Wolf Time

Rating:
Summary: Everyone can't be right.
Review: Carl Martell is a historian because he's uncomfortable in the present. This is not because he's maladjusted (though he is), but because the present order of things makes no sense to him.

The past comes to Carl Martell in the form of Sigfod Oski, a Nobel Prize winning Norwegian poet who is -- or believes he is -- the god Odin. Martell has always suspected that this sort of thing happens in the world, but dealing with it in person is a lot more frightening than facing it in books.

Bringing Odin into the modern world (actually the near future, some time after the turn of the century) gave me the opportunity to play contemporary nonsense off against the realities (good and evil, truth and lies) that live in the stones and the sky and the human heart. "Wolf Time" is not an attempt to predict the future, but to remind people that ideas have consequences, and that our decisions and beliefs matter on a cosmic level.

Rating:
Summary: A Very Important Book
Review: Despite the author's claim that he's not trying to predict the future, he is very persuasive in his demonstration of how little baby steps can take a society right over the edge of the cliff, and I assure you that even now a nascent politician is reading the chapter on the Definition of Religion Act and thinking that it sounds like a Really Good Idea. All that aside, Mr. Walker wrestles with some very serious philosophical and theological issues here and like all good wrestlers, he leaves you with just as many questions as answers. Which reminds me: if you like this book, you should immediately go to the Popular Music section and buy Nichole Nordeman's "Wide Eyed" CD. Amazon is not going to make this connection, but it's a slam-dunk. Read the book, listen to the songs, and take heart in the fact that even if nobody knows the right answers, at least some pretty talented people are asking the right questions.

Rating:
Summary: A Very Important Book
Review: Despite the author's claim that he's not trying to predict the future, he is very persuasive in his demonstration of how little baby steps can take a society right over the edge of the cliff, and I assure you that even now a nascent politician is reading the chapter on the Definition of Religion Act and thinking that it sounds like a Really Good Idea. All that aside, Mr. Walker wrestles with some very serious philosophical and theological issues here and like all good wrestlers, he leaves you with just as many questions as answers. Which reminds me: if you like this book, you should immediately go to the Popular Music section and buy Nichole Nordeman's "Wide Eyed" CD. Amazon is not going to make this connection, but it's a slam-dunk. Read the book, listen to the songs, and take heart in the fact that even if nobody knows the right answers, at least some pretty talented people are asking the right questions.

Rating:
Summary: Watch out it's Lars! This time it's a near-future fantasy.
Review: Erling's Word proved Lars Walker could write and tell a story. Now we get to see him do a well constructed near-future fantasy about a man cannot tell a lie, but knows one when he hears it. Don't worry, Vikings or at least their Gods turn up too.

Rating:
Summary: An Apocalyptic Work from a New Artist
Review: For those who like their near-future sf/mythology fantasy with an explicitly Christian element, "Wolf Time" is the book for you. Following in the tradition of the literary social prophets, such as Orwell, Huxley and Bradbury, Walker joins the growing ranks of Christian apocalyptics, such as Michael O'Brien's "Father Elijah," Frank Peretti's "Piercing the Darkness," and Bud MacFarlane Jr.'s "Pierced by a Sword."

Carl Martell, history professor at the non-Christian Christiana College, cannot tell a lie. But he can sense when others do. And when acclaimed Norweigan Poet, Sigfod Oski, comes to town, Martell is certain the greatest deceiver of all is in their midst. Peopled with such endearing characters as the quiet but courageous Lutheran pastor, a born-again disk jockey, and the mythological wolf, Fenris, "Wolf Time" pulls you into Walker's all-too-realistic vision of where America is heading, and what believers will be called upon to endure.

Like almost all novels with an agenda (Christian or otherwise), though, the prose sometimes suffers for the Bible verses scattered throughout. Every conversation between two characters revolves around culture and religion, which single-mindedness may put-off would be readers. However, Walker's insights are sound, and his morals excellent - and, better, both are handled with a greater delicacy and tension as the book progresses. Walker is not afraid to present all sides of the argument, to make witches sympathetic while arguing against their theological view, to examine the fundamentalist fanatics' reasoning for fighting fire with fire while showing Christs' equally decisive but remarkably non-violent solution.

Christians, especially Lutherans, will enjoy Walker's take on the near-future. Viking and Norse Mythology enthusiasts will find "Wolf Time" an intelligent look at that religion. Recommended to teenagers and adults, due to several references to sex and violence. People searching for a follow-up non-fiction work may want to check out Peter Kreeft's "Ecumentical Jihad."

Rating:
Summary: An Apocalyptic Work from a New Artist
Review: For those who like their near-future sf/mythology fantasy with an explicitly Christian element, "Wolf Time" is the book for you. Following in the tradition of the literary social prophets, such as Orwell, Huxley and Bradbury, Walker joins the growing ranks of Christian apocalyptics, such as Michael O'Brien's "Father Elijah," Frank Peretti's "Piercing the Darkness," and Bud MacFarlane Jr.'s "Pierced by a Sword."

Carl Martell, history professor at the non-Christian Christiana College, cannot tell a lie. But he can sense when others do. And when acclaimed Norweigan Poet, Sigfod Oski, comes to town, Martell is certain the greatest deceiver of all is in their midst. Peopled with such endearing characters as the quiet but courageous Lutheran pastor, a born-again disk jockey, and the mythological wolf, Fenris, "Wolf Time" pulls you into Walker's all-too-realistic vision of where America is heading, and what believers will be called upon to endure.

Like almost all novels with an agenda (Christian or otherwise), though, the prose sometimes suffers for the Bible verses scattered throughout. Every conversation between two characters revolves around culture and religion, which single-mindedness may put-off would be readers. However, Walker's insights are sound, and his morals excellent - and, better, both are handled with a greater delicacy and tension as the book progresses. Walker is not afraid to present all sides of the argument, to make witches sympathetic while arguing against their theological view, to examine the fundamentalist fanatics' reasoning for fighting fire with fire while showing Christs' equally decisive but remarkably non-violent solution.

Christians, especially Lutherans, will enjoy Walker's take on the near-future. Viking and Norse Mythology enthusiasts will find "Wolf Time" an intelligent look at that religion. Recommended to teenagers and adults, due to several references to sex and violence. People searching for a follow-up non-fiction work may want to check out Peter Kreeft's "Ecumentical Jihad."

Rating:
Summary: I cannot say that I disliked it, but...
Review: I have to say at the onset that I have religous issues with this book. I am a witch and representation of pagans in this book bothered me. Come to think about it, the author also did a number on both fundamentalist and liberal Christians as well. Still, he is allowed some artistic licence.

The problems I had with the actual composition are the following: a) I could not figure out what had happened except in the most broad sense; would it have hurt the author to give a more comprehensible explination? b) There were at least half a dozen charactes in the book that to my eyes did nothing to further the plot.

What I liked about the book: a)the Angel; b)the Professor; c)the biting sarcasm about the future of liberalism. Also the plot is fairy twisted and action packed and the mythology is nicely woven in.

I had borrowed this book from the library and do not recommend spending any money on it.

Rating:
Summary: A Christian spiritual thriller for our times
Review: Lars Walker's spiritual thriller is set in south-eastern Minnesota in the very near future. Lars grew up near here, so he knows the people and culture from the inside, far better than, say, Garrison Kiellor.

As a spiritual thriller, this book is the most 'tro' or true and accurate (within the canons of mythopoeia) Christian spiritual thriller that I know of. Each re-reading of what might at first glance at the cover, appear a pulp fantasy, shows me more profundity, more depth of truth. If you like Peretti and Left Behind, but desire something deeper, this book is for you. If you like Tolkien and Lewis and wish to read something more contemporary, this novel is also for you.

Rating:
Summary: Hard to put down
Review: Talk about a page-turner. Talk about a book that keeps you up late because you want to read "just a little more" before lights out.

I was reminded of several of my favorites -- a word about them in half a second. But first, I must say I felt the author was writing from his own passion and wisdom! The book's robust and entertaining.

Well, it reminded me a little of Poul Anderson's classic "Unknown" magazine-style novel Three Hearts and Three Lions; Charles Williams's occult thriller War in Heaven; Russell Kirk's stories of the macabre published by the legendary Arkham House -- specifically "The Invasion of the Church of the Holy Ghost," in Watchers at the Strait Gate; and C. S. Lewis's Arthurian science fiction tale That Hideous Strength.

And it reminded me a bit of Stephen King, too.

Rating:
Summary: Hard to put down
Review: Talk about a page-turner. Talk about a book that keeps you up late because you want to read "just a little more" before lights out.

I was reminded of several of my favorites -- a word about them in half a second. But first, I must say I felt the author was writing from his own passion and wisdom! The book's robust and entertaining.

Well, it reminded me a little of Poul Anderson's classic "Unknown" magazine-style novel Three Hearts and Three Lions; Charles Williams's occult thriller War in Heaven; Russell Kirk's stories of the macabre published by the legendary Arkham House -- specifically "The Invasion of the Church of the Holy Ghost," in Watchers at the Strait Gate; and C. S. Lewis's Arthurian science fiction tale That Hideous Strength.

And it reminded me a bit of Stephen King, too.