The Seraph Seal

The Seraph Seal by Leonard Sweet and Lori Wagner is an apocalyptic book. Set in the year 2048, the novel revolves around the births of seven children in 2012. Paul Binder is a professor at the University of Virginia when he receives a cryptic message telling him he must decipher an old manuscript. The story accelerates as he meets Angela Krall and together the two must understand the seals and signs that have been recorded since the time of Christ. These signs mark the end of the age- can they figure them out in time?

This book started well, but it soon drifted into a slow, scholarly pace with a little action thrown in. I found there to be too many threads of the story happening at once so that the story felt fractured. I had trouble becoming engaged by the storyline. There was a lot of research put into this book and some of the points the authors made seemed probable based on the events that occuring in our own time today. This book is definitely a harder read than many of the books out today. Seraph Seal takes a lot of thought and should be read without distraction.

The Skin Map

The Skin Map by Stephen R. Lawhead revolves around "the ultimate quest for the ultimate treasure". In this novel Kit Livingstone's great grandfather appears to him in the midst of a sudden storm. He tells Kit a remarkable truth that there are ley lines which exist all over the world which connect to the world to alternate universes. One explorer, Arthur Flinders-Petrie discovered more about these ley lines than any other, and he had a map tatooed on his body. However, this map has been lost, and it is critical that Kit and his great grandfather find this map before it is discovered by a nefarious man whose only goal is to cause havoc and destruction. But the map is the only the beginning of a quest which costs Kit more than he realizes, and the prize is fat greater than anyone can imagine.

The Skin Map is a very interesting novel, filled with time travel, adventure, love, and action packed duels. The books lays out an intriguing theory that our world is connected to other universes through ley lines which exist in the most inauspicious places. The characters are very believable, and they discover and live right along with the reader. The last few chapters of the novel lead to some very unexpected plot twists which leave the reader longing for the second book in order to fill in some very important gaps. I loved this book, and I was held in suspense during the entire story. I will definitely be reading the next novel, the Bone House, in the Bright Empire Series when it is released.

This novel was given to me to read and review by Book Sneeze.