Tag: Frank Peretti

What's the first Christian novel you remember reading?

Bookish Question #333 | What’s the first Christian novel you remember reading?

I read all the Narnia books as a child, but they were never specifically written or marketed as Christian fiction, so I don’t think they count.

I also read and enjoyed Joni by Joni Eareckson in my early teens (so only a few years after it was first published in 1976). That’s definitely Christian, but is nonfiction so definitely doesn’t count.

The first overtly Christian novel I remember reading was This Present Darkness by Frank Peretti, which I read when I was about eighteen. My aunt bought it and loaned it to my mother (who never read it). I read it and the sequel, Piercing the Darkness, and the duology got me started on many happy years reading Christian fiction.

What about you? What’s the first Christian novel you remember reading?

What's a novel that made you think?

Bookish Question #327 | What’s a novel that made you think?

Most of the time I read to be entertained, not to think. But some novels manage to do both at the same time, which is great.

Kaleidoscpe Eyes by Karen Ball introduced me to synesthesia, which colours (literally) the way some people see. I wonder if this is where the New Age ideas around auras came from.

This Present Darkness by Frank Peretti introduced me (and millions of other Christians) to the concept of spiritual warfare.

Confessions of a Teenage Hermaphrodite by Lianne Simon challenged the way I understood gender and challenges of birth.

Everywhere to Hide by Siri Mitchell introduced me to face blindness (which made for a great plot point for a suspense novel).

What about you? What’s a novel that made you think?

What's the first Christian book you remember reading as an adult?

Bookish Question #296 | What’s the first Christian book you remember reading as an adult?

I didn’t grow up in a Christian home, so didn’t read a lot of Christian books as a child except for the illustrated Children’s Bible my aunt bought me when I was around eight.

I didn’t read a lot for pleasure during university, even though I lived relatively close to an excellent Christian bookshop.

In hindsight, lack of funds might have had something to do with that …

However, once I started work, I also started visiting the Christian bookshop at lunchtime. And that introduced me to Christian fiction, which I have read voraciously ever since.

Here are three of the earliest Christian novels I remember reading:

This Present Darkness by Frank Peretti (recommended by the aunt who bought me the Children’s Bible), which opened my eyes to the realities of spiritual warfare.

A Voice in the Wind by Francine Rivers (recommended by my pastor), which my pastor loaned me, and which got me completely hooked on Christian fiction.

Search for Tomorrow by Mary Hawkins, the first Christian novel I read by an Australian author, and one of the first Christian romances I ever read. I guess that means I can credit/blame Mary Hawkins for my subsequent addiction?

What’s the first Christian book you can remember reading as an adult?

Do you reread?

Bookish Question #16 | Do you reread?

I’m a reader. Obviously. I figure you are as well—I mostly post about books and bookish things, so that makes sense.

But are you a rereader? Do you read and reread your favourite books?

I used to. As a child, there were a lot of books at home. There was a school library, and my mother took me to the town library once every week or so (although back then we were only allowed to borrow three books). So there were always new books for me to read. But I’d usually run out of new books to read between trips to the library.

So I’d reread.

Rereading favourites books continued into my grown-up years, especially once I started reading Christian fiction. At that time, there wasn’t a lot of Christian fiction around and I don’t think there was any in my local library. So I’d visit the local Christian bookshop (conveniently located a five-minute walk from work), and check out what was new. These books I read and reread—Frank Peretti, Janette Oke, Linda Chaikin, Donna Fletcher Crow, Michael Phillips.

Then the world changed.

Amazon invented the Kindle, and other ereaders followed. With the Kindle, the Kobo, the Nook and others came a never-ending stream of new books, often free and always cheaper than the $25-$30 I was used to paying for Christian paperbacks here in New Zealand.

Now my reading habits have changed. I rarely re-read, because I hesitate reading an ‘old’ book—even a favourite—when there is always a new book, a potential new favourite, waiting on my Kindle.

What about you? Do you re-read?

Book Review: Illusion by Frank Peretti

If you’ve signed up for my monthly Newsletter, you’ll already have receive my entirely biased list of 50 novels from my favourite Christian authors. If you haven’t, sign up on the right!

Today I’m reviewing Illusion by Frank Peretti, who practically invented the modern Christian speculative fiction genre with This Present Darkness.

Illusion

Mandy’s death in a car accident means the end of her forty-year career in magic.

Or does it? Because Mandy is not dead. She’s nineteen again, but nineteen in 2010, not the 1970 she remembers. Mandy struggles to adjust to modern life, trying to practice her father’s advice: when life hands you lemons, make lemonade. Meanwhile, husband Dane is struggling to adjust to life without his wife … until one day he sees a young magician who reminds him of a young version of Mandy.

As is typical of a Peretti novel, nothing is what it seems. Characters that appeared harmless at first then appear to have some ulterior motive. There is Mandy’s new manager, who helps her get a valid social security number. There is also the mysterious Mr Stone and Mr Mortimer, who appear at Mandy’s funeral, then follow Dane to his new home in northern Idaho to spy on him.

And underneath, there is the mystery of how a dead woman has suddenly appeared again, forty years younger. It’s like there is more than one Mandy, but she is real because she eats and sleeps and talks. And other people talk to her, so it’s not like she’s a ghost – just a teenager in 2010 who only knows the sixties songs and slang.

I try not to read other people’s reviews before I read a book for review, because I don’t want to be influenced by someone else’s ideas. But I did happen to glimpse a couple of reviews before starting to read Illusion, and one commented that they found the beginning of the book confusing.

Well, yes, it was. But I think that was the intention.

Just imagine it. One moment you’re nineteen and enjoying the County Fair with your friends. You sit down to eat lunch, and the next thing you know, the Fair has vanished, everything that is familiar is gone, and people are talking into small plastic boxes and telling you it is 2010 when you know it is 1970. What’s not to be confused about?

So, yes, Illusion was confusing.

It was also engaging and intriguing and I wavered between trying to work out who was who and exactly what was happening, and just wanting to read more and read faster so I could find out for myself. And weird things keep happening. Illusionis not a spiritual warfare novel like Peretti’s early Darkness novels, but it is a fast-paced thriller with a touch of science fiction, albeit from a Christian point of view. I was reading at night and found it hard to keep my eyes open, but even harder to stop reading. Recommended.

Thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.