Thursday, February 22, 2007

Serials and Scenarios - Wedgewood Grey

Happy Thursday. Hoping you all face a rejection-free day. Hang out for a bit and peruse Wedgewood Grey.

The Book:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0446579505

The Author:

http://www.johnaubreyanderson.com/

The Review:

"Wedgewood Grey" plays out like a crime scene drama with facts layered upon each other while details of the situation's depth is fleshed out. Set in the south at a time when white men considered men of different skin to carry little value, and women of different skin to be worthless.

This story will likely be too gruesome for the Big Honken Chicken club, and may be a bit too scary. However, the tension and the potential of the spiritual warfare isn't so intense that you'll never sleep without a nightlight again.

"Wedgewood Grey" reminded me of early Peretti though the spiritual warfare aspect takes a backseat to Anderson's human characters. "Grey" carries a strong Christian message, with at least one character becoming born again after an encounter with a demon-possessed man.

John Aubrey Anderson crafts descriptive sentences, multiple characters, interwoven storylines and scatters the blend with wry humor.

I'm not a fan of omniscient story telling. I feel you lose the intimacy with the characters or gain too much intimacy with secondary characters who are just passing through. However, Anderson tells quite the story and manages to tie up the loose dangling threads he feeds into the mix. This impresses me, writing is not for the weak-kneed, and his cast of characters and storylines must require file upon file to keep them straight and tied together.

Compulsion to see what would happen next kept me reading, though some of the story lines didn't hold my interest as well as others and I skimmed a few times.

If you are a big fan early Peretti or you like omniscient narrated fiction with a strong Christian thread, I believe you'd enjoy "Wedgewood Grey."







Tomorrow...The Interview: