Light of the Last -- book review

Lightof the Last is the third and final book in the War of the Realm series. I have read the two previous books in the series; Cloakof the Light and Rise of the Fallen. Both of the previous books were good reads; this book follows right along with them. Although, I must say, if you were to read this book without reading the previous two, you would miss out on a lot of what is happening and some parts may be a bit confusing.

This book is truly the coming together of the first book, which focused on the main character Drew Carter, and the second book, which focused on the main character Validus. Light of the Last goes back and forth between the two and brings everything together. The three part story is wrapped up in the end, but (spoiler alert) there is just a bit of an open ending.

Once again Chuck Black does a good job of crafting a fictional story around the topic of spiritual warfare. Speaking of warfare, this book is action packed. With that said there were parts that seemed like a bit of a stretch. Now of course this is a fiction book, and Black does himself say that he takes some liberties in the area of spiritual warfare. I believe I pointed it this out in my reviews of the other two books in the series, but I’ll say it again. I appreciate that Black includes Reader’s Guide at the end of the book that states Scripture references that he uses to back up his writing. So, for anyone worried about the Biblical context of the book, there is the foundation of that.

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

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.

An Adventure in Light & Darkness - Book Review

Cloak of the Light by Chuck Black is a gripping story that centers on a young man, by the name of Drew Carter. At first Drew just seems like a kid, then teen, who has had several unfortunate events happen to him during his life. Then one of these unfortunate events changes his life forever in a drastic way. Drew is suddenly forced to live in world where he can see not only the normal world we live in, but what seems to be another world that no one else seems to see. This change to Drew’s world forces him to change his life as well. Along the way there are also other characters that are an essential part of the story, Sydney and Ben. They are Drew’s two closest friends who are there with him through the journey that he is forced to travel between light and darkness.

ChuckBlack has done a great job putting a fresh spin on the topic of spiritual battle. In a note at the end of the book, he himself says that creative liberties have been taken in approaching this topic. He also does note that there are many things that are unclear to us about spiritual battle simple because the Bible doesn’t give us every little detail about it. He does however take the truths that we know of the subject from the Bible and stay within those guidelines. There is also a great Readers Guide at the back of the book. This would be particularly helpful for someone who does not the Bible well or is a younger reader.

The down side to this book is that the start is a bit slow. If you stick with it though, until about a fourth of the way through the book, the pace picks up really quickly. From there the story moves along quickly, then it gets a bit bogged down and can start to seem a little redundant. Keep reading though, the story finishes strong and leave you hanging a little. Just enough unanswered questions to make you want to continue on with the War of the Realm series. Cloak of the Light is the first book in the series, by the way. 

I would think that this book would appeal to both adolescent boy and girls. There is a little bit of suspense, sci-fi, love story, intriguing story, and Biblical truth for everyone. As an adult I enjoyed it as well, and will probably read the other books in the series.

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