Customer Reviews

The Dark Foundations (The Lamb among the Stars, Book 2)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Life has been hard for the citizens of Farholme. They've faced many dangers, but the worse is yet to come. A space ship from Below Space, piloted by Captain Lezaroth is approaching. The captain is determined to conquer Farholme and bring it under the control of the lord-emperor. Unlike the Assembly, the Dominion from where Lezaroth comes has never stopped preparing for war. Their weapons are more powerful, their technique more advanced. Lezaroth's most formidable weapons are thousands of wolf-like machines, called Krallen. And while the citizens of Farholme struggle to accept the existance of evil, Lezaroth and his men are cold and ruthless.

The banner of The Lamb and the Stars flies above Merral and his troops, but will The Most High help them? Chris Walley knows just how to kick up the suspense another notch. The Dark Foundations is a wild story of action, danger, fear and faith, and is possibly the best one yet in this absorbing series. If you like futuristic fiction, don't miss this one.

Walley's writing continues to amaze, entertain, and enlighten. This series shows incredible imagination and much spiritual insight. If I had to sum it up....it's "Star Wars" the way it should have been written...with the real "dark side" against the heavenly forces. I have and will continue to strongly recommend it to all my friends.
I only have a couple of small eschatological reservations, and I don't think those interfere at all with the enjoyment of a great series. It's not the idea of a sinless milennium much longer than a thousand years...that's always been open to interpretation. But the characters living sinless lives don't seem to have much of an intimate or spirit-filled interior life with God. That didn't ring true. And in this book, there is a strong demonic power with the ability to read human minds. That would violate our free will.
However, neither of these would cause me to give Walley's marvelous writing anything less than a top recommendation.
Also, as others have indicated in reviewing the first couple of books in this series...the category of "young adult" isn't really accurate. Adults will enjoy thoroughly...and may glean more spritual insight as well.
Job well done...can't wait for the final book!

Excellent work! Chris Walley's writing is very well done. His ability to draw us into the world that he creates in this series is pure enjoyment. I was able to believe and understand without having to work hard at concentrating on characters and places. The characters are developed beautifully and the dynamic of their relationships come to life. Nothing is awkward, but fits together really well and flows easily, leaving the reader with the feeling that there is plenty more to come. The third book of the series does not let down or flounder. When, in fact, the story unfolds there is so much more impact than what was expected. I'm left anxiously waiting for the fourth book.
The real beauty is the spiritual gems that come through at different places in the story. The author weaves a great tale with truths to chew on. If you like christian fiction, you will enjoy this read. If you like science fiction themes on top of that, you'll love this read.

Engrossing book, the main problem is the wait between books- although that just gives me an excuse to read all the books again. I finished the book in 2 sittings and thoroughly enjoyed the read. The main characters flaws are all to realistic and can be empathised by the reader.

I bought this series in an after Christmas sale(2009) and finished the last one a few months ago. I really liked Chris' books, style, and his theme, "what if people had figured out a way to live without sin of any kind for many generations expanding to many worlds to the far reaches of the universe? And then evil, from the Dominion Emperor (devil's relm & hell) begins to be re-introduced as an opposing force into this sin-less culture? What would be the social, moral, and faith challenges of these naive people and their culture who knew no sin?" A great read and story filled with heros and villains that become fully developed across all three books of the series. Both sides (faith-filled/demon possessed) are well presented in all three books, but the opening scenes of a demon possessed man set on world conquest through help of the devil in the 2nd book creates an entirely new standard for hell's long standing dark imagery.

And the imagery and actions of the Lord's strength in times of trouble, was handled in a way I've never seen done before outside of the Bible itself. No where have I seen so many mini stories within a larger saga explore the many viewpoints, tying faith challenges to integrity, loyalty, relationships, family ties, friendships and community morals as this 3 book series. As the hero, Merral and his side-kick Vero, and their girlfriends move from one evil challenge to the next discovering new and fantastic ways to fight the onslaught of evils menacing influence my faith grew along with the story's characters. I began to see the truth of the messages and the actions that are taken as being divinely anointed. I think Chris has set a new contemporary image for me with his story themes of how people either resist the evil influence with the help of the LORD ALMIGHTY or fall prey to the devils influence in very suttle ways taking entire communities down with them.

I highly recommend the entire 3 book series and applaud Chris for sharing the strength of his faith and convictions in these forward thinking books. I for one Chris, get your books and what you were saying in them. And the messages are indeed along the high brow lines of C.S. Lewis, but in a MUCH more palatable and theme rich story form for the worlds readers. Well done my faith brother!

Trials and tribulations abound as not only Farholme but also Ancient Earth start to become much more recognizable to our present day society instead of the (to merely Earthly eyes) impossibly good society of the Assembly. Doubt, factions, politics, power struggles, infighting, and the worst part is that all of them are (or at least started out as) good people honestly trying to do the right thing.

Perhaps it is a sad commentary on us that we can more readily identify with corruption than perfection, more with Satan than with God (especially in Milton's _Paradise Lost_), and that (barring the Second Coming) society is much more likely to be like the Dominion rather than the Assembly.

Still, this is another excellent book that uses the setting and genre of science fiction to explore right and wrong, and provoke long and hard thought about the questions and answers.

As far as looking forward to The Infinite Day? Well, I loved the first books, and the closing lines of The Dark Foundations will be (in any just world) utterly classic across any genre:

"Vero, you remember you once said there were people who would follow me to the gates of hell?"
"A figure of speech."
"We'd better find them. That's where we're going."

This book, and the entire series, is amazing! They are extremely well written, and very original; you never quite know what will happen next! The characters draw you in, and you cannot put the book down! The worlds created in this series are amazing, the book fast paced, and all in all, they are some of the best books I've read all year!

I borrowed The Dark Foundations via Amazon Prime and gave it a spin. It's a good book, and well worth reading. On the plus side, it's very well-conceived, and a solid shot at something that's -- to put it mildly -- excruciatingly difficult, which is to take a stab at Revelations in Space. How do you weld solid space opera to low-protestant eschatology?? That's HARD, and to Walley's credit, he mostly pulls it off. Another reviewer has compared this to Narnia: that's not quite right. This is essentially a "bible christian" version of Lewis' That Hideous Strength.

That said, Walley's writing is occasionally very uneven at precisely those spots where the two are forced to come together: a numerous points in the text he signals the plot rather than telling it, and in so doing accidentally sucks all of the tension out of the room -- because this IS eschatological, we as readers behind the Fourth Wall know that the good guys will win. But those "angelus ex macchina" moments are precisely the weakest parts of the text -- while theologically uplifting to the right audience, it performs the theologically-correct-but-fictionally-problematic task of reducing the bad guys to a bunch of clueless patsies who haven't got a chance (accidentally rendering several potential good guys who "don't quite get it" and potential well-meaning anti-heroes who could have had real depth into cardboard clowns in the process). Having set up legitimate and real conflicts among the good guys, the reader deserved more than simply having all of that hand-waved into the dustbin. Like Mary and Martha, there is more than one "flavor" of human being in grace, and it would benefit the author if he were to address that, and the conflicts arising from it, rather trying to squeeze everyone *immediately* into a goats-or-lambs judgment.

That said, this is a solid 3 out of 5: the parts that need lampshading are (for the most part) lampshaded well, the parts that are imaginative are *quite* imaginative. He aims at a very high bar, and while he wobbles it, it's worth a look-see even if you're not primarily into "Christian fiction."

It's hard finding decent sci-fi anymore, especially something considered "epic." This much overlooked series is a must in the tradition of the series' of Edgar Rice Burroughs (A Princess of Mars (The Barsoom Series, Book 1), etc.) or Kim Stanley Robinson (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars). This delves a bit into the realm of science-fantasy, but the distinction between it and sci-fi are often fuzzy at best. What of the comparsions to C.S. Lewis's The Space Trilogy? They are less sci-fi (at least book 3), but the undercurrents of exploring the nature of evil and man are obviously there. Much has been said of this series being by a Christian author. Like the books of Lewis, the Christian underpinnings are definitely there, but like those books these transcend such labels and will appeal to all sci-fi fans. Sci-fi and fantasy are noticably absent from Christian fiction shelves, which is bizarre considering the legacy of Tolkien, Lewis and George MacDonald. I don't know if the publisher realizes what a gem they have in this trilogy. Afterall, who uses nameless Amazon reviews on the back of a book? Or labels it "futuristic?" This series was given a high-quality hardback release and should be given a close look by all readers. And of course, one should always start with volume 1.

Loved it. My husband and I both enjoyed this trilogy very much. Once you start, you can't stop till it's done. Never dissapointed.