Echoes from the Edge: Beyond the Reflection’s Edge by Bryan DavisPublisher: Zondervan®
Summery:
[From Amazon.com]
Sixteen-year-old Nathan
Shepherd has a great life traveling where the careers of his father, and
investigator, and mother, a renowned violinist, take him…until his parents are
found murdered. Left with only a mirror and notes from his father’s last case,
Nathan goes into hiding at the remote country home of Tony, his father’s
college buddy, and Tony’s teenage daughter, Kelly, The mysterious mirror must
be a clue to what happened to his parents, and when images appear in
it---people and things that don’t exist---Nathan and Kelly painstakingly gather
evidence. But the killers want the mirror too, and danger threatens the teens
at every turn. As it becomes evident that Nathan’s father has stumbled upon
dark forces at work in the world, several questions arise. Could it be that the
mirror is a portal to a parallel world? Could this technology be used for evil
purposes? And could his parents still be alive, trapped in another dimension?
Nathan and Kelly struggle to solve the mystery before they too become victims.
This chilling, hair-raising adventure is jam-packed with action in a
fantastical world where nothing is as it seems, and even mirrors tell lies.
Introduction:
Bryan Davis is one of my all-time favorite authors. He’s
written series such as the Dragons in our
Midst series and its companion series, Oracles
of Fire, and also the Dragons of
Starlight series. Bryan Davis is actually one of the first authors who
started the Christian fantasy genre, with the publication of Raising Dragons, his first in the Dragons in our Midst series. The books
showed that you can mix fantasy and faith, and because of the success of those
books, Christian fantasy has now become one of the largest in Christian genres,
and it produces many great books. And I am glad for that. When I was eleven or
twelve, I read The Lord of the Rings for
the first time, and then soon after that, The
Chronicles of Narnia. They really awoke my interest in dragons, elves,
dwarves, brave knights, and fair maidens, but the fantasy genre was full of things
my parents wouldn’t allow me to read about; sorcery and immorality being two of
the mains. That’s when the title of Bryan Davis’ Raising Dragons caught my eye in the Christian bookstore. After
reading and enjoying that, I snatched up all the Christian fantasy I could.
Now, Beyond the
Reflection’s Edge, the first book in the Echoes from the Edge series, is more like a sci-fi thriller than a
fantasy, so it’s something unique by Mr. Davis. It’s actually the first book
I’ve read from him that doesn’t have dragons in it. But it has many of the same
fantastical elements that I enjoyed from his other books. Also with his
distinct writing style, the book just had a familiar feel to me, even though I
had never read it before. Unfortunately, it was hard finding a copy of this
book. I had tried finding it in a bookstore for years, but only ever found the
last two in the series. It wouldn’t have made much sense if I started the
trilogy from the middle now would it? I eventually gave up on finding them,
until a few weeks ago, when Bryan Davis posted links on his blog to where the eBook
versions could be bought! Since it was only 99 cents, I decided to get the
first book, but I was wary at first. I had never read an eBook before. I’m one
of those purists, I guess you’d say. I think an actual book is way better than
a version on an electronic device. It’s not the same thing, I’d argue, but
since it was a book from Bryan Davis (and one I couldn’t find anywhere else), I
decided to cave in and give it a try. At the end of the review, I’ll give my
thoughts on the eBook experience.
Characters:
As always, Bryan Davis has created some realistic and lovable
characters. Though in this book, I found his main character to be a bit
unbelievable. Nathan Shepherd is the son of an investigator and a famed
violinist, and he seems to be the perfect mesh of the two. Seriously, is there
nothing this guy can’t do? He’s a black belt, accomplished musician, can ride
motorcycles and cars like a stunt driver, and is the ideal gentleman. I really
couldn’t find many flaws in Nathan’s character, scratch that, any flaws in his character. He’s like
Superman. I guess what made him likable for me though, was the realistic way he
dealt with his parents’ deaths. The grief he felt made him human. It wasn’t a
blow he was able to get over after one chapter, but something he had to deal
with throughout the course of the story.
There are some similarities in the characters to the Dragons in our Midst characters that I
find in these books, but I suppose that since it’s by the same author, there
are bound to be some things that are alike. One of the main ones was Clara,
Nathan’s tutor, who is his older mentor who offers him wisdom and guidance. I
found her character similar to Professor Charles Hamilton in Dragons in our Midst. I guess it’s
supposed to teach young people that the adults in their lives are there for them,
and are a great source of wisdom. Everyone does need a mentor or teacher,
someone who cares for them and looks out for their best interests.
Kelly, the main female protagonist, was probably my favorite
character in the book. She was strong, and a little rough around the edges, but
she’s had a hard time in her life and is working on becoming a better person.
She’s the character that changes the most over the course of the book,
challenged by Nathan’s high standard of morals to become something more. Kelly
also has a best friend named Daryl, and this girl is the silly, movie-quoting
kind of best friend. She was very enjoyable and challenged Kelly for position
of favorite character for a while. I’ve always loved Bryan Davis’ humorous
characters. They’re always the ones I wished were real and were my best
friends.
Oh, and the villain! Who is this Mictar guy? He has this
really creepy aura about him, almost like pure evil. Where’d this guy come
from? What is he? Ergh! I’m going to have to read the rest of the books to
figure that one out.
My Thoughts:
Probably by the way the rest of this review has read, one
can easily tell I enjoyed the book a lot. Yes, I did. The story was one exciting
thing after another, full of plot twists, and it kept me guessing until the
end. I’m the type of reader who likes to try to figure things out before the
end of the book, and this was one book that kept me confused.
When I was about three-fourths of the way through, I decided to quit trying to
figure out every plot point and every character’s motives and just read the
silly thing and see what happens. Many forms of dimensional travel or parallel
worlds confuse me, and this was one of them, especially since there was more
than one alternate reality. Yikes! It was hard to figure out who to trust and
who not to trust, but that was one of the enjoyable aspects about it too. Sure,
there were things that confused or annoyed me about the book, but as a whole,
it was pretty good.
Now, my thoughts on the eReader experience. When I first
started reading it, I told myself that it will be like reading a story off the
internet. I really enjoy going to sites where people post stories or fan
fiction, so I figured this wouldn’t be much different. Well, one annoying thing
about reading the eBook was the device I read it on. I had to read the entire
book on my iPhone. A little two-by-three inch screen isn’t fun to read anything
on for a long period of time. This book has 300 to 400 pages when it’s in book
form, so it was almost maddening on the phone. Another thing I found that I
didn’t like about it was the way it kept track of my progress. Sure, telling me
I was 20%, or 43%, or 94% through the book was nice, but it still felt like I
had no idea how much progress I was really making. For me, I like having the
book in my hands, and being able to see how many pages that are left and being
able to estimate how much longer it will take to finish the book. I guess you
could say I like having the end in sight, and with the eBook, I couldn’t
physically see the end coming. It was like I was blindly treading along. I like
measuring my reading by distances, not percentages. That aspect would take some
getting used to. Then there was the most annoying problem of all: the typos
were terrible! Now, I know Bryan Davis’ writing, I own eleven of his books, and
never have I seen such punctuation errors in his writing as I have on this
eReader version of the book. I seriously do not believe any of this was his
fault, he’s a very talented and skilled writer. I believe it is just the
adaptation from page to screen that has caused these errors. But still, someone
should have gone through the book and made sure there were no errors in the
transition. Maybe things would have been better if I was actually using an
eReader device (the larger screen would definitely be nicer), but I still am
firmly a book over eBook kind of girl. There’s just something about having the
actual book in your hands or on your shelf. Call me old-fashioned, I will take
it as a compliment.
Warnings:
Well, being a book from a Christian author, there really
isn’t much that could be labeled as a warning. There are some graphic, and even
scary, scenes, so I don’t think this book would be good for young children.
There are some mentions of people living an immoral lifestyle, and those
mentions usually come from Kelly. The poor girl comes from a broken home, a
situation a lot of children unfortunately have to deal with.
My Age Rating: 13
and up.
~Cya!
