Okay, so I am no literary critic (this is Ryan) but I couldn’t resist posting about this awesome FREE audio book download from Christian Audio, The Sword, by Brian Liftin, plus say a few things about the corresponding book series I’ve been reading – The Chiveis Trilogy.
It was kind of a fluke that I even started reading it – about a month ago I had opened up my Kindle Fire to read something else, and *poof* there was the first book in the series, The Sword, staring at me in the face. I had no idea I even had the book, but apparently I had downloaded it when it was free sometime back in 2010.
So I began reading…
And haven’t been able to stop. Just last night I finished part 1 of the third book, The Kingdom, and only went to sleep because I had zero physical capacity to remain in a cognizant state. Trust me, I did not want to go to sleep.
Okay, so this series is actually set in the future – 400 years into the future – yet all modern technology has disappeared from the earth. In the year 2042 a strange virus, coined the X-Virus because of its unknown status, made contact with a Japanese eco-tourist on a trip to Brazil while feeding a papaya to a monkey. Big mistake, because an open cut on Ken Takahashi’s hand made contact with the saliva of the infected monkey, and the deadly virus made contact and spread – eventually throughout the whole earth.
After 1/4 of the world’s population had been destroyed by the virus – madness gave way to war, nuclear war, and resulted in what would be called “The Great War of the Ancients.” Even after the great war the virus continued to pound at the human race for a few more decades until there were so few people left that the virus, along with all modern technology and the international power grid, was no more.
Welcome to the year 2400 – and the kingdom of Chiveis (pronounced Sheh-vice), an “ancient, future world” as author Brian Liftin describes. “The world of cars and guns and computers had become, once more, a world of horses and swords and scrolls.”
A kingdom ultimately ruled by the High Priestess of the god Astrebril, a woman who, to put it very lightly, is not the biggest fan of Deu, or of His Book – and has completely eradicated all knowledge of the Creator from Chiveis. Yet Deu is on the move (forgive the Narnian allusion), and has chosen two very unlikely partners – Teofil – the good looking, broad shouldered Captain of The Chiveisian Royal Guard and part time scholar/lecturer at the University, and Anastasia of Edgeton, the beautiful, graceful farm girl who “randomly” meets him in the most unlikely of situations – to uncover the truth and bring it to the people of Chiveis.
This series is packed with action (a lot more action than I expected – let’s just say Teofil is, uh, the man), romance, suspense, humor, twists and turns, and discovery of truth that has been suppressed and thus forgotten.
Like I said, I have not been able to put the series down.
If you need some awesome summer reading, or need audiobooks for any trips you are going on, be sure to download the audio version of The Sword for FREE right now over at Christian Audio. If you would like to order the books, you can find them over at Amazon HERE.
Another aspect I liked about the series was that it was very broad in it’s scope of theology (yet not too broad). Brian Liftin, a professor at Moody Bible Institute, does a great job of staying away from denominational specifics – but writes for a general audience to enjoy and be encouraged by.
Have any of you guys read any books in the series? What did you think?
I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the books! I’ve also been hardly able to stop listening to Ray Porter’s excellent audio rendition of the series! My wife and I are listening together
Do you know of other similar themed Christian novels?