Review: Gift of Revelation by Robert Fleming

Gift of Revelation (Urban Books) Kindle Edition

by Robert Fleming  (Author)

Here's the blurb:

In this third installment of the Gift series, Reverend Clint and Addie
are finally settling down in Harlem following their Alabama adventure, during which they help black farmers. Addie, a former schoolteacher, loves New York City, with its glittering tourist sites. When she meets Dr. Bentley Gomes, a missionary just back from Africa, she is alarmed to learn of the worsening human rights crisis in Sudan. Addie is intrigued by the need for volunteers to aid those caught in the bloody war in this region. Meanwhile, Reverend Clint encounters African refugees, and their stories of suffering and pain tug at his soul.

Before Reverend Clint realizes what is going on, Addie volunteers to go to Sudan. The pastor follows her on this unforgettable journey of discovery and revelation, into the dangerous region, where they confront famine, violence, and religious persecution. As Addie plunges into this hell, she wants Reverend Clint to make a lasting commitment to her. She wants something solid but wonders if they'll make it out alive. Will the Sudan adventure transform their admiration for each other into fully realized love? Or will Sudan, with its violent extremists, corrupt politicians, heroic doctors, and long-suffering refugees, derail them from intimacy and trust?

File Size: 1115 KB

Print Length: 288 pages

Publisher: Urban Christian (March 1, 2015)

Publication Date: February 24, 2015

My Review:

Christian Books that are written by Black American Christians often deal with subjects that white Christian Americans rarely touch upon.  In addition, many Christian books written about country folk often depict rural America as a kind of pure Eden. In Gift of Hope, Robert Fleming shone his passionate and honest spotlight on racism in southern Christian America. Now the third installment of his series is more concerned with more global issues and often with Africa, the Black diaspora, racial and clan wars, and with inter-tribal, inter-clan African warfare.

The book is informative, well-researched and searingly honest. Which is a good and a bad thing. Mr Fleming, a well-known journalist and author, wants to put so much of his heart and passions into the novel that the book often comes off like a thinly-veiled journalistic article.  His skills at writing horror are well used here as he writes about the horrors of war in Africa. 

The main character, Reverend Clint, is a sympathetic character in the way most Christian fiction protagonists are sympathetic. And while the writer does lay it on thick that the main character has suffered, Reverend Clint is shown to be such a holy sufferer that he almost feels like a symbol instead of like a living breathing person. The same can be said for Addie, his love interest, who seems like a manic pixie dream girl wish fulfillment character. I know the character is still recovering from his wife's suicide and her murder of their children but I don't feel the suffering or the recovery. We are told repeatedly that his experience with his now-deceased crazy wife has damaged him, but we rarely see him missing or grieving for his kids. It makes me feel as if the writer didn't mine the personal aspects of the situation portrayed in the story. I found myself wondering if the story would have felt more real to me if the writer had simply made the wife kill herself and not the kids as well. 

The main thrust of the novel feels less personal and intimate. For the first parts of the novel, the main characters are hearing a lot about Sudan and the hearts of the main characters seem somehow distanced from the reader even though the author keeps telling us about their hearts. Fleming's depiction of the violence and the disturbing images the protagonist sees feels realistic, but the depiction of the hero's suffering feels unrealistic here in the third installment as it did in the first two books of the series. There are moments when characters will suddenly start discussing religion, race, religious wars, and journalism that feel wedged in. I've read several of his novels and he truly is a good writer but his transition to Christian novel writing is still ongoing.

Christian fiction is stagnant in many ways and Fleming is taking it into new territories. Having read his excellent serial killer novel, Havoc After Dark,and knowing the skill of his horror collection Evil Never Sleeps I would like to see him tackle a Christian urban horror novel. Fleming has changed Christian fiction by giving us realistic books about racism and war and I believe he is that author who is able to merge his horror talents with Christian fiction.

Three out of five stars. Recommended for church groups that may want to discuss African warfare.

Robert Fleming Bio:

Biography

Robert Fleming, a freelance journalist and reviewer, formerly worked as an award-winning reporter for the New York Daily News, earning several honors including a New York Press Club award and a Revson Fellowship. His articles have appeared in publications including Essence, Black Enterprise, U.S. News & World Report, Omni, The Washington Post, Publishers Weekly, and The New York Times. His non-fiction books include Rescuing A Neighborhood: The Bedford-Stuyvesant Volunteer Ambulance Corps, The Success of Caroline Jones, Inc., The Wisdom of the Elders, The African American Writer’s Handbook, Free Jazz, Rasta, Babylon, Jamming: The Music and Culture of Roots Reggae. His fiction titles include Fever in The Blood, Havoc After Dark, Gift of Faith, Gift of Truth, and Gift of Revelation. He edited the popular anthologies After Hours and Intimacy. He has taught journalism, literacy, and film writing at Columbia University, Marist College, City University of New York, and The New School.

The Scarred King by Rose Foreman

"From the moment he could walk, Bowmark has trained for a fight to the death. The Disc awaits him: a giant bronze platform suspended over a river of lava. He dreads the day of proving—when he must kill or be killed—to claim the throne.

His people have hidden from the rest of the world for generations. But when the discovery of a mysterious Atlas reveals forgotten lands and peoples, Bowmark begins to question his culture's traditions and laws. His unavoidable future seems grim and pointless when contrasted with another world full of unique civilizations populated with other intelligent species and marvelous creatures.

Meanwhile new threats arise from the depths, hidden enemies emerge from within, and soon everything and everyone Bowmark knows and loves will be changed forever.

Torn between a desire to fulfill his duty, and his empathy for others, Bowmark must use all his intelligence and courage to navigate an uncertain future."



I read some of this book in beta. I really like it. Soon to be up at amazon. Here is her page.

https://www.amazon.com/Lelia-Rose-Foreman/e/B001KHO3KU%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

Aging

Every day I grow a little more "old."

I become what "old" should be.

I fall into the dictate.

This is a choice

Perhaps even a concession

Perhaps a conviction.

The choice, concession, conviction

is freeing

It hides me away.

Me who had youthful lusts

Me who had ambitions

Me, I, who had hoped for love and fame.

I can escape now into old age

and succumb to contentment.

I was one who, as Hopkins states,

was marked when young

marked by death

marked for pain

And even in my youth I was never young.

That is what bothers me

I am to become old, having never been young.

I am to slump toward death, having never lived.

I was lovely once

But only for an instant.

I grew fat.

Loving eyes poured upon me once

But the wrong soul peered out at me.

I have felt joy some three or four times.

Mine has been an embattled life

And I fought valiantly, though badly.

Since youth

death and holiness were poured upon me

Against death, I fought.

For holiness, I fought.

When young.

But now...old age has come.

Wavering seas

You were always like that

Like fire and water.

They say the two do not mix.

But with you, they did.

Alternately passionate, burning everything before you

Then dousing it all, dousing us all

with waves of grief.

Your red hair too

curling around your face

like flaming waves

that the wind could not hold

like a fiery halo

surrounding a passionate angel's face

Poem: Candlesticks

My mother-in-law gave these to me on the day I got married.

Along with a conch shell, and something else i don't remember.

They were made of bronze, she said.

Had been in the family for years.

I imagined those candlesticks in their ancient setting

An embroidered or lacy white tablecloth flowing over a large rectangular table 

and the table itself laden with food to feast on.

Turkey, ham, lamb on the like.

For, in my imagination, the mood had to be festal.

Bronze candlesticks were not for everyday usage.

Only holidays, marriages, births, would call them forth.

Of all her gifts on that day

I preferred the conch shell most.

Unlike the candlesticks, it did not speak of my husband's heritage

It did not call me to be what my mother-in-law wanted me to be.

It called me to nature

to the sea

Looking at the candlesticks, 

I held my ears  to the roaring within the shell

and listened.

Poetry: On inheriting my aunt's house in Jamaica

This was my aunt's

This house

These gardens

These mango trees

In this yard

she walked, cooked, raised hell.

It was in that room there

that she argued with a ghost deep into the night

when he came and stood by our bed.

In our family

only ancestral ghost were allowed.

This was my aunt's

these apartments

this tenement

And there, there,

was where she cooked the corn meal porridge

she tried to feed me.

She was fierce about this place.

Hers! Hers! Hers!

Even on her deathbed, 

she railed against giving it up

Against giving life up.

Although her life was nothing much then

Only ravings, and jealousies, and ownership, and greed.

No, i do not think i want this house.

Not its lime trees

its luscious mangoes

its gardens filled with hummingbirds and hibiscus.

Wouldn't she begrudge even the smallest mango i place on my lips?

Wouldn't her ghost continually roam it?

And i have neither the spirit nor the stamina

To argue long into the night with an angry ghost.

Poem: Looking at my novel "The Constant Tower" which few have read

With conviction, hope, and endurance, i crafted this

I spun it from my heart

yes, and from illness too

And all my hope was intricately woven within it.

That is the way it is with most art

whether book or painting, music or dance.

For time, times, time and a half, we pour out our souls.

And, finished, we set it adrift

(without money or power, we can do little else)

We imagine a favorable wind 

or some kind wave

or a groundswell will toss our making into the world's heart

 

Now, finished -- finished seven years now and writing newer stories--

I am tired and sick at heart at the praises my famous friends receive.

My teeth and jaws ache when I see 

their lists and posts of acclamation.

I am not as kindly or as saintly as I should be

The happiness of the famous and acknowledged

is too great a burden for my unwhole and petty heart to bear.

My dear sweet perfect little book

you who contain so much of my heart,

although my fame and wholeness rested on you.

I did love you for yourself

 --for you are a thing of Beauty, and all who have seen you have praised you--

I grieve for you continually.

Interview for Annie Douglass Lima's new book The Student and the Slave!

Take a look at this exciting new young adult action and adventure novel, The Student and the Slave, now available for purchase! This is the third book in the Krillonian Chronicles, after The Collar and the Cavvarach and The Gladiator and the Guard. 

The series is set in an alternate world that is very much like our own, with just a few major differences.  One is that slavery is legal there.  Slaves must wear metal collars that lock around their neck, making their enslaved status obvious to everyone. Another difference is the popularity of a martial art called cavvara shil.  It is fought with a cavvarach (rhymes with "have a rack"), a weapon similar to a sword but with a steel hook protruding from partway down its top edge.  Competitors can strike at each other with their feet as well as with the blades.  You win in one of two ways: disarming your opponent (hooking or knocking their cavvarach out of their hands) or pinning their shoulders to the mat for five seconds.

First, a Little Information about Books 1 and 2: 

Book 1: The Collar and the Cavvarach

Bensin, a teenage slave and martial artist, is desperate to see his little sister freed. But only victory in the Krillonian Empire's most prestigious tournament will allow him to secretly arrange for Ellie's escape. Dangerous people are closing in on her, however, and Bensin is running out of time. With his one hope fading quickly away, how can Bensin save Ellie from a life of slavery and abuse?

Click here to read chapter 1 of The Collar and the Cavvarach.
Click here to read about life in the Krillonian Empire, where the series is set.

Book 2: The Gladiator and the Guard

Bensin, a teenage slave and martial artist, is just one victory away from freedom. But after he is accused of a crime he didn’t commit, he is condemned to the violent life and early death of a gladiator. While his loved ones seek desperately for a way to rescue him, Bensin struggles to stay alive and forge an identity in an environment designed to strip it from him. When he infuriates the authorities with his choices, he knows he is running out of time. Can he stand against the cruelty of the arena system and seize his freedom before that system crushes him?

Click here to read about life in the arena where Bensin and other gladiators are forced to live and train.

And now, The Student and the Slave, with another awesome cover by the talented Jack Lin!

Book 3: The Student and the Slave

Is this what freedom is supposed to be like? Desperate to provide for himself and his sister Ellie, Bensin searches fruitlessly for work like all the other former slaves in Tarnestra. He needs the money for an even more important purpose, though: to rescue Coach Steene, who sacrificed himself for Bensin’s freedom. When members of two rival street gangs express interest in Bensin’s martial arts skills, he realizes he may have a chance to save his father figure after all … at a cost.

Meanwhile, Steene struggles with his new life of slavery in far-away Neliria. Raymond, his young owner, seizes any opportunity to make his life miserable. But while Steene longs to escape and rejoin Bensin and Ellie, he starts to realize that Raymond needs him too. His choices will affect not only his own future, but that of everyone he cares about. Can he make the right ones … and live with the consequences?

Click here to order The Student and the Slave from Amazon for $2.99 a discounted price of just 99 cents through November 31st!

About the Author:

Annie Douglass Lima spent most of her childhood in Kenya and

later graduated from Biola University in Southern California. She and her

husband Floyd currently live in Taiwan, where she teaches fifth grade at

Morrison Academy. She has been writing poetry, short stories, and novels since

her childhood, and to date has published fifteen books (three YA action and

adventure novels, four fantasies, a puppet script, six anthologies of her

students’ poetry, and a Bible verse coloring and activity book). Besides

writing, her hobbies include reading (especially fantasy and science fiction),

scrapbooking, and international travel.

Connect with the Author Online:

Email: AnnieDouglassLima@gmail.com

Blog: http://anniedouglasslima.blogspot.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AnnieDouglassLimaAuthor

Twitter: https://twitter.com/princeofalasia

Goodreads: http://bit.ly/ADLimaOnGoodreads

Amazon Author Page: http://bit.ly/AnnieDouglassLimaOnAmazon

LinkedIn: http://bit.ly/ADLimaOnLinkedIn

Google+: http://bit.ly/ADLimaOnGooglePlus

Now, enter to win an Amazon gift card or a free digital copy of the first two books in the series!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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When did you realize this story was a trilogy?

As I wrote book 1, The Collar and the Cavvarach, I assumed that would be it (and that story can stand on its own). But a year later I thought of a new situation to put my characters in, and their adventures continued in The Gladiator and the Guard. I gave them a nice happy ending in my first draft, but I just wasn’t satisfied with it. Everything else in the story had been polished and felt right to me, and my publication date was only a few weeks away, but I knew the ending was all wrong. It took me a long time to figure out how to make it right, but finally at practically the last minute I changed the final chapter, making the story a lot stronger. That meant there would have to be a third book to show how the characters got out of the mess I left them in. Still, it wasn’t until I planned out book 3 in detail a couple years later that I knew the story would truly end there.

What are the basic conflicts in your story?

There are several. Steene spends much of the book in conflict with his annoying young owner, Raymond. He also clashes with Raymond’s dad, a wealthy businessman who sees slaves as objects that exist for their owners’ convenience. Bensin gets involved with gang members and ends up entangled in their problems, which include several street fights.

What are the main themes of your story?

Freedom, family, responsibility, morality, tough choices.

Tell us about your main character?

Bensin is a slave who is also a very talented martial artist. In the first book, his goal is to keep his little sister safe and somehow arrange for her freedom, which is an almost impossible task in his world, but he is determined not to give up. In the second book, Bensin’s own safety is at stake as he struggles not only for freedom but for the right to choose his own identity. Now in the third book, he struggles to forge a new life for himself and his sister and arrange a rescue for his coach in a setting where he can’t find a job and doesn’t feel as though he fits in.

Is there a villain in your story?

There are a few different people who could be considered villains. I’ll focus on Axel, a gang leader who hires Bensin to train him and his street gang in combat techniques.

What does he want? Why do you like your villain?

Axel values honesty, courage, skill, and teamwork among the young men he leads. But when it comes down to it, mostly he wants money and power, and he’s willing to do almost anything to get what he wants. I guess I like him because he is just who he needs to be for his role. He appreciates Bensin for what he can give, but when he decides Bensin’s usefulness is over, he has no qualms about making use of him in a different way.

Who has influenced your writing?

My high school English teacher, Mrs. Wood, was a big encouragement to me, both personally and in my writing.  She taught an after-school creative writing club, and for various reasons all the other students dropped out one by one.  When I was the only one left, I was afraid she would cancel the club, which was the highlight of my week.  But she was willing to continue, so I met with her every Tuesday afternoon.  I would bring in whatever poems and stories I had written that week, and she would critique them and help me see ways to make them better.  My writing improved a lot during the two years she was there, and I will be forever grateful that she was willing to invest so much time in me.  I really don’t think I would be where I am today if not for Mrs. Wood.       

Tell us about some of your other books.

Besides the Krillonian Chronicles, I have a fantasy series called the Annals of Alasia.

 There are three main books in it so far, but each of them can stand on its own. Each book deals with events surrounding the same major political incident: the invasion of the kingdom of Alasia by the neighboring kingdom of Malorn. Prince of Alasia begins on the night of the Invasion and describes what happens to twelve-year-old Prince Jaymin after he is forced to flee for his life. In the Enemy’s Service features a girl as the protagonist and tells the story of those who were not able to escape from the Alasian palace when the enemy invaded. Prince of Malorn begins several months earlier and focuses on the Malornian perspective of the events leading up to the Invasion.  In each of the books, main characters from the others make brief appearances and interact with each other at the point where the timeframes and settings overlap. I also have a short ebook of “interviews” that I conducted with the characters in the other three books. Annals of Alasia: The Collected Interviews is not available on Amazon, but I send a free copy to anyone who signs up for my mailing list (to receive updates once or twice a year when I release new books).

I’ve also written a short Christian puppet script (Squawky Learns About Love) and put together a coloring/activity book (Hide it In Your Heart) that uses verses from the Bible in colorable fonts. And I’ve compiled five separate anthologies of my students’ poetry.

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Books by Annie Douglass Lima:

• Hide it In Your Heart: an adult coloring/activity book
• the Krillonian Chronicles: alternate reality/action and adventure novels dealing with slavery and martial arts
• the Annals of Alasia: a young adult action and adventure/fantasy series (click here to receive a FREE copy of Annals of Alasia: the Collected Interviews!)
• Squawky Learns About Love: a short Christian puppet script

Student poetry anthologies edited by Annie Douglass Lima:

• Right in the Middle of a Raging Storm
• A Boom in the Room
• Sunshine Leaking
• Better than Cotton Candy
• What's That Noise?
• Down the Water Slide