Josiah's Reviews > Fawkes

Original Review: Holy moly, this book was fantastic.

Updated Review: Alright, so I've had some time to think more about this book and write a longer review about why I liked it so dang much. Because this book has a lot of tropes that I normally hate in modern Christian fiction (allegorical elements, protagonists who literally hear the voice of God, conversion narratives)--but it actually manages to pull all of these tropes off really well.

Part of it has to do with the fact that the book has an empathetic protagonist with an engaging plot. A lot of Christian fiction turns me off not because its themes are preachy but because the story bores me. This is not the case with Fawkes. Despite the fact that anyone familiar with the historical event should know the ending, the story does a remarkably good job of amping tension and making the story legitimately interesting with all that in mind.

Another large part has to do with the slow reveal of the story's themes and tropes that I normally dislike anywhere else. Brandes does a fantastic job of leaving the reader guessing at what's going on thematically and you tend to only realize what's actually going on after-the-fact in this regard, which really helps the book to avoid preachiness.

I would have liked to see a bit more exploration of the story's magic system since it was a bit underdeveloped. But other than that, everything else was pretty solid. It's one of those books that waffles between 4 and 5 stars to me, but given how many tropes I normally dislike it actually pulls off really well, that's enough for me to bump it to 5 stars. Most of the Story Embers team has been reading Fawkes this past month and all of us love it. So if you're in the mood for some great historical fantasy with Christian undertones that aren't preachy, this is the book for you.

Rating: 4.5 Stars (Excellent).