A Man Called Blessed by Bill Bright

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Amazing story. I liked A Man Called Blessed even more than Bright and Dekker’s Blessed Child. This story related the young adult years of Caleb, the orphan boy who was adopted by Jason and Leiah in the first book. Caleb is back at the rebuilt monastery in Ethiopia with his parents, struggling to find his way as he has lost his ability to connect with God. In the meantime, Israel and her Arab neighbors are embroiled in the ongoing hatred of each other that consumes them. Enter Rebecca Solomon, trained Israeli soldier, who is on a mission to find the long-lost Ark of the Covenant. In a race against time, neighbor hostility, and bloodshed, Rebecca and Caleb find themselves on exhilarating and surprising journeys that draw each of them into the arms of God.

I was blown away by this story. Although the violence and killing in this book was probably the worst that I had read in any Christian book, they all seemed to serve the purpose of the story by not sanitizing the Middle Eastern conflict for our American “sensibilities.”

My only complaint about this story is that Jason and Leiah’s fate is never resolved, with the exception of a brief reference at the end to their continued existence. They drop out of the story halfway through. Other than that, I highly recommend this book (and its predecessor) to anyone who wants a glimpse of God’s power and purpose in His children’s lives as well as in the direction of the world. As Caleb says, “Do you want to walk off a cliff?”

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True Light: A Restoration Novel by Terri Blackstock

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I just finished True Light last night. I think Terri Blackstock does a wonderful job of keeping the suspense high throughout this book. The main protagonists in this sequel are Deni Branning and Mark Green. Things get ugly for Mark when he is suspected by the neighbors for attempted murder. And they continue to get worse. In the desperate times in Oak Hollow, people are starting to fall apart. The worst is coming out in people, yet Christ is transforming the hearts of those who love Him. They learn that with great blessing comes great responsibility.

I am truly enjoying this series and think frequently about how our own world, and my own life, might be affected by such a catastrophe. The characters are well-fleshed out and very compelling. I highly recommend this Restoration Novel series to anyone.

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Blessed Child by Ted Dekker

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is an excellent book. It was recommended to me by a big Ted Dekker fan after I complained about feeling “cheated” at the end of Dekker’s book Thr3e. He said that if I were only going to read one Dekker book, it should be Blessed Child, written with Bill Bright (founder of Campus Crusade for Christ).

This book is about a young boy named Caleb, who is raised by an Ethiopian Orthodox Christian monk. He spends all ten years of his life in a monastery, sheltered from the world at large, before being abruptly wrenched from his adopted father and home to flee for his life in a violent and heart-stopping escape. Jason, a jaded Peace Corps worker, and Leiah, a Red Cross nurse, are Caleb’s rescuers and become his guardians. They become very aware of his unique gifting, and they attempt to make the right decisions, all the while struggling with their own personal journeys of loss and grief.

It, perhaps, goes without saying that this book is well-crafted. The characters are compelling, and the reader can quickly empathize with them in their thought processes. I have said before that I believe that Christian fiction can impact readers in a deeper way for God’s Kingdom than many inspirational or nonfiction works do. This book illustrates this view in the way that Dekker and Bright envision what “walking in the Kingdom” might look like here on earth. The miracles that Caleb performs and the ultimate experiences of Jason and Leiah help the reader to fully imagine for him or herself what could be. The book’s illustrations help us to see what we otherwise might miss when our eyes are focused too much on the harsh realities of this world. Blessed Child reconnects the reader with wonder, joy, true sorrow, repentance, and childlike glee.

If there were one complaint I would make about this story, it would be that I wished for more story. The story is broken up by days passed between episodes. Had the story been written as a series, more interepisodic stories could have been added. Obviously this was not the intent of the authors. However, I would have liked to get to know the characters a bit more, slowing down with them as humans a bit more, rather than pursuing them in the frantic pacing of chaotic and tragic events.

Having stated that, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants a glimpse of our future home as Christians as well as anyone else who has wondered about the discrepancy between what God calls us to and what we as Christians deliver.

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By Darkness Hid by Jill Williamson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars I just finished reading By Darkness Hid (Book I of Blood of Kings) by Jill Williamson. What can I say but “Bravo!” to an author who has published her first novel? Williamson has done a masterful job of bringing the characters to life and drawing the reader in to care deeply about each of them. I long to re-enter the world of Er’Rets while I wait for the sequel to be published. Is the second book finished yet, Jill? The first character we meet is Achan Cham, a stray or an orphan with no remaining relatives to care for him or her. In the land of Er’Rets, strays are considered lower than slaves. Above slaves are servants, then peasants, then nobility, royalty, and council members. Teenaged Achan suffers many cruel punishments and circumstances ever since he can remember. He is forced to drink a noxious tonic every day and is beaten regularly. Early in the story, he meets Sir Gavin, an Old Kingsguard (as opposed to New Kingsguard) knight, who begins to train him as a squire–unheard of for strays in Achan’s time. We are then introduced to the story’s heroine, Vrell Sparrow, in a parallel timeline. She is a noblewoman who is disguised as a stray boy in order to avoid a revolting marriage. She is, however, in another part of the land of Er’Rets, in which strays are not treated as cruelly as they are in Sitna, Achan’s home. This does not mean that she does not suffer her share of cruelties. Despite the challenges, she remains true to her only God, Arman, and is drawn to a shared journey with Achan. Both of them share the gift of bloodvoicing, the ability to hear others’ thoughts and speak to those who share the gift. Although I had a bit of a challenge getting into the story initially, once I became familiar with the new culture and time period, the story swallowed me. One of the things that kept me from really getting into the story was that I noticed that there weren’t any simple verbs such as “walked” or “ran.” Everyone seemed to stumble, or weave, or edge, or scurry. Mostly scurry. I know that the mark of a good writer is descriptive wording, but in this case, the descriptive wording slowed me down by having me notice them rather than the story. Once I got used to the author’s style, however, I was able to dig in. Having said that, every time a character “scurried,” which was often, I felt like I got yanked out of the story. That was unfortunate, but I am a forgiving reader–especially when the story is so good! My other note is that the proofreader missed a very noticeable error. In the latter part of the book (I don’t remember which chapter it was), the word “taut” was meant (as in the character’s mouth being taut), but the word “taught” was printed. That was the only major flaw that I noticed. Several typos or misspellings were noted, but nothing more than any other novel in its first printing would have had. All in all, I highly recommend this book. I don’t know how many books will be in this series, but I eagerly await each of them. I may just have to re-read “Book I” over and over until the sequels are available! View all my reviews >>

Perelandra by C.S. Lewis

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Perelandra, the second book in C.S. Lewis’s trilogy, chronicles the adventures of Dr. Ransom on the planet of Perelandra, otherwise known as Venus. Taking his knowledge and understanding from his adventures in Malacandra (in Out of the Silent Planet) of the spiritual levels of life, human and otherwise, he departs for an assignment on another alien planet. Although he has no details on what he is to do upon reaching the planet, he goes with complete conviction that it is the right course of action and that the Oyarsa, or supreme spirit being of Malacandra, has Ransom’s best interests at heart. On Perelandra, Lewis recreates the Biblical story of temptation in the Garden of Eden with Ransom acting as advocate for “Eve,” the female figure that inhabits that world. Ransom himself goes through many trials before the story’s end.

The storytelling in this novel is, of course, superb. The world that Lewis creates is fascinating and thought-provoking. He deftly weaves Biblical story and theology into Ransom’s adventures and applies them to the universe and its inhabitants at large. He manages to stretch the readers’ minds and wrap them around ideas that are much greater than ourselves. Our God is truly God of the universe. Lewis emphasizes that we do play an important role in God’s creation but we could also play just a part within a larger scope of God’s creations. The Bible is about humanity and its history with God. Who is to say what other creatures God has created to have relationships with Himself?

Of course, Lewis has written this story as fiction. Interestingly, he ends the first book with his character writing it as a fictional account about Ransom’s space adventure. This is apparently due to Ransom’s insistence that readers would not believe the story as true and would reject it. According to Ransom, if the story were written as a fictional account, those readers who would accept the account as true would see past the fictional facade and see the truth about the story. It can make your head spin if you let it. So in this series, Lewis has written a fictional story. Or do we readers “in the know” know better?

Although I really liked this story and am glad to have read it, I have to admit that some passages were a bit hard to get through. Speeches by the physicist character and certain speeches by the “eldila”, or spirit beings, can get a bit heady. However, I am still committed to reading the final book in the series, That Hideous Strength, and will post a review on that when read. I do recommend this book to those who are up for a fantastical journey and are willing to work through a few philosophical passages.

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Piercing the Darkness by Frank E. Peretti

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I just finished reading this book. It was absolutely riveting. Peretti even outdid himself. I decided to go back and read This Present Darkness again before reading this one, for comparison’s sake.

This story revolves around another small town named Bacon’s Corner that is being overtaken by evil. A woman named Sally Beth Roe stars along with a man named Tom Harris, but they follow parallel storylines, tied together but unknown to one another–at least at first. Our heroes, Marshall Hogan and Bernice Krueger, make their way back onto the scene, with Marshall’s wife Kate playing a more active role than in Ashton.

I love how Peretti starts the story out with tons of action and confusion but then slowly brings some order out of it without telling all. Although we, as readers, are able to see from many different characters’ perspectives, including the angels and demons, Peretti ably conceals the tortuous route that the story takes us through. And even though we can guess the end–good prevails over evil–we are driven to find out HOW good will prevail over evil. At so many points in the story, impossible situations occur, things get bleaker by the second, evil’s grip become a chokehold . . . and yet, we continue to root for good to triumph SOMEHOW, SOMEWAY. Peretti does not fail his readers.

I am a Frank E. Peretti fan for life!

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This Present Darkness by Frank E. Peretti

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Frank E. Peretti’s book This Present Darkness is brilliant. This is my second time reading this book, and I am even more impressed than the first time that I had read it, which was many years ago. As I read through it, I realized that I didn’t remember large parts of the story and was so glad to have decided to read it again.

The story centers around two principal characters, Hank Busche, a new pastor of a small church in a nondescript college town, and Marshall Hogan, recently transplanted publisher of the local newspaper. Points-of-view change not only among various earthly characters but also among both angelic and demonic beings.

It is absolutely fascinating to get a glimpse of what the spiritual realm of our existence might be like! The overarching message of this story is the unequaled spiritual power of saints’ prayers over the workings of evil. Peretti does a masterly job of storytelling, weaving multiple threads of experience, POV, plot, goals, schemes, attacks, counterattacks, and the spiritual awakening of mortal characters. As I finished reading, my only consolation in “leaving” the POV of angels is that I have the sequel Piercing the Darkness sitting next to me, which I will eagerly open up to read as soon as I have posted this review!

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Lest you think that I only give good reviews, let me state here that I am pursuing many stories by Christian authors that I have been eager to read and have heard many good reviews about. My goal is to have read most of the Christian speculative fiction “classics” before reading lesser-known authors’ works.

Night Light by Terri Blackstock

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I really liked this sequel to Last Light. This book continues the story of the Branning family of Oak Hollow during the modern technology outage crisis. We discover what the American government postulates is the cause of the outage and get to know many more characters whom I grew to love. Blackstock does a brilliant job of fleshing out the characters and really developing a bond between them and the reader. Nine-year-old Aaron was one of my favorite characters–very well developed.

I have been wonderfully impressed with this series so far and can hardly wait to read the next two books that complete this story.

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Three by Ted Dekker

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Wow. What can I say? This book had me riveted. The storytelling was amazing, compelling. The characters were well fleshed out. The action was nonstop. I was imagining a movie playing out the entire time.

Basically, the story is about a man named Kevin Parsons who becomes the target of a demented, riddling tormenter–Slater. In all of the twists and turns, all law enforcement agencies are called into action.

Although I kept guessing what the next twist would be, I read too quickly to really make any real speculations. I will say that I was a bit disappointed by the ending. It seemed really Hollywood. Perhaps because it was reminiscent of Fight Club and The Sixth Sense. What I mean by that is that the end takes you on a psychological twist that just sneaks around that basic sense of satisfaction and fulfillment that we humans seek upon knowing that good has triumphed over evil in a very flesh-and-blood kind of way. If the twist had been left more in a spiritual sense rather than psychological, perhaps I would have been less . . . deflated.

Nevertheless, it did arouse in me a slight desire to go back and re-read it with my knowledge of the end in mind.

I had never read any of Dekker’s books before, so this was definitely an eye-opener. I think, however, that I will be more selective in which of his books I choose to read. Although suspense and thriller fiction is entertaining, I strongly prefer speculative fiction. I suppose this could fall under that category but not well enough for my taste.

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