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Cyberquest #6
Galilee Man
Concludes the virtual reality adventures of Mok who proves himself worthy to lead the underground movement to restore Christianity to Old Newyork in the twenty-first century
62 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
About the author
Sigmund Brouwer
276 books411 followersSigmund loves going to schools to get kids excited about reading, reaching roughly 80,000 students a year through his Rock&Roll Literacy Show.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 27, 2026
By rights, Galilee Man should be the best in the CyberQuest serials, but it just isn’t. Even though Brouwer tells a fantastic parallel story featuring Jesus’ crucifixion and wraps up a few little plot twists nicely, overall Galilee Man falls flat and leaves a lot of unanswered questions.
After being fatally wounded in his last cyber-simulated trial, Mok enters the final phase of his training — witnessing the crucifixion of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem, A.D. 33. There, Mok is miraculously healed of his wound by Jesus, whom he recognizes as the Galilee Man he has been searching for since his childhood. However, Mok is then transported back to real life, where he discovers tha, having passed all his cyber-tests, he is now expected to carry on a legacy he never knew existed and help change the course of human history.
Galilee Man suffers from all the shortcomings of its predecessors, plus a few more. The overarching plotline — with Mok being mostly abandoned in Old Newyork all his life, the Committee keeping tabs on him and planning to bring him to the Mainside as an adult, all so he can inherit Benjamin’s company and save the world (which wasn’t in jeopardy then) — is still as thin as a floss-strand. We get the same ethical questions raised as well. How could the Committee leave a defenseless orphaned child to grow up in a crime-ridden slum just so he could “experience the life he was born into”? Why could the Committee not have warned or prepared Mok before his tests? Why did they even bother throwing away the lives of previous candidates if they wanted Mok all along? Would it not have been better to raise Mok with the intention of doing all this? Why did they have these cyber-trials prepared in advance if the heat bomb threat didn’t exist until recently? I could go on and on, but this is a kids’ series, and I think I need to just accept that not everything can be perfect. STILL.
Throughout the course of Galilee Man, we get three major plot twists: Mok’s gunshot wound adds serious stakes to the story, both in real-life and virtual reality (which is only made more exciting when we realize that it wasn’t virtual reality at all).
The crucifixion scenes, though they last barely three chapters, are actually quite poignant and echo the Ben-Hur storyline, with Mok being healed and redeemed by Christ even from the cross. Sigmund Brouwer doesn’t hold back with the gruesome cruelty of crucifixion, and his description of Jesus (as well as the bittersweet beauty of Mok finally finding the Galilee Man at the moment of his death) is just lovely. The appearances of Biblical figures like Simon of Cyrene and Mary Magdalene are also nice touches.
Galilee Man still struggles in other areas, though. Benjamin Rufus’ prologue story finally gets a little closure and seems to make a semblance of sense, but why does he feel the need to blow himself and his enemies up, and what lesson is that teaching the teen boys this series is aimed at? The ending of Mok’s Jerusalem encounter is so abrupt and takes us into the final half of the book, which takes place in a senatorial chamber where Cambridge and Mok must convince all the senators of the world to veto the president of the World United’s bill to destroy Old Newyork. This scene hits every single cliché in the book, unfortunately, which cheapens the ending of the novel and the series. Some plot points get decent explanations, while others are left frustratingly unresolved. Even the ending, with Mok getting a little closure about his childhood loneliness and finally meeting Madeline Cambridge in real life, just doesn’t have the zing it should.
Overall, CyberQuest is worth a read if you’re a middle-school boy, but otherwise, it struggles on too many fronts to be considered a really worthwhile use of time. Brouwer shows his creativity and great writing skills in some moments, then lets the clichés rule the narrative at others. If you’re looking for a quality series for young readers, check out his The Accidental Detectives series. If you’re looking for historical adventures that teach good life lessons, CyberQuest is also fine. Just don’t think too hard about anything.
And now, just for fun, a quick ranking of the series according to personal favorites!
1. Knight’s Honor
2. Soldier’s Aim
3. Pirate’s Cross
4. Outlaw’s Gold
5. Galilee Man
6. Pharaoh’s Tomb
After being fatally wounded in his last cyber-simulated trial, Mok enters the final phase of his training — witnessing the crucifixion of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem, A.D. 33. There, Mok is miraculously healed of his wound by Jesus, whom he recognizes as the Galilee Man he has been searching for since his childhood. However, Mok is then transported back to real life, where he discovers tha, having passed all his cyber-tests, he is now expected to carry on a legacy he never knew existed and help change the course of human history.
Galilee Man suffers from all the shortcomings of its predecessors, plus a few more. The overarching plotline — with Mok being mostly abandoned in Old Newyork all his life, the Committee keeping tabs on him and planning to bring him to the Mainside as an adult, all so he can inherit Benjamin’s company and save the world (which wasn’t in jeopardy then) — is still as thin as a floss-strand. We get the same ethical questions raised as well. How could the Committee leave a defenseless orphaned child to grow up in a crime-ridden slum just so he could “experience the life he was born into”? Why could the Committee not have warned or prepared Mok before his tests? Why did they even bother throwing away the lives of previous candidates if they wanted Mok all along? Would it not have been better to raise Mok with the intention of doing all this? Why did they have these cyber-trials prepared in advance if the heat bomb threat didn’t exist until recently? I could go on and on, but this is a kids’ series, and I think I need to just accept that not everything can be perfect. STILL.
Throughout the course of Galilee Man, we get three major plot twists: Mok’s gunshot wound adds serious stakes to the story, both in real-life and virtual reality (which is only made more exciting when we realize that it wasn’t virtual reality at all).
The crucifixion scenes, though they last barely three chapters, are actually quite poignant and echo the Ben-Hur storyline, with Mok being healed and redeemed by Christ even from the cross. Sigmund Brouwer doesn’t hold back with the gruesome cruelty of crucifixion, and his description of Jesus (as well as the bittersweet beauty of Mok finally finding the Galilee Man at the moment of his death) is just lovely. The appearances of Biblical figures like Simon of Cyrene and Mary Magdalene are also nice touches.
Galilee Man still struggles in other areas, though. Benjamin Rufus’ prologue story finally gets a little closure and seems to make a semblance of sense, but why does he feel the need to blow himself and his enemies up, and what lesson is that teaching the teen boys this series is aimed at? The ending of Mok’s Jerusalem encounter is so abrupt and takes us into the final half of the book, which takes place in a senatorial chamber where Cambridge and Mok must convince all the senators of the world to veto the president of the World United’s bill to destroy Old Newyork. This scene hits every single cliché in the book, unfortunately, which cheapens the ending of the novel and the series. Some plot points get decent explanations, while others are left frustratingly unresolved. Even the ending, with Mok getting a little closure about his childhood loneliness and finally meeting Madeline Cambridge in real life, just doesn’t have the zing it should.
Overall, CyberQuest is worth a read if you’re a middle-school boy, but otherwise, it struggles on too many fronts to be considered a really worthwhile use of time. Brouwer shows his creativity and great writing skills in some moments, then lets the clichés rule the narrative at others. If you’re looking for a quality series for young readers, check out his The Accidental Detectives series. If you’re looking for historical adventures that teach good life lessons, CyberQuest is also fine. Just don’t think too hard about anything.
And now, just for fun, a quick ranking of the series according to personal favorites!
1. Knight’s Honor
2. Soldier’s Aim
3. Pirate’s Cross
4. Outlaw’s Gold
5. Galilee Man
6. Pharaoh’s Tomb
Displaying 1 of 1 review