52 Books in 52 Weeks - Book 9 - "A Voice in the Wind" By Francine Rivers

There was a time in my life (in the early 1990s), when I decided I was done reading Christian fiction. It all seemed shallow and formulaic - not much more than a sanitized version of cheap secular romance novels. All the women were beautiful, all the men were good-looking (and all the children were above average...), and they all had happy endings. So, for almost a decade I stuck to non-fiction reading, with an occasional foray into secular fiction.

It was Francine Rivers' "Mark of the Lion" series that brought me back to Christian fiction in 2002. (Although these books were published in the mid 90s). I was gripped by these stories and found myself unable to put the books down. When I picked up "A Voice in the Wind', to re-read it after 8 years, I did not expect to be absorbed this time, since I already know the outcome of the major plot lines. However, once again, I was pulled into the lives of these compelling characters, and finished the 500-page book (with a relatively small font) in just a few days. I did not want to stop reading, and, fortunately for me, I have 2 more books to read before the story is over. :-)

"A Voice in the Wind" opens in 70 AD during Titus' siege of Jerusalem. The story focuses first on a young girl named Hadassah, whose father is the son of the widow whom Christ raised from the dead in Luke 7. Her father and mother have raised Hadassah and her siblings to believe in Jesus of Nazarath as the promised Messiah. The family becomes trapped in Jerusalem during the siege, and all are killed except for Hadassah. She is captured and taken to Rome, where she is sold to a wealthy family and becomes the household slave of their teenage daughter. The book follows the lives of this Roman family, as they seek happiness and fulfillment by pursuing all that Rome has to offer them. Hadassah hides her Christian faith from them, in order to avoid being sent to the arena to face the lions. But, she comes to love this family and begins to see their desperate need to know the One True God.

The other story line in this book is that of Atretes, the proud young chief of a Germanic tribe who is captured by Roman legionnaires. He is brought to Rome and trained to fight in the arena as a gladiator. He also seeks fulfillment in all that becoming a famous and adored gladiator has to offer, yet he hates Rome and openly despises the Emperor.

I will warn you that this book ends with a cliffhanger that will leave you reaching for its sequel "An Echo in the Darkness". It is about the same length as "A Voice in the Wind", and I am reading it this week.

After my re-introduction to quality Christian fiction by Francine Rivers, I have since discovered Brock and Bodie Theone, Angela Hunt, and Michael Phillips. Rivers has written a number of other very good novels, but I don't think anything I've read since comes close to "The Mark of the Lion Series".

Sojourner