Zion Covenant: Vienna Prelude/prague Counterpoint/munich Signature

Rating:
Summary: Zion Covenant and Zion Chronicles series
Review: I started with Zion covenant and found them to be rich with human drama. I read a lot and Bodie Thoene has just been promoted as my favorite author. Brock and Bodie have worked together to create a marvelous reading experience. I will eventually read everything they have written.

Rating:
Summary: Great books, but you gotta overlook the errors
Review: I've only read the first two books in the series, and I'll read the rest as soon as possible. They are wonderful stories, and Thoene is a masterful author. You'll find similar praise from other reviewers, and I agree with it. But let me tell you about Thoene's weaknesses.

The only reason I can't give these books 5 stars is because they (at least the first two) contain too many errors regarding Europe. I am an American, but majored in European Studies at college, studied a year in Germany, and am currently living in Prague, Czech Republic. I speak German and Czech. I've also traveled extensively throughout Europe. So I know most of the cities and cultures that Thoene writes about. I get the feeling she has never been to Europe herself. Don't get me wrong, most of her writing is wonderful, plausible, and even accurate in its details. But there are too many little errors.

For example, I find myself cringing at the German words she inserts in the dialogue from time to time. They are often misspelled, used incorrectly, and mistranslated. A German dictionary could solve many of her problems. Even worse, she does not know European geography, but it's nothing a good map wouldn't solve. For example, at one point she has Theo Lindheim flying a plane across the Alps from Berlin to Prague. There are no Alps between Berlin and Prague. And she constantly refers to Prague's Old Town Square as Mala Strana square, unaware that that's a different square on the other side of the river. She has some troubles with the layout of Vienna, too, but not too badly. Though at this point I've only read the first two books, I expect to find these kinds of mistakes in the rest of the series as well, but that won't stop me from reading them all. It'll just frustrate me, because I know better.

Besides that, there are occasional misspellings in English that irritate sticklers like me.

Read these books anyway. The mistakes are small, and maybe they'll get corrected in future editions of the books. Despite these little errors, readers will learn tons about the bigger picture of pre-WWII Europe and human nature in general. That's more important than the name of the square in Prague anyway, isn't it?

Rating:
Summary: You just want to keep on reading!
Review: This past summer I started reading Thoene's "The Shiloh legacy" and I really liked them, When I'd finished them I heard about "The Zion Covenant series" so I decided to read them too. I wasn't disappointed, they are just as good! Now I'm about to start reading "Munich Signature" There is one problem though, summer is over and I have to work, but I want to read!!! /Elisabeth