Ehhh....a long, long time ago I read Peretti's Piercing the Darkness, and didn't like it. Fast-forward many years, and I figure I'll give This Present Darkness a shot, but no, it has the same issues that PtD has, and gives me the same squik. The angels seem to be absolutely useless without a prayer cover, which I personally don't like, since they are such powerful divine beings. As long as God gives the word, they can blast away, right? Okay, maybe it's not as simple as that, but still, somehow the portrayals of everyone seems lacking. I'm not drawn to any character. The dialogue gets rather boring, the bad guys are all hur-hur Evil, which would be fine if I were actually frightened, but there's no suspense whatsoever. Stephen King this is not. I think I've been more spooked out by a random occult-themed X-Files episode. 
 All in all, disappointing, especially since this series is touted as one of the go-to novels for Christian fiction. Maybe my hopes were too high? But so far I haven't been impressed by any Christian fiction that wasn't by C.S.Lewis, G.K.Chesterton, or Tolkien.