The year is 2075. God has sprinkled his powers on Man, turning the ordinary into extraordinary and the extraordinary into…heroes.
Eric D’Tra’val and Michelle Johnson are two such extraordinary people with incredible mental abilities called psionics. Eric has the ability to move objects using his mind and Michelle hears the thoughts of others.
Eric’s conscious is pricked during a near-death experience forcing him to question his life. As angels work to help him, devils strive to confuse.
Michelle is warned in a dream from God that Eric will be tested and fail, plunging him to evil. Fearing for his soul she works to keep the dream from coming true.
Zahab, one of Satan’s elite, hatches an elaborate scheme to force a confrontation between Eric and his nemesis, McAllistar. His goal is for Eric to kill or be killed. Either way, Zahab wins and Eric will be his. In time, his plotting bears fruit. A final showdown erupts between Eric and McAllistar with the added bonus of Michelle’s life in the balance.
(From the author’s website) — Kenneth Bliss was born in Michigan and graduated from UM-Flint with degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science. His drive to write for the Lord began in earnest in 2009. Eric’s War was a finalist in the Westbow Press writing contest of 2010.
Ok, that’s the official blurb from the back cover. Now, the rest of the story…
I’m a small-town boy born in 1966. I live in Lansing now and work for a multi-billion dollar company. I may live in “the big city” (well, it’s not that big, but still bigger than my small town of Ortonville), but I still call that small town I grew up in…home.
I wrote what is now Eric’s War back in 1994-1996. It was definately a mainstream Sci-fi novel rife with obscenities and other unpleasant situations. I came to the Lord in 1997 and knew the manuscript would not please Him in the least, so it sat, and sat, collecting dust, and sat some more.
In 2007, the bug to write came back and I decided to convert my manuscript into something that God would appreciate. I gave some of the characters a Christian background and changed what the entire reason for the main character’s being. Also, I decided to take the original manuscript and divide it up into three parts. The beginning became the climax of The Cougar and the Lamb and I wrote more story to explain the lead up to this new climax.
The rest of the manuscript will become the second and third books to the planned trilogy. I do not know exactly when they will come out, but you will see them in print.
My Impressions:
Eric’s War is a Christian science fiction novel. Yes, that’s right, the Christian market actually has a variety of genres, not just bonnet and buggy books! In Eric’s War, Kenneth Bliss brings us the world of the future — a world filled with high tech gadgets, artificial intelligence and superheroes or psions. Sometime during the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st, men and women began developing mind-bending abilities. Some can alter their physical bodies, others can defy gravity and still others can read minds. Of course, most of these abilities are used to further the psions’ own goals. But there are a few dedicated to the greater good; enter Eric.
Eric’s War has another level, though. There is non-stop action with plenty of special effects (easily imagined even by this non-techie). There is also a spiritual fight going on. As in the real world, what we can see is being influenced by what can’t be seen. God and evil are alive and well in this future world. And as today, God is definitely in control.
As stated, Eric’s War provides action from beginning to end. I would have liked a bit more character development — I had trouble connecting with the characters on a personal level. And a glossary of the psi terms would have been great as well.
If you are a science fiction enthusiast and are looking for a deeper message than usually provided by secular science fiction, take a look at Eric’s War.
(I received a copy of Eric’s War from the author in return for an honest review. The opinions expressed are mine alone.)
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