Customer Reviews

Song of Fire

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Joseph Bentz makes Song of Fire "a powerful tale of the triumph of good over evil and healing love in a fantastic world that feels as real as the one we live in."
The book begins with a couple, Anne and Jeremy, skating and having an argument. Then suddenly, Jeremy falls into the pond and finds himself in a new world. "I came down in a swirl of music so bright that I couldn't see anything else around me." Music, in this world, is banned and whoever breaks the law suffers the pain of death. Jeremy arrives into Persus Am in a swirling cloud of light and music. Starting then, he embarks on his journey to find out his purpose in this world and in doing so he finds many friends. Many obstacles try to stop them but they listen to the voice of God and believe in him. From the "vast Gray Desert" to the wonderful Caladria, they began to devise a plan to restore the Temple and the Spirit of God to Persus Am; which at this point is completely prohibited. Jeremy and his friends face terrible events but at the end Jeremy finds his purpose, and he faces the truth deep down in his own heart.
When you sit down to read this book, you quickly find yourself wrapped in it from the very beginning to the expected but beautifully told ending. The testimony of how God watches over Jeremy and how no matter how many bad decisions Jeremy makes God corrects them. This book will help you extremely to check your relationship with God.
Song of Fire is a relatively long book, but it's like Pringles, "once you start reading, you just can't stop!!" I would truly recommend this book to those that believe in God, and even so, to those that don't because it's a good book just to sit down and read. But for those that have that relationship, you'll be waiting to read about the mercy of God and how he delivers his people.

I liked this book in general. It has very good and vivid descriptions and if you are a christian who has a liking for fantasy type books than I would certainly recommend this one.

My only complaint is that the book literally has a one page ending. There is nothing there to tell what happened to any of the characters except for the main character. This is my only complaint of the book. The actual journey of the character and the story line is magnificent in my opinion. I would definately recommend it.

This book really emphazised two things. One the importance of God in a culture in order to Survive and two, Music is needed to keep the heart and soul in peace, and sanity. One town whosee beliefs are of the leader, or the king, doesn't believe in God or Music and therefore his people starve and are violent and act in repulsive ways. Whereas the people who do believe in God and Music live on the hilltop and thrive, even design a way to overthrow the evil. Excellent Work of Art, both in fantasy and religion.

In My reading of this book I found that at the end he was not dreaming. Mearly that his mind could not be in both worlds at once. So he had to be unconcies to be in the other world.

This is a wonderfull book of a kind of paralel earth combining religion and sciance.

I do not know what I would have done in a world where music was not alowed. (That perade would have been boooorrrring)

This is a remarkable book. It all starts when Jeremy falls through ice while skating, and falls into a new one. He arrives in a blaze of light and music. But the light is the music and the music carries the voice and spirit of God. He goes through many trials and never quite knows why God has brought him to this place. Jeremy changing this other world, and himself, forever. What I liked best was how Bentz made you feel like you were accually there, be it a dank dungeon or the Amian royal palace.

I thought this book was GREAT. It was about a young man named Jermey (later named Pyrce) who was challenged with finding out if he could save the world. Jeremy faces many challenges in his encounter with God or Emajus. Jeremy one day fell thought ice and found himself in a world were he later finds that God sent him to save. Know he can take this challenge or never return to the world he knows. Jeremy many times faced with the question of whether he can make a difference in this world or whether he can't. Song of Fire is a great novel for anybody who who has like Jeremy ever questioned how far they will go to find a true God, how many challenges they are willing to endure to find him, even willing to put there life on the line to have there question answered or maybe being buried to the grave with there question of wether they made a difference or not. Please read this book it is Great and don't be saced by the number of pages it is Great book and in no time you will be done.

I enjoyed the book immensely. I was taken in immediately and found the book difficult to put down. In fact, I was so taken in I wanted the story to go on...the ending seemed to wrapup quickly given the pace of the book in earlier chapters. All in all, I liked it. I even bought a copy for my mom!

I was already an avid music lover, as a concert pianist and lead singer in a rockband, but Song of Fire really showed me just how important music really was to life. How bleak life would be without music!

Bentz tells a tail of a young man who ends up being transported to a new world. Typical fantasy novel theme, but done so well that you don't even notice! The young man must choose between the life of a royal prince in this strange land, being waited on hand and foor, and marrying the beautiful daughter of a tyrant king, or doing what is right and what he believes in by helping the music lovers of this land bring the music back.

It has large ammounts of symbolism and if you are a bible scholar or christian you will probably notice how similar it is to many aspects of the bible, such as the deliverance from Egypt and Jesus Christ (called Emajus if my memory serves correct)

This is a great book for all ages, and trust me, once you start it, you will be hooked. I recommended it to all of my friends and they loved it, and I recomend it to you!

i demand a sequel of this book. this book is so unique and heart-touching. it's about a 23 year old guy who got transported into a different world. in the end, i think he wasn't just dreaming, because 'God' was a part of it. everything is possible :P anyways, i do admit that i didn't like it when Joseph made Tracian a "bad" person (i like Tracian better than Anne). wish i have Joseph Bentz's email address so i can tell him to make a sequel of the book because everything was a mistery in the end. no infos about what happened to Persus Am, no infos about Pons, etc. Overall, this book is the best book i've read in my entire life. (that's why i want a sequel of it)

The little boy hated "stories that ended by being somebody's dream."and I don't blame him. (Spoilers below, you've been warned.) As a Christian fantasy, Betz's Song of Fire is a nice departure from the usual Tolkienesque stuff; unfortunatly this is also something of a drawback, stumbling into Allegory mode more than once. The plot is of Stranger in a Strange land: Out ice-skating, Jeremy falls, in a comet of song and light into the realm of Persus Am, where all music has been forbidden. Bentz can draw a convincing world, his descriptions of the various countries are believeable. There is a vague resemblence to Narnia; Jeremy has been sent to restore faith in God to the silenced masses, in defiance of the dictator Umbriel; specifically he leads a group of the faithful to the Promised Land Caladria. Much is made of Christian faith, of turning back to God, while at the same time the plotline compels. All the same, I wasn't completely satisfied. It is no easy task to fit spiritual guidance into a story without sounding twerpy; at one point Jesus, or "Emajus" as he is known here, stops by to give Jeremy a pep talk, a scene which almost works......sort of. Interesting characters, ideas are brought up, then dropped. Jeremy is continually seeking his girl Anne, tho we never really see much of her, much less why he loves her. The terrible tryant Umbriel comes off more as a conniving politican. Much of Bentz' imagined land suffers from being an "Allegorism" than a real place, Caladria comes too close to being a Christian Oz, conviently hidden away until needed. To me, the biggest drawback is of the initial idea--the banishment of music, yet this book comes off as strangely silent. Jeremy's guitar is mentioned, there is a song at a political rally, but the only real sense of music is at an "Emajian" church, which comes off as a revival meeting. Bentz is an inovative writer--I liked the "music bombs"--but it's not always easy to follow him; his ending is especially too abrupt. As a Christian counter to fluff like the Celestine Prophecy, this is a wonderful book; but as a work of fantasy tread carefully, there's cracks in this ice.