The book is split into two distinct sections - The Old Testament being quite an entertaining fantasy tale involving flooding, the parting of the sea, evil snakes and the creation of the world itself! The New Testament is the sequel to the old one and like most sequels, it lacks something.
God was a bit grumpy in the first book, to be honest he behaves like a jealous child and even says that "I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me" - so if you don't agree with what he says and worship him, then he's going to come after your kids, and their kids, and so on. Sounds like a bully to me, this is essentially an very old gangster story. He's the Don, the world is his patch - and he's got the power to make your family pay. Still, it's a good yarn!
The second part - The New Testament - is nowhere near as entertaining. The plot is not as epic, so the preachyness comes through strong and you can't help but feel that it's trying to mean all things to all people, this results in it contradicting itself and seeming a bit clumsy at times.
This New Testament should really have been called "Bible 2: Son of God - this time it's personal". There's a huge plot hole in the story though - this Jesus fella is a likeable hippy and ends up getting nailed to a cross only to actually appear again later on in the story. I also felt that this was a blatant rip off of Monty Python's Life of Brian.
Interpret it how you like - no matter what your beliefs are you'll find justification for them in there. Whether you like the philosophy of hate or love, you can follow either and quote passages from this book to support your actions. You can even get different versions of this book with the bits you might not want to follow cut out, genius - pick `n' mix religion! This version drops a lot of the old-speak and replaces it with Americanisations (I refuse to use a Z).
The book also misses out Gods final message to the universe, thankfully this was included in Douglas Adams' Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy: "Sorry for the inconvenience".
In a nutshell: Fantasy fiction fans might be a bit disappointed, 3 stars from me as it's pretty average. The first bit props it up, otherwise it would have been a 2 starrer for me. It has its uses though, if you sit reading this on a train, nobody will sit near you. Just stash your Harry Potter (or whatever) inside.
