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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A realistic look at love, legalism, and loyalty, September 13, 2004
This review is from: Soul Tracker (The Soul Tracker Series #1) (Paperback)
A father who cannot come to terms with the loss of his daughter . . . a scientist who cannot come to grips with the realities of faith. In his usual gritty style, Myers takes us on a journey from fear to faith, showing us reality through the venue of fiction. A story that will stay with you long after you turn the last page.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Truth is Out There, September 12, 2004
This review is from: Soul Tracker (The Soul Tracker Series #1) (Paperback)
I've been a dedicated Myers fan since reading Blood of Heaven years ago when it was released. Since then, I've purchased all of his adult fiction works. In this novel, Myers continues with his supernatural-meets-sci-fi genre that he's explored a couple times previously(Blood of Heaven, Threshold). David Kauffman is a single father who falls apart emotionally after the death of the daughter who was the light of his life. He wants to believe that she's now in a better place and at peace. For the first time in his life, he becomes interested in religion and the afterlife. This quest leads to his exploring his daughter's life, death and afterlife. A doctor named Gita Patekar is introduced to accompany him and temper his reckless enthusiasm in his search.
The plot and denouement of this novel are satisfying, but unfortunately, this novel lacks the emotional impact I've come to expect from Myers, particularly after "Face of God". None of the scenes made me cry, which is something Myers is normally able to cause in me. My only other complaint is that Myers' writing of the speech of a teenager is a bit awkward. It doesn't seem like how a teenager would naturally speak.
I know I've just rattled off a couple complaints, but this is still a good, solid book, thus the rating of 4. If it were written by anyone else, I would have probably been pleasantly surprised. As it stands, this book is a good Christian thriller, but if this had been the first book I'd bought by Bill Myers, I don't think I would have become the avid fan of his I am today. My advice to anyone checking into Bill Myers for the first time would be to read Blood of Heaven, Fire of Heaven, or Face of God before this novel.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Christian science fiction that takes you to the brink of heaven, November 25, 2005
This review is from: Soul Tracker (The Soul Tracker Series #1) (Paperback)
I imagine that many people look upon Christian fiction as some type of monolithic genre offering very little in terms of variety or thrills. To see just how wrong such thinking is, one need look no further than the prolific author Bill Myers and his extraordinary novel Soul Tracker. What you have here is a science fiction thriller that explores the deepest of human emotions while never straying far from the central message of God's love. I must say I have not read a great deal of Christian fiction - I haven't even gotten around to the Left Behind series yet - but Bill Myers has certainly awakened my interest in a genre that by all rights should be very important to me.
Soul Tracker is an emotional exploration of a father's grief over the loss of his teenaged daughter, a death made all the more troubling because it was suicide. David Kauffman feels largely responsible for Emily's death and tears himself apart wondering what he could have and should have done differently for his little girl. Most of all, though, he desperately needs to know whether she is OK now, wherever she may be. He is not a religious man, so he approaches an expert on dying, Dr. Gita Patekar, hoping this expert can point him to someone who can communicate with the spirit of his daughter. Patekar herself is a complex and fascinating character. This Nepalese-born thanatologist had to grow up on the streets, forced to do horrible things to take care of herself and her little brother; she is now a Christian, but her faith is more analytical than emotional. She in fact finds herself unable to love or be loved, an emotional victim of a past she wishes she could forget.
Dr. Patekar tells David that communication with the dead is impossible. Based on her analysis of the dead girl's journal, however, she finds reason to believe that Emily found Christ before she died. This possibility might have eased David's mind somewhat - if he had not started receiving communications from "Emily," including a radio dedication and an electronic phone message. Then a friend of Emily's tells him that the girl's death was strange and may not have been a suicide at all. By this point, nothing is going to stop David from trying to contact his little girl. His quest takes him to Life After Life and Dr. Patekar's employer there. The company has found a way of recording the first moments of death among a large sample of the dying and has created a virtual reality machine which allows individuals to relive an amalgamation of those dying experiences. Life After Life is not the humanitarian corporation it seems, however, and David and Gita soon find themselves in deep and potentially fatal trouble, their only allies a street preacher and his ragtag group of skid row youths.
Myers engineers a thrilling and poignant ending to the novel, taking readers to the very brink of heaven itself. God's great Love is made manifest in the pages of this novel, and that makes it a book sure to touch the heart of anyone, especially Christians. The science fiction aspect of the plot makes for a thrilling read in and of itself, drawing in non-religious readers and introducing them, in a far from heavy-handed manner, to the central tenets of the Christian faith. If you're worried that Christian fiction might be too preachy for your tastes or just plain boring, this exciting novel should dispel many of your doubts.
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