Reviewer Amy Lignor: Amy is the author of a historical fiction novel entitled The Heart of a Legend, and Mind Made, a work of science fiction. Presently, she is writing an adventure series set in the New York Public Library, as well as a teen fiction series, The Angel Chronicles. She is an avid traveler and has been fortunate to have journeyed across the USA, where she has met the most amazing people, who truly bring life and soul to her books. She lives in the Land of Enchantment (for now) with her gorgeous daughter, Shelby, her wonderful Mom, Mary, and the greatest friend and critic in the entire world - her dog, Reuben
"Thinking is suffering." I love that line because it's absolutely true. Thinking...gathering knowledge...becomes an obsession rather quickly for the ones like us who not only want to know but, NEED to know why people do the things they do?
Author:
David Michael Slater
ISBN: 978-1-933767-02-4
Click Here To Purchase The Book of Knowledge (Sacred Books, Volume II)
"Thinking is suffering." I love that line because it's absolutely true. Thinking...gathering knowledge...becomes an obsession rather quickly for the ones like us who not only want to know but, NEED to know why people do the things they do? Say the things they say? What the ancients would think of us if they came through time and saw what we've learned, created, and made of this world? I, for one, would love to sit down and talk to Plato (I'd ask him if Atlantis was actually real). I would also love, as most people would, to sit down with God and ask...why? Have Him tell me the reason behind all the good and bad things on this planet.
Which
brings us to The Book of Knowledge. The second Volume in
this wonderful adventure begins with Daphna and Dexter - thirteen
year old twins - sitting by their father's side in the
Rehabilitation/Rest Home. Their father, Milton, suffered such a
strange fate at the end of the first volume that he spends most of
his time sleeping and dreaming. All he says out loud is a
mysterious name. The kids are lost. Who is Adem Tarik,
and why is their father chanting his name every five minutes?
There is also the nurse, Evelyn, who is constantly hovering over
their father's bedside, watching him and seeing him through his
rehabilitation. There's something in Evelyn's eyes that the
kids can see; an almost obsessive adoration that beams from the her
eyes when she looks at their father.
As the kids mull
over what has happened to them in the last couple of days, the
television anchors come on and tell them of a strange situation at
the town dump. Chaos is happening down there. "Oversized
garbage bags are streaming through the air and falling to the ground
like swollen black raindrops." Dexter and Daphna are off
to see exactly what's causing this situation. Once there, they
find a young man whose supposed to be dead, who is trying his hardest
to steal a book that was supposed to have been burned.
The
adventure begins again for the twins. As their father offers
his mysterious chanting, the kids go off and retrieve the books they
need in order to find the answers to all the crazy things going on
around them. Latty, the woman whose taken care of them since
they were born, and their mother passed away, has disappeared from
their house. She's stripped the bed and removed any "sign"
that she'd ever been tangible in their lives. However, she
leaves messages on their home answering machine with information that
the twins can hardly imagine is true. Members of a gang
are lurking closer, intent on harming Dexter; and the Pops (the
popular girls in school) are trying with all their cheerleader might
to set up Daphna for more humiliation and embarrassment. A
strange box arrives at the house from Turkey; each crate is full of
thousands of pages that have been hand-copied by an unknown
author.
While the strange, ancient puzzle is unfolding
around the twins, they turn to the books for help. As they read
and repeat the strange words that no one can understand, they begin
to spawn "gifts" inside themselves. Such as, with one
word, Daphna realizes she can speak the strange language and
immediately change her appearance into that of her father - or anyone
else for that matter. Dex, with one word, suddenly notices he
can freeze people where they stand. He can also make people
listen and repeat what he says, believing him and causing them to
enter a fog where they'll forget what they've seen and heard.
Teleportation becomes another gift that the children receive, and
they use it to change their world and make it a more peaceful place
to live in. They also use their newfound words to get back at
the wretched people who are trying to humiliate and harm them.
They have all the power in the world. But is that a good
thing? With the ability to alter someone's mind, the children
soon learn that they've taken away the one thing that even God wanted
us to have - free will. And, by taking away that one "gift",
they've altered the course of humanity forever.
Again,
with Volume II of this wonderful series, the red herrings are
absolutely awesome. What if the Garden of Eden was a Garden of
something else? What if the apple wasn't an apple at all?
What if Adam and Eve...and God, for that matter, had something else
in mind than what we believe to be true? The ability of the
writer to get "ends tied up neatly," just so the reader can
turn the page and learn something completely new that will lead them
down another dangerous path, is a true gift. As a reader,
you'll end up rethinking some of the basic fundamentals you believe
in, perhaps. Of course, thinking is suffering. It would
be nice if the ancient puzzles of time were tied up nice and neat,
but they're not. Knowledge is a power all its own, and its a
gift. I can think of no way more fun, than to think about life
through the eyes of Dexter and Daphna, and the words of this
fantastic author.
I can't wait for Volume
III.
Until Next Time,
Click Here To Purchase The Book of Knowledge (Sacred Books, Volume II)