Gabriel’s Stand

Louise Berker, lead assassin and public figurehead of G.A.N. – the Gaia Antibodies Network – has one mission: obliterate the plague that is slowly and surely destroying Mother Earth’s ecosystem and rapidly reducing the planet to an uninhabitable wasteland. That this decimating plague goes by the name of mankind doesn’t faze her at all. Senator Gabriel Standing Bear Lindstrom is determined not to let the G.A.N. pass their proposed laws that will make the use or ownership of any advanced technology – including modern medicines – a criminal act. As country after country falls under the sway of the G.A.N.’s anti-technology message and pandemics of antibiotic-resistant super-viruses decimate the population, Gabriel, along with his wife, daughter, close friends, and colleagues, continues to preach the attributes of both nature and technology. But will they be able to convince others of their message before it’s too late?

I found the premise of Gaskill’s story to be fairly plausible, especially in this day and age when technology has become an almost intrusive presence in our lives, and many people long nostalgically for the good old days. However, inconsistent behavior, unexplainable character reactions, and choppy dialogue made it difficult to get immersed in the story and made it far too easy to put down.