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Vernon Baker
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Slow Boat To Purgatory, Book One Kindle Edition

by Vernon Baker (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 841 ratings
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Praise for the first installment of this epic series:

"Vernon Baker lands a K.O. on his first try. Slow Boat will answer questions you didn't know you had about Angels and Demons, Heaven and Hell and the realm of the Boatman in between." David Beem, Author of Abyss of Chaos

"The series has a lot of potential and I can see it becoming a hit with fans of Dan Brown.." Book Monster Reviews

"It takes a very brave - some might say reckless - novelist to attempt a story of such magnitude as this - giving life to Good and Evil in an eternal battle for our souls. Vernon Baker has done quite an impressive job at it in this riveting epic tale spanning almost a thousand years." Pete Morin, author of Diary of a Small Fish

Slow Boat To Purgatory...

Gaspar De Rouse, a Templar Knight, a man murdered by his brothers for the secret he possessed, resurrected and made immortal. Given a second chance at redemption he has walked the earth for over seven-hundred years.

Dominicus Bureau, a renegade priest, torn between his vows and the secret he pursues, a secret protected by an immortal. He carries a silenced pistol and uses it. Often.

Alex Donovan, a modern day warrior thrust into an ages old war, a war between good and evil, heaven and hell. Armed with an ancient chronicle of the life of Gaspar, Alex searches for the immortal and perhaps his own destiny.

All three men, passengers on a Slow Boat To Purgatory.

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  1. Book 1 of 2
    Slow Boat To Purgatory
  2. Print length
    302 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  5. Publication date
    July 14, 2011
  6. File size
    743 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Husband and father, voracious reader and entrepreneur, Vernon finally found the courage to put soul to paper. Slow Boat To Purgatory is his first novel. He lives with his wife and children on the coast of Maine and in the panhandle of Florida. Occasionally, when the need arises, he travels to Venice to see an old friend...a very old friend.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B005CX3ZU2
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ (July 14, 2011)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 14, 2011
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 743 KB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 302 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 841 ratings

About the author

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Vernon Baker

Vernon Baker

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Vernon Baker, the author of Slow Boat to Purgatory and The Arimathean, lives and writes on the shores of Penobscot Bay in Belfast Maine. For the last few years he and his family have spent the winters in the panhandle of Florida and it was there, three years ago, while writing what eventually became Slow Boat to Purgatory, that he decided to become a published author. Taking advantage of the changing landscape of publishing he decided in 2011 to independently publish his first novel.

Slow Boat to Purgatory went on to become an Amazon.com bestseller both in the U.S. and the U.K. with over 10,000 copies in the hands of readers.

Vernon relies on his lifelong love of history and travel for much of his inspiration. The Slow Boat to Purgatory series reflects this with its forays into history, myth and legend, traveling across centuries and continents at a pace which keeps the pages turning. The series delves into the paranormal while exploring such themes as honor, salvation, good and evil and the immortality of the soul.

You can keep up with or contact Vernon at www.vernonjbaker.com, on twitter @VernonJBaker or on Facebook.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
841 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Johnathon K
5.0 out of 5 stars Well crafted, a good read
Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2013
Verified Purchase
I am giving this five stars, although if it was a stand alone book, not the first part of a larger literary effort, I would give it four. My hesitancy for an unreserved five stars has to do with the amount of epistolary voice that, while interesting, tends to bog the book down a bit, and the fact that the volume in and of itself doesn't have a clear ending. However, as volume one, the background information given works to build a good foundation for further volumes.

What i like most about the book is the author's wordsmithing. He is an excellent writer, able to convey clear ideas with all the nuances associated with real life. Several times, I had to stop and just admire the words themselves.

Characterization was excellent throughout the book. Each character had a unique voice, and I was drawn to all the main ones.

Editing was basically good. There were a few cases of incorrect word usage, and one chapter location was listed as different than what it actually was in the text of the chapter. Overall, though, editing wasn't much of an issue.

I enjoyed the overall flow of the story, and the plot caught my attention. I think the author's imagination has done him well in this effort.

One small point, and this may just be a pet peeve of mine, is that many authors seem to feel that to give a character a tough-guy image, he has to be an ex-Navy SEAL. I think I've read four books this year alone where this was the case. I think this is overdone. If it really is necessary, though, I would hope the author would actually research the SEALs. There is no such thing as a Navy "Seal," as the service is referred to in this book, unless one counts the couple that are trained in San Diego along with sea lions and dolphins to detect mines and retrieve things. The word SEAL is an acronym for Sea, Air, and Land Teams. It may seem like a small thing, but it jars me when reading and leaves me to wonder if any research was done at all.

Despite this small point, this really is an excellent effort. I look forward to reading the next volume.
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wayne
4.0 out of 5 stars Amazing First Book
Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2013
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Wow, this is an incredibly well-written fantasy. There is a story within a story within a story, which was quite well crafted. I read the back page, about the author, and it's his first book. The fact that this is his first book is just plain wow-some.

The characters are so real, and well-developed, you spend every moment along for the ride, feeling what they feel, experiencing what they experience, total immersion into the 3 or 4 separate worlds (lives) of the characters that we follow. I have to admit, I liked some of the stories more than others. The story of Gaspar himself took up the bulk of the book, and for that I'm glad. The story of how he came to be was fascinating. I also liked where we went with Alex. He seems a stand-up guy who loved his grandfather and finds himself caught up in a world he never knew existed. He has mad fighting skills, and is a strong, believable, likable kind of guy. I'd definitely want him to have my back in a fight.

The book does start off a little slow, but that is more for the sake of set-up for the reader. Once the story hits the action-packed finale, it's, well, action-packed. Other than the little bit of a slow turn in the beginning, the pacing was pretty good.

The only thing that troubled me was the flipping back and forth between stories. Occasionally I found myself confused, but once I realized that I had to read the chapter heading for my place of reference, the book moved much smoother for me. Also, sometimes we spend so long in one person's story, that when we switched to another's, I almost forgot who some of the players were. Again, I'd catch up to my place in the story relatively quickly.

Amazing read, and if you like fantasy, I strongly suggest reading this one.
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Dennis E. Kocik
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent story
Reviewed in the United States on December 15, 2022
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This was a fascinating read and apparently the authors first book. Clearly an adept at esoteric knowledge and the history of the Knights Templar. I eagerly await the next book to pick up where he left off.
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Toots
5.0 out of 5 stars Mesmerizing!
Reviewed in the United States on October 10, 2022
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I'm an avid reader and I couldn't put this one down. Very well written with a unique perspective. Can't wait to read the next one. Will be watching this author with anticipation.
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Rhubarb
3.0 out of 5 stars Good, Not Great
Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2012
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Settings: The real life settings crisply and vividly laid before the reader. The supernatural settings were drawn-out, hyperbolized. Hard to be scary and shocking when it goes on and on and on ad infinitum. Author handled the book-within-a-book-within-a-book well.

Characters: Very well done. I found myself caring about Gaspar and Alex, and wondering what organization Dominicus was working for, to what purpose.

Plot: Interesting premise (though the goal of the plot was not clear), did not carry through on its promise the way it could, but author obviously wants to leave it hanging so you will read the next book. There's a trick to tying up a story so it is satisfying and yet still leaving the door open for further adventures. Author would do well to learn the technique.

Final thought: As with so many new authors, Baker needs a good editor, one who will check for story continuity, misused words, and correct grammar and punctuation. People who love to read do not like being forced to re-read paragraphs or pages to figure out what the author is trying to say.

One unintentionally funny: author uses the word "infinitesimal" where he clearly means "virtually or nearly infinite".

I'll probably read the sequel, unless it gets even more heavily religious than the first.
50 people found this helpful
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Newf Mom
5.0 out of 5 stars Templar and Immortality
Reviewed in the United States on January 13, 2022
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Randolph has lost a lot and is going to give it his all. Gaspar has decided to have his story written down with pictures added. In this story the fight between heaven hell and purgatory are explained greatly. It has your demons and angels and of course the Catholic Church. It’s a great read. I’ve already downloaded the the second book and can wait to start it.
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Top reviews from other countries

felina
5.0 out of 5 stars Really gripping!
Reviewed in India on May 19, 2017
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This is a rare book. Really imaginative story told well. I could not put the book down and it was playing in my mind during work! Gripping to say the least. Also well written - no jarring grammatical or spelling mistakes. A smooth read.
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Daniel J. Weber
3.0 out of 5 stars Purgatory: it's only one slow boat away
Reviewed in Canada on January 15, 2014
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Originally posted at http://digerbop.ca/2014/01/slow-boat-to-purgatory-by-vernon-baker/

Mature-content Rating: PG (Coarse language and mature themes)

Purgatory: that mythical place between Heaven and Hell, a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth, a place where people pay for their sins in hopes of gaining entry to Heaven. At least, that's how most people think of it. To Vernon Baker is is a great place to tell a story.

The Good:

Slow Boat to Purgatory is the story of a man reading a story. Doesn't that make you want to buy it? No really, it should. The reader has a unique opportunity to learn about the person behind the story, see their life as it plays out, and watch them escape into the pages. The story jumps between this reader's point of view, and the telling of his life, into the story he is reading. The change is voice and point of view add flavour as the pages unfold, keeping the reader enraptured by what Baker has to say.

Not only does this keep things fresh, but it adds suspense to the telling. The reader finds out what is happening in snippets, and just when things are picking up, we are launched from the world being read back into reality, left asking, "what happens next! Why is the sad cebu sad?"

Reader engagement is kept until the very end. As the final pages are turned, curling under the weight of suspense, just enough questions are answers to tie things together, but enough is left in play to provide for future books.

The Bad:

Because of the nature of the telling, there is a fair amount of back-story. I usually love back-story. I love how it adds flavour to a tale, rounds out the characters, makes the book beautiful. Alas, this is not the case in Slow Boat to Purgatory. Much of the back-story is told through long sections of passive voice which are bland and uninteresting. Unfortunately, they also add little to the actual story, thus a failure on two accounts of potential magic.

The story itself isn't bad, once it gets going. The problem, however, is that if you have a wonderful sports car, but the starter is shot, and you spend half a day grinding until it catches... the driver may lose interest. The back-story issues hit a little harder than they should because the story itself also takes far too long to progress. Pieces of the puzzle start to fit together about 50% of the way through, at which point the reader is almost ready to retire the sports car and just walk to the store. (The book store, obviously. What other type of store is there?)

Though it ends well, there are a number of elements introduced later on in the book that are simple grazed over, having no real impact on the plot. They appear to be important factors at first, but sadly are almost just thrown in for flavour, lacking substance and making the reader somewhat confused. It makes the story feel a bit disjointed.

Conclusion:

Slow Boat to Purgatory delivers a delightful tale of a man caught between the world of his book and the one he lives in. Purgatory itself is neat, but the boat there is slow. If you don't mind the wait, and enjoy some intrigue mixed into your fantasy, this book is for you.
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Ignite
5.0 out of 5 stars Rich and exciting
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 21, 2013
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I have just finished this Slow Boat to Purgatory (Book 1) and rushed to check that Book 2 is available. I will certainly be reading this before too long. The story, telling as it does of an immortal Knight Templar, a secret Order of the Broken Cross who search for him and Alex, the ex-serviceman who has been left details of a 'secret' by his grandfather, invites comparison with Dan Brown's books. I think it's a pity to try to classify Slow Boat in that manner as it's complex and has its own structure and cast of 'celestial beings'. The story is rich with demonology, a view of Heaven, Hell and Purgatory which harks back to medieval times and 'good' and 'fallen' angels who are barely distinguishable.

I enjoyed the story, its pace, its easy movement from modern times to the thirteenth century and its cast of sometimes strange beings. It was easy to like Gaspar, the Templar, easy to dislike the Order, who had fingers in pies everywhere, yet even when they met their doom I felt a little sad for them. This is the first of Vernon Baker's books I have read and I enjoyed it thoroughly. He creates a frightening 'other world' populated by powerful unseen creatures and I'm eager to immerse myself in there a second time!
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Rosa
5.0 out of 5 stars Spellbinding
Reviewed in Australia on December 7, 2015
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Anyone interested in stories of the Templars is going to enjoy this book, riveting stuff, off to get book 2.
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DJW13
4.0 out of 5 stars A guide to Heaven, Hell and Purgatory
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 4, 2015
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An intriguing tale of Heaven, Hell and Purgatory including lots of details about angels and demons. I preferred the more straightforward adventure sections, and sometimes the narrative was confusing to me. I am familiar with the device of setting the story in different times, but when Alex started reading the book set hundreds of years ago I was getting a bit lost.

The ending was rather abrupt, but that was to be expected as this is clearly described as Book One.
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