Confession time: This book review was due last week. I failed to deliver. Why? I have no idea. It's on my to-do list. It just didn't get to-done.
If you'll read Disclosures! you'll discover all the truth about me and book reviews. This one is from WaterBrook/Multnomah's Blogging for Books program. Good times. Free books.
 | The Last Christian: A Novel |
A few weeks ago I read The Last Christian: A Novel by David Gregory. It was a good read, although I didn't find it quite the gripping page-turner a few others have. If you'll click the title above, you'll hit the description page including a link to download the first chapter of the book, which will be a good tease for you if you're interested.
What's to like in this book? Well, you've got adventure, in terms of people hiding from evil businessmen bent on ruling the world. You've got intrigue, with businessmen and politicians in secret alliances. You've got romance between major characters, and family dynamics, both good and bad.
The action moves well, with a few surprising twists. There are enough moments that what I expected to happen didn't happen to keep me guessing until near the end, but there were no major shockers.
I had a few difficulties with this book. The first was the depiction of Christians and their behavior. Neither the protagonist nor the Christians depicted in flashbacks were good representations of Christianity. In fact, one of the major characters of the book remembered his father's version of Christianity, which was described in detail, while there are no details given of a Christian that is not either rabidly fundamentalist or over-sheltered from life. A more balanced depiction would have been nice, but it seems the author wanted to depict the reason Christianity died out to be the fault of those two extremes.
The other difficulty was the premise. The basic description, even the title, indicates there is no Christianity left in America, yet part of the moral issue raised with the silicon brains is that people are losing their connection with God. If there are no Christians, there is no connection to lose with God. I found that a plot hole I couldn't quite escape.
In all, not a bad read. It's good look down a possible future. As a summer reading paperback, not a bad expense.
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