Customer Reviews

City of Dreams (!Hero Series, Book 1)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I'm a longtime Lawhead fan. He is a master of scene and setting. His writing is full of the real-life struggle many of us face in our faith. With these attributes in mind, I looked forward to this new series.

The idea is straightforward. The gospel story is dropped into a near-future setting, with New York City as the primary background. Alex Hunter, an agent for an international group called ICON, is hot on the tail of religious extremists. When one of the extremist leaders is murdered, Hunter is drawn deeper into this violent web.

Sounds promising, but it devolves quickly into a transparent tale. The danger of retelling the gospel story is that we already know what's going to happen. New ideas and subtleties are necessary to keep us involved and to give us fresh perspective. Unfortunately, for me, this was predictable and stale. I wanted to like it, but I found myself skimming pages, waiting for something unexpected, for a new twist. When I ran into the NY governor, named, you guessed it, Pilate...I groaned aloud.

For a quicker read, I'd suggest the graphic comic book version.

Stephen Lawhead hasn't really explored alternate history, at least not to this extent, and he has picked the greatest story ever told. The story of our lifetime. It is the one our salvation hinges on, the life and death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Other writers have tried to tell the story in modern terms, even having Christ alive today. Lawhead knows his scriptures and if one reads the novel without having a bible at hand they are making a mistake. I suspect some readers will think this is just another adventure/spy/mystery created to make Jesus (Joshua in this case) alive in the present time. Read the four Gospels. They are full of adventure, there are spies and secret police, calculating business and religious leaders, oppressive big governments, and there are mysteries. The old characters we read about as children are alive again in New York City including Joshua, Washer John, Maggie, Simon, Mary, Pilate, and others you will recognize. Told through the eyes of Hunter, an agent for Icon you have a first class tale and I await the next two with great enthusiasm. Then perhaps I may read the graphic novels, but for now I want to enjoy in my mind the images that Lawhead and son (I think Ross is his son) have planted of our Lord as they might happen today. I would recommend this book and the next two to non Christians. Lawhead's excellent Arthurian books and his fantasies have already led, I am sure, readers to Christ. May God bless this man and his co-author always.

City of Dreams is a VERY EXCITING book for anyone who wants to read about Jesus in a fresh and unique way. What if Jesus had his ministry in New York? This book shows us the cultural relevance of the biggest story of all time. The plot not only displays a beautiful picture of the man Jesus (named Joshua Jones in the book), not only takes us through eventful and suspensful twists and turns, but also gets us excited about more books in the future -- all to learn about, and be touched by,the incredible life of the most influential man in all of history.

An interesting "What if...?" take on the story of Jesus.

This may be the most pointless review I have ever written. There is something sad about a stillborn trilogy. In this case, only the first book was published, although co-author Ross Lawhead claims the 2nd and 3rd books are written in his blog. So, this reminds of an unfinished building - lots of big plans but someone pulled the plug before it was completed.

Nonethless, here is the review:

The premise is simple. What if Jesus did not come into the world about 2,000 years ago, but instead was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in the here and now. As a history teacher I very much enjoyed reading the alternate history aspect of this book - how would the world be different if Christianity did not eclipse the old religions of Europe? Would the worship of Jupiter, Thor and Diana have continued? Would Europe have developed the same sort of political structures? These topics are hinted at but are not really the main focus of the book.

The book features Special Agent Alex Hunter, an investigator for ICON (International Confederation of Nations), a one world government organization that has been experiencing difficulty with religious groups who want to break free from ICON's iron grip. Hunter is a tarnished agent, having mishandled a standoff with a religious splinter group in the recent past. The standoff went bad and a bloodbath ensued. He has been brought to New York City to investigate a Zionist splinter group (turns out that Judaism survives in this alternate, but still experiences plenty of difficulties).

Intrigue, plots and plots within plots are discovered and Agent Hunter is not sure who to trust - ICON, the local government or perhaps even the group he has infiltrated. Along the way, he meets Washer John, the character that corresponds to John the Baptist and his cousin Joshua, the character that corresponds to Jesus (Jesus is the Greek-ification of Yeshua or Joshua, if you are wondering about the name change).

The first book ends with Agent Hunter making a major decision about who he can trust in a cliffhanger situation designed to make the reader look for the second book. Unfortunately...there is no second book. Too bad, it would have been an interesting read.

I traditionally haven't enjoyed any previous attempt at creating a contemporary version of the story of Jesus because Jesus ends up being wierd or the story is too contrived. City of Dreams kept me reading because it seemed completely plausible in today's society...it has all the intrigue, contemporary issues, energy and fascination with unusual charaters that I like in a good read. And the book surpised me on a number of occasions when I was caught up short having to rethink what I thought I knew about the life of Jesus.

I liked City of Dreams because it had a gripping plot which gained even more momentum as the characters developed. In the end, I was left anticipating the next book in the series! Also, the modern day parallels drawn between historical Biblical events were brilliant. I would recommend this book to all readers - young and old alike.

Not a bad story line, not really a bad book. But in a couple of places I found some bad editing (the word "what" was used where the word "that" should have been). I also left the book thinking that there was more time to set development than character development. I still dont know all that much about Hunter or what makes him tick (beside wanting to be promoted back to a higher rank that appears to have been stripped from him early in the book), I think I know more about the Antagonist (Simon) than I do the main character of the book. But over all, its worth the quick read.

Okay, there is NO profanity in the book. Did Publisher's Weekly actually READ the book? It is an engaging tale that brings the historical Jesus Christ into a tangible context. The story is gritty and raw--just like the biblical account.

I'm going to have to say that this is one of my favorite books i have read in a while. It is full of adventure, mystery, and much more. I definitely give this a thumbs up. I recommend you read this amazing book. It is a wonderful read. Stepehn and Ross Lawhead did a fantastic job! WOOH HOO! :)

This is a wonderful book, read it and find out, as there slogan goes, "What if he were born in Bethlehem, Pennsylania?" This is just the intrductery book so you won't see to much of Hero till the end, but you can follow Hunter and see how he got in such deep *&*%.