Conservative Book Talk

Plot: Our first introduction to our main character, Griffin, is when he is ten years old. We come to find that Griffin can jump, or teleport himself anyway in the world, assuming he has already seen it and remembers it clearly. As Griffin and his father fire paintball guns at each other in the desert, Griffin practices jumping. As they play, Griffins father reminds him of four rules: Never jump in front of anyone. Never jump to the same place twice. Never jump unless instructed to do so by his parents. Never jump near home.

Well, as you can probably imagine, Griffin breaks one of those rules, by accident. Late at night in the dojo he goes to, a bully attempts to punch him, frightened he jumps, leaving the bully completely confused. He thinks it will be all right not to tell his parents, because he does not want to get in trouble. Through the day, his conscious makes him feel guiltier, by the time he decides to tell his parents, it is too late. Several people come to their home and ask for Griffin, his parents deny them entrance, but the bad people shoot them for their efforts. Grief-stricken and frightened, Griffin shoots the people with paintballs before jumping away to the desert where he and his dad had been earlier.

Two Mexican people find him later in the day, and they care for him until he is better from the wounds he received. Deciding these people were trustworthy, Griffin tells them of his jumping abilities, they then resolve to protect Griffin and let him live with their niece away from them. He changes his name and gets a dark tan, and learns Spanish fluently enough to help the niece at her work.

Good times never last for Griffin, his enemies discover his presence, and this time, a few months following his escape, the bad people murder his two Mexican friends. Feeling guilty over the death of his friends, Griffin takes the niece and jumps her to his underground home, only accessible by jumping. He then gives her fifty-thousand dollars to help her start again in Paris. (All the money he gave her, he stole) Griffin then goes traveling, being more careful than ever to avoid the people attempting to kill him. With all this tragedy, being unable to stay at one place for long, and never ending attempts on your life, what would you do?

Positive: The author’s style of writing was very engaging, I had my nose in the book until the end, excited to learn more. The author did a great job at letting us into the main character’s mind and feeling for him when things went horribly wrong. The storyline is very catching and it never slows. We like our hero’s character, until the part where he sleeps with a girl, that I did not care for, but overall he was a likeable character.

Negative: There is lots of swearing, our main character and his friends enjoy using those four letter words whenever something goes wrong. Our main character steals money. That and several sex scenes do not help this book. (I ended up skipping over the paragraphs with that in it.) A little torture at the end, our main character wants something from one of the bad people and so zaps him with this electric thing, and kicks him in the groin. I will say this for our main character’s actions at the end; he has been through a lot, though that does not excuse him. Before his eyes, Griffin’s parents are murdered, he is hunted without relief, and two of his friends are killed because of him. The final straw comes when he is estranged from three other good friends because of the Paladins. (Paladins are the bad people; we find this out in the end)

Overall: I enjoyed the fast moving pace of the story, but as tragic as it was, and all the objectionable content, I could not read it again if I wanted to. I do not recommend this book unless you like the jumper books; there are three. I read the third because I won it at the library for reading many books. I do not plan to read the others.

Tags: fiction, Hannassus

Plot: I found this book in our car; I have no idea to whom this belongs. I know two things for sure though: It was in our car for weeks, and I was bored so I started reading it.

As it turns out, (of course I found out at the end of the book) this book is four in a series about the O’Malley family. Thankfully, as far as I can tell, you do not need to read the first to read the forth; each book is about one of the seven different children in the O’Malley family.

This book happens to be about Jack O’Malley, a firefighter with Ladder 81, a fire station that also investigates arson fires. His boss, Cole, and he are very concerned about one arsonist that keeps setting fires at the edge of the district and leaving popcorn behind as a sign. It takes them longer to reach each fire as the arsonist sets them at the edge of the district, where there are closed fire stations. Oddly enough, Cole figures out that each arson fire is set whenever Jack is on duty. Fighting fires does not bother Jack, but being a target does.

The story also revolves around Cassie, a fire woman burned badly in a retirement home fire, and is now unable to fight fires. Jack visits Cassie often, he is determined to make her laugh and come away from the grief of her accident.

A romance sparks between Jack and Cassie, but Cassie is a Christian and Jack is not. The subject of religion is a sore area for conversation; Jack listens willingly, yet cannot bring himself to believe in the resurrection of Christ. This causes Cassie much stress, knowing that Jack could die at the arson fires and not be in heaven.

Jack has this and his sister, Jennifer’s cancer weighing on his shoulders, not to mention the arsonist who persists in setting fires and writing notes on walls. In one fire, Cassie happens to catch a glimpse of the arsonist, before he fades from sight. Sure that she could recognize him on sight again, Cassie takes Cole’s offer to join the fire fighters once more. She is only allowed to watch and help clean up, but Cassie still enjoys being back on the job.

Following the arsonist sighting, Cassie also seems to become a target, leaving Jack to become a protector, willing to risk all to save her.

Positive: This book had great Christian content, our hero and heroine were lovable characters and the plot kept moving with no slow. Well written, this book kept me guessing until the end, and it was very surprising then. No swear words that I recall. The author’s style is very engaging, and she draws you into the characters and helps you feel their pain and joy.

Negative: Nothing really, this one man committed suicide, and another keeps setting fires.

Overall: I hardly dared put this book down I enjoyed it so much. The mystery, storyline and character kept me in the book. I recommend this book to all, it is very clean and a wonderful read.

Tags: fiction, Hannassus, Modern, Romance

Plot: Our hero’s story begins several months before the insurrection on the island of Hayti, on a ship anchored in Hayti. Nathaniel, known to all as Nat, because he dislikes his full name, goes ashore to see the town. In the course of the visiting the town, he rides out into the countryside. Several miles from the town, Nat hears a scream and cries for help, jumping from his mount he runs to the voice. Nat sees a large dog mauling a young girl, without a thought, he jumps at it and after a short brawl, kills it with his sailor’s dirk. The girl’s parents take Nat into their home while he recovers from his large injuries.

After a month or so with the small family, Nat returns to his ship.

Aboard with his shipmates once more, Nat sets out on another adventure, this one including pirates. The captain informs Nat that they have orders to sail around the islands, and see if any pirates are about.

Thanks to Nat’s keen eyesight, the ship notices a pirate hold deep within an island. They attack this and capture the entire hold. Unexpectedly, among their plunder, are about two hundred slaves. These they feed and cloth properly; following a sharp fight with the surviving pirates and islanders, the ship sails home with the freed slaves and other cargo.

Relieving themselves of the slaves, and leaving them to others care, Nat’s ship sets out once more to survey the various islands for pirates. Once more, thanks to Nat’s keen eyesight, they discover a small pirate hold hidden well on an island. Finding the opening small and well guarded, the captain sends a small force ashore to take down the guards so the ship could sail through cleanly. Nat goes with the small party, and they take down the pirate guards before they know what hit them. A short, intense fight ensues, killing all the pirates and giving the sailors great plunder from a large warehouse.

The ship returns victorious to their harbor and unloads its precious cargo. The captain rewards Nat’s outstanding bravery from the last battle, with leave for a few days to visit the family whose daughter he had saved. He is there few days before the slaves around the island revolt against the white rule. Providentially, Nat, the girl he saved, and her mother, are warned in time and are able to leave the house before the slaves come to kill them and burn the house. Now, on the run for their lives, Nat must protect the woman and find a way back to the town.

Positive: Our hero, Nat, is full of honor, courage and good brains (excuse the expression) as always. Something that is lacking in many of our hero’s in modern day books, especially the good brains part.

The battles are well written and engaging, a very big plus for me.

Mr. Henty does an excellent job of portraying the events of the black insurrection of Hayti. He draws you into the historical event with the story, with our’s hero help of course.

Negative: I cannot say many negatives about this book, in fact I cannot think of one!

Overall: The books that Mr. Henty writes are what first drew me to history, aside from my natural wish to learn more of it, he made me find it fascinating. Mr. Henty does a wonderful job keeping your nose in the book and interested in our hero’s tale, yet, at the same time, filling the reader’s mind with history.

I highly recommend this book to people of all ages; it is well written and finely told.

Tags: G. A. Henty, Hannassus, Youth Fiction