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 Campus Life, June/July 2007
Cool Reads
Thrillers, mysteries and science fiction to read this summer.
by Kate E. Schmelzer
SCIENCE FICTION
The year is 2012 and Christianity is outlawed. Praying, worshiping God, sharing faith, and attending church are all punishable by prison or even death. In the futuristic tale The Tattooed Rats (Integrity) by Jerry B. Jenkins (co-author of the Left Behind Series) and John Perrodin, 15-year-old Patch Johnson and his family must go underground to practice their beliefs. But the abandoned store where the family worships is raided. Patch's parents and sister are killed. Suddenly, Patch is running from the government and trying to find other believersand that's when he runs into a tattoo-covered gang called the Wharf Rats. Can they be trusted? Find out in this first book of the Renegade Spirit series.
SPIRITUAL CLASSIC
In the 350-year-old timeless tale, The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan, a man named Christian leaves behind the City of Destruction and heads toward the Celestial City. But Christian's journey down the road of life is anything but straight and easy. And, if we're honest, it's pretty much the story of all of us who follow Christ. Bunyan's powerful allegory has now been condensed and retold in modern-day language in The Most Difficult Journey You'll Ever Make: The Pilgrim's Progress (Paraclete). Divided into 23 manageable chapters, with a helpful introduction and notes throughout, this newly released retelling provides an entertaining, very readable update of Bunyan's awesome classic.
LIFE ISSUES
When her parents divorce, Lily chooses to live with her mother. Her 8-year-old brother Michael chooses to live with their father. When Lily receives a frantic call from her little brother, she discovers he's been abandoned by their father and desperately needs help. Suddenly, all those old feelings of anger and hatred for her dad overwhelm her. In A Friend at Midnight (WaterBrook), novelist Caroline B. Cooney writes: "Who could have guessed that hate would be so fierce, so alive.
Hate was a burning wilderness. It occupied [Lily] like an army." Refusing to offer easy answers and simple solutions to complex problems, A Friend at Midnight explores what it means to hate, love, forgive and trust God when trust seems like the last thing you want to do.
THRILLER
In Rescued (Bethany) by John Bevere and Mark Andrew Olsen, a fun submarine excursion turns into a deadly nightmare when an underwater accident threatens the life of Pastor Alan Rockaway. As time is quickly running out, Alan's teenage son frantically searches for a way to save his father's life. But physical death is far from the real issue facing Alan Rockaway. It's what lies beyond death that really matters most in this thrilling modern-day parable about heaven and hell.
MYSTERY
Hoping to start a new life and escape his violent, gang-related past, Aramis Black opens an espresso bar in downtown Nashville. But his plans for a quiet, normal life are quickly destroyed when a man is shot to death in his coffee shop. And that's how novelist Eric Wilson begins his suspenseful thriller, The Best of Evil (WaterBrook). Danger soon turns to intrigue and mystery as the dying man utters the very same words Aramis' mother spoke before she diedalso the victim of murder. Soon, Aramis is caught up in a deadly conspiracy that leads him to look to the pastall the way back to American history's Meriwether Clark and treasure buried long ago. As he begins to uncover the terrible truth about his mother's death, Aramis struggles to not only stay alive but to also put past evils behind him. This is the first book in the Aramis Black Mystery series.
Copyright © 2007 by the author or Christianity Today International/Ignite Your Faith magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Ignite Your Faith.
June/July 2007, Vol. 66, No. 3, Page 32
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