The Short:
Cloak of the Light
Wars of the Realm, Book 1
By: Chuck Black
4/5 Stars
What: A college
student suffers a terrible accident that allows him to see into another
dimension.
Recommended to those
who like: Spiritual warfare, Christian, Teen
The Long:
I’ve been a fan of Chuck Black for
quite a while. His Kingdom Series and
The Knights of Arrethtrae strongly
influenced both my faith and early attempts at writing. When I saw that he had a new series out that was more
geared toward my age group, I was elated.
Drew’s life has been chased by
tragedy. Those close to him keep dying and just when he thinks things are
looking up, his life gets turned upside down again. Little does he know that
defending a fellow student against a bully in high school will earn him a
friend for life, or that helping him will lead to a freak physics accident that
will rob him of his sight.
When Drew returns to normal life,
he finds that he can see into another dimension, one with strange invaders that
battle each other for the visible realm. Are these the aliens his friend expected?
Or are they something else entirely?
At first, I really thought I wasn’t
going to like this book. The first fifty pages or so were a bit of a drag.
However, once the book really got going, I fell in love with Drew as a
character.
Unfortunately, the love interest
in the story did not do much for me. (Surprise there!) I really found her quite
obnoxious and was a little irritated by how she was chosen to be the spiritual
light of the story. For the most part, the Christian aspect of the story was
well-played, but it was nearly cringe-worthy at points.
The action scenes and
thoughtfulness of the spiritual warfare aspect redeemed the book overall. The
realism of spiritual warfare was more thought-provoking than the Bible Study we’re
dropped into at one point. The book almost has a dark super-hero feel to it, without
being cheesy.
Furthermore, Drew is a great
character. I look forward to seeing him developed more fully in future books.
I’ll definitely be picking up the
next book sometime soon. The end of this story foreshadowed great things to
come.
Oooh this looks good (but probably just because it has that superhero element to it. I'm such as sucker for that). Thanks for another great review!
ReplyDeleteIt's not directly a superhero element, but it reminds me of that feel. (More of like an "Arrow" or "Batman" feel than, say, "Thor" or the Avengers. It's a bit darker). I mean, normal young man entrusted with strange powers sets off to save the world with science, martial arts, and his new abilities.
DeleteIf you're looking for something a bit more lighthearted and more traditionally superhero-y, I would definitely point you more toward "Failstate" by John W. Otte, which I reviewed a while back.
Thanks for the comment!