The Tulip Driven Life

In conjunction with the CSFF blog tour, I received a free review copy of this book. You can purchase Rebels from Amazon here .  Review By: Thomas F. Booher   Rebels is the third and final installment in The Safe Lands trilogy (I am pretty certain this is a trilogy). It concludes the story of Omar, Mason, and Levi, three brothers who lived off the land with their family tribes of Glenrock. It is the year 2088 and The Safe Lands, a walled city where no one can leave, have been operating for some fifty years. The Great Pandemic left most of the world without suitable drinking water, and so The Safe Lands was built at a location where drinking water was available and people could live something of a normal life. Except they do not live much of a normal life. They are Hedonists, and their economy is set up for the young to live for pleasure and do little work while the old and criminals… well they are “liberated” at age forty and enter what they call Bliss. The...

By: Thomas F. Booher Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars. Outcasts is the second book in Jill Williamson's Safe Lands series, and I have found the writing to be largely the same as the first book (for my remarks on that, go here , here , and here ). The back cover (of this advanced copy at least) will tell you what you need to know for the story. A family/tribe from Glenrock has been taken by force to the Safe Lands, where everyone has a disease that is slowly killing them, called the thin plague. The children are being held, and the women through artificial means are forced to bear children in the hopes that they are healthy and can repopulate the land.  The story revolves largely around three siblings, Levi, Mason, and Omar, who each have different personalities, strengths, and weaknesses that make it challenging for them to do what they must do. Levi is married, but the other two are dealing with romantic feelings which plays out quite well. Omar is a user, and I very ...

By: Thomas F. Booher I usually do these reviews to point out what I think is both good and bad writing. I do this so the readers and perhaps the authors themselves (if they read and are willing to consider my thoughts) can improve in their writing and storytelling. My belief is that some Christian fiction authors have fallen into certain styles of writing that are not seen as much or at all in non-Christian fiction writing. Thankfully, Jill Williamson avoids most of that in Captives. However, I was so inundated with characters and their names at the beginning of the story that I was having trouble sorting people out, let alone getting to know them and their place in the story. Maybe others can sort many characters out better than I can, but even if they can, I don't know if flooding your reader with characters up front is helpful. The story does jump from many different characters and their perspectives, so in a sense there are multiple protagonists and main characters, but o...

By: Thomas F. Booher Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars. When I review books, I have a scale in my mind, and various criteria that go into it. I keep mental notes, and sometimes write them in the margins on each page. Shortly before the halfway point of this book, I was ready to give up on it. The story moved too fast to grasp it or get a feel for the many characters. Attempting to do so felt like watching a car fly down the highway as you sit from your porch. By the time you locked onto something, the scene or characters shifted. Beyond that, the lame "cursings" uttered by Jordan drove me crazy. Worse, I didn't think Omar's (and some of the other characters') actions and reactions early in the story were true to life, which put me off.   I'll detail those concerns in subsequent posts, but I want to say that the second half of the book was vastly improved. It was almost like Jill Williamson vaped some grass, and a ten at that. The story slowed a bit, ...

In conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour, I received a free copy of this book from the publisher. Purchase The Orphan King here and The Fortress of Mist here . REVIEW: 3 OUT OF 5 STARS FOR EACH I have decided to review both of these books together since they belong together. I remember Sigmund Brouwer from when I was a kid. He had a snowboarding book out that I think I owned. Now, he has over three million books in print. Clearly he is an established author who has had success.  I can understand why from these books. I will break my review down into sections.  The Story: The story is good and super fast paced. Do I find it altogether believable? No. Do I think it hits the ball out of the park every time it swings for the fences? Not by a long shot. But Brouwer seems to be a cleanup hitter, spattering several doubles and a few home runs in his story at the cost of some strikeouts.  I think the pacing is great for someone who is wanting...