Friday 16 September 2011

Spirit Blade by Paeter Frandsen

Official Blurb

In a future where the government mandates the spiritual beliefs of its citizens, only a few rebellious "Seekers of Truth" remain to free the world from deception.

On his quest for meaning, Merikk follows a path that leads him across our world, and into another. Against his will he is thrown into action alongside members of the Underground Liberation, standing face to face against forces human, alien and demonic. Science fiction and the supernatural collide in a genre-bending adventure! Open your mind and then brace for impact as you discover the power of the Spirit Blade!

My Review

This is a high action story with a message.

As the blurb says, it's in the future, but not too far and the major aspect of the future outlined here, is that any religion claiming to the "only way" is outlawed. Bibles, Torah, Quoran are all banned and followers of the old faiths are ostracised and driven underground. The new religion is where "everyone is right".

I found this background highly interesting. As a Christian I can see a movement like that described starting to appear in today's world, and this story may well represent a possible future. The protagonists in this story are an underground movement that is nothing less than a group of Christians.

I opened this by stating that the story is high action, and the previous two paragraphs may have you questioning that, do not be misled. The action includes a lot of cinematic fight scenes, people leaping out of windows, gun fights, sword fights versus demons, and a dramatic pace that had me captivated.

There were a couple of moments that I thought were getting "preachy", but after due consideration I'm willing to admit they were really just advancing the character motivations so I'm not going to let that effect my rating.

The narration was sound, although a few of the "voices" sounded a bit samey. It's full of background music and sound effects that really make this book a stand-out example of how to do a good audio book.

Reading 2/3
Production 3/3
Story 3/3

Total Score 8/9

Download it from the Podiobooks
Listen to the first part

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