I’m branching out to more genres now that I’m reviewing more Lutheran authors. It’s pretty cool! It sometimes takes me a little while to settle in, but I’m really pleased to see how diverse our authors are and how varied our books are. Seriously, it proves that we can be in this together and not in competition with each other. Today’s review is on Immanuel: Battles of Armor and Soul by Garen Pay, which was released in February of this year.
Review of Immanuel: Battles of Armor and Soul
Imagine a knight with valor and virtue and place him in post-nuclear world. Imagine how others might twist that power and prowess to their own tyrannical ends—and how others might twist and taint to gain power and prowess like that at any cost.
Combining that lust for power with unwanted people from the citizen populations, New Rome is a society that allows an action-packed perspective on both that world and our own. In Immanuel: Battles of Armor and Soul, you follow kidnappers, rebels, police, and—believe it or not—accounting in a vicious fight of clashing worldviews and spiritual and physical warfare.
In its action, this is a violent book but without bothersome or superfluous sexual content. It’s explicitly Christian, depicting inner and outer battles of armor and soul that strives for a real articulation of the human soul as it struggles with the temptations and tensions of this fallen world.
This will be enjoyable for those who like novels about knights, thrilling rescues, strategy, weaponry, Christian/dystopia struggles, apologetic fiction, and paranormal genres. Fantasy and sci fi aren’t particularly a stretch either. There’s a play on the settling where the world both is and is not that different from our own.
Theologically, the Christian characters struggle with their own faults even while doing their best for their God and their neighbors in need. It’s poignant, addressing hope during suffering and our reliance on the life to come in Christ. There is occasional preaching, but I kinda enjoyed the preaching parts. 🙂 There is also quite a bit of apologetic arguments.
I hope this will be only the first of Garen Pay’s novels. Keep up the good work!