Book Reviews

All right, to pass the time, I'll do a couple of book reviews.

The 13th Reality The Hunt for Dark Infinity by James Dashner - This one was a lot faster paced then the first and definitely had some creepy scenes. There's this whole scene where a character named Sato goes into a scary insane asylum and it gives you the feeling of standing in line for one of those haunted forests. Very cool!

The story continues where the first one left off with Atticus "Tick", Paul and Sofia diving into an exciting adventure across several realities to try and stop Reginald Chu, a scientific mastermind. Meanwhile, Tick discovers that things aren't just happening to him coincidentally, and there's more to his powers than he'd expected. A few new characters are introduced that really enhance the story. One in particular is a hick-talking, burly lumberjack-like man named Sally who spurs an image of the bearded fella in the old Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer cartoon (The one with the red beard and the pick axe who kind of subdues the abominable snowman.) I thought the dialogue snapped and I was pleasantly surprised with the twists. I admit that at first I was wondering if the book was heading in a sure direction, but Dashner delivers and I actually experienced a few moments where I said "I really like this book" out loud. If you've read the first than it's a must sequel.

The Shack by William P. Young - This book amazed me. I have different beliefs in religion than the author, but despite that, this book was very insightful. I don't know how many paragraphs I read to my wife to get her opinion. The story was well-written and not overwritten. It's about a man named Mack who's daughter is abducted and murdered in a run down shack in the middle of the forest. His family breaks down and he has a serious separation from religion and God. 3 1/2 years later, Mack receives a strange letter. Supposedly, it's from God who wants to chat with Mack in the shack. Very interesting, but a bit of a warning: The author sets this book up as a being a true story and it actually is not. That kind of frustrated me a little because I wanted to believe everything that happened and I was lead to believe that by the Foreword and Epilogue and what not. It's not true, but if you like a good fiction book that will entertain and bring up some interesting theories on God, this is a great book to read.