We read a ton of books in our house and lately we’ve been reading some of the books from the Terrestria Chronicles. An allegorical series, The Terrestria Chronicles is a series of 7 books “written with a three-fold purpose: to honor Jesus Christ as King, to challenge young readers to love and serve Him, and to teach them to guard their hearts for Him. The focus of the series is always on the King.”
We’re pretty fond of fantasy fiction when it involves knights, castles and the like. When it involves lots of good moral and character building moments – even better. This series definitely contains both elements and therefore a hit in the O’shea House. Our first Terrestria book was The Golden Lamps.
After an attack on a small Terrestrian village by Argamor’s dark knights, the villagers petition King Emmanuel to build them a castle for protection. Emmanuel responds by sending James of Arwyn, a master builder who will guide the villagers in the construction of their own castle. All goes well until the workers discover mysterious golden lamps. The lamps have an unusual purpose, and that purpose may spell doom for the castle project.
An interesting story with memorable characters, the kids and I have both enjoyed reading this book. It’s a good book, but I have found a couple things made it a little less enjoyable. While I realize this is an allegorical series and most allegorical series will have some common elements, this book has some familiar bits that resemble a very famous trilogy most of this audience will have probably read or at the least seen the major motion pictures. Yeah… even my children (ages 5 – 10) noticed these similarities. It made the book less enjoyable for myself and at times flat-out annoying. While the kids noticed and pointed them out, I don’t think they were as bothered as I was. But again the story is fine. Other than the need for a little more proof-reading and editing, the book was very good.
The Great War… well I can’t say too much about it. Here’s what the Terrestria site has to say.
The Great War gives a breathtaking overview of the Book of Revelation. In this thrilling final episode of the Terrestria Chronicles, the reader catches just a glimpse of the almighty power of King Emmanuel and of the wondrous future that awaits his children in the Golden City.
While the book may be quite enjoyable for your family, I’m still not sure I will be reading this one TO the children. Eschatology is a touchy subject and my main concern is the confusion that could arise in their little minds. It’s hard enough to grasp the Book of Revelation as an adult in a real sort of way, let alone a child in a fiction setting and then one day trying to reconcile that with the true Scriptures. Hopefully someone can relate to this dilemma and see where I’m coming from. The Great War is definitely a book that will be a good choice on a family by family basis. The rest of the series I can wholeheartedly recommend.
The seven part series is available as a paperback set for $39.99 or individually for $7.99 each. Also available is a study guide called “Visits to Terrestria” for $5.99 and a hardbound set of the series for $73.99.
On the Terrestria website you will find some coloring pages for the stories in the Terrestria series, links to purchase the books, plus information about the other writings of Ed Dunlop.
Have you read the Terrestria Series? What did your family think?
-Sara O’