Customer Reviews

Faith of My Fathers (Thorndike Christian Historical Fiction)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Faith of my Fathers is the 4th book in Lynn Austin's Chronicles of the Kings series. After King Hezekiah's death, his son Mannasseh becomes king at age 12. Fear grips Mannasseh's heart as he begins to question God as to why his father died when he faithfully served God. Years later, as he goes to visit his mother's grave in the cemetry he comes upon a man who calls himself a "priest" and begins to accuse everything Mannasseh has grown up with and had been taught. The accussations make Mannessah call upon the prophet Isaiah and his palace adminstrator Eliakim--Mannessah's boyhood friend Joshua's father. During their conforntation King Mannessah accuses Eliakim and Isaiah of conspiring aganist him, using Isaiah's own prophecies aganist him. Eventually Eliakim and Isaiah are executed leaving Eliakim's family in great danger. Joshua and Mannasseh, once best friends have become bitter rivals. Joshua must now find a way to flee Mannasseh's terror while keeping his family safe.

I found this book to be the best out of the first four. And since they keep getting better and better I am guessing the fifth and last book to be more amazing! Lynn Austin does a wonderful job depciting the terror of Mannaseh's reign. He is simply insecure and believes everyone is plotting aganist him. Instead of turning to Yahweh he starts turning to the stars, mediums, etc. for answers. He even begins promoting orgies for worship and sets up Asherah poles and places for women to "offer" themselves to the idol goddess. I have never shed a tear in the first 3 books of this series but the beginning of the book when Eliakim and Isaiah were being falsely accussed and then executed drew a tear from me. It's amazing to see how even when confined to the darkness of a prison and facing death the next morning, these two men trusted God to the very end. I also found it exciting to read about Joshua's plans and such for smuggling himself and his family out of the country. Especially near the end he decides to smuggle the ark of the covenant and Mannasseh's brother--Prince Amariah to Eqypt.

With a host of new characters and some old ones as well this is definatly worth the read. I'm looking forward to reading "Among the Gods" and hope Lynn Austin decides to write more biblical fiction in the future. :-)

I've been nothing less then impressed with this series since book #1. And after book #4, "Faith of My Fathers," I'm still highly impressed. Taking the story of Manasseh, Lynn Austin seemingly took it, and split it into two parts. And she was quite clever with the delivery. Some might assume that this came to an abrupt ending, leaving the reader clueless. If you know your Bible, there's nothing clueless about it. This is what I'd call the II Kings version of the story. Yet in The Bible, Manasseh's story continues in II Chronicles. And it worked that way with a lot of the kings. In a lot of cases, most of the kings we read about in The Bible concerning The Northern and Southern Kingdoms were split into two different sections, II Kings, and II Chronicles. From Jehoshaphat, to Joash, to Amaziah, to Jotham, to Hezekiah, to Manasseh! ALL THESE KINGS and more were split up into the two sections. Ok, there's the Bible history lesson! What about this story? Read on!

Ahaz, Manasseh's great-grandfather, was one of the most worthless kings in all of the history. And Manasseh wasn't too far behind him. He was the son of one of the greatest kings to ever reign, Hezekiah. If you don't know the whole story and read this, you'll wonder if anything good ever came out of Manasseh. Lynn Austin, being the author, and better yet, the voice of reason, gives Manasseh a reason to be bitter, and to do what he did. But Austin gives Manasseh a childhood friend in Joshua, who's as clumsy as an Ox! His nickname is Ox. But something happens. And from nicknames to nonsense, there is a reason that these two former best friends are now bitter enemies. King Manasseh is nothing but a master of disaster, and he raises hell throughout the land! He has people executed, and he destroys what he father put together. Joshua wants nothing more then to get even.

If you're wondering if some of the things in this are extreme, they are indeed. What's worse, they really happened. But the good news is that certain people didn't forget the faith their fathers held so dear. I think that's where the title comes from. Because when times get so tough, the question is simple. Are we going to run to God, or run away from God? I'd personally suggest not running away from the great Yahweh! But I think when things get tough, you want to be a rebel just as much as Manasseh. But what do you do? Where do you turn? And for the record, by the time THIS story comes to a close, he still has a chip on his shoulder.

But there is one final installment, and it happens to be "Among The Gods." I think it should be pretty good. That's probably going to be Lynn Austin's II Chronicles part of this story. I already know the end, but I can't wait to read her novelization of it! She's a great storyteller. So far, I have yet to be disappointed.

ms austin is the first female author i,ve ever read, but after reading this series on the kings of judah it's completely opened my mind to all writers;the only regret is she didn't continue on with more books in the series.

I read all three on my new Fire purchased at Amazon as well as book and love my kindle and the books were wonderful. The history was in line and details that were written about were so good. Loved the whole series...

My mom had the first book in the series so I bought her the remaining four books and she loves them.

I really loved the first three books in this series! It made me fall in love with King Hezekiah and Historical fiction based on Biblical truths. I felt like the children of my beloved characters in the first three books weren't as well developed. I didn't believe the progression of their faith the way I did with their fathers and mothers. Honestly, while I loved all the characters in the first 3 books, I didn't really like any of the characters in these last two. It's still worth a read but didn't reach the excellence of its predecessors for me.

I haven't read fiction in 30 years because I have been raising a family and....just haven't had time. This series mixes fact with a story that makes the old testament come alive. Bravo, Lynn Austin. I have recommended this series and all her other books to anyone who will listen.

I fell in love with this series. It seems the first three books especially the third are so powerful cause they are so filled with scripture and biblical principles. I had delayed reading the fourth one cause I didn't want to read how those I've come to love suffer or die. Only caution I have are to the new believers to wait awhile or just trust that God can be trusted for He loves you. There's lots of scripture twisting by one of the characters and shocking occult descriptions throughout. Mrs. Austin has become a favorite author of mine, so I can't wait to read the final book to resolve loose endings. Until our King returns, let's serve Him and finish strong like Hezekiah, Eliakim and dear Isaiah.

This book was filled with intrigue, envy, grief, greed, fear, love, revenge and other strong emotions that stir our minds and bodies.

It was very fast paced but developed very well.

The author gets really close to the characters. Each character goes through some burden testing his/her faith. Some see the light, some fall to darkness.

The most important thing that the writer wanted to represent is the fact that some people are false witnesses. They twist words from the scripture and apply them to satisfy their wants which could be greed, a longing for suffering of others to show their own limitation of power, or deprivation of humanity.

The author in this book bestows conflicts upon conflicts upon her characters. She raises questions in a reader that it's hard to put the book down. It will captivate you from the beginning to the end.

Also, people who look for romance might be leading to the next book of the series to see if a girl who was taken to Joshua's house will captivate his heart. Will the book unravel many unanswered questions?

It was a really good read that I've lost myself in it. The tone slightly felt childish due to being too close to the characters and a very fast pace. So much has happened in 320 pages.

This book was great. All 5 of them are excellent. You cant put them down they are filled with so much action. Very biblical and historical!!! Worth every minute!!!