Review: Uncharted Redemption by Keely Brooke Keith

Solid Sequel

Uncharted Redemption is the second book in the Uncharted series, and takes us back to the Land, an island that is mysteriously hidden from radar and other navigation equipment, a land that has remained unknown except for one accidental intruder—Connor Bradshaw—and his wingman, Justin Mercer, who caught a glimpse of the island and is desperate to return. However, that’s the ongoing subplot.

The main plot of Uncharted Redemption follows the Colburn and Foster families as they solve the mystery of the missing lambs, a mystery that soon solves itself and leaves them with bigger problems—problems which relate back to the events in The Land Uncharted (yes, this is a series and I recommend you read it in order). I don’t want to say too much more for fear of giving spoilers.

The crux of Uncharted Redemption focuses on Levi Colburn, who is breaking with Land tradition by working as a carpenter rather than following in his father’s footsteps, partly because he blames his father for their mother’s murder many years ago. He is in love with Mandy Foster, who spurned his offer of courtship for her own reasons. Both need redemption in their own ways, but it doesn’t come easily.

While I enjoyed Uncharted Redemption just as much as the first book in the series (The Land Uncharted), I found the writing a little more stilted, a little less easy to read. This was mostly with the dialogue, and I suspect the stilted feel came because the inhabitants of the Land didn’t use enough contractions. Yes, I understand they have been isolated from the world for seven generations, but the English language has been using contractions in conversation since before then.

However, I will still be pleased to read the next book in the series, to find out what happens when Justin Mercer finds the island … assuming he does.

Thanks to the author for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Keely Brooke Keith at her website.

Review: Romancing the Memory Collector by Virginnia de Parte

Something Different ...

Kate Bentley has a unique gift: she can “see” memories. They are beautiful coloured balls which congregate close to the ceiling, or float away forever if lost outside. What’s more, she’s worked out how to restore the memory … although there is the issue of making sure you give the memory back to the right person. But her strange gift, combined with Coke-bottle glasses and a father with Alzheimers means her love life is non-existent.

She meets Thomas Winters at the airport, after a fall down the up escalator at the airport caused by her being too proud to wear her glasses in public. Thomas has his own romance problems, caused by the fact he looks like a dog (yes, dog). He looks like a dog because he is a genetically altered person, in his case, he’s part dog. Like other genetically altered people, Thomas has special gifts: in his case, an enhanced sense of smell.

It’s the start of an unusual romance: Kate and Thomas are both shy, and both lack social confidence, which means they aren’t good at admitting their feelings or confronting their issues. What follows is a sweet romance with a fair few misunderstandings, a bird-girl, and solving a mystery about Kate’s birth that she never even knew about.

Overall, this was a thoroughly enjoyable read: good writing, an original storyline, and intriguing characters. Recommended for fans of clean paranormal romance.

Thanks to Virginnia de Parte for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Virginnia de Parte at her website. 

This book counts towards my 2015 Reading Challenge as a book with non-human characters.

Review: Integrate by Adele Jones

Fast-paced YA Suspense with a GMO twist

Blaine Colton isn’t the average seventeen-year-old boy. He spent the first fourteen years of his life in a wheelchair until Professor Ramer’s experimental gene therapy turned him into a normal Australian teen. But now he’s back at the Advance Research Institute, under the care of Dr Melissa Hartfield, and something’s not quite right …

Blaine isn’t sure what’s happening, but he knows he needs to escape the Institute, and keep out of the clutches of Dr Hartfield and her cronies. And he needs to get more pills, so he seeks help from his former next-door neighbour, Sophie Faraday. But Dr Hartfield has already contacted Sophie, who now doesn’t know who’s telling the truth: Blaine, or the doctor?

Integrate is a fast-paced psychological thriller set in Brisbane, Australia. The plot is excellent, with enough science to keep it interesting, but not so much that it dissolves into technobabble. I liked the way all the little bits tied up at the end, yet still leaves room for a sequel (I’d like to see more of Blaine, Sophie and Jett).

Blaine is mature for his age, having come through the disabilities he faced in childhood with a strong sense of self, and no desire to return to the person he used to be. He’s fighting for his life in a different way, and has to persuade Sophie and others that he’s not violent or deranged—a difficult task when he’s only partway through his cure and his physical health is failing.

The other characters are good as well. They all feel like real people, with a mixture of good and bad points. They make mistakes, judge things incorrectly, and get frustrating. Annoying, but just like real people in real life. All in all, Integrate is a good read. Recommended.

Thanks to Rhiza Press for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Adele Jones at her website, or by reading our interview.

Review: Hacker by Ted Dekker

Outstanding YA Sci-fi

Nyah is seventeen, brilliant, and has lost everything. Her father and brother died in a car accident which left her mother brain damaged. She’s been accepted into a medical trial which is going to cost $250,000—money she doesn’t have. She has a plan, but is left running for her life after it goes horribly wrong.

Nyah teams up with Austin, the only person she’s ever met who is smarter than her. Austin’s dying of a brain tumour, but he’s got a plan … which is a cross between Fringe and The Matrix. He’s trying to find a mysterious person known as the Outlaw, as Austin believes the Outlaw will be able to heal him. In order to find the Outlaw, Austin is hacking into the most complex computer on the planet: his own brain.

The plot is fast-paced as the danger grows ever closer to Nyah. The characters are excellent and the writing outstanding. Dekker is one of the few authors I’ve read who have managed to pull off the combination of first person and third person point of view (first person from Nyah, third person from Austin and other characters). It shouldn’t work, because it’s a technique that reminds us we are *only* reading a book. It shouldn’t work, but it did.

This is only the second Ted Dekker book I’ve read. I like suspense, especially romantic suspense, but the previous Dekker I read (Three) was so full of psychological suspense I didn’t think I could put myself through that again (the only other book that’s come close was Abomination by Colleen Coble). Anyway, while Hacker was full of suspense, it was a mixture of physical and psychological, and I was better able to cope with that (although there was one scene where I closed my eyes. I don't like drills). I still don’t know if I’m brave enough to read Dekker’s older books, but I certainly enjoyed this one.

Hacker is the fourth book in The Outlaw Chronicles, but is easily enjoyed as a standalone novel. I wouldn’t call it Christian fiction—Dekker’s presentation of life and death in Hacker seems to only allow for a pleasant afterlife. Despite this possible drawback, it’s excellent YA science fiction, recommended for teens who enjoyed tech-based Sci-fi.

Thanks to Worthy for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Ted Dekker at his website.

Indie Review: Angelguard by Ian Acheson

Speculative Thriller

Three bombs go off, in London, Los Angeles and Sydney. Thousands die, and no one claims responsibility. The forces of evil are working behinds the scenes, with a master plan to destroy the governments of the world and it’s up to the Angelguard to protect those who are vital to preventing the plan’s success.

Angelguard follows Jack Haines, an Australian who lost a wife and two children in the Sydney bomb, and Loren Summers, an executive who was caught in the LA bombing. They meet at INSEAD in France, where Jack is a guest lecturer and Loren is a participant on a two-week short course with her employer.

I found the first fifty pages hard reading, partly because of the subject nature (the bombings), but more because we were introduced to a large number of human and angelic characters—more than sixty—and it was hard to keep them all straight and know who was going to be important to the plot. There were also a lot of editing glitches, like rapid shifts in point of view, excess use of adverbs, inconsistent use of dashes and the incorrect capitalisation of INSEAD (it’s INSEAD, not Insead, at least according to their website). All this slowed down my reading and made it hard to engage with the story.

The novel improved dramatically after the first fifty pages, once the central plot started to emerge. It became a tightly-woven plot with lots of important characters and battles operating in the natural and the supernatural. The plot was good, the characters well-drawn and the Christian elements were clear and well-stated. The interplay between the angels and demons reminded me of Frank Peretti’s This Present Darkness (although I have to admit it must be close to twenty years since I read them), and the novel contains some important spiritual truths which the author manages to bring out without being preachy.

Recommended for fans of speculative Christian fiction.

Thanks to the author for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Ian Acheson at his website.

Review: Rooms by James Rubart

Lives up to the reviews

Micah Taylor’s strange Uncle Archie has built him a house. But not just any house. It's a multi-million dollar mansion on Cannon Beach, on the Oregon coast. It’s literally the house of his dreams. It's also a house that tells a story—the story of Micah's life— and possibly hides a secret as well. How else could the uncle he's never met know everything about him? The catch is that the house is in the one place Micah vowed never to return, but he does.

Once in Cannon Beach, it doesn’t take long before strange things start happening. Micah’s car has an extra 16000miles on the clock. He met someone at a party, but the man doesn't remember meeting Micah. Then things get stranger when rooms start appearing in his house …

I was impressed by Rooms. It is longer than most novels I read, yet the intriguing plot and good pace meant it was easy to read and didn’t drag. There was great scene setting, and Rubart has the ability to convey a lot of information with a commendable economy of words:

“Archie was his great uncle whom he knew less than a paragraph about”

Rooms has been compared to novels such as The Shack. I haven’t read The Shack, so I can’t comment on that, but Rooms reminded me of Illusion by Frank Peretti, with shades of Sliding Doors or The Butterfly Effect in the way that seemingly small decisions can have a big impact on our lives. In terms of theme, Rooms is challenging us to choose God over the things of this world in a similar way to If I Gained the World (by Linda Nicholls), and it achieves this well.

I suspect that many of us are hiding wounds in the same way as Micah is, and these hidden wounds and secrets are affecting the choices and decisions we make on a daily basis. Most of us won't have the external push to solve those problems as Micah does in Rooms, nor, perhaps, the courage to say "have at it" to God the way Micah does, but it’s something to think about. Recommended.

Thanks to Zondervan and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review. Find out more about James Rubart at his website.

Review: The Crown by Lynne Stringer

Not exactly a review ...

Every now and again I read a book I enjoy so much that I’m apprehensive about reading the next book from the author, especially when it’s a sequel. I often find the second book in a series doesn’t measure up to the first. I thoroughly enjoyed Lynne Stringer’s debut YA novel, The Heir, and I was anxiously waiting for my copy of The Crown to see what was next in the adventures of Sarah and Dan.

But when I got my copy, I found I was reluctant to read it. What if it wasn’t as good?

I had nothing to worry about. I loved it.

My only grouch is the last page, which confirms that I’m going to have to wait six months until the release of The Reign, the final book in the trilogy, when I’ll get to find out what happens in the end. Yes, The Heir and The Crown have that same addictive quality as some other well-known YA series.

I’m not going to give you any information about the plot, because this is a sequel and any information I give will effectively spoil The Heir for those of you who haven’t read it. It’s enough to say that if you’ve read and enjoyed The Heir, you’ll really enjoy The Crown.

I’m even hesitant to tell you about the characters, because one of the features of the two books is that things aren’t exactly what they seem, yet when the truth is revealed it’s a bit like a Miss Marple mystery: the clues were there all along and I wonder how I missed them. There are also other clues which appear to be setting up the plot and conflict in The Reign.

If you haven’t read The Heir and you like YA science fiction with a touch of romance, buy The Crown now. (I’ll even make it easy for you: click this link and you can have the Kindle version in thirty seconds. Or buy the paperback from Light the Dark or Amazon). Please note that while The Heir and The Crown are not classified as Christian fiction, the author is a Christian and the books reflect Christian values.

Recommended for all science fiction fans.

Thanks to Wombat Books for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Lynne Stringer at her website, or in this interview.

Review: Anomoly by Krista McGee

Seventeen-year-old Thalli has been scheduled for annihilation. She is the Musician for her pod, her group of peers, and she feels emotions, something the post-apocalyptic society she lives in has attempted to remove through genetic engineering. Berk, her childhood friend, is now a Scientist and persuades his colleagues to save her for study. She is given a reprieve, but as the experiments start, she soon starts to wonder what is real and what is not. 

Krista McGee’s last three books were contemporary YA chick-lit romances, stories of young women finding God and finding love in the hot-house of reality television (so perhaps they were actually fantasy?). Anomaly is YA Christian sci-fi, which is both a dramatic departure from her earlier books, and a small but growing niche in Christian fiction. That was a surprise: not only that an author with a following in YA romance would move into such a different genre, but that she’d do it so well. This is good. Really good. Read-in-one-sitting good.

Anomaly has similarities to many other sci-fi classics I read as a teenager or as an adult (most of which I can’t remember the names of but The Giver, TV shows such as Jeramiah, and movies like Logan's Run do spring to mind). Anomaly paid homage to some of these classics with its post-apocalyptic emotionless society living deep in the mountains of Colorado, a society that assigns children into roles at birth and terminates those who don’t fit in. It has a definite Christian take on that future society, from John as the remnant to the concept of a Designer.

It wasn’t perfect: I do have some questions, like why a small science-driven society that genetically engineers people to serve a specific purpose saw the need for a Musician, and how John’s son has such different values and beliefs to those of his parents. But these are small niggles. The sequel (Luminary) is due out in January 2014, and I’ll be looking forward to it.

Recommended for those who enjoyed books like The Giver and The Hunger Games. Thanks to Thomas Nelson and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Krista McGee at her website.

Author Interview and Review: The Heir by Lynne Stringer

Author Interview

This week sees the release of Lynne Stringer's debut novel. Lynne is an Australian author and sci-fi fan, and I'm exciting to introduce her to you.

Thank you, Lynne, for sharing with our readers today. You can find out more about Lynne Stringer at her website.

What was your motivation for writing The Heir?

I have always been interested in science fiction and fantasy, and I love romances that have a fantasy element to them, so this story was one that fascinated me once I had thought of it.

Where did the characters and story come from? What were your influences?

I thought of the idea one day when I was talking to my husband. He is fascinated by cheesy pick-up lines (not that he uses them, then he'd be in trouble!) and he was talking about some of his favourites. I started thinking about some myself, and I thought of the one that says, 'You are the only reason I was put on this planet.' It made me think, what if someone said that to you and they meant it literally? What would be the implications of that? The story grew out of that.

Sarah is very similar to myself, so the writing was a bit vicarious. Dan was someone who seemed to suit Sarah well, and he came out of that. Jillian was born because I needed someone who was a bit pushy in Sarah's life, and Mr Hatchet was originally intended to be the heavy so that he could hit someone if it was required, but he took on a life of his own once I started to write him down.

Who is your favourite character and why?

Probably Dan. He's going through so much during the course of the story, but unfortunately, the reader misses out on a lot of it because the story's told from Sarah's point of view (which was necessary so you don't find out what's happening too soon!). Knowing him and what goes on in his head makes me adore him, but I like Sarah and Mr Hatchet almost as much.

I don’t want to give too much of the plot away, but we find out that Dan has had a very different upbringing to Sarah, and that’s affected a lot of his beliefs and values. How do you see that relating to teens?

I think it can help them see that other people can have different upbringings and experiences from ourselves and this can lead to different ideas about all sorts of things from the things they eat to more significant issues like morality. Learning that people have these differences can be a helpful lesson especially when we're young.

When I read The Heir, there were a lot of things that I didn’t quite ‘get’, but looking back from the end I can see they were all clues (very clever). One thing I didn’t get is why Sarah continues to trust Dan when he acts very strangely at times. Why does Sarah continue to trust him even when she finds him over-controlling?

Sarah realises that there's something special about Dan and Jillian that she can relate to. Dan, in particular, since she fancies him, receives a lot of trust from her, although she never pauses to assess exactly why she places such a trust in him. She's motivated by her subconscious to trust him in this way.

You post a lot of science-fiction images on Facebook. What’s your favourite Sci-fi show?

I love a lot of sci-fi. I'm a fan of Star Wars, and I have been watching and enjoying Doctor Who since I was young enough to sit in front of a television. Another TV show I loved is a little known show called Roswell.

Do you believe there is life on other planets? Why? Why not?

I think it's likely that there is some kind of life, but sentient life? I'm not so sure about that. I think we would have heard from them in a significant way if there was. I try to be open minded about it, though.

The Heir is aimed at the Young Adult market, reflected by the fact that your main characters are in their senior year at high school. What made you decide to write for this age group?

I didn't want Sarah to be an adult. I thought it was more appropriate for her to be on the cusp of adulthood as she discovers all these things about herself, especially as the teenage years are a fertile ground for angst anyway. Lots of teenagers have trouble finding their niche, so I thought it was a good place for Sarah to begin experiencing the things that make her different from everyone else.

The Heir has been published by Wombat Books, a general market publisher who also has a Christian imprint, Even Before Publishing. Why is The Heir with Wombat, not Even Before?

I couldn't think of a Christian angle for The Heir, and I wasn't interested in forcing it into the story just to make it suit the Christian market. I'd like to think that The Heir is a book everyone can enjoy, and Christian teens can tell their non-Christian friends about it and they can enjoy a book without the explicit content that does tend to go with many books in this genre.

How does your faith influence your writing? How would that be different if you were writing for the Christian market?

I have tried to keep The Heir within a reasonable Christian framework of morality. I wasn't interested in writing something filled with sex or bad language, but I didn't want to make it deliberately Christian, not because I had an aversion to writing a Christian book, but just because the story didn't go that way, and I wasn't going to turn it into something it wasn't. I think my faith has influenced its morality, but not in an overt way.

What can you tell us about the next book in the series?

The next book is called The Crown and should be out either at the end of 2013 or the beginning of 2014. It is the continuing adventures of Sarah and Dan, but I can't say too much more or I'll spoil it for people who haven't yet read The Heir!

My Review

Sarah is a normal American teenager. Well, mostly normal. She goes to a fancy private school where all the other kids are rich, her dad is an inventor who never quite seems to get it right, she’s being stalked at school by a creepy boy, and her English teacher is always picking her for class debates even though she hates them. Apart from that, she’s just a normal kid who loves art, tries to survive high school and has a secret crush on Dan, her best friend’s kind-of boyfriend.

But things are not what they seem, and when tragedy strikes and Sarah’s life changes overnight, things start to get even stranger. Melting tables, windows that don’t open, eyes in the bushes … and then things get even stranger.

The story started slowly but there was a growing sense of foreboding and rising suspense that made me realise it wasn’t the predictable Young Adult coming-of-age kind of story it started out as (but I’m not going to spoil the surprise by saying too much). Strange things started to happen and there were a few left-field comments from Sarah’s friends that made me think I was missing something. I was. So was Sarah. And when we got the big reveal it was both a huge surprise and not, because it answered all those niggles.

The Heir is told entirely in the first person, from Sarah’s point of view (which I know some readers don’t like). But she’s a strong character who can carry the story without being so perfect as to be annoying. She’s a realistic teen, with strong likes and dislikes, hopes and fears, a secret crush, and a secret history even she doesn’t know about…

I really enjoyed The Heir. It was well-plotted with good foreshadowing (but without making it obvious), good characters, and an ending that was both satisfying in the way it completed the current story, but left me wanting more (fortunately, the sequel is expected out at the end of the year). An excellent debut novel, recommended for those who like authors such as Kathy Tyers, or those who enjoy YA dystopian or science fiction.

Thanks to Wombat Books for providing a free ebook for review.

Indie Review: Dead Man's Journey by Phillip Cook

Aaron decides to investigate when father goes missing during his daily run and is found, dead, twenty kilometres away from home—and missing a finger. The investigation leads him to suspect a link between his father’s death and the mysterious ‘vanishings’ of homeless men in Brisbane.

His investigation also leads him back to Mackenzie, his childhood best friend and the girl he left behind. He knows what Mackenzie believes about what happens when we die. She’s a Christian. He isn’t. But when Mackenzie vanishes, Aaron finds himself re-evaluating his beliefs about life and death, angels and demons—and God.

The story is a Christian thriller with a speculative/science fiction backdrop and a hint of romance. It is set in and around Brisbane, Australia, in the near future, has a well-constructed plot and a host of interesting characters (I particularly liked the group of homeless men for their humour). It’s an exciting story that kept me thinking ‘what’s going to happen next?’, and I wasn’t disappointed.

Dead Man's Journey is Phillip Cook’s debut novel, and I will look forward to reading more of his work (and not just because I edited this. I really enjoyed it). Recommended for those who like Christian Speculative fiction by authors such as Frank Peretti or Alton Gansky, and for anyone who wants to support Australasian authors.

Review: Afloat by Erin Healy

It’s an intriguing idea: a subdivision built on the water, apartments literally floating on concrete-covered foam blocks anchored to the sea shore. Vance Nolan, the architect and designer, originally conceived Eagle’s Talon as a way of providing low-cost housing to the needy, but he couldn’t raise the cash. Instead, investors like Tony Dean are decorating and furnishing the apartments to the highest specifications and pricing them to get rich—and using Danielle Clement, a pretty single mom, to make his sales.

But one fine day the unthinkable happens. One of the pylons gives way and several apartments fall into the Rondeau River. Things get worse when a storm comes, cutting off their only exit to the mainland… and then cutting off their communications and electricity. Simeon, Danielle’s son, is sure they will all be safe because the pretty lights under the water told him so, but the adults are fighting over whether it is safer to leave in a jury-rigged boat or stay in a damaged building.

Afloat was well-plotted with a good amount of suspense, well-developed characters, an interesting subplot with possible supernatural elements and some very well-done flashbacks, but I did find there were some unanswered questions. Even at the end I didn’t really get what the people saw under the water, and there was a scene at the end that just came out of nowhere, in a ‘I’m not sure I believe that’ way, not a ‘wow, what a cool idea’ way. Or maybe that’s just me.

I don’t mind being left to ponder an idea at the end of a novel (in fact, the best novels are the ones you are still thinking about days later), but I like to have all the plot questions answered, and Afloat left one too many unanswered questions for my liking.

Thanks to Thomas Nelson and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Erin Healy at her website.

Review: Soul's Gate by James L Rubart

Thirty years ago, Reece Roth was given a prophecy: “there will come a day when you will train them—they will be four. The song, the teacher, the leader, the temple.” That day has now come, and Reece, along with Marcus Amber, Dana Raine, Brandon Scott, and Tamera Miller, are scheduled to go on a retreat together. Before they leave, Reece instructs the four to read the gospels and the book of Acts, and watch a movie - The Matrix.

Once on their retreat, Reese shares with the others some of the things he has learnt on his Christian walk. This is heavy, serious, spiritual stuff that threatens to break the four out of their everyday Christianity as they work together to get to know each other and break down spiritual barriers.

Jim Rubart is the award-winning author of Rooms, Book of Days and The Chair, and from reading Soul’s Gate, I can see why. Soul's Gate is a story of freedom in Christ, with a strong emphasis on the spiritual battles that sometimes must be fought for that freedom. While Soul's Gate finishes the story, the ending makes it equally clear that this is only the start of the journey for the four warriors, just as this is the first book in what I hope is planned to be a series.

This is not comfortable Christian fiction. The reader of Amish romance who occasionally branches out into a Western romance or a Love Inspired title is not going to enjoy Soul's Gate. But the reader who wants something a bit more challenging and who can deal with a bit of the "woo-woo demons and angels" stuff while find this book worth reading, if only to debate which aspects are fiction and which just might be true. Recommended.

Thanks to Thomas Nelson and Netgalley for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about James L Rubart at his website. 

Review: The 13: Fall by Robbie Cheuvront and Erik Reed

Prologue: It is July 4, 2025, the Chinese are amassing an army in Mexico, and every major West Coast city from San Diego to Seattle has been devastated by a nuclear strike. The action then moves back in time by two weeks, to President Calvin Grant. Grant receives a message from a man calling himself The Prophet, claiming to speak on behalf of The Lord Most High. The message claims that God is going to punish the world for its evil, starting in fourteen days.

CIA agent Jonathan Keene is teamed with FBI agent Megan Taylor and ex-special forces man Bozwell Hamilton to find and stop The Prophet. Keene’s immediate reaction is that The Prophet is a terrorist, but Hamilton and Grant are strong Christians, and they aren’t so sure… Well, we already know from the prologue that they don’t succeed. What they do find is a bigger plot that could destroy America, and they don’t know where The Prophet fits in.

For the most part, The 13: Fall is a sound thriller with a good level of suspense and an interesting cast of characters who are introduced appropriately. But there are occasional literary mishaps, like unnecessary background descriptions, an overuse of exclamation marks, and scenes that felt as if it came straight from an old action movie (specifically The Fugitive and Matrix). And despite the fact that it is set in 2025, there don't appear to have been any major leaps in technology (well, all the police have smartphones, but this technology already exists). I suppose this is only thirteen years in the future, but the last thirteen years have brought in-home broadband, Facebook, Twitter, Netflix and Youtube, all of which have changed the way we communicate. On this basis, if it was so important that everyone heard The Prophet's message, why did he send it in a private email? Why not on Youtube or the 2025 equivalent?

There are also times when Americans make us foreigners laugh. At one point, The 13: Fall comments that the price of oil is rising ‘astronomically’, and the price of gas (petrol) is expected to soon reach $10 per gallon. Wow. That’s my irony font, in case you couldn’t tell. Petrol already costs $7.00/gallon here in New Zealand, and a quick online search found it’s currently $8.40/gallon in London and Sydney. If petrol only went up by $1.60/gallon in the next thirteen years, I think they’d all be thrilled. (All prices in US dollars. And, yes, I know that petrol is currently only around $4.00/gallon in the US. But only because I looked it up.)

Despite the faults, this was an enjoyable book. It was fast-paced, with an interesting plot and a group of characters that I, as a reader, wanted to succeed. The 13: Fall is more overtly Christian than a lot of contemporary Christian fiction, but it is a sound thriller, and it will be interesting to read future books in the series.

Thanks to Barbour and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

Review: The Reason by William Sirls

Brooke Thomas is cleaning her small church with her son, Alex, when the lights go out in an electrical storm, and the huge wooden cross outside the building is destroyed by lightening. She lives with the Lindy family: Pastor Jim, the blind pastor, his wife Shirley, and Charlie, their seven-foot, 355-pound son who hadn’t spoken a single word in his life.

Carla Miller is Brooke’s best friend, and has her own problems. A mysterious stranger appears in a bar, shows Carla an apple, tells her she has to learn to forgive, then leaves. Macey Lewis, paediatric oncologist at the local hospital, meets Brooke and Alex when they are having some medical tests. She offers to help rebuild the cross, and enlists the help of colleagues Dr Zach Norman, nurse Kaitlyn Harby and Kenneth, a carpenter who is working on the new wing of the hospital and who has been a man of God 'forever'.

The first couple of chapters introduced all the main characters, which had the potential to get a little confusing, but the different characters were soon linked together, and from then on, The Reason was a gripping contemporary story, a combination between medical and speculative fiction, centered around Brooke and Alex, but impacting all the characters in different ways as it explores an age-old question: why do bad things happen to good people?

While The Reason is most definitely a Christian novel, the characters aren't perfect. They visit bars, smoke, drink, get drunk and make wrong decisions as they deal with their present problems and confront their pasts. Their faith is challenged by circumstances, and by the carpenter who seems to know everything each of them has ever done. This is William Sirls’ first novel, and it is an outstanding debut with realistic characters facing difficult situations and learning to only believe. Highly recommended.

Thanks to Thomas Nelson and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review. You can read more about William Sirls on his website (very interesting!).

Review: Digital Winter by Mark Hitchcock and Alton Gansky

One January day in the very near future, the power goes out in San Diego. Then in Washington DC, and everywhere in between. At first, everyone thinks the blackouts are localised accidents, but it soon becomes apparent that the country is the victim of a cyberterrorism attack. The US military then realises the problem is global, so who is behind the attacks? And how will people in this digital age survive without electricity?

The first half of Digital Winter, detailing the initial power cuts from the viewpoints of different characters, was excellent. It was apocalyptic fiction of the best kind, both entertaining and thought-provoking (what would I do without electricity, even temporarily?). It was everything that Terri Blackstock’s Last Light wasn’t – scientifically plausible (at least to me), and featuring strong, intelligent and likeable characters.

But then Digital Winter moved from the immediate problem into the aftermath, eight days, eight weeks and (very briefly) eight months later. I found these later sections less compelling. They were more tribulation fiction, like the start of the Left Behind series, but with a flavour of Titanic: we know how the story is supposed to go, and that takes something away from it. I wanted that element of surprise, and although it was there in the detail, the big picture is a bit obvious.

Now, I am fully aware of how ironic this sounds coming from me. I read a lot of romance, and the romance genre is defined by the need for a HEA (Happy Ever After) ending. In a romance novel, you can pretty much tell from the first chapter how it is going to end, and that doesn’t bother me because that is what I expect. But the beginning of Digital Winter> was one thing while the end was another. And I liked the beginning more.

Thanks to Harvest House and NetGalley for providing a free book for review.

Review: H2O by Austin W Boyd and Brannon Hollingsworth

My initial feeling about H2O was uncertainty - it is narrated by Kate Pepper, a 102-pound size 2 aerospace marketing executive and sushi chef who slices off part of her palm while catering a work-related dinner party hosted by her gorgeous but controlling boyfriend, Xavier. I'm not big on blood and I don't like controlling men in fiction or in real life, so this was not a promising start.

But underneath the doubtful beginning there is the start of a puzzle, a mystery, about Kate's reactions to the everyday miracle of water. Kate blacks out in the shower following her hand injury, and this turns out to be just one of many blackouts, always precipitated by water. It isn't long before she starts seeing things during her blackouts, and it becomes unclear what is real and what isn't. She starts searching for answers on the internet, and connects with someone with the known as WRKRJC, who attempts to help Kate make sense of her visions.

Some aspects of the novel felt little odd, like having WiFi explained. I thought that wireless internet technology was virtually omnipresent in the English-speaking world. Others (like the character names Thomas Cook and John Connor, better known respectively as a global travel company and the hero of the Terminator movies) made me wonder if there was something I was missing. And the special coffee roast from the mountains of New Zealand? I don’t think so. Most of our mountains are ski-fields, not exactly conducive to growing a warm-weather crop like coffee.

But despite this, I found the book intriguing, thought-provoking and well worth reading. H2O is rich in symbolism (to the point of almost being allegorical) with excellent use of language. It’s different to most of the Christian fiction on the market today and defies a straightforward genre description, being part literary, part speculative and part romance. I really enjoyed it, and am glad I persevered with it. Recommended.

Thanks to Living Ink Books (imprint of AMG Publishers) and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

Review: Spirit Fighter by Jerel Law

Jonah Stone is thirteen when he flunks the school basketball tryouts but notices something strange about the way he can kick a soccer ball. He tells his parents, who not only believe him but tell him a family secret – Jonah’s mother is one of the Nephilim, one of the half-human, half-angel beings referred to in Genesis, and Jonah and his siblings are quarterlings, which gives them special powers and the ability to see angels.

But then his mother goes missing, and it seems that others of the Nephilim have also disappeared. Together with his sister Eliza, Jacob must fight the forces of evil to rescue their mother and the other missing nephilim before the captives can be forced to work for the Destroyer. In their search, they learn to put on the armour of God (from Ephesians 6), to walk by faith and to trust in the name of the Lord.

Spirit Fighter is well written and fast paced. Many of the ideas are reminiscent of Frank Peretti's books, but with a strong youth focus and not so frightening. There are parallels between Spirit Fighter and some of the popular secular fiction available for this age group – the Harry Potter and Percy Jackson books spring to mind.

Jonah can see the fallen angels and feel the despair they exude, similar to Harry Potter and the dementors. Like Percy Jackson, Jacob is part-human and part-superbeing, which gives him extraordinary powers. The difference is that in Spirit Fighter, these elements are given has a sound basis in the Bible. (And, at the end of the day, this is fiction. But it will introduce children to the concept of the spiritual realm and the battle being fought).

An adult might find elements of Spirit Fighter simply too fantastic and criticise it for being too plot driven with insufficient focus on the development of the characters. While this might be true, I don't see that the target audience of middle school boys will be bothered. They just want to see the bad guys get wasted, and should therefore be well satisfied. Despite the presence of Eliza, I imagine Spirit Fighterwill be more appealing to boys than girls, and will be enjoyed by fans of TV shows such as Bibleman and Angel Wars.

Thanks to Thomas Nelson and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review. Jerel Law speaks about his inspiration for Spirit Fighter at A Novel Bookshelf.

Review: Illusion by Frank Peretti

Mandy's death in a car accident means the end of her forty-year career in magic in which she and her husband, Dane, had performed around the world. Or does it? Because Mandy is not dead. She's nineteen again, but nineteen in 2010, not the 1970 she remembers. Mandy struggles to adjust to modern life, trying to practice her father’s advice: when life hands you lemons, make lemonade. Meanwhile, Dane is struggling to adjust to life without his wife, until one day he sees a young magician who reminds him of a young version of Mandy.

As is typical of a Peretti novel, nothing is what it seems. Characters that appeared harmless at first then appear to have some ulterior motive. There is Mandy’s new manager, who helps her get a valid social security number. There is also the mysterious Mr Stone and Mr Mortimer, who appear at Mandy's funeral, then follow Dane to his new home in northern Idaho to spy on him. And underneath, there is they mystery of how a dead woman has suddenly appeared again, forty years younger. It's like there is more than one Mandy, but she is real because she eats and sleeps and talks, and other people talk to her, so it's not like she's a ghost - just a teenager in 2010 who only knows the sixties songs and slang.

I try not to read other people's reviews before I read a book for review, because I don't want to be influenced by someone else's ideas. But I did happen to glimpse a couple of reviews before starting to read Illusion, and one commented that they found the beginning of the book confusing. Well, yes, it was. But I think that was the intention. Just imagine it. One moment you’re nineteen and enjoying the County Fair with your friends. You sit down to eat lunch, and the next thing you know, the Fair has vanished, everything that is familiar is gone, and people are talking into small plastic boxes and telling you it is 2010 when you know it is 1970. What's not to be confused about?

So, yes, Illusion was confusing. It was also engaging and intriguing and I wavered between trying to work out who was who and exactly what was happening, and just wanting to read more and read faster so I could find out for myself. And weird things keep happening. Illusionis not a spiritual warfare novel like Peretti’s early Darkness novels, but it is a fast-paced thriller with a touch of science fiction, albeit from a Christian point of view. I was reading at night and found it hard to keep my eyes open, but even harder to stop reading. Recommended.

Thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.