The story opens on Evan MacKeth, the illegitimate son of the king of  Glenmara who is spending the summer with his mother.  A troll attacks their town and then a strange man named Julian shows up and kills it. Evan is delighted with the prospects of something to distract him from being bored during the summer, and he asks Julian to teach him to use a sword. Julian agrees and stays to instruct him.  Little does Evan know the pivotal effect this relationship will have on his life, for Julian does not worship the false god Moloch, like everyone else in Glenmara. Julian worships the one true God Iosa Christus.

Then the king, Evan’s father dies, the covetous jealousy of a pauper knight sets off a chain of events that results in the death of Evan’s mother.  Evan is left bitter and alone and avenging his mother becomes the main goal in his life.

Now Julian and Evan have to flee from Evan’s treacherous half brother to the mountains, where Julian trains Evan to fight, and teaches him about the one true God Iosa Christus. But Evan only has bitterness and revenge in his heart. When the day comes for them to leave the mountains, Evan and Julian part, because Evan will not abandon his idea of avenging his mother’s death, and Julian will not go with him to help wreak his revenge on his half brother.

On the way to the city of Durham where his brother lives, Evan must survive alone for the first time, facing starvation, a band of robbers, and battling a giant.

When he gets there though, his plan goes awry, and he finally submits to God’s love and finds release from the bitterness that he had held onto for so long.

Now he has to go back to the mountains to face his worst nightmare, and a desperate battle ensues.

I liked this series because it showed me how vitally important it is to put your trust in God for real, and not just say you do and really only trust in your own strength like Evan did. He was bitter about how his mother died, and how his half brother betrayed him, and he wouldn’t let go of that bitterness and it made his life miserable until he bowed his stiff neck to God, and truly trusted that God has all things under control.

It’s well written, I like how when I’m reading it I can really visualize the landscape, the cities, the battles, and even the people. The vivid descriptions make it easy to imagine that you are actually there, watching the story unfold. The author develops the personalities of the characters well too. When it says that someone is thinking about something, I can easily imagine the face they might be making, which means a lot to me when I’m reading because I like to be able to sort of participate in the story, and it almost seems as if I know Evan, and Julian and a host of others in these books personally because its written so well (reading them each four to six times might have helped too)

Here is a link to the website, I will be reviewing the second, and third books soon.

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