For the past week or so I’ve been reading Probing the third book in the Harbingers series co-written by Frank Peretti, Bill Myers, Angela Hunt, Alton Gansky talk about a power team of writers.
And now, while I should be prepping for Christmas, I will review this book for you… before I miss my deadline!
Before I get into to my review about Probing, I must say that it was a bit misleading for me that this series was called “Harbingers”. I completely got this series confused with the book called Harbinger by Jonathan Cahn. I have been meaning to read Cahn’s book for years, and when I saw that I was going to be receiving a free copy of “Probing” from the Harbingers series from Bethany House I was so excited. I should have noticed the difference in authors names, but instead I thought maybe they took over the series? If I had read Cahn’s Harbinger piece I would have known right away – of course – the difference, instead I read this entire book thinking it was a sequel to Harbinger by Jonathan Cahn. It isn’t. Don’t make my mistake.
But, this was a very interesting read, especially if you like science fiction. Normally, I’m not a big science fiction kinda girl (not movies, not books), but I made an exception for this novel, made up of four novelettes. My favourite story was Leviathan by Bill Myers, from the perspective of “Brenda”, one of five of the Harbingers team. I’m not big on Hunger Games, but I really liked how he laid out the plot that really exposed how dangerous media really can be when we allow it to brain wash us, and when we allow it to set our moral standard. Actually my dislike for the Hunger Games is probably why I liked Leviathan so much.
The second piece was called The Mind Pirates by Frank Peretti from the perspective of the Professor. I had a hard time following this one. Probably because the Professor is even known in the group for being extremely intelligent. You gotta pull up your socks for this read. If you are a computer programer this one might be easier for you to follow. But very interesting, and once I finally understood what was happening I was fully in it through the suspense of the kidnapping, rescue, and the crazy earring that if one wore it you could see everything that the person wearing the other earring saw. Hellooo science fiction.
The third novelette in this book is called Hybrids by Angela Hunt and from the perspective of Andi. This one might have been the most suspenseful in my opinion. If you have ever wondered what would happen if everyone’s self control was turned off by a random machine, well, Angela Hunt did a great job describing this exact thing. But my favourite part was when Tank, as the only real Christian in the group, was the one to rise to the challenge, be able to pull himself together, motivate the other members of the team to snap out of it, and save the day. In a nutshell.
And last but not least, to complete this book, Alton Gansky wrote “the Village” from Tank’s perspective. Tank was my favourite character in “Probing” as he really had strong faith and God used him over and over to lay hands on the sick for healing. Each of the team members had a gift, and that was Tank’s. In Bill Myers novelette (the first story I talked about), the book was from Brenda’s perspective and she always referred to Tank as “Cowboy”… so it took me more than halfway through the book to realize that Tank and Cowboy are the same guy…. now, someone who had read the first two books in the series wouldn’t have had this problem, and Bill Myers did mention it… but I missed it. Anyway, Tank was a guy who loved God, he was grounded in the word and lived his life by the Bible and his relationship with the Lord. That being said, Alton Gansky, you write one crazy science fictional story. I tried recapping this story to my husband, and yep, it sounded cra-cra. Moral of the story – if you go to a crazy town and the nice people ask you to leave… well ya, you should leave. Before you disappear. Unless you’re the Harbingers there to save the day. Then you should stay, but otherwise, you should go.
I can’t remember the last time I read a science fiction book, and actually I’m glad my husband was home and not away for work, because this book got super intense. Had it been a movie, I would have been covering my eyes. A lot.
So would I read more in this series? Yes I definitely would. I’d give it a 4, 4.5 out of 5. I for sure want to read more from Bill Byers, and now – totally unrelated – I find I need to read The Harbinger by Jonathan Cahn as well.
If you are looking for a last minute Christmas gift for a science fiction lover, consider the Probing or another in its series!
***I received a complimentary copy of “Probing” however I was not compensated for this review. All thoughts and opinions in this review are my own.***
