Kingdom's Hope

Kingdom's Hope (Kingdom, Book 2)by Chuck Black
(Multnomah, 2006), ages 7+
Audio by Oasis Audio

On a recent trip we listened to this book straight through. My oldest son (age 14) had read the first book in this series and was not terribly impressed. However, we all really enjoyed this one and are eager to get the audio for the rest of the series.

The story is a retelling of a majority of the Bible’s story line set in a world of knights and castles. The setting provides opportunity for battles, good adventure, references to chivalry, honor and nobility. Then, I was impressed with how faithfully the key elements of the Bible story were presented with proper nuance.

Black compresses the time of the judges to the Exile and Restoration into one man’s lifetime. Some might object that this would necessarily distort the story. However, we must be clear about what to expect of a fantasy re-presentation of such a story. For a straight retelling we look to Bible story books. Books like Chuck Black’s are intended to give us another angle on these biblical truths. By compressing the story into ne lifetime readers can appreciate the overall unity of the story- something often missed in churches today. The repeated rebellion of God’s people, the utter futility of our attempts at reform and our great need of Divine rescue are all the more apparent. And the way in which he wove together the stories of the judges, Saul, Daniel and others, I thought, was very well done.
The audio dramatization was nicely done as well. There were places where it was a bit over done, and the sound for running horses made my boys laugh, but that was all part of the fun of listening. We warmly commend this book as a fun way to listen together as a family while also hearing the great story line of the Bible in a fresh way.