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Showing posts with the label Fiction

The Tower — Book Review

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by Cowboy Bob Sorensen  Back in 2013, The Rain  by Chris Skates and Dan Tankersley was published. It is a biblical historical fiction about Noah, his family, society at the time, and building the Ark. We were taken through the Flood and the eventual landing on the mountains of Ararat.  The narration traded off from Japheth's first person account and a third person narrative.  My review is here . I did not know that the authors had written The Tower  in 2014, so it was several years before I downloaded the ebook. First, I reread The Rain, then I got to this one. Both books use abundant artistic license, putting personalities and actions to names we see in Genesis while taking care not to overstep the truth of Scripture. Noah's wife and the wives of his sons are given names that are extrabiblical. The Tower  begins some years after the Flood. (The Bible does not mention Noah and his wife having additional children, which is highly unlikely). This book describes the families and t

Taking Up Space — Book Review

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by Cowboy Bob Sorensen On Saturday, October 20, I had just finished reading a Western novel, which I do from time to time to "decompress". Shortly after lights out, Steven J. Wright sent me a message that I discovered the next morning. He wondered if I would do a review of his new novel, Taking Up Space, which was going to be published very soon. (After all, I wrote about his novel The Deception back in twenty aught thirteen.) I warned him that I would have to mention things I did not care for as well as positive, and he was okay with that. This child saddled up with some free ebook reading material under no obligation to give a glowing review. So, that's the disclaimer as well as a personal anecdote. Most folks don't know that I am writing up a review for a book, video, or whatever. This was an interesting experience. I was corresponding with Mr. Wright and giving him progress reports as well as some thoughts along the way. Although you have seen some book r

Noah: Man of Resolve — Book Review

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by Cowboy Bob Sorensen Several months ago, I read and reviewed Noah: Man of Destiny , by Tim Chaffey and K. Marie Adams. Just before Christmas, I was pleasantly surprised that Noah: Man of Resolve was one of the e-books on sale at Answers in Genesis, so I grabbed it. I'm telling you how I obtained my copy so you know that I purchased both books and was not given promotional copies or anything. The publisher and authors probably do not even know that I exist, let alone that I am writing reviews. It has been made clear that this is a trilogy, as seen in part of the name, "The Remnant Trilogy". (See how that works?) I suspicion that all three  were written as one large book and then separated into sections. I'm thinking that because the authors don't have continuity errors from book one to book two, which are more likely to happen when authors spend a lot of time off in their writing. Also, books one and two have "a glimpse of" preview of the next book

Noah: Man of Destiny — Book Review

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by Cowboy Bob Sorensen After all the reading and MP3 listening that I do, it was nice to read a work of fiction for a change. Noah: Man of Destiny by Tim Chaffey and K. Marie Adams is the first book of The Remnant Trilogy. Seems like whenever you get the first book of a series, it is not self-contained and you want to continue — if it's good. This child liked the book and wants to keep going. Disclaimer: none. I bought this book all by my lonesome. Nobody gave me a promotional copy or anything like that. I guess some legal-type people want to know about such things. I'd be open to receiving promotional copies of the next two books, unsubtle hint, wink wink nudge nudge. I did not review this on Amazon where I purchased the ebook because they allow trolls to run free and attack other reviewers. Especially creationists. Also, Christian and creationist material on there is frequently attacked by people who cannot even be bothered to read it. This happens frequently, so I&

"The Rain" by Chris Skates and Dan Tankersley — Book Review

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by Cowboy Bob Sorensen How I came across this book, I am uncertain. I think it was mentioned in a comment someone made. The Kindle price was right, so I gave it a try (sorry, could not find an EPUB for the Nook). One evening, I was looking for a diversion from the science and theology material and decided to give this a try. Glad I did. Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. The LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.  (Genesis 6.5-8, NASB) I suppose it could be considered "historical fiction". The Bible does not tell us the names of Noah's wife or of his sons' wives, nor do we kn

"Pieces of Light" by Julie Cave — Book Review

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by Cowboy Bob Sorensen Pieces of Light  by Julie Cave is the third book in the Dinah Harris series. Although it can be read as a "stand alone" book, I recommend reading the first two books, Deadly Disclosures and The Shadowed Mind to fully understand the characters and situations. I am not going to give out too much information and spoil the story for you.  Like the second book, Pieces of Light  does not follow a formula to seem like a rehash of the previous books. In fact, it opens with the killer writing his thoughts in a journal while in prison. Then we are taken back to how it started. Someone hates Christians and Christianity, saying that we're all hypocrites because of what happened to him — he was the victim of abuse by a church-going man that people thought was wonderful. His response when he was older was to bomb churches. But he did not want total devastation, he wanted to "make a statement". This book does not deal directly with evol

"The Shadowed Mind" by Julie Cave — Book Review

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No perks or benefits for me on this review, I purchased and read it on my own. This will not be an in-depth analysis because I don't want to ruin the story for you. The Shadowed Mind by Julie Cave is the second book in the Dinah Harris mystery trilogy. Although the reader can probably read it as a stand-alone story, I recommend reading Deadly Disclosures first to get the background on the characters. Some characters from the first book reappear briefly, and one character that appeared briefly in the first book is important in this one. Some sequels are formulaic and simply rework the original story. This is far from that. This is an unashamedly Christian novel, but it is not like so many other books that are "get saved and everything is peachy keen". Dinah Harris is struggling in her new Christian life and overcoming alcoholism. Her idiosyncrasies and personality are very believable. In fact, some of the advice she received from a friend were applicable not

"Deadly Disclosures" by Julie Cave — Book Review

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by Cowboy Bob Sorensen For someone who is not all that experienced in doing book reviews — here I go again! Deadly Disclosures  is not the kind of book that I expected to read. Most of my reading these days is nonfiction. (I agree with some other people that so much of Christian fiction is poorly written and unbelievable, "preachy", with the main character becoming a Christian and then everything comes up roses. The committed Christian life is not easy.) The e-book was on sale at Answers In Genesis , and I thought I would give a Christian mystery with a creationist viewpoint a try. I'm glad I did, and have to restrain myself from diving into the next two books of the trilogy because of time commitments. Julie Cave shows her talent in several ways. We received plot twists, suspense, emotion and other things expected in a murder mystery. There are little extras that add color and realism to the story, including humor and quirks in the characters (I like the occ

Book Review: "The Deception" by Steven J. Wright

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Review by Cowboy Bob Sorensen “To believe in creation, you have to believe in a God.  But what evidence is there for God anyway?  And if you were to find that evidence, how would you know which God was the correct one?  Doesn’t Hinduism have millions of gods?  Maybe one of them is the real god, and he or she created everything instead of the Judeo-Christian God.  Or what if it is the Christian God?  How would you know which of the thousands of denominations is the correct one to follow?  I might add that many ancient cultures and religions have similar myths on origins.  It goes to show that folklores get passed down and shared from culture to culture, but there is no scientific evidence to support them.  That’s why they are called myths.   “Class, I’m not here to debate God.  I have my own beliefs, but this is a science class, and we only study the natural things—the things that can be tested and proven with experiments.  Let me go over some of the evidences we have of evolu

Book Review: The Coming Wrath

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A world lost in time and history. The earth as it was before the world wide flood destroyed the face of the planet almost five thousand years ago. In The Coming Wrath , you will confront the problem of evil, and the core of evil that is rooted in your own heart. You will experience the tsunami nightmare of the beautiful Madrazi, the hammering sounds of ark construction, the slaying of a dinosaur, one-on-one combat, men dying in battle, action on the high seas. Be with Madrazi as she meets the Creator in the depths of her soul. And now for something completely different. I am going to review a book that I did not read. But I did listen to it , narrated by Marko Malyj. No, I am not going to give you a detailed account of the action in The Coming Wrath by geologist Dr. John K. Reed, first book of the "Lost Worlds Trilogy". You can get chapter summaries here, however , and a longer overview here . The Coming Wrath could be considered a form of historical fi