NEW SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY REVIEWS
Reviews Of Recently Published Science Fiction And Fantasy Books
Reviewer: Forrest Schultz schultz_forrest@yahoo.com 770-583-3258
Blog Address: http://newsciencefictionandfantasyreviews.blogspot.com
REVIEWS OF THE CHIVEIS TRILOGY: SWORD, GIFT, KINGDOM
May 11, 2010
A Look at Bryan Litfin's Debut Novel The Sword
A Review of
Bryan M. Litfin The Sword (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2010)
$15.99 413 pp ISBN-13: 978-1-4335-0925-4 ISBN-10: 1-4335-0925-3
Reviewer: Forrest W. Schultz
Bryan Litfin is a theologian/church-historian who has just had his first novel published -- The Sword, which constitutes volume I of his Chiveis trilogy. The story clearly fits into the broad category of "speculative fiction", but to classify it any further is problematic. It can be regarded as science fiction in terms of background -- almost the entire population of the world is wiped out by the combination of a super-deadly new virus and advanced nuclear weaponry. The few survivors create a new civilization resembling that of the medieval period, which provides the ambience for the story, which is somewhat similar to an Arthurian fantasy, e.g. the sword referred to in the title is similar in some respects to Excalibur. BUT, there is a big difference because the disenchantment of the world, which was produced by modernity, continues into the days of Chiveis. Although the people re-created medieval structures, they did not re-create an enchanted cosmos.
This is dramatically shown in the actions of the Chiveis priests, who do not DO magic or believe in magic, but actually use explosives to cause catastrophes which they attribute to the supernatural activity of their god (Astrebril), thus indicating that the story, at least in this respect, is not really a fantasy. Because the populace is duped into thinking supernatural acts of a god have occurred, the story can be considered a fantasy in that sense, but not in terms of what really is happening. In fact, it could even be considered as science fiction -- for that age -- because at that time the knowledge of explosives had been lost and was known only to the priests who read about them in what to them were "ancient" documents. There are lots of adventures but it is not actually an adventure story, and there is some Romance but it is not a Romance novel.
One thing which can definitely be said about the novel is that it is a spiritual warfare story. Cheveis was founded under the inspiration of Satan by wicked rulers who are strongly opposed to God and who keep it a secret that many of the "ancients" believed in God and who become enraged when one of the heroes, Teofil, discovers a Bible, which leads to the formation of a small christian circle who meet surreptitiously. And the spiritual warfare is also found within this circle as well because two of the members begin propounding ideas similar to gnosticism, which was a very great danger in the early church and one which is well known to the author, who is an authority in patristics.
The story is full of fast-paced action, interesting characters, and intriguing concepts, and the unexpected. It has a dramatic ending which resolves what looked like an impossible situation and has the reader anxious to read the next volume to see what will happen next. The language and story is explicitly Christian, and the actions contain many illustrations of spiritual principles. The Lost Genre Guild regards The Sword as Christian speculative fiction, and has posted a brief notice of the book on its blog. Litfin has created a website for the book www.chiveis.com.
July 7, 2011
The Quest For Christ and the NT in a Post-Apocalyptic Future
A review of
Bryan Litfin The Gift [Book 2 of The Chiveis Trilogy] (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2011)
411 pp $15.99 ISBN-13: 978-1-4335-2516-2 ISBN-10: 1-4335-2516-X
Reviewer: Forrest W. Schultz
Like any good story, this novel is full of interesting and well-depicted characters and places and events, which have some similarities to other good tales, but none of which are copied. And, if you like adventures and battles, there are plenty of them also. And, like any good work of Christian fiction, this one has plenty of spiritual struggles and several sudden striking Providential twists, including a totally unexpected event where God uses the poor and the outcasts to confound the powerful and the wealthy.
These features alone would make this a worthwhile "read". But what is especially striking, and, as far as I know, unique to The Gift, is the christological discussions by the christians in it who are living in a distant future in which almost all knowledge of christianity has disappeared, mainly from a series of catastrophic events which almost wiped out the human race. These christians know that there is a New Testament but they do not have it: they only have the Old Testament. From this and from the meagre historical knowledge available to them they know that someone named Jesus lived and is the Pierced One of Isaiah 53 but they know almost nothing of His Life and of the doctrine of salvation and they are puzzled about the relationship between Him and the OT prophecies of a Messianic King.
Although this certainly is not a romance novel, there is running as an undercurrent throught this book and its predecessor, a sort of incipient, potential romance between the two main characters, Teofil and Anastasia, who takes turns rescusing each other from danger. It is not until the conclusion of this story that they finally get it out into the open. It will probably have a hard time developing because it looks like providential events will cause their separation at the opening of Book 3, which will be published next year.
The author is a Professor at Moody Bible Institute, which, until fairly recently, would have seemed like a surprise because in the past Bible Colleges and dispensationalists generally had no concern for world and life view. Bryan Litfin is a good illustrative example of the new face dispe has acquired since its development of a concern for the arts and other facets of the Christian world view.
July 9, 2012
Adventures Galore !!!
A review of
Bryan Litfin The Kingdom -- Book Three of the Chiveis Trilogy (Crossway, 2012)
$15.99 448 pp ISBN-10: 1433525208 ISBN-13: 978-1433525209
Reviewer: Forrest W. Schultz
This climactic volume of Bryan Litfin's fantasy trilogy is even more packed with adventures -- both of the usual kind and of adventures in learning -- than the first two books. I am going to depart from my usual practice in writing reviews by making this one very short so as to place especial emphasis on what is great about this book -- it is a very well written tale of all kinds of adventures focussing on the two main characters Ana and Teo, and it is best summed up by this exclamation by Ana of her joy in her man, Teo at the conclusion of their story: "Life with you is one big adventure, Captain!".
Please reread that and then go out and get this book, which will make a great summer read!
For some good info, please visit http://www.chiveis.com/.
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