The Last Christian & King Raven

I failed to win The Last Christian in the book give-away a couple of weeks ago, but I scored a quick read of it today when KB bought it and brought it home to pack for her trip to campaign camp. She leaves in the morning so I had to read fast. Really fast. Which I do.

Singularity ( you can read more about it http://www.singularity.com/ & http://mindstalk.net/vinge/vinge-sing.html ) a concept we are familiar with here, living with Geek Man and all. This book is a look at where Virtual reality, tolerance, and the Matrix will take us. An interesting commentary covering lots of bases, including Barna's research, Artificial Intelligence, the Matrix and Economic trends. It was a bit to TeDekkerish for me at points but still believable. A good read, a prophetic warning perhaps, with a good message to the church. Be relevant. Be real. Live Truth.

Also read Tuck, the final installment in the King Raven trilogy by Stephen Lawhead. Lawhead is a master story-teller. He's one of my favs all because of his little Rhi Bran y Hud trilogy. Robin Hood's been read around here for many a year as our first dd, a precocious reader, was infatuated with him. We have several versions, ranging from easy readers to weighty tomes. This is one of the best. At the end of the book you'll feel like you've sat at a sumptuous feast and eaten well, satisfied and full. It's a classic tale, masterfully told with deep truths woven throughout.

There is a fascinating Author's Note at the end titled "The High Cost of Heaven" with a brief history lesson of the Battle of Agincourt and the importance of the longbow in battle.

About the importance of the longbow, Lawhead writes, "But it was, perhaps, the most powerful demonstration of a now little remembered law of medieval combat-namely, that when two opposing forces met, those with the most archers would invariably win. A sort of corollary stated that when both sides boasted roughly the same number of archers, the side with the most Welsh archer would win. Such was the highly recognized talent of Cymry with the longbow, and their renowned fighting spirit."

This trilogy takes that law of medieval combat and puts flesh to it. An excellent trilogy. Highly recommended.