Remnants by Lisa T. Bergren Book Review

// Remnants: Season of Wonder //

 

Remnants Series // Book #1

 

By Lisa T. Bergren

 

{Review by Bethany}

 

Source: ARC review copy courtesy of the author

Genre: Young Adult, Futuristic/Dystopian fiction

Number of Pages: 570

ISBN: 0310735645

Publisher: Blink

Publication Date: April 8th, 2014

Rating: Four out of five stars

 

// Book Synopsis //

{Taken from GoodReads}

"In the first book of the new futuristic dystopian series from author Lisa T. Bergren, the chosen remnants must work to redirect humanity’s course.

The year is 2095. Gifted teens known as Remnants have been chosen and trained to act as humanity’s last hope to rectify the horrors that are now part of everyday life.

The Community has trained these teens as warriors and assigned them Knights of the Last Order as protectors. Together, they are a force that will be difficult to bring down.

But the Sons of Sheol, of course, are determined to do just that. As the Remnants begin their mission to course-correct humanity by saving and protecting key individuals, their enemies move to stop them, placing the entire world in peril.

Bestselling author Lisa T. Bergren presents the first book in her new YA futuristic dystopian series—The Remnants Novels—fitting in with the current dystopian trend in the marketplace."

 

// Book Review //

 

For a while now, I've been a huge fan of Lisa Bergren-especially her River of Time series. Ever since hearing about her newest release, Remnants which is a futuristic young adult series with an emphasis on spiritual warfare; I was very eager to read it!

 

In my opinion, this book is an excellent start to this new Remnants series! I really felt like I got to know the characters very well-especially main character Andriana, and I'm very eager to continue the journey in the next book, Remnants: Season of Fire! I really liked how it was all eluding to Christianity throughout the story. All the things that represented Christianity, like the Remnants (the good guys) fighting the Sons of Sheol (the bad guys), which reminded me of angels and demons as well as the spiritual warfare between good and evil. Another aspect which reminded me of the whole spiritual emphasis was how each of the Remnants had a special gift, given to them by the Maker, that greatly assisted them in their fight against the Sons of Sheol. I found Andriana's gift of "reading" people's emotions and feelings as an interesting gift; that though helpful, was sometimes dangerous. Since she had this gift, it was interesting seeing the story from her perspective, and getting to see how she handled various situations throughout the story.  

 

It was neat reading a story where the whole plot is driven to remind you of the constant war between good and evil. Remnants reminded me of anther book I've read titled Cloak of the Light by Chuck Black, which is also is written from a spiritual warfare aspect. However in this book I liked how there were more Remnants and main characters with gifts, as it made things much more interesting being that there were more people involved. (However I still greatly recommend Cloak of the Light!)

 

As with any dystopian novel, Remnants did have a bit of violence, as the Remnants had several big fights with the Sons of Sheol, and obviously in such an event, there will be violence due to killing these creatures that represented demons. While the actual Sons of Sheol weren't in my opinion very scary or overly-described, the violence is a bit graphic, though not overly so. However I'd not recommend this book to younger readers, as it has an overall very thought-provoking aspect that has a dark weight of good versus evil, which can be more than your everyday light read.

 

Really the only other aspect that I wasn't completely crazy over was the romance and love-triangle aspect. Considering the length of the story, there wasn't an overabundance of romance in my opinion. However when it did show up it was just a little different for me. I felt like a few of the romance scenes had a bit to many details and descriptions. But it never was anything that made me disappointed in the novel, just something I felt was a bit different and probably consisted of too many details for my taste.

 

Overall, I really enjoyed this novel which despite being over 550 pages didn't get bland or dry, and I had no problem continuously turning pages. I'd highly recommend it to fans of Christian futuristic novels!

 

D I S C L A I M E R :: I contacted the author with an interest in reviewing this book and was sent a free ARC copy of Remnants to read and review. I was not paid to write this review, and all thoughts expressed in my review are my own, completely honest and unbiased.