I have read all of Chuck Black’s
Arrethtrae books and so I knew I was probably going to enjoy his Wars of the Realm series…But I did not
expect to like it as much as I do =D
The first book in the series, The
Cloak of the Light, begins with the hero, Drew, as a twelve year old boy at
his father’s funeral. His father’s best friend, Jake Blanchard, to fulfill a
promise he had made Drew’s father, started to check on Drew and his mother and help
them out when they needed it. After all their affairs were in order, Drew and
his mother moved to South Carolina, to live with her mother. After that Jake
took Drew on the first of many camping trips. Jake began to become a father
figure in Drew’s life.
Fast forward a few years and we
find Drew and his mother in Rivercrest, Kansas. He is attending the high school
and playing football, a game he loves. There he meets the people that are going
to change his life forever, Benjamin Barg and Sydney Carlyle. Benjamin is the
official geek of the school while Sydney is a mysterious girl who only appears
in one class. Drew and Ben become best friends after Drew helps Ben out of some
trouble. And while Sydney is friendly, she doesn’t encourage Drew’s attentions
to her. He later finds out she is a Christian, and while Drew doesn’t deny the
existence of a god, he doesn’t believe in a God who loves the people of the
earth. Later they both encourage Drew to continue high School and go to college
after Drew is involved in a tragic accident which makes him unable to
participate in the school’s football program.
At college Drew and Sydney go on a
“date” where she makes it clear that because she is a Christian and he is not
she cannot have a close relationship with him. Not long after that Ben asks
Drew for help with the LASOK, a machine that accelerates light. But while they
are experimenting with it there is an explosion that leaves Drew blind. After
he recovers he tells Ben that right before the explosion he saw a man, that he
could only see though the lens of the LASOK, in the room with him and Ben. Ben
tells Drew he is leaving, and a few days later Drew hears Ben has disappeared.
Several months later Drew’s sight
miraculously returns. As a result of the accident all five of his senses were
heightened, giving him abilities beyond the normal man, including the ability
to see the invaders. They are beings, which are not if this world, but who have
a strong influence on it. Yet Ben is gone. And now Drew must try and find him
so they can rebuild the LASOK and figure out a way to fight these invaders.
There was really only one part in the
book that I had a problem with. And it was how Sydney responded to Drew’s attentions….She
did pretty well until they met in college and Drew wanted to date her. She had
told him in high school that she didn’t date. But she told him that if he would
come to a “get-together” that she was having at her place then she would go out
to coffee with him the next day…but the “get-together” was actually a Bible
study.
Personally I think it was a great idea
for her to invite him to the Bible study so that he could hear what she
believed and why, but she should have told him the truth. Also, she said she wouldn’t date…and then she
met him in the coffee shop…but then kept on saying that it wasn’t a date…which
it was…so I’m not sure of the author’s intentions in having her deny it.
Over all, I found The Cloak of the Light a very
interesting book. I think Chuck Black did a good job with developing the
characters and I really liked how he portrayed spiritual warfare, even having a
little section in the back of the book on each chapter and what he was
portraying and why, I found that very interesting and totally worth taking the
time to read. It is a bit slow at the beginning, and it took a while for the
story to really progress but even then it kept me on the edge of my seat and I
couldn’t put it down.
Thanks for reading and please leave a comment with your thoughts! =D
