Category: Book Reviews

The Caves That Time Forgot by Gilbert L. Morris

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


The Seven Sleepers, seven ordinary kids in an extraordinary post-apocalyptic world, find themselves sent by the mysterious but good Goel to the island of Mordor, a place no one wants to talk about, and fear few to tread. However, the Seven Sleepers are needed to fight the Dark Lord on the island, because an entire race of people are on the brink of destruction unless they can stop it.

Book four, The Caves That Time Forgot in The Seven Sleepers series picks up right where book three, The Sword of Camelot left off, sending the Sleepers into another adventure where they must fight the forces of evil in Nuworld. This entry in the series was more interesting than book three, but not as earth-shattering as books one and two. Dave is the lead character in this book, and while he has a “development” of sorts, by the end he seems somewhat the same as he was in previous books.

There are dinosaurs and interesting plot developments here which will definitely be fun, if not reminiscent of other dinosaur fiction, such as Laura Martin’s The Ark Plan Series or Madeleine L’Engle’s Many Waters, with a touch of Don Richardson’s Peace Child. However, a few other plot elements are seen a million miles away, and are fairly guessable. What is missing here is further development of the overall universe the sleepers now inhabit. We gain no further insight into the Dark Lord or Goel, although the allegories are fairly clear at this point.

The other interesting plot development to note is the discussion of courtship throughout the book. The characters seem somewhat young to be talking about courtship in view of marriage. If the conversations are stayed to dating that might have made more sense, but the courtship conversations for fourteen and fifteen year olds came across somewhat creepy.

While The Caves That Time Forgot certainly held my interest more than the previous book, it still fails to hold up to the stellar introduction this series had with book one. Here’s hoping the next entry, Winged Raiders of the Desert proves to be more engaging.

The Sword of Camelot by Gilbert L. Morris

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


As Gilbert Morris’ The Seven Sleepers series continues, I’m a little bit worried they’re going to become formulaic as the sleepers travel from one land to another, facing down a threat, winning, all while learning a moral. In book three, The Sword of Camelot, Morris falls directly into this particular trap. Knowing there are still seven more books in the series, I’m afraid they’re going to continue in this pattern.

For The Sword of Camelot, the sleepers travel to a kingdom called Camelot, complete with castles, knights, dragons, and a fair amount of jousting. Reb, one of the sleepers, is going to have to face his biggest threat yet, and it doesn’t come in the form of dragons; it comes from inside of himself and the darkness he’s been carrying around all this time. If he can’t learn to trust Goel, then the seven sleepers may be facing the end of the Round Table and their very lives.

This one started off slowly and dragged until a little over halfway with the introduction of a new character who comes on the scene. As soon as this newer character arrived, the pacing and plot seemed to pick up considerably, and things sped along to the very end. However, getting to that midway point was a slog. Nothing much happens up to that point, and it became highly reminiscent of the sleepers and their time in Atlantis. However, this time the world-building was not nearly as breathtaking as before. Perhaps this is because I’ve read a lot of books set in the times of King Arthur, or perhaps Morris simply falls into all the tropes of a fantasy story set in a medieval time period.

One concerning aspect of this story needs to be explored further, and that has to do with Reb himself. He says a few things later on in the book that are extremely problematic, referring to hangings and the glorification of Southern leaders during the Civil War of the Americas. While this is all contained to Reb’s dialogue, and never enters the narration itself, his attitudes that are slightly racist are never confronted by anyone else, and instead are left to linger. Parents would do well to take a look at these comments ahead of time and perhaps have conversations about racism with their kids before and after reading this book.

The Sword of Camelot is certainly not the best of the series, so here’s hoping that book #4 will pick up the pace and introduce some new lore to the story.

The Dangerous Act of Worship: Living God’s Call to Justice by Mark Labberton

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Worship is so much more than a song. It’s an entire life that encompasses every action, every thought, every word, every inaction we participate in. Whether we realize this or not, we worship something or Someone every moment of every day. For those who follow Jesus Christ, we pray and hope that every action worships God, and yet so often when we think about what that worship means, we only stop to think about the music portion of a Sunday service or the latest album from the newest worship band. And while some might stop to think of worship as action and word, rarely is seeking justice a part of that vision of worship.

In his book The Dangerous Act of Worship, Mark Labberton seeks to paint a vision of the most dangerous act of worship: living out God’s call to justice in the world. This means looking to the least of these both next door and across an ocean. How are we as followers of Jesus caring for the orphan, widow, and voiceless out in the world? Have we forgotten this call to justice?

While this basic message is much needed in the American evangelical church today, Labberton spends almost 200 pages to say the same thing over and over: go out and worship through justice. He paints some biblical backdrop for this vision, which is extremely helpful, however when we gets to the nuts and bolts of what this will look like, he tends to wander through metaphor after metaphor that never quite lands and ends up being repetitive.

This is one of those books where if you read the first three chapters and the last one, you would have the gist of the entire work. Again, this perspective shift is helpful, so I’m not totally dismissing Labberton’s book. If you are interested in social justice and how that interplay works within the church context, this would be a helpful book for theory and biblical underpinnings. However, if you’re looking for a how-to manual or practical look at how this plays out, it would be better to look elsewhere.