Some sharp, detailed writing elevates this deliberately paced, theologically driven story.
A therapist has an impromptu in-flight session with a man who purports to be the world’s first human being in Burgett’s Christian novel.
Psychologist Grace Jackson is delighted when her seat on a Dallas-to-Honolulu flight is upgraded to first class. Still, it’s an eight-hour trip; perhaps analyzing her initially mute seatmate will stave off boredom. It turns out this man’s apparent fear of flying isn’t the most curious thing about him, as he claims he’s Adam —the one from Eden. After he and Eve ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the man explains, he then ate from the Tree of Life; consequently, he never died. The man is tormented by his belief that he “messed up” this world and the fact that God has recently “gone quiet.” Of course, Grace doesn’t immediately accept that she’s sitting next to the original Adam, but she lets him vent as Adam tells of his and Eve’s exit from Eden, their sons Cain and Abel, and his best friend Jesus’ life and death on Earth. Burgett’s novel opens with some of its best scenes as Grace eyes fellow passengers in first class, from affectionate newlyweds to 80-year-old identical twin sisters who dress alike. But when Adam takes the narrative reins, he leisurely recounts biblical stories that Christian readers will already know. While his renderings (and the author’s concise prose) aptly simplify these tales, Adam often sounds as if he’s preaching rather than confiding in the doctor. (“Giving up our idols, and their trappings, is tough for anybody. It takes a lot of faith and desire to stay the course.”) The theme of faith is the throughline; even if Adam fears God isn’t there if the two aren’t regularly conversing. This novel is positioned as the start of a series, though it reads like a standalone work.
Some sharp, detailed writing elevates this deliberately paced, theologically driven story.Pub Date: July 4, 2024
ISBN: 9798990006416
Page Count: 316
Publisher: She Shed Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 17, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Though it falters a bit under its own weight, this series still has plenty of fight left.
In this long-awaited fifth installment of Shannon’s Bone Season series, the threat to the clairvoyant community spreads like a plague across Europe.
After extending her fight against the Republic of Scion to Paris, Paige Mahoney, leader of London’s clairvoyant underworld and a spy for the resistance movement, finds herself further outside her comfort zone when she wakes up in a foreign place with no recollection of getting there. More disturbing than her last definitive memory, in which her ally-turned-lover Arcturus seems to betray her, is that her dreamscape—the very soul of her clairvoyance—has been altered, as if there’s a veil shrouding both her memories and abilities. Paige manages to escape and learns she’s been missing and presumed dead for six months. Even more shocking is that she’s somehow outside of Scion’s borders, in the free world where clairvoyants are accepted citizens. She gets in touch with other resistance fighters and journeys to Italy to reconnect with the Domino Programme intelligence network. In stark contrast to the potential of life in the free world is the reality that Scion continues to stretch its influence, with Norway recently falling and Italy a likely next target. Paige is enlisted to discover how Scion is bending free-world political leaders to its will, but before Paige can commit to her mission, she has her own mystery to solve: Where in the world is Arcturus? Paige’s loyalty to Arcturus is tested as she decides how much to trust in their connection and how much information to reveal to the Domino Programme about the Rephaite—the race of immortals from the Netherworld, Arcturus’ people—and their connection to the founding of Scion, as well as the presence of clairvoyant abilities on Earth. While the book is impressively multilayered, the matter-of-fact way in which details from the past are sprinkled throughout will have readers constantly flipping to the glossary. As the series’ scope and the implications of the war against Scion expand, Shannon’s narrative style reads more action-thriller than fantasy. Paige’s powers as a dreamwalker are rarely used here, but when clairvoyance is at play, the story shines.
Though it falters a bit under its own weight, this series still has plenty of fight left.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2025
ISBN: 9781639733965
Page Count: 576
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
These letters from some important executive Down Below, to one of the junior devils here on earth, whose job is to corrupt mortals, are witty and written in a breezy style seldom found in religious literature. The author quotes Luther, who said: "The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." This the author does most successfully, for by presenting some of our modern and not-so-modern beliefs as emanating from the devil's headquarters, he succeeds in making his reader feel like an ass for ever having believed in such ideas. This kind of presentation gives the author a tremendous advantage over the reader, however, for the more timid reader may feel a sense of guilt after putting down this book. It is a clever book, and for the clever reader, rather than the too-earnest soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1942
ISBN: 0060652934
Page Count: 53
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1943
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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