ESCAPE TIME!  with KC Heath

SPIRIT OF INDEPENDENCE 
Keith Rommel
Barclay Books 2001
Pb 276 pages
ISBN # 1-931402-04-3

Anarchy in the spirit realm! 

It is said that God allows us the freedom of choice, so Spirit of Independence is the story of one man's choices after he is prematurely snatched from life to participate in the great war between heaven and hell.  Within the stereotypical setting of a heaven "up above" that has streets paved with gold, and a hell "down below" where a river of fire boils, author Rommel adds an in-between land called the House of Chova where souls of all kinds can meet to discuss matters.  Mostly they argue.  The main character, Travis Winter, is shot during WWII, not by the enemy but by a Spirit claiming him--Travis is told--for God, to be a new breed of Angel.  Travis later learns that everything he understood about heaven and hell was upside down and he switches his allegiance to another spirit who rules hell, one named Navarro.  Years pass as they battle heaven together, gathering more and more Spirits to their side, both new and ancient.  Meanwhile, Travis' son and daughter-in-law are brutally murdered by a bad spirit.  And his granddaughter is raped.  After an extensive gestation, she gives birth to a demonic child with red skin, pointy ears, fanged teeth, spiked horns, and a tail.  Many more people die. And so the war goes on, until all is chaos and one begins to wonder if perhaps Travis has been deceived.

But I will leave that for you to find out, if this is your taste in literature.  I will only add that I found the milieu cliché and the editing slack.  The most interesting aspect of the story, for me, was the presentation of viewpoint.  Spirit of Independence is written in first person, each chapter being a different first person, though many chapters return to Travis' perspective.

Spirit of Independence is recommended only for those who enjoy reading about that old mythological play between God and Lucifer.