Warrior

Koren buried her face in her hands. Don’t despair! Concentrate! But too many mysteries swirled in her mind and they seemed to multiply with every passing moment. Koren looked up at the Bassilica ceiling.  Nothing but blackness met her eyes. Was that really how life worked? Humans toiled, suffered, and waited for relief, praying and hoping that someone more powerful than they would reach down from the heavens and help them. Yet so many times it seemed that no one was there, just a void where prayers drifted into the darkness and died without ever being heard. How could listen to the laments of broken men, desperate women, and starving children for so many years and not be moved to bring solace to those in bondage? And if no one in the heavens listened, what was life worth?

Book: Warrior by Bryan Davis, Zondervan Publishers, 2011

 

Genre: Fantasy

Target Audience: Boys and Girls 14 and up

Subjects: Faith and Doubt

Summary: Taushin has hatched and his control over Koren is strong. She attempts to flee for a time, but his ability to plant doubt may be strong enough to gain complete control over her. Jason is in the north discovering someone once thought dead and attempting to continue on the mission to rescue the humans from the dragons. Wallace and Elyssa are on a mission to free and feed the starving cattle children. Arxad is finding it more and more difficult to keep his word while still obeying his conscience. The dragons continue to rule and the human slaves continue to suffer as these brave souls seek ways to win the battle once and for all. But there is so much tied up in this mission, so much they still do not understand…

Notes: Confused yet? Bryan Davis packs so much into his story it’s hard to keep track of who is doing what. Not only do his characters not know what’s right and what’s wrong, the reader does not either. But that’s partly what makes this book good. The characters wrestle constantly with their doubts and faith. All of the good guys in the story are truly good guys, longing for what’s right, longing to serve the Creator, longing to heal the hurt. But what that means is very difficult to figure out. It means questioning, doubting, checking and double checking their hearts, their motives, even whether or not they’re even in control of their own thoughts or perhaps could have fallen under enchantment. It’s easy to relate to the characters as they struggle to not let doubt gain the upper hand. The quote at the top of this review is long, but does a good job showing what is at the heart of this book. This is the second in the Dragons of Starlight series – I highly recommend not reading this until you have read the first one and perhaps the first in the Master’s and Slayers series as well – the companion series focused on the same situation, but from a different character’s point of view.

Recommendation Scale: 5/5

James 1:2-6 – Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.