Stephen the Martyr: A Novel

by Roger Elwood

Biblical fiction at its best, "Stephen the Martyr" offers with fascinating detail an account of the "silent history" of a young man whose death sets off the convulsive and redemptive transformation of Saul of Tarsus, one of the most powerful and influential Christians of all time.

Genres: Christian Fiction

319 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 1998

About the author

Roger Elwood was an American science fiction writer and editor, perhaps best known for having edited a large number of anthologies and collections for a variety of publishers in the early 1970s. Elwood was also the founding editor of Laser Books and, in more recent years, worked in the evangelical Christian market.

Reviews

[Heather · Rating 1 out of 5]

I quite reading about one third of the way through this one. As a work of historical fiction it was just fine as long as you care at all for doctrinal accuracy in your fiction.

The worst error (in my opinion): "'John was a creature of the flesh' he said 'but Jesus is not, it seems. He lives, He breathes, He eats, He sleeps, but as far as I can tell... He has never been ill, He has never cut himself and bled.'"

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Certain aspects, I really enjoyed. But, while Elwood didn't have as much of the preachiness as in many of his other books, he still put a very modern flavor of Christianity on his characters.
I really enjoyed his Masada, where Elwood was able to take fictional characters, and weave them with a few canonical characters in a way that felt believable. But here, with the main character being canonical, his artistic license just felt wrong.
In all, this narrative just doesn't ring true to me.