Rate this book

Chosen Ones (Aedyn Chronicles #1) (2010)

by Alister E. McGrath(Favorite Author)

3 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0310718120 (ISBN13: 9780310718123)

languge

English

genre

Fantasy

publisher

Zondervan

review 1: This author's resemblance to C.S. Lewis is phenomenal. The only writer who can write books " like Narnia" or " like Jane Austen" is an author who is personally remarkably like the classic author in question. Sadly, most of the Jane Austen fanfiction is written by women who are nothing like Jane herself and their books are nothing like her famous novels.But here we have a new C.S. Lewis. He even works at the same university and specializes in theology! lol C.S. Lewis has COME BACK! If you like C.S. Lewis, you will like this guy. Like Lewis, he is an author of ideas rather than of characters or action. It is a welcome relief to find a Christian author who understands the use of advanced religious allegory instead of the inevitable Jesus-is-your-boyfriend stuff. ( I mean, I'm... more a big fan of purity etc, but you gotta admit that point is done to death in Christian fiction.) His allegories are elegant and deep. You will be impressed, trust me. :DThe central characters are almost the only ones with any life--though the grandparents at the beginning are really good too. Not to mention the CAT! ( It is clear this author knows kitties and loves them well. :D ) Largely because the plot requires that one of the kids be smart and visionary and one of them be mistaken and arrogant, the boy is a lot dumber than the girl. This was a wise decision on the author's part-- he needs to make sure people don't accuse him of being anti-girl! lolJulia is likeable, and Peter is very real. I have SO met that guy who thinks spiritually empty is the same thing as " intellectual" and " scientific." I was relieved, however, that he got a talent at the end--archery-- because he was really a dumbhead most of the time. :(Major fantasy device that did NOT work= holy screaming. When you read the book you will know what I mean. Holy screaming is a VERY creative device, to do the author credit. I have never encountered it before. But it doesn't really work that well.Major fantasy device that does work= Gaius. If you have visited one of the old monastery ruins in Europe-- or ruins anywhere, for that matter-- you do feel as if the spirits of whoever lived there must still be around. The personality of olden times and long dead people pervades ancient buildings. Good work, Mr McGrath. :DThe scenes involving the revisionist history of Aedynn were extremely good and relevant to modern times. We live in THE age of fake history and retelling the past to promote bad ideology. It's worse now even than it was in Lewis's time, and I'm glad someone else besides me has noticed the deliberate effort on the part of historians to misrepresent actual events of the past. This is the greatest beauty of the book. ( Peter is hilarious in it too. :D )Oh, and the villains were a bit flat. Hopefully they'll be developed more later. I'm pretty sure they're coming back because Peter and Julia-- rather densely-- just exiled these horrible Sith Lords/ animal gods to an island instead of finishing them off once and for all. To conclude, I did not give it a 5 because there were a couple of plot holes and the battle was dull. But it was an awesome book. And gloriously well written. So many modern books are such hard work to read. Clambering through all the verbs is like climbing rocks. But this guy flows like a river, easy and graceful. His style alone made me consider giving him 5 stars-- that's how awesome his style is! :D
review 2: Others have compared it to the Chronicles of Narnia. The writing style and level would support that. I found it more of a simple Old Testament allegory. There are parallels to the escape from Egypt, crossing the Red Sea, Jericho, the Passover and blatant references to the Lord of Hosts and the coming Redeemer. The "battle" and young heroine/hero though just didn't convince me; a bit too easy, contrived and simplistic. less

Download links for: Chosen Ones (Aedyn Chronicles #1)

Advertising