Karen Hancock has made a significant contribution to the genre of Christian Fantasy with her novel, The Light of Eidon. Her allegories are illuminating, accurate to biblical truth and very creative. I enjoyed her characters and how they came from so many viewpoints; they were all true to themselves and left a lasting impression. Her crisp prose never settled for boring description and in doing so kept this world alive. I was glad that she kept me guessing, and even more at how many times I guessed wrong. Karen also does a great job keeping you emotionally involved. Her main character, Abramm is a strong protagonist that is well worth being the focal point of a series. On top of all this, I loved her action scenes. This world has a gladiator type system of fighting that makes for great battles, not to mention her unique magic system and monster creations.
For anyone writing Christian Fiction, this book provides a great lesson in how to write quality fiction that embraces spiritual truths we all battle. Her characters have depth to their reasoning and in doing so Karen addresses the many concerns people have with embracing a God of grace. I did not find this book preachy — in part because she does not dismiss challenges to biblical faith. Some people accept that gift and others don’t, plain and simple. She is not writing this book to make converts, but rather to show how real the struggle can be and that people can go either way and still be real. You don’t know coming in who will and who won’t, so there is plenty of drama to keep you till the end.
The world Karen created is a fantastic example of carrying truths from our world to a fantasy, while using those allegories to express truths in ways you’ll never forget. The golden shield of the Tertsan is an idea I wish I came up with, but I won’t tell you why. The Gospel and how to be saved are both creative and truthful. The opposing religions are complex and not at all straw men or two dimensional in any way. You can really feel what it would be like to live within their religious system and in providing these examples we get a better understanding of the faiths around us. I’m excited to see what adventures are in store for Abramm as he battles against the many enemies left to face in future books.
I would have paid for this, but because it was not only free but a very good book, I’ll definitely be buying more of her work in the future.
For anyone writing Christian Fiction, this book provides a great lesson in how to write quality fiction that embraces spiritual truths we all battle. Her characters have depth to their reasoning and in doing so Karen addresses the many concerns people have with embracing a God of grace. I did not find this book preachy — in part because she does not dismiss challenges to biblical faith. Some people accept that gift and others don’t, plain and simple. She is not writing this book to make converts, but rather to show how real the struggle can be and that people can go either way and still be real. You don’t know coming in who will and who won’t, so there is plenty of drama to keep you till the end.
The world Karen created is a fantastic example of carrying truths from our world to a fantasy, while using those allegories to express truths in ways you’ll never forget. The golden shield of the Tertsan is an idea I wish I came up with, but I won’t tell you why. The Gospel and how to be saved are both creative and truthful. The opposing religions are complex and not at all straw men or two dimensional in any way. You can really feel what it would be like to live within their religious system and in providing these examples we get a better understanding of the faiths around us. I’m excited to see what adventures are in store for Abramm as he battles against the many enemies left to face in future books.
I would have paid for this, but because it was not only free but a very good book, I’ll definitely be buying more of her work in the future.
About the Reviewer: Timothy C. Ward is the author of the new fantasy novel, Godsknife: Revolt! which is available from Amazon, as are his other books.
Note about this review: This review first appeared in 2011 on Goodreads and is republished here with permission from Mr. Ward. Other books by Karen Hancock are available at Amazon.
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