Eeep! Of course this happens... the first book giveaway the atheist wins is overtly religious.
Okay. Trying new things, trying new things, trying new things, HOW DID THIS HAPPEN, trying new things...
I will get through it, and the review will be interesting indeed.

Oh, and it'll probably offend some people.
So here goes...

One star, according to Goodreads, means 'didn't like it'. I guess you could say that's my general reaction to the book. By way of explanation, though, I should mention that I didn't expect to like it- that I went into it knowing there would be little likeable in it, and that after the first chapter there would be pretty much nothing.

Let me elaborate: I'm an atheist. Fact. Getting that one out of the way ASAP. Randy Alcorn is a minister. Fact. There was potential for conflict from the beginning.
But.
It didn't become inevitable until I flipped through my crisp new free book and found the 'reading guide' in the back.
And then I lost hope.
You see, my conflict is not specifically with religion in fantasy. I adore C.S. Lewis, and I can enjoy some L.B. Graham. My conflict is with religion in fantasy that is so incredibly anvilicious that there is NO. QUESTION. if it can be interpreted any other way. It can't. Narnia is a Christian allegory and a kick-ass adventure series with great characters and some nice sparkly magic. The Binding Of The Blade isn't as good, but it wraps the religion into a bundle of awesome- dragons, giants, tigers, cities built into rock outcroppings- and makes it part of the whole, not the entirety. It's possible to read both of these as straight-out fantasy series. (I didn't find the Christian symbolism in Narnia for years and years.)
That could have been the case with The Chasm. If so, it might have gotten two or even three stars. I mean, the writing wasn't very good (more on this later) and the plot meandered, but if the reading guide hadn't been there it still would have gotten at least one more star from me.
Message to all authors out there: I HATE BEING TOLD HOW TO INTERPRET THINGS, HOW TO THINK, AND MOST OF ALL, WHAT TO THINK.
So I think maybe you can imagine- or at least concieve of a modicum of- the outrage I felt when I read this last note in the reader's guide:
"To help you understand what the true 'Woodsman' has done for you and how you can respond, find a Bible , and use the table of contents to help you locate the following passages. These are just a few of the passages in the Bible that can help you explore the truth about Jesus Christ: if you have questions as you read them, be sure to talk to a believer in Jesus to help you discover the answers."
Insert nine seconds of Colin Firth swearing very Britishly here.

NO.
JUST NO.

Ironically, I felt like this.

Look, write your allegories. Go for it. But since you've already hit me over the head with something defined as "a short moral story", don't feel the need to drop a grand piano on me to compound the lesson.

Here I must digress and talk about why I was completely hopeless after the first chapter.
The writing in this book?
It is TERRIBLE.
It's loose, lacks flow, has far too little variation and too much 'telling'; word choice is at times questionable and at others downright idiotic; the plot wouldn't make sense if it wasn't being read as an allegory. There are people who are passionate about their religion and they can write so that said passion shows through in every word. Randy Alcorn is not one of those people. After the first chapter I knew that he wasn't, that he wouldn't turn into such a person, and that the only luck I'd had was that this book was so short.
And then a few chapters later I realized that this wasn't luck at all.
Lewis and Graham spread their Christian epics out over multiple books- seven for Lewis, five for Graham- and so they take their time with both the Christian imagery and the non-religious half of the story. But such is not for Alcorn. True, supposedly this book was an excerpt from a larger volume, but that doesn't excuse it unless this is in fact a summary of the excerpt.
Religion is a huge subject, and a complex and important one. If you're going to treat with it, please take time and care to do so. Otherwise it feels rushed and- that word I keep coming back to- anvilicious.

I get the impression that this book was intended as a... well, a conversion tool, to pick the best word. I am not converted, needless to say.
And here's the part where I use internet anonymity to really piss people off. Because not only am I not converted...

I'm over here laughing at these guys.