Rise of the Fallen -- Book Review

The second installment in the War of the Realm series by Chuck Black is Rise of theFallen by Chuck Black. Having read the first book in the series, Cloak of the Light, I was very excited to get to read  and review the second book as well. Rise of the Fallen did not disappoint! In some ways it may have even been better than the first book in the series. The second book really adds to the story of the first book. I am interested to see where the next book goes with the story.

The first book, Cloak of the Light, focuses on the main character of Drew Carter. For the most part it is written from his point of view. Throughout that book you see the war that is going on in the spiritual realm, but from a human perspective in most ways. In Rise of the Fallen, the focus is on an angel, Validus. Most everything is from his perspective. This completely changes the tone of the book. This book has much more of a supernatural war tone to it because of it being from the point of view of Validus, a warrior angel. The war may be a supernatural war, but it very much has the feel of a natural war.

This book also doesn’t just focus of the story of Drew from Validus’ point of view. The story weaves back and forth between the story surrounding Drew and the history of Validus. You see Validus move from an inexperienced angel at the beginning of time to one of the greatest warrior angels that there is. This part of the story moves along through some significant moments in Biblical history. Throughout this book the parts about Validus may be more intriguing than the parts following the story of Drew.

My one warning of this book, and really this series, is that some people may find some theological fault in it. Clearly some the parts involving and about the angels, demons, and spiritual warfare is fictionalized. There is only so much that we know about the spiritual world from the Bible. Chuck Black does take some liberties in this area. A great thing that he does to back up his writing is put stuff that is a direct Biblical quote or Biblical truth in bold letters. Then there is a reference in the back that corresponds to these parts and gives explanations. He also addresses some the things that may bring up questions about the spiritual world, and backs up his answers with Scripture. This is a great resource, especially since this book is written for the young adult genre. It is equally good for the adult reader too.

I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review.