Great escape reading: the best new Christian fiction

REVIEWS BY W. TERRY WHALIN

Fiction has been one of the fastest-growing areas of the Christian book market. Each year, the variety and quality of the writing improves, and whatever your reading preference, you're sure to find something inspiring.

With a four million print run, the 12th installment of Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins' Left Behind series, Glorious Appearing: The End of Days is the biggest event in Christian publishing this year. At the end of Book 11, two central characters in the series, writer Cameron "Buck" Williams and former 747 pilot Rayford Steele, were each in dire straits. Williams was last seen defending the Old City Wall in Jerusalem and Steele was on assignment at Petra. Glorious Appearing moves quickly to the return of Jesus Christ and the long-awaited confrontation between the evil Nicolae Jetty Carpathia and the Christians.


Between two worlds

In Ted Dekker's latest novel, Black, Thomas Hunter is running away from attackers in Denver when a bullet clips him and his world goes black. He wakes up in another world with a green forest and meets a beautiful woman, Rachelle. In this other world, Hunter learns things he could not possibly know—such as the creation of the Raison virus by an evil industrialist who plans to use it to dominate world leaders. Each time Hunter sleeps, he moves between the two worlds, and becomes increasingly uncertain about which one is real. With a story reminiscent of The Matrix or The Lord of the Rings, Black will amaze readers as unexpected connections between the worlds are revealed. Expected to be a hit in both the Christian and secular markets, Black is the first part of a trilogy—the next entries, Red and White, will be published later this year.


Finding hope

In the opening pages of Sharon Baldacci's A Sundog Moment, Elizabeth Whittaker is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Suddenly her seemingly perfect life is thrown into turmoil. As she struggles with the disease, Elizabeth joins a support group and learns to find the sundog moments in life—moments "filled with clarity and truth." But the chronic pain of MS leads Elizabeth into a life-changing decision when she is arrested for trying to obtain illegal drugs. This carefully crafted first novel from Baldacci, sister of best-selling novelist David Baldacci, draws from her 21 years of living with MS.


Biblical drama

Best known for his nonfiction bestseller The God Chasers, Tommy Tenney has combined forces with writer Mark Andrew Olson to create his first novel, Hadassah: One Night with the King. Tenney develops the Old Testament tale of Queen Esther into an action-packed historical novel about how this remarkable young Jewish woman became the wife of the king of Persia and foiled a plot to kill her people. This intergenerational novel will transport the reader from the present to the past and back again.


Author and editor W. Terry Whalin has always loved a good story.

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