Customer Reviews

The Flight of the Shadow

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

 

 

Flight of the Shadow is an exciting story wrought with mystery, intrigue, and evil. Unlike many of George MacDonald's other novels, you will find none of the author's preaching and musing. The story is seen through the eyes of Mrs. Day as she records the episodes from her life in a journal. The book is shorter than many of MacDonald's other books, but unveils many valuable truths in the telling of the story.

What is the insideous secret behind the behavior of John's mother? And why does Belorba's uncle appear on the moor at night during the storm when he is believed to be at home? What is the terrible secret he is ashamed to admit that torments him throughout his life?

As with all of MacDonald's works, this book is chock full of spiritual nourishment. I was especially touched by Belorba's deep love for her uncle and his love for her. Reading about John's mother, her own spoiling upbringing and her desire to control every aspect of her son's life, was so poignant as to make me feel not a little unsettled in some of my own parenting practices.

The Flight of the Shadow is a beautiful book which I will enjoy reading again. It is an easy read with no dialect and no veering from the story as occurs in other MacDonald books.

Though the book is sometimes hard to follow due to its historical setting and language style, it is definitely worth the effort. As Belorba and her fiance' struggle to solve the mysteries of their ancestors' pasts in order to clear the way for a happy marriage, they cling to God's faithfulness and discover His loving, yet sovereign plan. Belorba's unique narrative style makes the reader feel like a present listener. The surprise ending neatly, and delightfully, ties up all loose ends.

George MacDonald is one of those writers who seems to have had a great impact in the literary world and yet who is little read today. CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien, among others, held MacDonald in very high regard. His innovative method of reviving fairy tales and using them for adults greatly influenced their fertile minds. And yet, while his works are imaginative and hopeful, they probably aren't the best pure writing you will come across.

In this book, MacDonald explores a tricky romance beset with obstacles between Belorba (your narrator) and John. MacDonald first gives you all the background on Belorba's idyllic upbringing with her loving uncle. He then sprinkles details of John's past throughout the book...details which greatly influence much of the action of the book. While you mostly see and experience everything through the eyes of young Belorba, this story is not solely concerned with her coming of age story. MacDonald allows you to appreciate the growth and revelations of other characters as well.

In my opinion, "Flight of the Shadow" highlights MacDonald's weaknesses as well as his strengths. Oftentimes in his life he was not so much a story-teller as a minister with a heart to bring hope to the weary. While doing so in his distinct, dreamy manner, his end goal in this book is always in sight; you never escape the sense that he is trying to prove God's goodness and thus the story is often didactic at best.

To me, the one promising aspect of this book that could lift it from simply being an overly manufactured piece was his exploration of the fantastic. In his Princess tales as well as in "Lilith" and "The Portent" (also known as "The Lady of the Mansion"), he created breath-taking, mind-boggling ethereal realms that intersected and contradicted our everyday world. Such concepts thrilled my mind and stimulated my dreams. However, in this piece, the fantastic element is reduced to a rationalistic interpretation, and all I was left with was a nice but slightly didactic tale.

I can see why another said this was a favorite, and all of that reviewers' points were well taken, but I didn't love this book, and I won't reread it, though I will reread most of MacDonald's other non-fantasy novels. I'm glad I read it, because, as always for me with a MacDonald book, I got spiritual insights from it. Also, the mystery was a good one, and it was solved very nicely. But I didn't like the romance. In this case, "love at first sight" was really love at immediately first sight and nothing else. It seemed too strange to me, and I didn't like the idea. Surely you need something more than a person's face to fall in real love (as opposed to lust, and, of course, MacDonald never means lust by "love"). So I was out of sympathy with the narrator, Belorba, because I was annoyed that she would fall in total love with someone based only on his face--and that she should prove to be right to do so! But the mystery is a grand one, and the villain is one of the very best! I loved the villain! Also, the spooky atmosphere of evil that MacDonald can create so well was marvelously rendered here, along with the triumph of God's goodness over it.

"Flight of Shadows" is the sequel to Brouwer's previous "Broken Angel."'

Set in a "not to distant future" America, this book portrays a society overseen by a "big-brother" style government, trapped in a caste system by which the rich run the country.

I had not read "Broken Angel" prior to receiving this book, so at times the plot and characters were hard to follow early on. FoS is still a very good read for all of not having the previous book to fall back on.

Somewhat formulaic in the plot, there is still enough meat to separate FoS from other "Fugitive" style books.

While the heroine, Caitlyn Brown, is interesting enough, I found myself much more interested the other characters populating the book:

Razor - the all purpose "McGyver"

Pierce - the conflicted agent chasing Caitlyn

Mason - the psychotic murderer on a mission of vengeance

Theo and Billy - the friends searchung for Caitlyn

Caitlyn's journey of escape and her coming to peace with abnormality thrust on her by tampering with her genes while an embryo is just the outer shell of the story, Caitlyn's acceptance and reunion with her father is the more powerful and pervasive storyline.

There are passages which my be somewhat intense for younger readers. Fortunately, or unfortunately (depending on how you look at it) the intense sections of the book are nowhere near as graphic as what might be seen on cable, the news, or motion pictures.

The dilemma of genetic science and a country divided by class struggle is not far-fetched, nor unrealistic. One just has to read a newspaper or watch any type of newscast to know that our country is very divided along class lines, excaerbated by a government that is well on its way to becoming "big brother."

Author Sigmund Brouwer has fashioned a very good book, which will no doubt cause me to read "Broken Angel" to see what I have missed.