A Weight of Reckoning: Sequel to the Seven Words by C.S. Wachter. Shadowfall Publishing. 402 pages.
As I’ve mentioned several times before in this blog, I’m a member of a thread on Goodreads where authors of Christian Speculative Fiction share their work with each other. In addition to getting other professionals to read my work and review it, I get the opportunity to see what other people are doing. As I’ve told students in my classes and in our writer’s club, you get more by critiquing other people’s work than you get by having yours critiqued.
The other joy is discovering authors you weren’t familiar with that you actually enjoy reading. We’ve started a new round of reviews and the first one was by Chris Wachter, the second in a series entitled “A Weight of Reckoning.” Here is the Amazon summary:
Sigmund’s cult of scroll worship has grown strong since Rayne, by the power of the One, bound and banished the demons. Now, with a unified presence on Nemora, Seth Hamlin and his United Scrolls of Ochen are close to opening the way for the demonic forces to return. With only a few weeks remaining before his long-awaited wedding, Rayne is, once again, targeted for evil purposes. Will he survive the darkness that seeks to destroy his hope long enough to bring the evil sacrifices to an end?
This is a great, well-built story in the genre of elf-dwarf-sword-and-magic fantasy stories. As is mentioned in the title, it’s the second in the series, so it jumps right into the action. There are several maps at the beginning, and an extensive list of characters at the start tends to be a bit intimidating. The story is epic, involving several planets in a solar system, and the use of magic on several of them.
What is done well is the world building. Wachter is a master of description, and creates worlds that are unique and intriguing. You can vividly see every scene, every location, every character. In addition, for a Christian novel, she is able to weave spirituality and magic in a way that doesn’t seem odd or unacceptable.
What I struggled with was the fact that this epic covered so much territory and so many characters, and because it did, it didn’t allow as much opportunity to get into the personal struggles of the main characters. I would have liked to spend more time with Prince Rayne and his fiancee, but perhaps because it’s the second in the series, I should read the first one to get my character fix.
In any case, this is a good book, especially for those who enjoy the genre, and especially, especially for Christians who are looking for a spiritual angle to that genre.
Four and a half stars out of five.
The Great Adventure 