Darkness Falls by Kyle Mills; 2007; Vanguard Press, Philadelphia, PA; 301 pages; 978-1-59315-459-2; 12/30-12/31

Erin Neal develops a bacteria to eat oil to help clean up oil slicks and other environmental disasters. His girlfriend falls in with some radical environmentalists, I won’t call them eco-terrorists because one mans’ terrorist is another’s freedom fighter, who take the bacteria and refine to eat any and all petroleum products. Once the bacteria is discovered former FBI agent Mark Beamon must discover what is going on and track down the bad guys. His biggest obstacle may not be the bad guys, but the politicians who want to spin everything to get elected, instead of admitting the reality of the situation. Once again Kyle Mills has written an exciting page turner. RRRR

Stone Cold by David Baldacci; 2007; Grand Central Publishing, New York, NY; 388 pages; 978-0-446-57739-1; 12/29-12/29

Years ago a beautiful Russian spy met, fell in love and married an American spy. He turned her and under orders from their handlers they murdered a couple of Russian leaders, whose deaths hastened the breakup of the Soviet Union. Those same handlers afraid that word might get out, gave orders to another group of assassins to kill the couple. They succeeded in killing one of them, unknown to the handlers the other parent raised their child on the details of the betrayal. The child grew up to be a Navy Seal and a valued member of a Red Cell (modeled on the Rogue Warrior, Richard Marcinko). He takes vengeance on those who were complicit in the assassination of his parent.

Meanwhile Oliver Stone (no, not the movie director) who is a former government assassin, yes he was complicit in the aforementioned death and his friends, The Camel Club are helping another friend. This friend has run afoul of an unscrupulous Atlantic City Casino boss, who is at best cruel and at worst psychopathic. Ultimately the two stories intertwine and ultimately the only real enemy is the bad apples in the CIA and their troops whom are only following orders, as they say. There are previous stories of the Camel Club, this one is somewhat reminiscent of National Treasures 2, but Stone Cold stands alone as a great action adventure novel. RRRR

Auralia’s Colors, the Red Strand of the Auralia thread; by Jeffery Overstreet; 2007; Waterbrook Press, Colorado Springs, CO; 334 pages; 0-978-1-40007252-1; 12/22-12/29

I was looking forward to this book for several reasons, the friend who recommended it had never steered me wrong before, the author went to the same high school my brother did and he thanked one of my brothers favorite teachers. To say I was disappointed would be putting it mildly.

There are flashes of great story telling here and there, but overall it was like reading something that was written by a committee. The transitions between chapters and even scenes was choppy and caused me to reread to see if I missed the segue between events. There was too much back-story for some characters and not enough for others, or the back-story came too late in the story. The story felt disjointed and oddly told, it may make sense when connected to the other threads, but each book should stand alone. R

Colossians Remixed, Subverting the Empire by Brian J. Walsh and Sylvia C. Keesmaat; 2004; Inter Varsity Press, Downers Grove, IL; 256 pages; 0-8308-2738-2; 12/9-12/22

Then read this book. Three weeks ago Randy Shaw taught at Mosaic Church in Portland about resisting the empire as it relates to Christmas, and he used this book as source material. After the teaching he recommended that I read the book and a week later I borrowed a copy from the worship leader, Jason Tarka.

This is a commentary on Colossians that isn’t really a commentary, it very effectively shows how what was happening Colossae is really not much different than what is happening here, now. It draws parallels between the Roman empire and Pax Americana, how the worship of Caesar is not that different than the current worship of corporations. This is a great book, however occassionally it veers into intellectual land and almost falls under it’s own very intellectual language. RRr

Ranger’s Apprentice, Book 7, Erak’s Ransom by John Flanagan; 2007; Random House Australia, North Sdyney, NSW; 441 pages; 978-1-7416-209-2; 12/5-12/9

A big shout out to Zach and Amanda Banker for introducing me to this series of books. Amanda told me that she got so into the book that she forgot that she knew what was ahead. What I mean is this is Book 7 but chronologically it falls between Books 4 and 5, so therefore you know who survives and such.

A celebration for Halt and Lady Pauline is interrupted by the sudden appearance of Will’s old Skandian friend Svengal asking King Duncan for help. It seems the Oberjal of Skandia, Erak has been kidnapped and is being held for ransom. It seems there is political intrigue afoot in Skandia, so there is no help at home. King Duncan agrees to help and sends, Halt, Will, Gillian, Horace, and Cassandra to help ransom and rescue. Through the adventure everyone involved is in need of being rescued and also seems to spend some time rescuing someone else. We are introduced to several countries and their inhabitants and leadership, both good and bad.

Like Amanda said I got so involved in the good writing that I forgot who was in books 5 and 6 and feared for them. John Flanagan is such a good writer that I was completely drawn into the adventure he wrote, with no regard for the future that I have already read.

I would recommend this to anyone who likes J.R.R. Tolkien, or Steve Lawhead, or C.S. Lewis or Phillip Pullman. It is an engaging tale of good vs. evil. The bad news is that only the first three volumes are available in the United States, luckily for me Zach and Amanda order them from Australia and let me read them. RRRR