Rating: 
Summary: IT MADE ME THINK
Review: THE BOOK'S INTERTWINED STORIES AND QUESTIONS OF MORALS IN A TIME OF WAR MADE ME QUESTION MY OWN MORALS.
Rating: 
Summary: Maybe I missed something!
Review: The Thoenes are among my favorite authors, but this is not one of my favorites. There were lots of characters, which is fine, but it took a long time for the story to get going. The book is advertised as a stand alone novel, but there it seems to me that there is no ending. The lives of most of the characters are left dangling--including those who are in previous books. Maybe I am missing something, but I was disappointed.
Rating: 
Summary: Appealing characters struggle against impending Nazi invasio
Review: The Twilight of Courage Brock and Bodie Thoene, 1994No one in Europe in the fall of 1939 could ignore the repercussions of the Nazi invasion of Poland. In Britain and the U. S. some still hoped for diplomatic solutions, but in France and Poland and Germany inexorable changes were impossible to deny. Josie Marlow, American newspaper reporter on assignment in Warsaw, is caught in the bombing of Warsaw. A young Jewish mother's in the Warsaw ghetto can only hope that her infant may somehow be carried away to safety. David Mayer, American flyer in the RAF, makes an unplanned tour of Normandy. Jérome and Marie, living an impoverished existence on a houseboat in the Seine in Paris, find their lives takes a turn for the worse. The American sisters, Mesdames Betsy and Rose, continue their miraculous orphan rescue operations in Paris in spite of the approaching battlefront and mobs of refuges. At the French Cavalry School near the Maginot Line, young men are determined to face the real enemy with their meager arms and brave horses. Captain Horst vonBockman, of the German army, struggles with his professional duties and his personal feelings. It is his wife, Katrina, who fears that his embattled conscience is in a "twilight" stage. Finally, Colonel André Chardon and the eccentric enigma-machine expert, Lewinski, are working against time and assassins in order to save the Allied troops being pushed towards Dunkirk. With great attention to historic detail the authors entwine these stories in an unsettling but realistic story set in 1939 and 1940. This book should be required reading for high school world history students or for students of French or German. There is nothing sugar-coated about the events or dialogue, but at the same time, there is an obviously high moral tone to the writing. (There are some errors in the French which surely will be corrected in another edition.) This novel is both "enlightening" and spiritually challenging.
Rating:
Summary: Needs a Sequel!!!
Review: This book received an award for outstanding Christian fiction, so I would think it is an exemplary example of contemporary evangelical fiction. When measured against similar "mainstream" novels, however, it is really lightweight. I don't think the authors do justice to the frightful and monstrous realities they are writing about, and there are so many characters that none of them are developed. I also find the authors' overly zealous use of niggling detail somewhat oppressive and annoying (how many times on a page do we need to be informed about the make and model number of a tank?) Beyond that, however, can someone tell me how a book that refers to "Rembrandt" as the artist who cut off his ear can be taken seriously? Or was that scenario supposed to be taken as humor? If you want a hard-hitting book about WWII, read Greg Iles' "The Black Cross." Its a secular book, and Christian readers won't like the profanity (I find it annoying and unnecessary, too), but Iles does communicate the horror of the Nazi epoch and the issues of that war much better. This is the second of Thoene's books that I have read, and I have found both of them to present smoothed-down, somewhat plastic characters, good guys and bad alike.
Rating: 
Summary: A Lightweight Book
Review: This book received an award for outstanding Christian fiction, so I would think it is an exemplary example of contemporary evangelical fiction. When measured against similar "mainstream" novels, however, it is really lightweight. I don't think the authors do justice to the frightful and monstrous realities they are writing about, and there are so many characters that none of them are developed. I also find the authors' overly zealous use of niggling detail somewhat oppressive and annoying (how many times on a page do we need to be informed about the make and model number of a tank?) Beyond that, however, can someone tell me how a book that refers to "Rembrandt" as the artist who cut off his ear can be taken seriously? Or was that scenario supposed to be taken as humor? If you want a hard-hitting book about WWII, read Greg Iles' "The Black Cross." Its a secular book, and Christian readers won't like the profanity (I find it annoying and unnecessary, too), but Iles does communicate the horror of the Nazi epoch and the issues of that war much better. This is the second of Thoene's books that I have read, and I have found both of them to present smoothed-down, somewhat plastic characters, good guys and bad alike.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book About WWII
Review: This book was well writen and had a lot of things about the war. I liked it because I like things about the war.
Rating:
Summary: Bre's
Review: This is a long book, but every page is worth it. It is an outstanding, well thought out, entralling story. I could barely put it down. The characters are very realistic, the message is clear without being pointed. It captures emotions and feelings almost perfectly. However, it does feel like there is a great deal left to be told and explained. Any plans for a sequel?
Rating:
Summary: Fiction in a Non-Fiction Setting
Review: This is one of my favorite types of stories...fiction in a non-fiction setting. Twilight of Courage is the first Bodie and Brock Book I have read. I was thrilled to read a book written around the WWII evacuation at Dunkirk; It is a topic not frequently mentioned when talking about the war. I enjoyed the way the characters lives wrapped around one another. This book certainly wasn't a waste of time. I enjoyed the light moments of humor and the driving moments of suspense. However I found some of the characters plastic and the story a bit light considering the horrible circumstances. Also, I would have liked a sequel. There is a strange satisfaction to being able to make up my own ending...a culmination of all the lives involved....torn apart and reunited....maybe. But, It would be nice to find out what really happend.
Rating:
Summary: Fiction in a Non-Fiction Setting
Review: This is one of my favorite types of stories...fiction in a non-fiction setting. Twilight of Courage is the first Bodie and Brock Book I have read. I was thrilled to read a book written around the WWII evacuation at Dunkirk; It is a topic not frequently mentioned when talking about the war. I enjoyed the way the characters lives wrapped around one another. This book certainly wasn't a waste of time. I enjoyed the light moments of humor and the driving moments of suspense. However I found some of the characters plastic and the story a bit light considering the horrible circumstances. Also, I would have liked a sequel. There is a strange satisfaction to being able to make up my own ending...a culmination of all the lives involved....torn apart and reunited....maybe. But, It would be nice to find out what really happend.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Written Christian Novels
Review: This is well written historical fiction. The plot is more complex and developed (and interesting) then in the vast majority of christian novels. I would recommend this to anyone who likes books that make your brain work.
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