The Door Within
The Door Within
I don't usually write a lot of book reviews, because I never have time to read whole books...I think this one took me something ridiculous, like 4 months...I know, I'm very sad.
So....I liked this book. Although it was not a favorite. First of all, it is not something I would have selected to read, however it was written by a Batson, so I had to grab it when I saw it on Amazon while I was googling myself....I know, I'm sad.
This book at first reminded me of the Rings trilogy. It takes place in another "Realm" and the characters, the Glimpses, are mirror images of humans. Apparently at one time, our worlds were one, but some cosmic event caused the world to split and there for so did each person.....did you follow that?
So at first I thought Lord of the Rings, with all the weird creatures, the Knights, dragons, strange little creatures that live under ground. But as I read on, I started to drift more towards The Never Ending Story. It reminded me a lot of that story, and about half way through, I though about putting this book down and going out to grab a copy of NES to read instead. There is your Human Boy hero that ends up in this other world. There is the GrimWalk, which is very much like the depressing swamp in NES. Remember the one, that if you let the gloom get to you, you will die, (that's how Artez, the beautiful horse was lost.) Then there is a Tempest, which is a giant storm that wipes out everything in it's path...."The Nothing?" kind of. So there's a lot of similarities there. Oh did I mention the dragon that saves him just at the last minute? Hhhhmmm, kind of like Falcor, the Luck dragon. I was reminded of him again, when the human boy encounters a giant serpent that helps him get to where he needs to be quickly...a serpent that will help him if his heart is pure....hello....!!
Then as I thought later about this book, I realized that it is also a very spiritual book. I think that the entire thing may be written in a christen tone. I missed that at first....but now I get it. King Eliam the Everlasting was slain by his first night that betrayed him and was then cast out of the kingdom at which time he started his own evil, dark empire. It's all about good and evil. That if you follow and believe in the king, then you will be good and live a great life, but if you choose Paragor, the evil dark lord, then you are a villain and will spend a life of dark crime. Hmmmm sounds like another pretty famous story. Then there are the Glimpses. They are mirror images of humans that are forced to choose which king they believe in and want to follow....maybe like our soles....? They even have translucent skin for god sakes (no pun intended there.)
Anyway, the book itself, no matter what the subtext is, was pretty good. The dialect is week (I like a lot of conversation.) and the author says the protagonist name, like every other word...that got to me. The other thing that disappointed me, was the ending. His Father does not believe in the scrolls and the story of the other Realm, but all of a sudden in like three paragraphs on the last page, he's a believer....I know there was more too it, but it felt to me, like the author just got tired and said, "ok, let's wrap this sucker up."
I don't know...I was thinking about reading the next one, just to get through a trilogy, but I may need a break....I have some other stuff to read first.
Next up...Treasure Island...just one more classic not taught in my school....now I am forced to self educate. I'll let ya know how it goes...might be a while though.
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