Customer Reviews

Soul Tracker (The Soul Tracker Series #1)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I just loved this book! Couldn't put it down! Bill Myers is definitely talented. This is a must read , full of suspense!
Can't wait to read more from this author.

Mr. Myers has done an excellent job with this book! I can't wait for the sequel! His descriptions of Heaven and Hell were so amazing and I was especially touched by them. I have suggested this book to many people as it has been the best book I've read in quite a while!

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. Bill Myers put a lot of effort into this book ,I believe. It kept me hooked until the very last word.
The book is fairly easy to read but still has the content and ideas a fairly complex book might have which to me is a good thing for a book to have. It has many twists and turns to keep me hooked until the very end which for some books the ending really kind of insist very good but for this one it is. The dark and sinister elements are very creepy and you will ponder them long after reading this work. As you can tell I really enjoyed this book and I would gladly read it again.

Like Eli, this book is one that will make you think and be difficult to put down. It's also one that you'll likely wish to read again. Soul Tracker shows how Bill Myers is getting better with each book he writes at combining plot, characters, and important messages.

I am a big fan of Bill Myers. I was eagerly waiting for this book to come out and this book did not disapoint me at all. It sucks you in from page and and you can't put it down, there are so many twists and turns in this book. The story begins where there is David, who recently lost his daughter to suicide. But there is little clues that maybe this wasn't a suicide. I just can't say how much I really enjoyed this book.

Bill Myers has been a solid Christian writer for quite a few years, and I really enjoyed his "Blood of Heaven" - "Threshold" - "Fire of Heaven" trilogy. I thought what he did with those was exceptional, and a little edgy in places for Christian writing. So I must admit my expectations coming into this book were a little high.

It definitely had a plot that moved forward and pulled you along. I was intrigued from the moment I started reading and wondered exactly where he was going with certain characters. And I'll also admit that he surprised me a little with the ending for a specific character, though it was a good surprise and I'm rather proud of him for taking it.

But on the other hand, I will say some of the characterizations felt a little forced. I've been reading books by Silverberg, Heinlen, and McDevitt lately, and they do such an incredible job with creating characters and then revealing them through the narrative. I felt like Myers had some really well-done characters in this book, but that in some places he was forcing the revelation of that character rather than letting it play out through the narrative and let the reader discover it as the story progressed.

Do I recommend it? Yeah. But tentatively. It's a decent book, but there are better written ones out there - some by Myers himself! I wouldn't hold this forward as an example of a well-written Christian book, though.

If it's possible to write a fast-paced, gripping thriller with the message of a Sunday morning sermon, Bill Myers has done it . . . with flair. Soul Tracker explores death and life after death . . . and how our choices in the here and now affect both. As usual, Myers' writing is solid and consistent. He is a prolific writer and knows how to tell a story. I recommend this book, especially as a gift to those seeking answers about the afterlife.