Hello Internet!

I’m back, and I have an amazing book to review today.

Eli is about a reporter named Conrad who, after a car accident, finds himself in a world where Yeshua (Jesus) wasn’t born until the 60’s, and in spite of not being a Christian in his own world, he becomes one of that world’s apostles and follows “Eli” on his journeys across the US.

This book was written by the same author who wrote “The Incredible Worlds of Wally McDoogle”, a children’s book series I loved growing up. One of my favorite parts about that series was the humor, and this story, while it doesn’t focus on it, still manages to have plenty of funny moments. Well, at least I found the idea of Conrad trying to be the messiah’s publicist when He keeps doing, and more importantly, saying things that go completely counter to the way the world works hysterical.

Even more important than the humor however, is the portrayal of Eli. I kept being blown away by how Myers retold all sorts of events from Yeshua’s life in a contemporary setting. For instance, much of the action in one of the chapters takes place during the miracle of the five loaves and two fish. At least, that’s what happened in our world. In that world, they were fed with something just as ordinary to people of the present as the fish and bread were to people in the past: two hamburgers and a side of fries. I won’t even get started on all the personal transformations Eli brings to those around him, but those are awesome as well.

There are only two things I would have liked to have been changed a bit. First, and this is rather optional, the other world was way too similar to our own. Now, I get it, Myers himself said in the preface that our world would be unrecognizable if Yeshua had never been born, but the presence of things like churches and Sunday worship was still a bit jarring to me. The bigger flaw however was Conrad’s selective memory of his home world. While he figures out that Eli is the Yeshua of the world he finds himself in, and seems to have memory of certain parts of his story, such as His baptism and the thirty pieces of silver, he still acts clueless as to many other events, particularly his death and resurrection. I would have preferred that either he didn’t remember any of it until the end, if that, or he remembers almost everything throughout the story. As it is, his memory is inconsistent, and it comes across as being solely for the plot rather than following logically from the circumstances.

Those quibbles aside, I would recommend this book to almost anyone (there are some “adult” themes in the book, so this doesn’t apply to most kids). Also, this book has inspired me to get started on a project I’ve been thinking about for a while now: a sci-fi/historical fiction mashup taking place during the time of Yeshua. I’ll be sure to keep you all posted.

Till then,

Goodbye Internet!

Hello Internet!

I just finished reading this book that I got from the library, and I thought I would go ahead and share my thoughts.

The book covers the first adventure of Kale, a former slave girl who is told to go serve in the court of Paladin (that world’s version of Yeshua or Jesus) after she discovers a dragon egg. However, after she discovers even more dragon eggs several of Paladin’s warriors bring her along to help them in a quest to recover a rare dragon egg from an evil wizard.

First off, it is a very interesting world. Most of the “good” guys are of the seven “high races” created by that world’s version of God, while most of the “bad” guys are mockeries of them known as the “low races”. Magic is treated either as a rare super power you are born with, or else a species’ ability. At the same time, the characters are able to pray and call on their version of God’s power to aid them, without making it seem like just another kind of magic, which I appreciated.

Now that I’ve said the obligatory nice things, I have to say that, as interesting as the world was, the execution of the story left much to be desired. Probably the biggest problem was how suddenly the author threw new things into the world. From the very beginning Kale keeps coming across things she thought were only legend, but we had never heard of those legends ourselves. Other times she recognizes things instantly and the narrative more or less stops so we can be filled in. These things would not be nearly as much of a problem if we had some sort of baseline to compare these changes to, but this doesn’t happen until near the end, if that.

If the story had started with Kale in her home village, so we could get a couple chapters of what “normal” life is like for her, as well as getting her first curveball as it happens, rather than getting bits and pieces of her former life through flashbacks. As it is, it felt most of the problems and solutions came out of nowhere.

Then there is the ending. Kale is supposed to be tempted by the wizard, but after all that had happened, her so called “temptation” seemed flimsy. I never had the slightest doubt she would make the right choice.

Now to be fair, this is the first book in a series. I happen to own Dragonlight, a late book in the series, which may be better as the author grew more experienced. I’ll let you all know once I read it if the later books are worth plowing through the first one.

Till next time,

Goodbye Internet!

Hello Internet!

This is a book I purchased a while ago that I have decided to write a short review for. Monster is a novel about a husband and wife, Reed and Rebecca (or Beck as she is usually known as), who are separated during a camping trip when a strange furry creature kidnaps Beck. It then follows the point of view of Reed and some of his friends who are trying to find Beck as well and Beck’s perspective as she tries to make sense of the things that have kidnapped her. Not only do the hunters have to track down the monsters, they also have to deal with people who want to make sure no one sees these creatures and live to tell the tale.

I kind of went back and forth about this book while reading it, in more ways than one. On the one hand, because it is written from a cinematic perspective in most parts it allows for character deaths. Indeed, several times it looks like a character who we’ve been following closely through large parts of the story get killed, and in one case we don’t learn otherwise for a whole chapter. I’ll be honest, when I read that I told myself I would never read anything by this author again, and I might not have even finished it if it weren’t for the fact that the book was almost over and I really wanted to see how it ended, but I changed my mind about Peretti when I found out that person hadn’t died. Of course, other people do die in this book, and there are a lot of scary parts, so I wouldn’t recommend this for anyone not in their late teens at least.

On the more positive side, I really enjoyed the mystery that was involved in this. While it seems obvious at first that the creatures responsible for all the problems are sasquatches, also known as Bigfoots (Bigfeet?), some of the discoveries made start to indicate to the audience and some of the characters that they are actually something else. It is all revealed carefully throughout the story with just enough evidence and just enough doubt to make it enjoyable, right up until the end in which the truth is discovered. I won’t say what  actually happened except to say that neither theory is the full truth.

Another part I found great in this book was how the characters, especially Beck, relate to God. Throughout the story she repeatedly questions why God allowed all these bad things to happen to her, especially when she comes agonizingly close to rescue on several occasions only to be taken away again. In the end though, not only do we see that is they had found and tried to rescue her sooner and in a different manner than what they did in the end then more innocents would have died and several bad guys and monsters would have escaped, they also made her a stronger and braver woman.

Another subject that comes up is evolution, an area I have always had a strong interest in. The story makes several good points about how random mutations really don’t produce the progress needed by the theory. My main problem is that while it is all important for the plot, it still occasionally felt a little forced to me.

So on the whole, I probably will get another book by Frank Peretti some time, and I don’t regret reading this one at all.

Till next time,

Goodbye Internet!

Hello Internet!

Yesterday I borrowed this book from the library and now I just have to share it. It’s about a small-time teenage super hero known as Failstate who is competing for a license to become a full-fledged licensed super hero, but when one of the other contestants is murdered he must discover the identity of the villain who did this.

What I particularly like about this story is how the author has Failstate try to solve the mystery. Pretty much straight away he thinks he knows who did it, and it makes sense with the evidence, but I’m thinking “seems a bit early for this”. Turns out he was dead wrong, but shortly after that he comes up with a new suspect. This one seems even more likely, but that turns out to be a dead end too. Most authors don’t let their characters jump to such major conclusions, but John Otte has Failstate make this very real and believable mistake.

Of course, that’s not to say I like everything about this book. I’m not to fond of the romance. It’s not that Failstate and his brother are both vying for the affections of the same girl, usually love triangles bother me, but that’s because I don’t want either wannabe lover to be disappointed, and in this case, that’s not a problem given his brother’s attitude. I guess it’s the fact that the main character is trying so hard when he’s a teen that bothers me. Just because she’s a pretty girl he wants to kiss her. Maybe later in the story he’ll realize that this is not good behavior or something, but so far it doesn’t appear that way.

As for my own story, I intend to spend pretty much the rest of the day working on getting it published.

Till next time,

Goodbye Internet!