Customer Reviews

Fire Creek

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I picked up a free copy of this book at a booksellers' conference in Salt Lake, mostly because I thought the cover art was interesting and fresh for the genre (especially the back cover). I must admit that I had attended the conference with my usual skepticism that anything remarkable would be debuting this year, since it has been my experience that most of the fiction featured in the Salt Lake conference is trite or mushy or poorly written or all three at once. I'd forgotten about this book completely until a week or so ago, when I found it in my trunk and thought I'd give it shot. I'm glad I did. The first chapter hooked me, and the depth and insight (not to mention an interesting plot) in the rest of the novel reeled me in. I recommend this novel whole-heartedly for all readers--something I haven't been able to do for Deseret-Book fare in a long time.

Yes it is true that this book has been turned into a film. They are in the final stages of editing and it should be released hopefully summer 2006. I was very excited to see the Afganistan sets I built featured in the back cover art.

The storyline in this book and film are absolutly incredible. Not many books can bring me to tears. Chai is an amazing writer (and a pretty great professor as well, but that is beside the point.)

The story is full of depth and and very well developed characters. I only hope that the movie we have made really does it justice.

so i might be a bit biased in this review, since i'm a previous creative writing student of the author. i really enjoyed his class and his enthusiasm for the craft and the arts generally, and as a result i wanted to see how well he applied the principles he taught in his own work. (he actually never mentioned his book in our class, and i found out about it only by chance after i'd moved on.)

and now that i've gotten the preliminaries out of the way, on to the review: trying to be as objective as i can, i have to say that i loved this book. it has a depth and a soul to it that few novels or stories i've read recently manage. the story bgins with a young marine, jason chang, a "converted" athiest, trudging through another mindless patrol in afghanistan. jason's patrol is ambushed, and in the chaos that follows, jason thinks he hears something miraculous--something that saves his life. the trouble is, jason's best friend, rodney, is killed in the ambush and jason, himself injured, is sent home and left to make sense of what has happened as best he can. jason struggles to understand whether his "miracle" was authentic or imagined, and what the implications are if it was real. meanwhile, a young father, sick and desperate for money, moves in with his thirteen year old son. through a suprising turn of events, jason's search for answers soon entangles him with this father and son, who are themselves searching for god and miracles in their own way.

the result is a strong plotline founded on real emotional and philosophical depth, making for a page-turner that you actually want to think carefully about after you've finished it. so that no one misunderstands, this book isn't another trite, weak-minded, apology for christianity or faith generally. (as a former philosophy major, i wouldn't have been able to finish such a book.) rather, this is something better: a well-crafted story with interesting, believable characters that circles the issue of why god allows horrible things to happen to good people. (by the way, jason's buddy rooster is by far my favorite character: i can almost gaurantee he'll make you laugh out loud several times, and you'll be surprised by how he manages to help jason in the end.)

in fact, i think it would be more appropriate to say that this is a novel whose characters happen to have serious questions about god and faith and are looking for serious answers; it's not necessarily a book directly about religion per se at all, as religious affiliation or creed or worship services actually never come up.

i strongly recommend this book for all readers. it's especially appropraite for anyone who isn't afraid to think deeply about the nature of faith and hope, or for anyone who's coping with the loss of a loved one or a similar tragedy. in fact, the only bad thing i can say about this novel is that i couldn't find a hardback edition, and my poor softcover is already showing stress from my having made a few friends read it. in summary, read this book! you'll enjoy it immensely and you'll be a better person for it--and when's the last time you were able to say that about a novel?

--oh, and i almost forgot, the front cover says a movie version is coming out soon. i really hope that's true, but i haven't been able to find anything out about it. maybe the movie has a differrent name. if you have any details, i'd really appreciate it if you could post a review here to let me (and others) know.

Anyone who's ever been tempted to ask God the question Why? when tragedy hits or death strikes a loved one needs to read this book. This is a huge step forward for mature, honest, and faithful religious fiction.

So here goes my first official Amazon review. I read this book after I saw a very nice review of it in my local paper, The Daily Herald, quite a while ago, and I just read it again. It's definitely not an easy read, in the sense that it really challenged me to rethink some of my preconceptions. But it is a very worthwhile read and very recommendable. Some of the ideas in the book have really stuck in my head, and I've been thinking about them for the past month. And that's the real reason I'm reviewing this book for my first review. I pretty much disagree with all the other reviews on this site and they kind of make me mad. I think they mischaracterize this book and make it sound like a sermon. But I really don't think this book is about a character finding or explaining something about God and belief, like some of the other reviews seem to say it is.

To me, this book is first and foremost about doubt. And I don't think the main character, Jason, really ever resolves that doubt. So my comment to the other reviewers is simply, Stop trying to make this book something it's not (an apology for an MIA god) and start enjoying it for what it is (a great story that happens to involve a character who doubts the God he was raised to believe in). Anyone who's ever doubted their own faith should strongly relate to this storyline. For me, ultimately this book didn't answer questions. It raised them. And as far as I'm concerned, they were questions I should have been asking a long time ago.

Oh, and one other thing, I think the publisher's synopsis of the book on this website is horrible. One of the worst I've ever seen. It doesn't even begin to describe this story well, so I'd definitely suggest overlooking it. I wouldn't have read this book if I'd read that summary first. The publisher really needs to change that to something more fitting of the book and it's complex storylines. And soon.

Summary: Fantastic read, great insights, but strongly disagree with other reviewers.

Yay! My first review is going up!

Enjoyable book with strong characterization, good plotting, and very interesting themes. Chai has a gift for beautiful, descriptive prose that doesn't slow down the story-telling. Hard to believe this is his first novel. My son Aaron, who's 16, also enjoyed the book, and that saying something right there.