Michael Steele is a popular actor with a problem: he's a Christian in a non-Christian workplace. Temptations stalk him at every turn and threaten to take away his purity.
God and Satan have made a wager: can Michael follow every point in the Sermon on the Mount without failing? God alerts Michael of this proposition by playing verses from the Sermon on the Mount through radios and TVs.
The biggest problem with this book is its straight-forwardness. It's all too clear cut and sermon-like in its execution. Everything happens in consecutive fashion without plot twists or surprises.
Michael completes each test over and over again. He's nothing short of a perfect character. None of the other characters are any good either.
Because of the book's lack of plot twists, the novel is basically a novella. It's very short; less than 200 pages long. I think Myers could have made it longer with better characters and more plot twists. As it is, it's just a long sermon illustration.
There's not really much else to say about this book because of its length. I think Bill Myers can do better than this.
1.5 stars
Showing posts with label bill myers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bill myers. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Angel of Wrath by Bill Myers
Bill Myers is an old dog who needs to learn new tricks. Either that, or retire.
Charlie, Lisa, and Jazmine from The Voice are back with a new case on their hands: members of a certain mega church are dying for sins in their past. The killer is relentless, and they are working overtime to discover the culprit in time.
A coven of teenagers are playing with things they don't understand. In their quest to bring the end by purging the church of evil, the open a Pandora's Box and unleash something they can't control.
Among the myriad of issues pushed throughout this book, the one that seems to stand out among the rest is worship used as warfare, like King Jehoshaphat did. While this sounds interesting, it becomes a CRT for the final showdown.
Of a book could be worse than The Voice, than Angel of Wrath is that book. Aside from less than average characters, the supernatural themes are all to familiar to other books.
As I've said before, supernatural is just a nice name for Christian horror. That's what "supernatural" really means anyway.
The final showdown was hardly bearable. You can imagine what it was like-screaming demons, attempted exorcism, Bible verses, and, of all things, singing.
I don't want to be cruel but Bill Myers really needs to stop writing before he embarrasses himself further.
1 star
Charlie, Lisa, and Jazmine from The Voice are back with a new case on their hands: members of a certain mega church are dying for sins in their past. The killer is relentless, and they are working overtime to discover the culprit in time.
A coven of teenagers are playing with things they don't understand. In their quest to bring the end by purging the church of evil, the open a Pandora's Box and unleash something they can't control.
Among the myriad of issues pushed throughout this book, the one that seems to stand out among the rest is worship used as warfare, like King Jehoshaphat did. While this sounds interesting, it becomes a CRT for the final showdown.
Of a book could be worse than The Voice, than Angel of Wrath is that book. Aside from less than average characters, the supernatural themes are all to familiar to other books.
As I've said before, supernatural is just a nice name for Christian horror. That's what "supernatural" really means anyway.
The final showdown was hardly bearable. You can imagine what it was like-screaming demons, attempted exorcism, Bible verses, and, of all things, singing.
I don't want to be cruel but Bill Myers really needs to stop writing before he embarrasses himself further.
1 star
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
When the Last Leaf Falls by Bill Myers
Pastor Paul Newcomb's seventeen-year-old daughter is in the hospital with bone cancer. She's just gone through the third stage of chemotherapy, and things aren't looking good. While Ally is in a coma, Paul takes that time to ask God why and to reminisce a little about his oldest child.
The book is full of interesting and entertaining memories. Most of them are comedic, thus being the product of well-developed characters. But the truth really is, Paul and Ally are the only good characters in the book. The others are either perfect or background.
In my opinion, the book is entirely too short. It contains 137 pages, each only a little larger than a passport. I think the book and characters could have been better if the book had been a long epic. More memories is what it needed. This equals better characters and more pages.
The end is fairly stupid, destroying the whole point behind the book. They kept saying "in her death God will be glorified" but that never held true. Everything turned out perfectly at the end, more than it needed to be.
There's not really much else to say about this book since it's so short. While I found many of memories to be funny and realistic at the same time, I think Bill Myers abused this idea.
2 stars
The book is full of interesting and entertaining memories. Most of them are comedic, thus being the product of well-developed characters. But the truth really is, Paul and Ally are the only good characters in the book. The others are either perfect or background.
In my opinion, the book is entirely too short. It contains 137 pages, each only a little larger than a passport. I think the book and characters could have been better if the book had been a long epic. More memories is what it needed. This equals better characters and more pages.
The end is fairly stupid, destroying the whole point behind the book. They kept saying "in her death God will be glorified" but that never held true. Everything turned out perfectly at the end, more than it needed to be.
There's not really much else to say about this book since it's so short. While I found many of memories to be funny and realistic at the same time, I think Bill Myers abused this idea.
2 stars
The Voice by Bill Myers
FBI agent Charlie Madison has just taken in his thirteen-year-old niece Jazmine since her parents has been kidnapped by Muslim terrorists because of something they posses: a recording of the voice of God. The only problem is, no one knows where the recording is.
Charlie and Jazmine join forces with Lisa, another FBI agent to try and find Jazmine's parents and the recording. The result is a globetrotting adventure.
The fact that anyone could actually record the voice of God is absurd. Jazmine's parents did it by working all kinds of formulas or something.
It's a good thing the book was short because I couldn't have stood anymore international suspense than there was. Not only that, but the whole book was absurd.
To fill time, the characters go off on this tangent about being kidnapped by Muslims who lead them to the site of Mt. Sinai.
The characters struggle to be realistic. Charlie Madison is almost a good character, but the book is too short for him to develop any real personality. Jazmine is semi-interesting, if not a little stereotypical for a teenage girl. None of the other characters had any hope, however.
When the recording if the voice of God is played, very sensational things begin to happen. I won't go into any detail here because it would make the review too long.
There is one original thing that occurs in the plot, but it's drowned out by all the nonsense.
It might be time for Bill Myers to put the pencil down and retire.
1.5 stars
Charlie and Jazmine join forces with Lisa, another FBI agent to try and find Jazmine's parents and the recording. The result is a globetrotting adventure.
The fact that anyone could actually record the voice of God is absurd. Jazmine's parents did it by working all kinds of formulas or something.
It's a good thing the book was short because I couldn't have stood anymore international suspense than there was. Not only that, but the whole book was absurd.
To fill time, the characters go off on this tangent about being kidnapped by Muslims who lead them to the site of Mt. Sinai.
The characters struggle to be realistic. Charlie Madison is almost a good character, but the book is too short for him to develop any real personality. Jazmine is semi-interesting, if not a little stereotypical for a teenage girl. None of the other characters had any hope, however.
When the recording if the voice of God is played, very sensational things begin to happen. I won't go into any detail here because it would make the review too long.
There is one original thing that occurs in the plot, but it's drowned out by all the nonsense.
It might be time for Bill Myers to put the pencil down and retire.
1.5 stars
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Eli by Bill Myers
The best thing about Eli is its originality. Though the Lawhead brothers copied this idea with City of Dreams, Eli was the first of its kind: a modern day version of the story of Jesus.
When an atheist reporter is injured in a car wreck, he is jolted into another world where there is no Christ or Savior to save them or cover their sins. Once he meets that world's Messiah, he begins following him as a disciple. It's interesting how Bill comes up with interesting equivalents to the miracles Jesus preforms. And while there is the potential to be a romantic subplot, Bill doesn't pursue it.
This isn't the kind of book for characters, so I can't really judge that area of the book.
This is probably Myers' best book because he didn't try to do something weird or spiritually off-the-wall. This book is worth your time, and if you haven't read it, read it very soon.
4 stars
When an atheist reporter is injured in a car wreck, he is jolted into another world where there is no Christ or Savior to save them or cover their sins. Once he meets that world's Messiah, he begins following him as a disciple. It's interesting how Bill comes up with interesting equivalents to the miracles Jesus preforms. And while there is the potential to be a romantic subplot, Bill doesn't pursue it.
This isn't the kind of book for characters, so I can't really judge that area of the book.
This is probably Myers' best book because he didn't try to do something weird or spiritually off-the-wall. This book is worth your time, and if you haven't read it, read it very soon.
4 stars
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