A City of Dreams

Winds of Light #5

by Sigmund Brouwer

In the early fourteenth century the boy warrior Thomas, still trying to save the earldom of Magnus from the false sorcerer Druids who have overrun it, wanders the Holy Land in search of knights who survived the end of the Last Crusade.

Genres: Young Adult, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Christian, Fantasy, Childrens, Christian Fiction

132 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1993

About the author

Sigmund loves going to schools to get kids excited about reading, reaching roughly 80,000 students a year through his Rock&Roll Literacy Show.

Reviews

[Lydia · Rating 4 out of 5]

So I do like the time spent in Israel in this book, and the fact that it is very un-cliched time, as it is set after the Crusades, but they are still fairly recent events, so you get a little drama from Middle Eastern relations. However, as I think always shows the mark of a good author, there is no "us" and "them". There are good guys and bad guys, race doesn't make you either. This aspect is only a very small portion of the book, though, so don't go into it expecting a deep philosophical work.

In other matters, Thomas and Katherine seem to finally be getting over their trust issues at the begining of this book and starting to make progress towards their common goal. However, someone makes a stupid, obvious mistake which shatters the new understanding and has Thomas going solo again for a good bit of the book. (This plot development really irks me, because this story is supposed to be about intelligent people, and it's such an obvious mistake and Thomas' next action just makes it worse instead of seeking to resolve it.)

As for the main plot of Merlin vs. Druid and re-taking Magnus, things continue to develope, betrayals occur, a villan re-imerges, but progress is made.

As I mentioned earlier, the trust issues in this book, after lingering from the last four, start to really irritate me, but that is honestly my only difficulty with the story development and progress is made in that area of the story by the end of the book as well.

Content wise still pretty clean, people do die, generally through violence, though it isn't graphic violence. No problems with language, and only kissing sensuality-wise.

[Tarissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up at a thrift store upon recognizing the author from his other adventure books I've read. So glad I got this one! It's so different from Brouwer's other series for kids, in the fact that it is historical fiction (dating back to early 1300s).

The story takes place right after the Crusades time period. Thomas is on a mission to save Magnus. It's intriguing to learn about the Holy Lands and the Middle Eastern lifestyle. This is quality Christian fiction for kids -- and even adults will enjoy it, I have to say!

Being book #5, it is in the middle of the series and was a little harder for me to follow the deeper plotlines, not having read this series before... but this issue can be remedied by reading the other books!