In which trek reviews Flight of Shadows

Last year, I read Broken Angelby Sigmund Brouwer. This year, Brouwer has released the sequel, Flight of Shadows. Very well-written, these novels are both riveting and disturbing; not a good choice for bedtime reading if the reader is susceptible to nightmares.

I found it pretty much impossible to categorize these volumes into a single genre; there are elements of science fiction, Christian allegory, and even a slight hint of love story entangled in one dense, haunting package.

The action is set in the indeterminate future. In that postapocalyptic future, Appalachia has seceded from the United States. Imagine America as a futuristic Roman Empire and Appalachia as a dystopic theocratic city-state. The power in America is held by the extremely wealthy Influentials, while the ostensibly Christian theocracy of Appalachia is despotic and autocratic. I wouldn't want to live in either place, quite frankly.

The story of Caitlyn Brown is punctuated by fear; fear of discovery, fear of capture, fear of the government, fear of intimacy, fear of the future. Over this substrata of fear is a veneer of hope; hope that the future might not be as bleak as the present, hope that someday, someplace, she might find a place to rest, a place to feel safe.

There are so many details I would love to share but that, as they say, would be telling. Instead, I strongly recommend you read both of these books, including the author's notes, and to think about the messages they deliver.

When George Orwell wrote 1984,people laughed and said that he was paranoid. How many of his predictions became reality? If not by 1984, by 2010? How many of Brouwer's literary predictions will become fact instead of fantasy?

I shudder.