Inspirational novels chart new frontiers

REVIEWS BY MIKE PARKER

CHRISTIAN FICTION

In the past, with a few notable exceptions, Christian fiction has been agenda-driven. "An author wanted to make a point so he created characters and events and wrapped them around the moral lesson he wanted to teach," explains Cheryl Green of Tyndale House. "But today's Christian doesn't buy fiction for its ability to teach a lesson. They buy fiction for its entertainment value."

And today's Christian author is not afraid to travel the world in search of a great story. From the windswept deserts of the Australian outback to the savannas of East Africa, setting, character and story provide compelling reasons to pick up the latest in Christian fiction.

No rules, just confused

Stockbroker-turned-missionary Jay Jarvis knows a balance sheet when he sees one and he truly believes in the equation, Woman + Australia + Ring with Big, Shiny Rock Attached = Good Plan. But as with many start-up companies—and what is marriage if not a start-up?—there are a lot of unexpected monkey wrenches that weren't factored into Jarvis' equation. Like a trip off the beaten path with no means of communication with the outside world. And a smashed oil pan that leaves Jay and Allie stranded with little water. And indigenous marsupials that seem happy to lead them on a wild 'roo chase.

Lost in Rooville may not be as laugh-out-loud funny as its two predecessors (2003's Flabbergasted and last year's Delirious Summer), but it is consistently humorous, often poignant and ultimately a satisfying conclusion to Ray Blackston's trilogy on the foibles of the Christian single life.


Ripped from the headlines

When famine, civil war, racial hatred, ethnic cleansing, the slave trade and religious intolerance combine forces as the backdrop for romance and redemption, you know you've got the makings of a page-turner. In the compelling When the Lion Roars, author DiAnn Mills uses the complex and under-reported Sudanese Civil War as a foil for the character journeys of three mule-headed revolutionaries—a doctor from the American Midwest, an Arab Christian convert from the Sudanese royal family and a Southern Sudanese army colonel with independence on his mind. These three have little in common, other than a connection to the colonel's 16-year-old sister, Rachel. When she is kidnapped, they must overcome their mistrust and prejudice and learn to depend on each other if they want to see Rachel alive again.


Southern discomfort

The transition from blueblood to redneck may be devastating to the strongest man or woman. But when you are a 15-year-old debutante, there are only two options—sink or swim. When DeVeaux DeLoach is faced with giving up Junior Cotillion, St. Mary's Boarding School in Richmond and the family's imposing Rose Hill Plantation home, she attempts to embrace her new reality rather than dwell on what might have been.

Writing from the viewpoint of a girl on the verge of womanhood, Beth Webb Hart captures the heart and soul of the low country, just outside of Charleston's genteel view in Grace at Low Tide. Hart refuses to sidestep the myriad landmines of adolescence, from peer pressure, emerging sexuality, drug and alcohol abuse and the strains of a family in transition. She has created characters that are full-bodied and resonant, and the story moves crisply, interrupted only when she pauses to quote scripture too perfectly.


Let there be dark

It is easy to fantasize about a time before life got so complicated, the simpler days when you weren't constantly bombarded by depressing news from the television, the crushing debt required to keep up with the Joneses and the impending threat of war and terrorist attacks. But what if you were forced to live it?

Terri Blackstock's latest thriller, Last Light, postulates what might happen if an unexplained atmospheric disturbance suddenly knocked out all power, worldwide. No electricity. No telecommunications. No computers. It is a brave new world, where everything is reduced to animal instinct, human cunning and divine intervention. Last Light is a thought-provoking thriller that will have you second-guessing your own ability to survive in a world without modern conveniences.


Mike Parker is a former pastor who writes from Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

© 2005 ProMotion, inc.
www@bookpage.com