Gods and Kings (Chronicles of the Kings Series #1)

First Book of a great Series: Read it in 1 day!

Gods and Kings'and the next four books in this series by Lynn Austin' are wonderful! They incorporate Old Testament history in exciting and theologically correct novels. Each book in this series helps the reader 'go deeper.' I often found myself stopping during a particularly inspiring passage and praying. These books are faith- builders. The books incorporate excellent examples of God's laws and God's mercy and forgiveness. These books were so special because they are easy to read yet give the reader an understanding of how God works in our lives. They also inspire a yearning for a deeper relationship with God and lead us to want to know God's will for our own live. I have never been a great fan of the Old Testament and Psalms but after reading this series, I picked up my Bible and starting with Psalm 1, I began to underline verses that I found meaningful. I had to push myself to begin reading this series because I thought it would be too dry and dull but I quickly became engrossed and sometimes read a whole book within a 24 hour peried. I also learned so much about this time period in history that I feel as if I can speak intelligently about who these Kings were and how they lived.

23 out of 24 people found this review helpful.

GODS & KINGS

Wow, I could go on and on about this book. I loved it! We were supposed to read this for history for extra credit i didn't read because I thought I would be wasting my money. Later on, my friend lent me all five books. My, was I wrong! Gods and Kings starts off exciting, which helps you get into the book and ends in an exciting way. It makes you keep on wanting to read it. I urge you to read all the books. They're great! I'm on #4! ='

9 out of 11 people found this review helpful.

Seems Lacking in Historical Research

2.5 stars (maybe) The dialog (including internal) seemed way too modern and jarring to the ancient setting of Jerusalem. While reading, I did not get a feel for the times, (Jerusalem at the time of the Assyrian Empire). I also felt the portrayal of everyday life and the traditional major life events and ceremonies were poorly researched and related. Too much cardboard melodrama and predictable snapshot scenes. I'm thankful this novel was so short. I will not continue reading this series.

5 out of 7 people found this review helpful.

amazing

the way this biblical story is captured is so amazing. i could relate. i wish there were more series like it

5 out of 6 people found this review helpful.

Wow ! I think I just found my favorite author !

This was an excellent book. I literally could not put it down. I was up one reading it at 2 a.m ! I am getting the other 4 books to this and plan to read ALL her other books.

3 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Nicely done

I'm not a religious person but I found mysekf enjoying this novel. Perhaps the modern part that so many other reviewers disliked is what attracts readers like me. Being able to look at the characters and understand the motivation or the way they lived without the boring dialogue is refreshing. The simplicitynof the nivel and the dramatization made me want to read the other chronicles.

3 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Pretty good, boring at some points.

Overall it was a pretty good book. It was well written and only had some minor spelling problems (it was free, so i didn't mind), but some of it's historical content was incorrect from a Biblical standpoint. I used the references that she had put into the book and was able to find those minor mistakes (like a name or something) fairly quickly. It is historical FICTION after all so I guess it's not that significant if she mixes up a couple of names. But I'm annoyed that I now have to pay for the next book in the series, which the reviews say is better than the first one.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

For non religious people too. Great story.

Lord of the rings can relate.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Beautifully written! Highly recommended!!!!

The author brings Jerusalem and its Judean wilderness alive with amazing, colorful detail! The characters are so real and human, you feel like you've been tranported in time and are being a spectator to their conversations.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Excellent book

Will recommend!!!

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

*****

I loved this book. I've studied these events in my bible study but now they are very real to me.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Loved It

If you enjoy historical fiction, you'll LOVE this book! Looking forward to the sequel...

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Recommended

I agree with the other readers who said that some of the language use for that time period are not appropriate and the grammar structure is pretty simplistic. It sounds as though this was written for a fifth grade student. Other than that, the story is captivating and does make me want to check out Chronicles in the bible.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Amazing

Read the whole series!

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Highly recommend

I loved Gods & Kings. Lynn Austin brought the Bible to life for me in this amazing story of the Kings of the Bible. I don't know how historically correct they are but I read my Bible daily and intend to go back to Chronicles and read it again and again....

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

I wanted to like it, BUT

The modern-sounding dialogue was too jarring. I just can't handle biblical characters saying "okay" all the time and using "baby" as a term of endearment. While the whole "questioning" in the head is a good tension-building device, it was WAY overused. (How would he know what to do? Would he ever stop hating his father? Would her husband ever love her? blah blah)

While it seemed decently researched, I didn't get a very good feel for the world of the time. It seemed flat. That being said, the opening scene was VERY effective and hooked me in. Unfortunately, it was all downhill from there.

I also felt that there was too much Christianity bleeding through the theology. The understanding of Judaism seemed lacking. It was probably part of the ascribing modern dialogue and sensibilities to ancient characters. It probably makes them more accessible to many modern readers, but the impact is diminished.

I was looking forward to the series, but I won't be continuing on.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

great character development

loved how she characterized young hezekiah and captured his boyhood

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

A terrific work of Old Testament historical fiction

Believing Yahweh as a myth of his ancestor King David and desperate to appease the idol Molech that he believes is the power, Hebrew King Ahaz of Judah decides to sacrifice his last son Hezekiah. By killing his son in sacrifice to Molech, Ahaz hopes to gain favor to win a war that has so far devastated his army and people. Only the lad¿s mother Abijah might be able to save her son¿s life, but she trusts no one yet needs help to keep Hezekiah safe. That help comes in the form of a miracle when Yahweh the true God makes his presence known at the altar............................. Surviving his evil father¿s excesses when he was a child, Hezekiah is now the king with only two people loyal to him out of love for him; his mother and his wife, but they know they must allow him to rule. Besides showering him with love, they pray to Yahweh to guide their beloved; for both knows his male role models have been abominations including his dead father, drunken grandfather, the power hungry disbelieving High Priest and foreign born instructor. Yet he must also deal with the Assyrian invasion and the scorn of the Great Prophet Isaiah............................ This is a terrific work of Old Testament historical fiction that provides an insightful look at two intriguing Hebrew descendents of David Kings Ahaz and Hezekiah; the former prayed to an idol while his son implemented needed religious reforms and a return to the One God. The story line is very entertaining while bringing to life a fascinating segment of the bible. Lynn Austin entertains her myriad of fans with her first of five book Chronicle of Kings series................... Harriet Klausner

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

I don't often read read religious fiction, but the first of this

I don't often read read religious fiction, but the first of this series was a free Fridays selection and I grabbed it for my Nook. After reading it, I felt it held together for my reading style better than a lot of contemporary religious fiction, so I bought the entire series. These are my thoughts on the series as a whole: The first, fourth, and fifth of the series hold together quite well as interesting fictionalized stories. I would rate them a "3" (meaning to me that I liked them but wasn't obsessed by them as I might have been by other popular fiction like Hunger Games). The second and third (the story of Hezekiah) was interesting, but the characters were more or less "flat." I would have rated them "2" (meaning to me that the author could have spent more time on these, and she probably wasn't any more pleased with them than I was). But the overall series had an added value which causes me to rate the series as somewhere between a 3 and a 4. (Can't do that, can you? Have to settle for one or the other.) The added value was that the stories, as a whole, stuck to the Bible script so tightly that I was encouraged to follow through many times to read the Biblical accounts and to do other research about the times via the internet. (Easy to do on a Nook tablet!) Thus, the series turned into its own Bible study for me. A big point to this historical Biblical account is to show what happened when Israel turned to God and when Israel turned away from God in the Old Testament times. Because of Austin's tight script leading me back to the Biblical account all along the way, I saw the Bible message in a much deeper way than I previously remembered. Plus, 3 out of 5 of the books were quite entertaining in their own right.

Another great story

This story was a page turner. I couldn't put it down.