The Rats of Hamelin by: Adam & Keith McCune

The Rats of Hamelin
Adam & Keith McCune
Moody Publishers, Chicago, IL
August 2005

This is a complicated little story. A town at war with the pipers guild, a child at war with his father, both at war with memories of things from the past. All the people hold onto memories, stories and the past, and no one knows how to forgive or move forward. It is the story of justice and mercy. For too long Johannes the Master Pipers Apprentice, on his first solo mission focuses on justice and forgets mercy.

This is a great tale of mystery and suspense and redemption. The redemption is both personal and corporate.

In this story the Pipers Guild is the church and to enter the pipe-world through pipeing is to enter the spiritual realm through prayer. Though this story is not explicitly Christian much can be read into the story. It would be a great read for a Christian, a family, or the common man on the street. Barry Lopez in Crossing Open Ground states: “I felt exhilaration, and a deeper confirmation of the stories. The mundane tasks which awaited me I anticipated now with pleasure. The stories had renewed me in a sense of the purpose of my life.

This feeling, a inexplicable renewal of enthusiasm after story telling is familiar to many people.” These are the feelings this book invoked in me. Like other classics, This Present Darkness, or The Narnia Chronicles or many other. This is a book I will return to again and again and each time it will drive me deeper to prayer and to seek justice in this world but always justice tempered by mercy.

As Johannes states in the book “My life as a piper was going to be hard, harder than I had ever imagined. Apprenticeship was over – now the clubs and arrows were real. The grim weariness in the pipelord’s face, watchful for the next attack – now that would be my weariness. I would always be a pilgrim.” P. 255 I would r-write this paragraph for my life as “My life as a Christian is going to be hard, harder than I ever imagined. Apprenticeship is over – now it is time to enter the battle. Time to be on guard against the evil one who wanders to and fro in the earth. I will always be on a quest!” And with that this book calls us forth to enter the spiritual battle.

(First published in Imprint 2005-05-06 as 'Even Fear Factor fans will like this book.)

(First Published in Imprint 2005-05-06 as 'Traveling Through Life')

The Traveler by: John Twelve Hawks

The Traveler
John Twelve Hawks
Doubleday Canada

Wow! This is an amazing book. I read between 150 and 200 books a year and I must say that this is one of the best books I have read in a decade. It is like a cross between the Matrix and Blade Runner, or Dan Brown’s Angel’s and Demons and a Tom Clancy novel. Or like a little known author James Bryon Huggins, it has mystery, suspense and intrigue, weapons and people who know how to use them.

The main premise is that there is a war going on in this world, but it is a war that most are unaware of. Like all wars there are two sides, The Harlequin’s and the Tabula or as they prefer to be called ‘The Brethren’. The Harlequin’s are warriors committed to protecting the Travelers; Travelers are people who have the ability to send their life energy from their body and travel to other realms. They are lonely isolated people who live to serve. The travelers often become gurus or healers or prophets. The traveler’s after returning from a different plane of existence return changed and their views of life challenge other people to look at their own lives and to seek something more. The Tabula on the other hand want to control the world. They want to have control over every person’s life.

Michael and Gabriel Corrigan are brothers and believed to be the last descendants of travelers. Michael ends up with the Tabula and Gabriel with the Harlequin’s. This becomes a battle between good and evil, and a battle between brothers, like Cain and Able of old, the brothers will war. Also of significance is their names, only three angels are named by name in the Bible, and the brothers each bare one of those three names.

The book is a literary treasure filled with religious and literary reference from around the world and across traditions. It is a book for book lovers who will be intrigued by finding all the reference, yet the story is strong enough to capture the imagination of even the most casual of readers.

I believe this is a book that anyone could enjoy, and I can only hope that the characters will return in a sequel to continue the story.

(First Published in Imprint 2005-05-06 as 'Traveling Through Life')

The Zahir By: Paulo Coelho

The Zahir
Paulo Coelho
Harper Collins - Browse Inside
August 2005

I’ve returned once again to one of my favorite authors to review his latest work. Paulo Coelho of international fame for The Alchemist, 11 Minutes and The Devil and Miss Prym, has released his latest The Zahir. According to the book, the Zahir in Arabic means present, visible, incapable of being unnoticed. It is something that grabs our thought, mind and spirit and demands our full attention. It is believed to lead to either Holiness or madness. In this book, the Zahir is a woman, an idea of a woman, a longing. Our main character sounds very familiar to our author; in fact our hero is a famous author now living in Paris, with his books being published in nearly every language. (which sounds like Mr. Coelho. This book is being published in 50 countries/languages this year alone. http://www.santjordi-asociados.com/zahir.htm) The author writes books that millions love, adore, and claim changes their lives. Yet he appears to have stopped living the type of deliberate life he writes about. He has settled into a complacent life.

Then one day his wife disappears. Over time she becomes his Zahir; he writes a book about love and for a while the Zahir fades. Then he meets the man he believes she had left with and the Zahir returns.

This is a wonderful story about becoming, and remembering who you were meant to be, not who you settled into. It will stir in you a passion to be more than you think you can be, and, to give more, and love more purely. Follow a man who goes in search of an estranged wife, only to find himself.

(First Published in Imprint 2005-09-14 as 'Is your objective very visible?)

Capt Hook by: J.V. Hart

Capt. Hook
J.V. Hart
Harper Collins - Browse Inside
ISBN 0060002204
August 2005

This first effort by J.V. Hart is an excellent story. Like the movie Hook, or Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry this story takes characters that we know from the original Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie and casts them in a new light. In this wonderfully inventive novel we are told the story of a young man trying to make his way in the world. Even if the world is against him. Our Hero or Anti Hero depending on how you read it, is a bastard son of an English Lord, His father is the Queen man has made a way for him to attend Eaton Collage. There he becomes a hero James Matthew Bastard, or King Jas to the Oppidan’s, the underclassman.

There is love for a Sultana, a mutiny on the high sea’s and a boy who becomes a hero to freed slaves and his crewmen alike. Thus is born the hero Capt. Hook. Along the way our hero discovers many gems of wisdom that all of us could apply in our lives, such as “Courage is the decision to fly straight into the flame while knowing the consequences.” And “Knowledge is Power.” And my favorite “someday our foes may win, but not today!”

The story leave’s you wanting more. One can only hope that there will be more stories by this author and with these characters. All in all this book is a jolly good romp that any youth, teen or adult will enjoy. Many will find themselves cheering for someone they know will one day be a villain, but not today.

The Captain Hook Book!

Shadowed by: Jerry Jenkins

Shadowed
Jerry Jenkins
July 2005
Tyndale House Publishers

Yes, this is one of the authors of the famed or infamous ‘Left Behind’ series (over 63 Million copies sold), and though that series started off well, it slowed down so much and became so dry I could just not finish it. This, on the other hand, is a third book in a new trilogy. It reads like a spiritual Tom Clancy or Dan Brown. The first two books in this series are Soon and Silenced and now finally Shadowed.

The premise or background in this series is based in a post World-War III world. In 2009 a new world government was established in Bern Switzerland. This WW3 is known as the religious war. Since then all religion has been banned and has been persecuted. The world has stopped using A.D. (anno Domini, ‘in the year of our lord’) with the new designator P.3. (Post-World War III) Our book takes place 37 years later in 38 P.3. and our hero is an unlikely religious hero. Paul Stepola did a Masters in Religious Studies after serving in the military. He worked for the regime in power as a sort of cop and intelligence community officer. He often infiltrated religious groups to break them up and persecute them. In the earlier books, Paul’s life went through a drastic change, from finding a letter his father wrote at his birth, in which his father declared his faith, to being blinded in an explosion, to being a believer.

Paul’s journey went from being undercover to being under suspicion for being a double agent. In most of the second book he is suspected of having turned, yet continues to convince the government of his loyalty. In this final installment he has to go underground, and not only that, he has his wife and two children with him. He has been found out and is hiding with the Columbia underground when former colleagues start helping him evade authorities.

Can he save his family, can he help bring religious freedom to the world again? Will faith prevail or finally be squashed forever? Read this fast-paced book or the whole series and find out!


(First Published in Across the Creek the St. Jerome's Students' Union newspaper column 'Book Look' December 2005)

Bloodsucking Fiends by: Christopher Moore

Bloodsucking Fiends
Christopher Moore
Harper Collins


Christopher Moore wanted to write horror books; he dreamed of being the next Stephen King. Unfortunately for him but fortunately for us, people laughed when they read what he wrote. Thus was born a humorist of the caliber of Dave Barry or Christopher Buckley and some have gone so far as to say he is the next Kurt Vonnegut. Now that we know a bit about our Author, what about the book?

Bloodsucking Fiends is a glorious romp through the night. We have an office worker, Jodi, who has a 9-to-5 dead-end office job in San Francisco, and wakes up one morning under a dumpster and the sun burns her and she has super human strength. She has never watched vampire movies or read the books, so she doesn’t know what to do or how to do it. She is on the hunt for the man/creature who turned her.

This is where C. Thomas Flood comes in, a beatnik author from Indiana, who works midnights at the Safeway. He falls in love with Jodi immediately, and realizes that there is something strange about his love.

Follow the humorous journey through the night, the underworld, the streets and alleys of San Francisco as Thomas tries to find a way to be with the woman he loves even if she is undead. And Jodi tries to find out what being undead is all about. Can this love survive? And if you’ve enjoyed this one, check out his other writings: Island of the Sequined Love Nun, or The Lusty Lizard of Melancholy Cove.

(First Published in 'Imprint' 2005-12-02 as 'Horrific Humour')

Other Moore Books I Have Reviewed:
Bloodsucking Fiends
A Dirty Job
You Suck: A Love Story

The Barbarian Way by: Erwin McManus

I have to reccommend to you a great little book I just read. It is called "The Barbarian Way" by Erwin McManus. I reieved it for my birthday last week and can not give it a high enough reccomendation. It focus is on the fact that the christian faith should not be the simple quiet protected life. Thatb the call to be a christian is a call to risk, to live on the edge, with danger, trials and troubles. That the churh has become domesticated and it lack's appeal because of that.

It is out by Thomas Nelson ISBN 0785264329 Not only do I reccomend it, but they guarantee it, if you buy it and are not satisfied they will replace your money.

Some quick quotes.

"The claim to believe is simply not enough. The call of Jesus is one to action" p.5

"Perhaps the tragedy of our time is that such an overwhelming number of us who declare Jesus as Lord have become domesticated - or, if you will, civilized. We have lost the simplicity of our early faith. Beyond that, we have lost the passion and power of that raw, untaimed, and primal faith." p.12

"The barbarian way is abour love, intimacy, passion, and sacrifice. Barbarians love to live and live to love." p. 13

"The call of Jesus is far more barbaric that either of those. It is a call to live in this world as citizens of an entirely different kingdom." p.32

"your life is unique before God, and your path is yours and yours alone." p. 37

"Just do whatever Jesus calls you to do the moment it is clear to you. Do not procrastinate; do not hesitate; do not deviate from whatever course of action He calls you to." p.53

"When you join the barbarian tribe, you begin to live your life with your eyes and heart wide open. When the spirit of God envelops your soul, your spiri comes alive, and everything changes for you. You are no lobger the same." p.69

....

For those who liked John Eldreges "Wild at Heart" or "Waking the Dead" you will love this book. Take a risk and pick it up, you will either be challanged or angry. If your angry you can get your money back. If your challanged, who know's where it will lead you!