2 Book Reviews, 1 Entry!
Mar. 14th, 2010 06:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
uberreinigerStones of My Accusers by Tracy Groot:
Orion Galientus is an honest Roman official in the service of the infamous governor Pontius Pilate. As the time nears for Orion to issue a horrific decree he finds himself increasingly torn between the empire he serves and the Judean citizens who are his friends. Meanwhile two equally troubled young people have entered the city on separate missions to bring a lonely prostitute the worst news a mother can ever hear...
Stones of My Accusers is released through Moody Publishing, a publisher which openly touts itself as Evangelical Christian. While I am suspicious of anything with ties to the Evangelical movement I am pleased to say that as a novel Stones does not suffer for the association. Groot has created an intense and exciting historical novel full of memorable characters who face ugly decisions without an easy answer in sight. The depiction of ancient Roman and Jewish culture and customs is meticulous and has clearly been the subject of thorough research on Groot's part. There is an underlying religious message: one of compassion and forgiveness. Characters are left to draw their own conclusions about God and so is the reader.
Stones is far from Hallmark Channel material, though. It is a gritty depiction of life under the Roman empire with all the cruelty and violence that entails. A relatable and believable tale, I would recommend Stones of My Accusers to seekers of Christian inspiration and secular entertainment alike.
Seraphim by Michelle Hauf:
War between England and France rages in the wake of Joan of Arc's death and angels, demons, and faeries all walk the earth in human form. When the honorable D'Ange family is massacred by the De Morte demon clan, Seraphim, the solve survivor, dons her brother's armor and becomes a black knight on a quest for revenge.
As tantalizing as it all sounds, this novel was a huge disappointment to me. It is a cheap romance novel packaged as an exciting dark fantasy tale. I would be okay with that if it were a good romance novel but it's not. As I slogged through page after page of the male and female protagonist mooning over each other it felt as though Hauf were only writing it because she thought she was supposed to. If felt completely uninspired and like she had never even read the genre she was trying to write.
Seraphim doesn't know what it wants to be. The scenes of medieval gore and demonic violence might be off-putting to romance enthusiasts and the romance angle is done in such a way it will likely bore dark fantasy fans. Moreover, it's poorly written. Sentences are awkward, unwieldly, and difficult to understand. And if more than two characters are involved in a conversation, good luck trying to figure out who is speaking, to whom they are saying it, and what they're even talking about.
The De Morte brothers quickly learn to avoid Seraphim at all costs. Readers should as well.
Orion Galientus is an honest Roman official in the service of the infamous governor Pontius Pilate. As the time nears for Orion to issue a horrific decree he finds himself increasingly torn between the empire he serves and the Judean citizens who are his friends. Meanwhile two equally troubled young people have entered the city on separate missions to bring a lonely prostitute the worst news a mother can ever hear...
Stones of My Accusers is released through Moody Publishing, a publisher which openly touts itself as Evangelical Christian. While I am suspicious of anything with ties to the Evangelical movement I am pleased to say that as a novel Stones does not suffer for the association. Groot has created an intense and exciting historical novel full of memorable characters who face ugly decisions without an easy answer in sight. The depiction of ancient Roman and Jewish culture and customs is meticulous and has clearly been the subject of thorough research on Groot's part. There is an underlying religious message: one of compassion and forgiveness. Characters are left to draw their own conclusions about God and so is the reader.
Stones is far from Hallmark Channel material, though. It is a gritty depiction of life under the Roman empire with all the cruelty and violence that entails. A relatable and believable tale, I would recommend Stones of My Accusers to seekers of Christian inspiration and secular entertainment alike.
Seraphim by Michelle Hauf:
War between England and France rages in the wake of Joan of Arc's death and angels, demons, and faeries all walk the earth in human form. When the honorable D'Ange family is massacred by the De Morte demon clan, Seraphim, the solve survivor, dons her brother's armor and becomes a black knight on a quest for revenge.
As tantalizing as it all sounds, this novel was a huge disappointment to me. It is a cheap romance novel packaged as an exciting dark fantasy tale. I would be okay with that if it were a good romance novel but it's not. As I slogged through page after page of the male and female protagonist mooning over each other it felt as though Hauf were only writing it because she thought she was supposed to. If felt completely uninspired and like she had never even read the genre she was trying to write.
Seraphim doesn't know what it wants to be. The scenes of medieval gore and demonic violence might be off-putting to romance enthusiasts and the romance angle is done in such a way it will likely bore dark fantasy fans. Moreover, it's poorly written. Sentences are awkward, unwieldly, and difficult to understand. And if more than two characters are involved in a conversation, good luck trying to figure out who is speaking, to whom they are saying it, and what they're even talking about.
The De Morte brothers quickly learn to avoid Seraphim at all costs. Readers should as well.
