels with reality. The fact that we have already progressed someway beyond the start is actually something of a relief. We can be left to enjoy the story without any fear that we are reading the lecture notes of some "religious" prophet.

Watch the birth of new "empire", the beginning of Davis's vision of the flow of science into the future. This is true science fiction, a "mathematically" plausible future, even though the course is already deviated. I have read the series so I know plausibility will not be lost however fantastical this story, or our real journey, becomes. True Science Fiction is the projection of logic into distant futures. Fantasy can be given reign to swirl within the frame, but we need the frame. Mathematics provides the rhythm, the beating heart of life on which we build history. The "Fifth Prophet" builds a history from which Davis's future vision steadily soars.

There is more detail here than is easy: as there is in even the simplest of binary mathematics, as there is in any possible "genesis". Only a base equation is easy, and never its application. Every profound exploration needs a solid weave in its structure, and the weaves of the hyperthreads of our future are no different. This book is followed by Time Travelers Are Schizophrenic, which shortly after you have read this I predict you will be reading. Oh! But for the detail Dr. Davis! It does work, I assure you, though at times I sort of wonder if some of it could have rested in the record, in "The Book" we never read, rather than on the page. Readers of Isaac Asimov will have some idea of what I mean about sometime detail, but that hasn't stopped that man being the greatest writer of the possible future that fiction science has yet seen. Am I getting carried away? You are the judge of that. I am not suggesting that Davis is a new Asimov, but I do believe there is the foundation of something special here.

If you are looking for the most exciting SF book you can find this isn't it, but if you have any interest in probability, possibility, and roads untraveled I genuinely believe you will enjoy it. In case I have given the wrong impression there is nothing dogmatic, or over difficult here. This is just a good fiction read. And the excitement, well that builds into the future as well, rather as in that greatest of true fantasy, Tolkien's Middle Earth. By Richard Bunning

Amazon Review: Dec 2, 2022

Rating: 2.0 out of 5 stars

So much wishful thinking in this Meritocractic Utopia. EVERYTHING goes just right for the FoM, even during a global meltdown. Supply chains are uninterrupted, as just one example. (Does anyone recall the run on toilet paper and paper towels during the 2020 lockdown?) It was all way beyond what even MY heightened ability to suspend disbelief could tolerate. Also, an annoying misuse of certain words kept popping up: "Backdoor" for "back door." "In to" for "into," and so on. Are there no proofreaders anymore? And worst of all, the entire lack of comprehension as to how closely religious people cling to their faith in spite of logic and common sense: To be FoM, you have to "internalize" your religious dogma. Most every religious person in the book sort of says, "Oh. Okay," and just moves on. Jeph

Author's comment: This one really got me. I never saw it coming. The cover blurb on the jacket says “This is the story of God returning to earth and choosing a scientist as his next prophet.” Of course “EVERYTHING goes just right for the FoM, even during a global meltdown!” Maybe my point was overly subtle. Or perhaps paradoxical? I kept it ambiguous so as not to offend people too much. “Religion is fundamentally evil, and God does not approve,” was basic to FoM belief. I thought the reader would ponder the difference between “miracle” and “small mathematical probability.” I never imagined reading it as if God did not exist!

Amazon Review: Expectations, Apr 1, 2021

Rating: 2.0 out of 5 stars

I had big expectations after the reviews. The math pages were hard, but I didn’t mind that. The story just dragged on. No real resolutions to the plot and promised mysteries remained unexplored. S. Knowles

Author's comment: I can understand this reaction. No author can please everyone. However, if the reviewer wants the mysteries explored and explained they need to read the next four books in the series. :-)