Sunday, April 27, 2014

Cloak of The Light by Chuck Black

Drew is caught in a world of light - just inches away from the dark

What if...there was a world beyond our vision, a world just fingertips beyond our reach? What if...our world wasn’t beyond their influence?

Tragedy and heartache seem to be waiting for Drew Carter at every turn, but college offers Drew a chance to start over—until an accident during a physics experiment leaves him blind and his genius friend, Benjamin Berg, missing.

As his sight miraculously returns, Drew discovers that the accident has heightened his neuron activity, giving him skills and sight beyond the normal man. When he begins to observe fierce invaders that no one else can see, he questions his own sanity, and so do others. But is he insane or do the invaders truly exist?

With help from Sydney Carlyle, a mysterious and elusive girl who offers encouragement through her faith, Drew searches for his missing friend, Ben, who seems to hold the key to unlocking this mystery. As the dark invaders close in, will he find the truth in time?

My review:

   If I had not known ahead of time that this was juvenile fiction, I might not have guessed by reading it. The book is longer than most Christian juvenile fiction novels, and it is written more on an adult level. The main character is 12 years old at the beginning of the book, but is 20-21 years old by the end of the book, so the main character is an adult for most of the book.

  To be honest, the only reason I picked the book to review was because there weren't many selections available for review at the time from the publisher. Of what was available, it sounded the most promising, but would not have been a book I would normally have picked up to read. But if far exceeded my expectations.

  The author created a great and likable character in Drew, the main character of the book. All through the book, he has struggles and doubts about God, which I can relate to, and is intent on doing the right thing, even when it isn't popular.

  The idea of the book is that due to an accident that temporarily blinds him, Drew is able to see what he believes to be alien invaders all over, who are trying to wreck havoc on people. No one else can see them but Drew, and he soon finds himself running for his life from these dark beings.

 I won't give too much away, but will say I caught on fairly early what these dark beings were, and found myself enjoying the story a lot. I had intended to read part of it and finish it another day, but I got into the story so much that I finished it in one sitting. This may be a book geared for juvenile readers, but I loved it. The ending, not so much, as I hate cliff-hanger endings, and it left me hoping that book two comes out soon.

 I definitely recommend it for teen readers, especially boys, but a lot of adults will enjoy it also.

About the author:


Chuck Black is the author of nine novels including the popular Kingdom Series and The Knights of Arrethtrae series. He spent eight years in the Air Force traveling the world as a communications engineer and an F-16 fighter pilot. Today, Chuck is a product design engineer and has invented or coinvented eleven patented construction products now being sold internationally. His passion in life is to serve the Lord Jesus Christ and to love his wife, Andrea, and their six children. The Blacks take their family music ministry on the road, singing Christian gospel, contemporary, and traditional songs. Chuck and his family live in North Dakota.

Cloak of The Light is available from Multonmah/Waterbrook Publishing.

Thanks to Multonmah/Waterbrook for the review copy.

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