Showing posts with label pre-existance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pre-existance. Show all posts
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Where Angles Fall (The Great and Terrible #2)
Not as strong and intriguing as Book #1 but still powerful.
The characters have now moved from the pre-existance to their mortal lives.
Evil is lurking and calamity is brewing. The stage is being set for the final showdown.
Luke and Ammon are twin brothers, raised by LDS parents. Their father is the top war administrator for the President. Sam is their foster brother. Raised in an ugly and abusive environment and taken in by the Brightons. He becomes a skilled warrior for the U.S. Army.
Elizbeth is born in Persia. Her mother dies from her birth and she is raised by a single father, struggling in the poor country to eek out a living and love his daughter.
The insight into Satan is creepy and very realistic.
My favorite quote...
"But deomcracies, with all their beauties, are also the most fragile of governments known to man. They are delicate and weak and dependent on good. And when the people turn to darkness, their democracies are doomed, for government cannot exceed the moral worth of the people it rules. And while the economic and moral prosperity that follows freedom can provide fertile ground for the truth, history has proven that prosperity will inevitably sprout the weeds of selfishness, pride, and decay.
When the people become physically comfortable, the truth is ignored. And when they become wealthy, the truth is despised."
Rating 4 I LOVED the first one. This one hardly compares but still good.
Rating Rating PG 13 violence having to do with war. Satan and his followers attempt to entice the living, kinda creepy.
Labels:
armegedon,
Chris Stewart,
lds fiction,
lds lit,
pre-existance,
satan,
series,
twins,
war
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
The Brothers
The Great and Terrible Vol. 1 Prologue: The Brothers by Chris Stewart
This book has been on my To Read list for a few years, but I was determined not to read it until the series was out.
The battle between good and evil, between Satan and Jehovah, has been engaged. Satan is in open rebellion and has drawn away billions of spirits. It is the pre-existance. It is a time of much learning and of great decision making.
Although the book is entirely fiction and much license obviously taken, there were some extremely thought provoking conversations. Honestly I was touched by the book. I cried for most of the read (which was quite short and easy) because I could identify with the struggle to push onward and strive to live beyond mediocracy....yet feel that you never will. It gave me a lot to think about.
Here are some spine tingling good quotes.........
"To get what we want we must be subtle as snakes; ................. So go to your old friends and stand by their sides. Pretend you want to help them while whispering deceits in their ears. Only lie when you have to. Speak the truth when you can; for the truth, once it's twisted, is the most effective tool we have. Coat your lies with enough truth, and they will swallow it down." -Lucifer
"Now listen to me, people, for this is the key-evil can be twisted into virtue if you phrase it just right. Any vice is acceptable if you cloak it as an issue of freedom. Any immorality is worth fighting for if you tell them they are fighting for choice, if you wrap it in the mantle of privacy and freedom. So take their moral agency and turn it on them. But be patient...be patient...it takes time to turn the truth upside down." -Lucifer
As would happen on earth, the sad truth was that many of the Father's children were willing to stand and watch from the sides, interested but not committed, not willing to join hands with Satan, but also unwilling to dedicate themselves fully to the Son. Most would say the right things and go through the actions, but fewer were willing to make a commitment, and fewer still were willing to fight.
"You can tempt me, desert me, or cause me great pain; you can create a dark world that may cause me to fear; you can rule your world with blood and terror, that's true.
"But you can't win. And I know that. Weak as I am, with my imperfections and sins, even with all of my failings, I am stronger than you.
"I will soon have a body. And I have my agency now. I will increase in my faith and knowledge and power. I am not perfect, but I will be, and there's nothing you can do! I will become like the Father if I follow the Son. You are powerless to stop me. You can threaten and tempt and whisper lies in my ear, but you can't stop me Satan; I see that so clearly now! I can stop myself, yes, but only if I follow you."
-Ammon
The evil hand stretched its cold fingers across the dry autumn land, bringing disappointment and frustration that angered people's souls. Though unseen, it was real, real as the heat of the sun, yet cold as ice water and brittle as bone. To some it brought darkness and a thirst for hate and revenge, jealousy and a lust for power and flesh. To others it brought a simple sense of unease--a sense that something wasn't right, something deep and unknowable, a sense of distress for the future, as if something was coming, a sense of awkward discomfort, as if the world had changed and would never step back. The blackness settled like a blanket, covering the earth like black snow, falling slowly and silently until it draped the whole land.
Rating 5 Excited for the rest of the series....
Rating PG War
This book has been on my To Read list for a few years, but I was determined not to read it until the series was out.
The battle between good and evil, between Satan and Jehovah, has been engaged. Satan is in open rebellion and has drawn away billions of spirits. It is the pre-existance. It is a time of much learning and of great decision making.
Although the book is entirely fiction and much license obviously taken, there were some extremely thought provoking conversations. Honestly I was touched by the book. I cried for most of the read (which was quite short and easy) because I could identify with the struggle to push onward and strive to live beyond mediocracy....yet feel that you never will. It gave me a lot to think about.
Here are some spine tingling good quotes.........
"To get what we want we must be subtle as snakes; ................. So go to your old friends and stand by their sides. Pretend you want to help them while whispering deceits in their ears. Only lie when you have to. Speak the truth when you can; for the truth, once it's twisted, is the most effective tool we have. Coat your lies with enough truth, and they will swallow it down." -Lucifer
"Now listen to me, people, for this is the key-evil can be twisted into virtue if you phrase it just right. Any vice is acceptable if you cloak it as an issue of freedom. Any immorality is worth fighting for if you tell them they are fighting for choice, if you wrap it in the mantle of privacy and freedom. So take their moral agency and turn it on them. But be patient...be patient...it takes time to turn the truth upside down." -Lucifer
As would happen on earth, the sad truth was that many of the Father's children were willing to stand and watch from the sides, interested but not committed, not willing to join hands with Satan, but also unwilling to dedicate themselves fully to the Son. Most would say the right things and go through the actions, but fewer were willing to make a commitment, and fewer still were willing to fight.
"You can tempt me, desert me, or cause me great pain; you can create a dark world that may cause me to fear; you can rule your world with blood and terror, that's true.
"But you can't win. And I know that. Weak as I am, with my imperfections and sins, even with all of my failings, I am stronger than you.
"I will soon have a body. And I have my agency now. I will increase in my faith and knowledge and power. I am not perfect, but I will be, and there's nothing you can do! I will become like the Father if I follow the Son. You are powerless to stop me. You can threaten and tempt and whisper lies in my ear, but you can't stop me Satan; I see that so clearly now! I can stop myself, yes, but only if I follow you."
-Ammon
The evil hand stretched its cold fingers across the dry autumn land, bringing disappointment and frustration that angered people's souls. Though unseen, it was real, real as the heat of the sun, yet cold as ice water and brittle as bone. To some it brought darkness and a thirst for hate and revenge, jealousy and a lust for power and flesh. To others it brought a simple sense of unease--a sense that something wasn't right, something deep and unknowable, a sense of distress for the future, as if something was coming, a sense of awkward discomfort, as if the world had changed and would never step back. The blackness settled like a blanket, covering the earth like black snow, falling slowly and silently until it draped the whole land.
Rating 5 Excited for the rest of the series....
Rating PG War
Labels:
Chris Stewart,
evil,
lds fiction,
pre-existance,
series,
war
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