Wednesday, April 9, 2014

The Third Heaven: The Rise of Fallen Stars - Donovan Neal


This speculative Christian fiction novel has been described as a prequel to the Bible. Please let me preface this review with a disclaimer. In no way is this book to be taken as a true scriptural approach to the events surrounding the fall of Satan and the rebellion of one third of God's angels. It is what it claims to be: A speculative book. Based on scripture, The Third Heaven gives us a possible behind the scenes look at the events of the great war and fall of Lucifer and his fallen angels. It is designed to answer how, along with one third of the angels, Lucifer lost his position in Heaven.

I thoroughly enjoyed the author's take on the fall of Lucifer and how that came to be. The reasoning behind how Satan thought he could get away with supplanting God on His throne and taking His place was an example of creative writing at its finest. The action and war scenes were masterfully and emotionally penned. The story flows wonderfully and his prose is remarkable. The descriptive passages seem to lift from the pages into your imagination. Descriptions of angel's personalities make them all the more real. Neal's handling of the story in my opinion was quite plausible.

Mr. Neal realizes that this story is hugely speculative and that there are problems with telling it. The fact that there isn't much written in the Bible about it is a witness to that fact. He has provided a link for some of these questions at: http://donovanmneal.wix.com/donovanmneal#!thinking-behind-the-third-heaven-series/c22ty I would recommend you read this before reading the book, though it's really not necessary. I am looking forward to the next installment in this series.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the story of the fall of Satan and the one third of angels. At the very least this book provides some possible thoughts as to how this came to be. Just remember, keep telling yourself "It's just a story!"

Rated 5 Stars

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