Fire-us #2: The Keepers of the Flame

Rating:
Summary: Very well-done
Review: ...In the second installment of the Fire-us, we pick up where The Kindling left off. The Family, consisting of Mommy, Hunter, Teacher, Action Figure, Teddy Bear, Baby, and Doll, with newcomers Angerman, Puppy, and Kitty, have been welcomed into a secret society of religious adults who had survived the deadly Fire-Us. They soon discover (some later than others)that this new-found paradise may be darker than it looks, and they are not as safe as they think they are.
This book was my least-favorite in the Trilogy, not through any fault of its own, but because I love the other two more. Though I have difficulty sympathizing with the new heroine introduced in The Keepers (Cory, a girl with a strange past), I feel the character development was wonderful; we see how our heros are, essentially, growing up, as afraid as they are of it.
Beautiful writing and gripping plot: 4 stars.

Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT WRITING WITH A TRAGICALLY FLAWED PREMISE
Review: EXCELLENT WRITING WITH A TRAGICALLY FLAWED PREMISE

The Fire-Us trilogy is an entertaining post-apocalyptic thriller for those who are too young to remember the fears of nuclear annihilation that came to an end in the 1990's.

Unfortunately, in the final installment, the authors' political biases become all to clear.

For adult readers, this trilogy is an example of the kinds of evil allegations that our currend political Left is willing to spread about conservatives. If a conservative writer were to say such things about liberals he or she would be called a witch hunter, a McCarthyite, or worse. But so be it. The tale itself is entertaining enough on its own merits.

THE KEEPERS OF THE FLAME, introduces us to a religious cult by that name. It quickly becomes clear that The Flame is the same disaster that the children have always called Fire-Us.

In the first chapter we meet Cory, whose name with the Keepers is Corinthians 1:19. All the Keepers' names are Bible references. Cory is preparing for her wedding to Supreme Leader, who lives on Pisgah Island. She is deeply disturbed by what she saw in her Visioning in preparation for her wedding.

We learn that she once had an older sister named Ingrid who had been a Keeper before she fled after giving birth to the twins that the children call Puppy and Kitty. The Keepers welcome the children, but ominous signs quickly develop. Teacher wakes up to find that her Book has disappeared. The Keepers take charge of Puppy and Kitty and will not allow the rest of the band to see them. The group notices evidence of fire and observe that there are no books in the shopping mall known as the Crossroads. The shelves of the bookstores are all empty. Hunter faces a personal crisis. Concern for Puppy and Kitty rises higher when it becomes clear that they are Ingrid's twins. All such children must be taken to Pisgah for a mysterious Testing. None have ever returned. When a special rally announces that all the children will join the Keepers, they demand that Teacher must burn her Book.

The group manages to rescue Puppy and Kitty and escape, accompanied by Cory whose doubts have been growing as much because of her Visioning as by anything else. As the story ends, the group is pressing on to Pisgah where President is presumably being held by the Keepers. At a Civil War museum, Teacher and Cory become separated from the rest. But a mysterious message in the Book seems to give a clue where to find the rest.