Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Reading
Review: Although this is not the type of book I normally read, it was one that held my attention from beginning to end. The characters will draw you into their world and hold you there until the last page. I highly recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Captivating
Review: An excellent book by a new author. I found that the characters were strong and compelling. I found it very easy to put myself in their place and the story line was good. If you want to read a book that goes straight to your heart, read this book! It is a beautiful story of friendship, child-like love and deceit. I intended to give the book a quick read, but I got so caught up in the story that I couldn't put the book down. From the very beginning, I was fully caught up in the heart-wrenching account of Gregory's journey from child to man and his dealings with Anna and Sylvie and each of their own plans for personal power. I felt the love between Gregory and Anna. This love, in the face of deception, makes for a story that covers the range of human emotions. The touches of religious symbolism are subtle and thought provoking. I've never read a book more deserving of being published. It has rare depth. Gregory's story will remind readers that life and love are precious and not to be taken for granted. It has had an impact on me, and for that I'm grateful. The Promise of Eden is written with so much sensitivity that it made me want to cry. It is a true spellbinder. What terrific writing. Eric Durchholz has an exceptional gift - the power of the pen! This book will make a great gift!
Rating:
Summary: The Promise of a Great New Writer
Review: Call it sci-fi. Call it a ghost story. Call it whatever you want but this book transcends any label you could place on it to become one of the best books I've ever read. Far from being a simple story (although you could read it that way) it is written in layers. Take the symbolism road and you get a treatise on blind faith. Take the road of themes and you get stuff like "nature vs. nurture" and responsibility. I've read this book three times and keep finding new angles and new ideas. Even though this is his first novel, Durchholz could be the next big thing in imaginative fiction because his style is so accessible without being dumbed down. ANYONE could read this book and love it (which is why I'm buying one for my grandma). And how the novel mirrors the author's personal life, I don't know, but I hope to hear from Mr. Durchholz again.
Rating:
Summary: Delightful!!
Review: Eric Durchholz has crafted a marvelous tale. The Promise of Eden starts as a gentle ghost story and develops into a full blown assault on the senses.The book is worthy of comparison to Madeline L'Engle's "A Wrinkle in Time" in terms of creativity and style. Yet, the story is absent of Ms. L'Engle's preachiness and accepts all for who they are. The first person narrative keeps us with the main character at all times and lets us experience the story as we all experience life, from our own eyes. In a mere 204 pages, Mr. Durchholz crafts lives and worlds in a pace that never slows and made me unable to put the book down. The author shows great promise with this work. I anxiously await the sequel. Why only four stars? There should have been more!
Rating:
Summary: Delightful!!
Review: Eric Durchholz has crafted a marvelous tale. The Promise of Eden starts as a gentle ghost story and develops into a full blown assault on the senses. The book is worthy of comparison to Madeline L'Engle's "A Wrinkle in Time" in terms of creativity and style. Yet, the story is absent of Ms. L'Engle's preachiness and accepts all for who they are. The first person narrative keeps us with the main character at all times and lets us experience the story as we all experience life, from our own eyes. In a mere 204 pages, Mr. Durchholz crafts lives and worlds in a pace that never slows and made me unable to put the book down. The author shows great promise with this work. I anxiously await the sequel. Why only four stars? There should have been more!
Rating:
Summary: New Durchholz Fan
Review: I met the author at a book festival. I didn't know who he was, but I am glad I took a chance. I read some of the other reviews before reading (shame on me) and I was excited to get to it. Brooding, intense and satisfying, this novel is a perfect intro to this new writer. In person, he's charismatic and funny and he has the goods to back it up. It would be easy to dismiss this novel as the ramblings of an isolated young man, but Durchholz writes with a fervency and a devotion to the story as if it really happened to him. He's created a world where the fantastic sits comfortably alongside the mundane. A trip to the library holds as much excitement as a trip to the other side of the universe. Filled with boy obsessions such as playing, growing up, religion and sex, "Eden" sums up what the novel is really about in the title finding redemption in something that you thought was lost forever. Whether it be youth, your soul, your innocence and in one case, your body. Bring on the next book, Eric. I'm waiting.
Rating:
Summary: Very enjoyable read
Review: I really enjoyed reading "The Promise of Eden." The characters were well fleshed out (even those without flesh). I felt their emotions and really went with the whole thing. In fact, I wish there had been more. I wish we could have learned more about Gregory's return to Earth. More of his many children and the whole Sylvie as goddess thing. Good job, especially for a first timer.
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put the book down - I was totally captivated
Review: I was astounded by the compelling force at which I read this book. After reading just a few chapters, I felt as if I knew the characters personally, feeling their pain, anguish, and even joy as they drove towards their own personal goals. Each character and scene is described so vividly that I could see their personal features and could even imagine myself walking alongside them through the streets as if I were part of the book. The detail is wonderful and it makes you beg for even more since there are so many sides to each character. Each chapter builds upon the last towards a great climax. I Look forward to subsequent books by this extremely talented new author!
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic
Review: One of the best novels by a new author I've ever read. The conception of Gregory by the spirits through the astonishment, the he has fathered many children by the evil Sylvie and the squalor she keeps them in, to do her biding. Anna the beautiful disembodied angel of the house. What a perfect playmate for an only child. Eric writes with such depth of feeling in the emotional and physical sense. You can feel everything Greg goes through so completely. Complete with his first adolecent but real love. I highly recomend this book as a good and uplifting read. All characters run through the story as people pass through our lives, coming and going for reasons known only to them. Leaving little bits with you along the long journey of life.
Rating:
Summary: The Promise of a Great New Writer
Review: The agents and publishers who turned this guy down made a huge mistake and did him a complete disservice. This novel was not so much written as crafted and the title as the theme: BRILLIANT! The world he has created is a rich, lush, thriving world of ghosts, aliens and all sorts of supernatural goings-ons. But like another reviewer said, it's filled with the normal stuff which we all wonder about. Is there a God? Does he care? Durchholz writes with a casual easy-to-read elegance that is more accessible than Barker, less flowery than Rice and more imaginative than King. If you are not a sci-fi fan or ghost story fan, don't let the premise turn you off. This book rewards in ways I cannot describe. Not a day goes by that I don't wonder what Gregory, Euchar or Anna are up to. Durchholz is a writer to watch (HE IS THAT GOOD) and if this is a series, then bring the next one on! Thank you Eric for this wonderful experience I will never forget.
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