Journey Into the Flame

Rising World Trilogy #1

by T.R. Williams

In the tradition of The Celestine Prophecy comes the first book in a gripping post-apocalyptic trilogy involving the search for ancient books whose secrets hold the key to humanitys survival.

In 2027, a cataclysmic event known as the Great Disruption shook the world. An unexplained solar storm struck the earth, shifting it four degrees south on its axis. Everything went dark. Humanity was on the verge of despair. Then a man named Camden Ford, fleeing a band of marauders, went into the Ozark Forests where he discovered a set of ancient books called the Chronicles of Satraya.

Thirty years later, the world is a different place. Thanks to the teachings of the Chronicles, hope has been restored, cities rebuilt, technology advanced. The books have also found a different owner: Logan Cutler, a young painter who mysteriously inherited them when Camden disappeared. But when Logan auctions off the books to pay his debts, they fall into the wrong hands. The Reges Hominum, a clandestine group that once ruled history from the shadows, is now launching a worldwide conspiracy to regain control. And the books are at the center of its plans.

When another original set of the books is stolen and several members of the council tasked with disseminating their philosophy are murdered, Logan realizes hes made a terrible mistake. With the help of Special Agent Valerie Perrot and the wisdom of the Chronicles as his guide, he embarks on an epic quest to find the last set before its too late.

Combining new age philosophical allegories, the fast pace of race-against-time thrillers, and a historical mystery worthy of Dan Brown, Journey into the Flame will not only take you into the future, it will also take you deep into the greater mysteries of the self.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Urban Fantasy, Science Fiction, Dystopia, Science Fiction Fantasy, Ebooks

448 pages, Paperback

First published January 7, 2014

About the author

Librarian’s note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Imjustcurious · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first I wasn't sure about the story because the book takes time to establish its characters, their relationships, historical background, and underlying philosophy in order to create a multi-dimensional story. But by the time I finished, I could see that Williams wrote it just like a modern day James Bond thriller. Those who didn't take the time to finish it are missing out because once the groundwork is laid, the story uses all the pieces to create the suspense and edge of your seat action that carries the story to the epilogue. I like the complex plot and side plots that kept me wondering what would happen next. I also like the clean writing style that allows the reader to use their imagination versus spoon feeding them lengthy descriptions that would unnecessarily distract from the pace of the book. The mystical undertones reminded me of the Celestine Prophesy, much more than stories like The DiVinci Code or National Treasure. And the quotations from the Chronicles of Satraya that headline each chapter felt like the gentle wisdom found in the Tao Te Ching. All in all it is well worth reading. I look forward to continuing the journey through the rest of the trilogy.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Journey into the Flame is National Treasure meets The Da Vinci Code, only in the near future and revolving around a semi-religion that doesn't exist. Logan Ford auctions off his parents' set of the original Chronies of Satraya, the very books that helped mankind get back on track after a near-apocalyptic event plunged humanity back into the Dark Ages. Soon after the books are sold, though, he begins to realize that perhaps that wasn't the wisest decision, and maybe the books are now in the hands of the very last people who should possess them.

T.R. Williams will probably get a lot of Dan Brown comparisons with this book. Those comparisons will be apt for a good many reasons. First and foremost is the writing style: short sentences in short chapters that end with cliffhangers, a page-turning mystery that's big on plot but little on character development. Characters have relationships that don't make any sense, because even when we're inside someone's head, so to speak, we're never really inside their head.

This presents a problem because I found myself not particularly caring about any of the characters. And there are a lot of characters. It was difficult to remember who was who, and which side everyone was on. When certain characters die, because I got the feeling that I was supposed to care, but I didn't. And it seemed that no one else did, either. Every death felt like an afterthought. "Oh, so-and-so die. I'm sad. Now what?" Every time. I'm not sure what would prompt me to pick up the rest of the books in the series if I don't care about any of the characters.

The plot was interesting enough -- Logan and friends must track down the remaining copies of the books and thwart a secret organization's planned global takeover -- but full of those little coincidences that had me going, "Oh, OF COURSE that's what happens," and if there are enough of those, it starts to take away from the overall story. There were so many surprises that weren't very surprising. I was able to predict most of the big twists and reveals, which isn't necessarily a good thing.

The mystery was pretty much tied up at the end of the book, although the last chapter clearly sets up the sequel. As I said, I didn't really care for any of the characters, so I'm not sure if I would want to read any more books in this series.

[Sasha · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh. I did not like this book. It was supposed to be a thriller with some supernatural elements, but there was nothing thrilling at all.

So in the future, something terrible happens to Earth and most of humanity is wiped out. When there seems to be no hope of restoration, there are these mystical books called Chronicles of Satraya that are found by key individuals, and the wisdom of these books and a formation of the Council of Satraya help start rebuilding Earth on this new foundation. Everything is going well until a powerful behind-the-scenes group of evil people tries to act on its evil schemes to regain complete control of Earth. And evil.

Meeeeeh. There was absolutely no tension. Cardboard characters doing painfully predictable things. PAINFULLY predictable. I wanted to go over there and beat them on their stupid cardboard heads until they could freaking see. How is it not obvious that Bate Sisan is an anagram of Sebastian, REALLY?? Sorry if that's a spoiler for you. Not actually sorry, because this book is stupid.

So the good parts... um. I liked the idea that the evil people had for world domination, but the execution was ridiculous. I also liked the actual Chronicles of Satraya and their hidden powers. It just felt like one of those books when an unskilled author is trying to pull plot of out Bible verses or something. Do better.

I will not be continuing this series. Ugh, the cliff-hanger ending alone was enough to turn me off completely. What a waste of time.

-I got an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review-

[Sharlene Gardiner · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book has the distinct aroma of an author's first work. It is unrefined, amateurish, and technically sloppy. This book is one which could have used at least another year or two development, several more drafts, and the services of a much better editor, though I have doubts one was used at all.

The plot runs somewhat smoothly for the most part, provided the reader only looks at the bigger picture and can keep up with the rapid changes in perspective. Where this book falls apart is in the detail: sentences left half-done, paragraphs started but never finished, ideas added and never used again, and distinct failures in logic that left me wondering what the hel (not a typo) was supposed to be happening, all being told to me, and never shown. It is condescending, and left me feeling as though Williams viewed me - the reader - as intellectually impaired, or a child who had to be led by the hand through the book because I couldn't possibly fathom the deeper complexities of his work.

The perfect example for this is Chapter Fifteen. In this chapter the main villain, Mr. Simon, is interrogating/torturing the son of one of those who found a set of the Chronicles. The first page is as follows, and I quote:

"The old dungeon under Chateau Dugan had changed little since the Dark Ages. Its stone walls and iron doors were an intimidating sight for even the bravest souls. Eight rooms surrounded a large common area, where a reputedly bottomless well had emitted a foul odor for as long as anyone could remember. The only modern convenience in the dungeon was electricity. In keeping with the dungeon's original purpose, it had been installed to facilitate punishment.

Macliv had been plying his craft in one of the rooms for many hours now. "You really should tell Mr. Simon what he wants to know," he advised the badly bruised man who sat naked, chained to a metal chair. On the walls surrounding hi were the futile etchings of past visitors.

As it was very hot in the dungeon, Macliv had removed his shirt, revealing a full tribal tattoo that ran from his upper neck all the way down the right side of his torso and his right arm, ending at his wrist.

Buckets of salt water sat ready to wash the blood off the prisoner's body." (T. R. Williams, 2014, Journey into the Flame, Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York, page 115).

So, lets break this down, shall we?

"The old dungeon under Chateau Dugan had changed little since the Dark Ages." Okay, this is a good opening sentence. It opens the reader up to a potentially suspenseful paragraph. No problems, here.

"It's stone walls and iron doors were an intimidating sight for even the bravest souls." Why? They are just stone walls and iron doors. They are everywhere in old buildings, especially in Europe. In and of themselves, there is no reason for them to be intimidating. As demonstrated above, this is never developed upon. Bar this sentence, and the last sentence in the next paragraph, the walls are not mentioned again.

"Eight rooms surrounded a large common area, where a reputedly bottomless well had emitted a foul odor for as long as anyone could remember." Technically fine. The problem lies in the plot. Later in this chapter the victim of interrogation reveals the Chronicles are likely hidden in a pond in the backyard of his family home. By this time the reader has completely forgotten about this first well, so when Mr. Simon tells Macliv to dump his victim's body in the well, I was left thinking he meant the pond in India, not the well in the middle of the dungeon.

"The only modern convenience in the dungeon was electricity. In keeping with the dungeon's original purpose, it had been installed to facilitate punishment." No shit, Sherlock. The second sentence is redundant to the point of being insulting. Of course they're going to use electricity to torture someone! We have seen that in movies, read that in books, or heard about it in news reports since electricity was invented. By this point in this chapter I already wanted to get up, find the author, and backhand him with a book on creative writing. That feeling never went away.

'Macliv had been plying his craft in one of the rooms for many hours now. "You really should tell Mr. Simon what he wants to know," he advised the badly bruised man who sat naked, chained to a metal chair.' The second sentence is clumsy, stumbling over the author's ideas. It's clear he wants to portray Macliv as a terrifying figure, but he only succeeds in portraying him as a caricature, and draws focus away from him to the victim. Furthermore, this is about as much description of his victim's physical condition as we get: "badly bruised." Someone can get badly bruised falling down the stairs, and it doesn't take hours for that to happen. If he had in fact been tortured for hours, his physical condition would require immediate, long term hospitalisation. This would require an entire paragraph dedicated to this individuals condition. If he had, it would have made us care about the man's plight; and, it would have succeeded in portraying Macliv in a much darker light.

"On the walls surrounding him were the futile etchings of past visitors." And we are back to the walls. This sentence should have been in the first paragraph along with the rest of the setting descriptions, not in the paragraph describing a character.

"As it was very hot in the dungeon, Macliv had removed his shirt, revealing a full tribal tattoo that ran from his upper neck all the way down the right side of his torso and his right arm, ending at his wrist." A very poor, lazy attempt at character development, again resulting in Macliv being a caricature, as if extensive tribal tattoos automatically make someone a villain. Also, why is he shirtless? It's very hot in the desert but you don't take your shirt off. There is no point to it. It is clear Williams only wrote this to show off Macliv's tattoos, again, because tattoos obviously make you a villain.

"Buckets of salt water sat ready to wash the blood off the prisoner's body." That's it. That's the entire paragraphs: one short, irrelevant sentence that should have been deleted. I don't even remember the water ever being used in this chapter, that's how irrelevant it is. At this point, after two one-sentence paragraphs, I also wanted to backhand Williams with a book on writing technique.

Fortunately, that is the end of the page; but, it doesn't stop there. In the middle of the chapter there is a mind-boggling stupid moment where Mr. Simon injects his victim with a truth serum, but it's not the truth serum we all know about. No, it is one which Mr. Simon inject through the forehead - through the man's bloody skull, and directly into his brain. His description about how it works is equally as ridiculous: "[...]Did you know that your brain works harder when you lie than when you tell the truth? It's a fact. people lie because they fear telling the truth. They believe that they will get punished or that they will hurt someone else by their admission. Our doctor has created a serum that deadens the amygdala region of the brain, thus eliminating fear. When a person is no longer afraid, he no longer needs to lie." "It's like a truth serum," Macliv said" (Page 117). I have no idea how truth serum works; I must be honest about that. Eliminating fear is a stupendously bad idea. In the next paragraph Mr. Simon describes how governments want it because they could create fearless soldiers; but, fear is our greatest survival instinct. Someone without fear is reckless to the point of stupidity: just watch those Jackass movies. A soldier who isn't afraid doesn't care about his own survival. A soldier who is afraid is careful, likely to think things through before acting upon them.

That's not the end of this logic flop. This serum Mr. Simon injects his victim with kills his victim within two minutes. That's all the time he has to get all the information he needs. Predictably, he doesn't get it all. He gets relatively little, in fact; but, he is irrationally okay with it. He has next to no information beyond a tortured man's recollection of one of his mother's letters and a vague reference to a garden to use to retrieve the last set of the Chronicles, but all he does is casually remark to dump the body in the well, and for Macliv to come with him to India (remembering that by this time I had completely forgotten about the existence of the first well, and only remembered it when I went to write this review).

Now, I have to wonder why, if Mr. Simon is so relaxed about how little information he retrieved, why he had the victim kidnapped at all. This is a man who has enough connections to break into the Cairo Museum. One would think he would simply hire a thief to break into the family home while the family was on holiday. Granted, they wouldn't look in the pond, but it is a much easier, more logical first step. Furthermore, why didn't he just use regular truth serum? It doesn't murder his victim, and he would have been able to retrieve much more information from him. His use of this drunk is less "super villain who doesn't care about his victims," and more "incompetent, childish bully."

This chapter lacks suspense. The whole book lacks suspense. The problems listed above are nothing if not consistent. Journey into the Flame is full of logic inconsistencies, one-dimensional character caricatures, and outrageously stupid decisions which make me wonder how the characters ever lived until this point. Williams didn't make me suspend my disbelief, nor make me care about anyone nor anything happening in the book. It is so poorly written editing it in this state would take weeks for just one pass. It's is so poorly written I wonder why it was published at all. If it wasn't for the fact I hate to leave a book half-finished I never would have finished it; and it makes me really glad I don't edit anymore.

One star for what effort went into it, but even that is reluctantly given. Nothing about this book makes me think Williams cared for it, so I don't either.

[Natalia]

DNF @ 25%


A preface: as always, maybe this is just not a book for me. There was obviously a lot of thought, research and knowledge that went into this novel, but unfortunately those things don’t make a good book. I didn’t vibe with the narrative and found the concept of the fictional religion/society somewhat confusing. I’m just going to list some things that bothered me in the part that I did read.


I think the concept of a group of the elite that control the whole world from the shadows is so cheesy and unrealistic. Just sitting there in their bunker, like Dr Evil, planning EVILtm things. Like, yeah, evil people exist. But the concept that different sects/families are all BBFs together is kind of silly. Since I didn’t finish the book, I cannot know what the drama between them might be, I’m just going off by how they were introduced. Alliances, sure, but I also want to see some backstabbing, ambition and tension. 


There’s a character named Cynthia Brown. And I’m not sure if the author was aware of the real life con-artist and “psychic” Sylvia Browne, but that’s all I could think about.


Maybe I just missed things, but I found the worldbuilding confusing. I know this novel was published almost a decade ago, and in this world the earth goes through a solar flare & catastrophe where we lose all of our electronic tech in 2027-ish, but still the history of their technology didn’t make sense. Like they have holographs instead of video calls. Ok that’s fine, tech probably moved on by 2069 when this takes place. But he describes the ability for people to be in a room remotely as if this is a crazy wild concept. But it’s not. There is a scene where people on a holograph call are interacting with people in a physical location “as if they’re there”, but like.. we can do the same thing with video calls (I was Skyping my grandparents in 2009). Not like they can pick things up or touch or anything. And despite this thing that happened, in 2069 things are basically back to normal. There’s also a mention of photographs. Even by 2014 (when this book was published) people stopped collecting photos and building photo albums, so that seemed oddly out of place. Could it be that these specific people really enjoyed collecting physical photos and going to walmart to get them printed? Maybe. But in the book a person who grew up around 2050 doesn’t really find physical photos all that surprising (even in 2025 I honestly would, unless they were taken before like… 2005).


 There’s a weird rant about child support right at the beginning. How the MC’s wife just wants his money. How when they got together, he planned to be an artist, but then uh-oh babies, time for a job that makes money. Because, you know, kids gotta eat. And now that they’re divorced, the wife has full custody of the children and still just wants his money. Well, yeah. Clothes, food, a home… not free. And she’s the crazy one because she has to call her deadbeat ex-husband because he doesn’t pay child support. This felt a little too personal to the author, I think. 


Maybe I'm just not in the mood for this, and maybe I would have felt differently if I read it when I first received the ARC in 2014, but it being a political/religious thriller, and considering the state of the world, I don't want a political thriller. This is not the author’s fault 100%, but there was a mention that North American countries united under one North American Federation and it gave me the ick (I’m Canadian and have heard too much about us becoming the 51st State this year).


Anyway, so it’s just a DNF without a rating. I do not feel right giving it a rating as I only got 25% in. If you enjoy Dan Brown mixed with a little dystopia and futurism, maybe try it out.  

[Seregil of Rhiminee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally published at Risingshadow.

Journey into the Flame is T. R. Williams' debut novel and it's the first part of The Rising World Trilogy. It's an interesting reading experience for readers who are openminded and interested in mystical, mysterious and spiritual elements. It's a novel in the vein of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code.

Journey into the Flame is an interesting combination of different elements, because it contains elements from science fiction to spiritual adventure. It's basically a thriller, but it's also a science fiction novel, because the events take place in the near future. To be exact, the best way to categorize this novel is to call it a mystical and spiritual science fiction thriller.

I have to confess that I'm a bit difficult to please when it comes to mystical and spiritual adventure novels, because I've found myself disliking most of them. What usually annoys me most about these novels is that the authors tend to emphasize the new age elements in a totally wrong way, because they end up alienating readers by writing too much about their own opinions about several spiritual things. This novel, however, is an exception, because the author manages to keep things interesting by writing about The Chonicles of Satraya and their secrets in a fascinating way.

Here's a bit of information about the story:

- This novel beings with an exciting prologue. A young man called Camden travels by car towards a safe house, which has been built for worker who travel from one reconstruction site to another. His parents have helped to establish the World Federation of Reconstruction and he has worked alongside them. When Camden arrives at the safe house he has to escape from the Forgotten Ones, who rob places and kill people. When he's looking for a safe place, he finds The Chronicles of Satraya...

- After the prologue the story jumps several years forward in time. A secret society - Reges Hominum, the Kings of Men - decides to act and once again take control of the world to themselves. They try to get all the original sets of The Chronicles of Satraya, because the book sets are important to their plans...

- Logan Cutler restores paintings and loves art. He has debts and he needs money, so he decides to sell his set of the original Chronicles, which were given to his parents for safekeeping. When Logan has auctioned the set of Chronicles, he realizes that he has done a big mistake, because bad people want to use the books for their own purposes...

This is the beginning of an exciting and action-packed story.

T. R. Williams has created a bit different kind of a post-apocalyptic world in this novel. A worldwide disaster occured in 2027. This disaster is called the Great Disruption. An unexplained solar storm sturck the earth and shifted it four degrees south on its axis causing massive draughts, storms and tsunamis. After the Great Disruption things were bleak for a while, but when The Chronicles of Satraya were found, things changed and mankind found hope again. This was a turning point for mankind.

The characters are divided into good and evil characters. Logan, Mr. Perrot and Valerie represent the good characters, and Simon and Andrea are evil characters. The good characters try to fight against the evil characters and their evil plans.

There's an interesting atmosphere in this novel. T. R. Williams has managed to create a mysterious and threatening atmosphere that will be of interest to readers who enjoy reading fast-paced thrillers and mystery novels.

Journey into the Flame contains several interesting scenes. When I finished reading this novel and thought about what I had read I noticed that my favourite scenes were the scenes in which the characters used the flame of Satraya to see things and trained their abilities. Reading about these things was intriguing, because the author kept things appropriately mysterious.

I also enjoyed reading about how Logan wanted to bring the murderers of his parents to justice. Logan's parents were murdered and nobody was ever found guilty of their murders, but when he talked to Mr. Perrot, he began to realize several things and wanted to find out what had happened. It was nice to read what Logan finds out about his family's past and his parents.

The threat to mankind is handled nicely, because the Reges Hominum have plans of their own and they're willing to anything to get what they want. They have brutally murdered people who stand in their way and take what they need. They want the original sets of the Chronicles, because there's something supernatural about them. The author writes intriguingly about what Simon and Andrea plan to do and how far they're willing to go.

Reading about The Chronicles of Satraya was interesting for me, because there seemed to be something strange about them and they contained secrets. The world was rebuilt after the great disaster with the help of the ancient teachings of wisdom found in the Chronicles. The quotes from the Chronicles were also interesting.

There are several details in the story. For example, Logan's relationship with his ex-wife is handled well, because she isn't happy and is only interested in wealth than art. It was interesting to read about their doomed marriage.

I think that readers who are interested in new age related things and mysteries of life will find Journey into the Flame fascinating, because the author writes fluently about spirituality, wisdom and existence. There are thought-provoking elements and happenings in this novel for readers who are interested in these things.

In my opinion this novel has the same flaws as Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, but on the whole it's an enjoyable novel. Although I liked the story, it would've been nice if the characters had had a bit more depth in them. There isn't much character development in this novel, because the focus is on the story and excitement. This isn't a bad thing, because this novel is fast-paced entertainment for adult readers, but reading more about the characters would've been interesting. A bit deeper character exploration would've added plenty of depth to the story.

Journey into the Flame may not be to everybody's liking because of its spiritual and mystical contents, but those readers who enjoy reading mystical science fiction that contains thriller elements will most likely enjoy it very much. I personally found this novel intriguing, because it was nice to read something different for a change.

It'll be interesting to see what the sequel will be like, because there are several things that can be deepened and explored further. I think that the author will continue to reveal more things in the sequel.

Rating this novel is a bit difficult, because despite its flaws I enjoyed reading it and liked the story. After careful consideration I decided to give it 3,5-4 stars on the scale from 1 to 5 stars.

Journey into the Flame is a welcome addition to the spiritual and mystical science fiction sub-genre, because it's fast-paced entertainment. If you're interested in mystical and spiritual thrillers, you'll most likely find Journey into the Flame interesting and exciting, and you'll almost skip pages to find out what happens at the end. This novel can also be recommended to readers who have read Dan Brown's novels and other similar novels. This novel invites comparison with The Da Vinci Code and it's possible to say that it's a science fiction version of The Da Vinci Code with plenty of mystical and spiritual elements.

My final words are: This novel is interesting and a bit different kind of entertainment for adult readers!

[Libby Andrews · Rating 3 out of 5]

Long and drawn out; this is another book that found it’s way onto my Kindle in 2014 and I’m not sure why. The story is set in 2069. The world suffered a great disruption in the 2030,s. The disruption lead to the discovery of a set of books known as the Satraya Chronicles. They were found by people who were chosen by the books to rebuild the world. In this story the original finders are dead and a guy calked Simon Hitchlord is trying to get hold of all of the books to change the course of history by ruling the world. Logan Ford thwarts his attempts. A triumph of good over evil.

[Carol Kennedy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked this book up on a whim, sold on the 'blurb', but to be honest it was only good in parts. Sometimes I was really caught up with the action and characters, but sometimes it felt as though the author (sorry!) was trying to show off his knowledge. And I found this grated with me. Nevertheless, a good read.

[Holly Mcentee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well there's 6 hours I'll never get back. Neither the story nor the characters were at all intereting or original. A poor man's Da Vinci Code. It kept my interest long enough for me to finish it but I certainly have no interest in the rest of the series.

[Matt Hutka · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this from NetGalley for a review.

This story is extremely slow to start out. I was about a third of the way through the book before I realized that the history lesson actually had a point to it and I finally saw some kind of plot develop. I look at the story as a near future period of enlightenment for the human kind, arising out of another dark ages period, the Chronicles of Satraya are found and change the course that mankind was heading for.

Unfortunately this story isn't about that period of time, it is about a time after this period of awakening has occurred. The story really begins when Logan Ford auctions off his copy of one of the original sets of The Chronicles of Satraya that he inherited from his parents when they passed away. He is quite astonished at the fetching price of this auction since to Logan these are just a set of books, but the story goes on to prove that they are something more.

Logan is quickly whisked away into a legendary struggle for the power of the books that risk not only his like, but the rest of the worlds.

The characters are quite hard to understand as it always seems that they are changing and moving from who you think they are. It becomes a pretty consistent theme that almost every character that you meet has some other backstory and they are not who your first impression of them is. More often than not an elaborate story is created to tie them all together into a tiny little bow. For me this strategy really created no emotional bonds with the characters, so if someone was in danger, hurt, or killed it just pushed the story on with little to no consequences. Additionally, there was really no explanation of what makes those chosen by The Chronicles so important or even so different. Everyone seemed to be able to attain the same abilities no matter who they were or what kind of power they wished they had.

There was in fact several bright points to me that made the book worth the read. I really enjoyed how the book tied The Chronicles into history and tried to show that their influence helped shape many important events and people such as world conquest and great philosophers. I also really enjoyed that the chapters were quite short, because at the beginning of each chapter a quote from The Chronicles was used. All of these quotes I found very intriguing and thought provoking. I honestly felt that any one of these could be assigned as a topic in a philosophy class to write an explanation of and I found myself personally thinking about these a lot.

For me, I really wish that this book dealt with the discovery of The Chronicles and their teachings and meanings. I feel that I would have been more excited and have reached a much deeper point in looking at the world around me. The story itself is set up to get you ready for the next step in the books journey, but I would really like to go back into its history and discover more about them and what they have done.

[Carlee Gregory · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reminded me of a cross between The Celestine Prophecy , a Tom Clancy espionage novel and a Dan Brown religious mystery. A "quick read". The little sayings at the beginning of each chapter were very insightful.

I really liked the author's naming of the characters - Fendral Hitchlords in particular just seemed to help conjure up the type of person the character was very well. I liked the way that the appearances of the blue orb were written - not too flashy or over the top.

Overall, quite delightful.

[Sarah]

This book had an interesting idea, but the execution was too complex, and I wasn’t able to finish the story.

The book starts with a brief recap of the world changing event called the Great Disruption. It’s just briefly explained, and then the narration starts a few years later to tell the story of when the Chronicles of Satraya are found. The book then jumps another 30 years, and the true story begins.

This jumpy beginning makes it feel like I missed either the first books in the series, or a whole series that comes before this one. The world in the actual story is so close to the current world, that it seems very disjointed and odd. How and why would people rebuild the world to be exactly the same within 30 years? It doesn’t make much sense to me.

Add to this confusion the fact that the plot is full of so many complex layers and connections, that I became quite lost. Even with all of this going on, there still seemed to be a lack of action. All combined, I only made it just over 25% of the way through the book before I decided to quit.

[Zeenat · Rating 4 out of 5]

ARC provided by NetGalley

Brief Review: Williams brought us a fun adventure. From the beginning the action in this novel was non-stop. There was always something happening. If there were no movement, then we were brought into some spiritual understanding. Overall, really enjoyed this book. At times the book moved into the realm of politics (BAD GMOs!! Down with corporations!) and that got annoying. I am also not so much a fan of time jumps anymore. Past, Present, Future, Present, Future, back to Past, and it all got confusing. Still an enjoyable read nonetheless. I am looking forward to the sequel.

[Jayme · Rating 3 out of 5]

I originally requested this book from Netgalley because it had a National Treasure type of vibe. Journey into the Flame was a story about solving riddles in order to regain an artifact that if in the wrong hands spells certain doom for humanity. It was very Indiana Jones! An underneath it all had a very spiritual message. I would not label this as Christian Fiction, however. The chronicles of Satayra are made up and focus on symbols that can give a person power. Which is why wveryone tries to get their hands on them in this book. If this is the first in a series, I will be interested to see how the next book pans out. The story seemed pretty shored up at the end of 'Flame.'

[Twin Opinions · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book. I don't want to give too much of this great mystery away, so I will keep it short. When Logan makes the mistake of auctioning the Chronicles of Strays the mystery takes off in full force.


Its action packed and a page turner for sure. I enjoyed this book for that. I loved the mystery was solved but set up a sequel beautifully. I am eager to read on because I want more depth in the characters.


Logan was great but I didn't get lost in him like I usually do with the lead character. This is the reason that this great read is not 5 moons. But I did enjoy it and I recommend mystery lovers give it a try.

[Dion Perry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would describe this novel as a post-apocalypse urban fantasy. Whilst it does contain some dark themes, I would not consider the book to be dark. The story draws heavily on the mystique of a set of rare books in which there is only 4 copies. The book also introduces the reader to the ancient discipline of candle focus. Being familiar with this discipline I was naturally drawn to this book and it did not disappoint. It is fast paced with unexpected turns which brought me to the end of the book and reaching for the sequel.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a action packed story about the end of the world as we know it. A man locates a set of books that will restore life and the politics and backstabbing begins. The books offer power and different factions around the world want the power. (Sound familiar?). Looks like this is the first in a series.

[Kasey Cocoa · Rating 5 out of 5]

A free copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Read more reviews, author interviews and enter giveaways on my blog.
Well written exciting mystery suspense plot that will keep your attention. I lost count how many times I said "Just one more chapter..." only to keep reading.

[A'isha Rahman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really great Sci Fi Novel. It was very difficult to put down.
I usually figure out clues and mysteries easily, but this book was a great challenge.

A little difficult to keep up with who all the characters are, but in the end, it is an excellent read.
The ending is surprising as well, perfectly set up for the next.

[Kdawg91 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really dug all the world building in this, to me that was the most interesting part. It is very well written and I enjoyed the read. But the spiritual trappings of the tale just weren't for me. I can't place why, maybe I will revisit it later.

I will give the author another try though.

[Alesa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pretty cheesy. It was hyped by "The Secret" people as being filled with great spiritual insights. Well, I couldn't make it far enough to get into any insights. If you like literature, forget this one.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this story, it was well written and interesting. The author seems to have a very good understanding of symbols and the roles they have played. I was very interested in the symbols behind The Creation of Adam.

[Felix · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a New Age Thriller. I loved the plotting & the questions it provided. The only reason I gave this 4 stars is because the characters needed more rounding. Overall a great read!

[Melissa]

Abandoned at 130 pages. As hard as I tried I just couldn't get invested in any of the characters or events.

[Alan Kovitz · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good one in my favorite genre.

[Arlene Blackmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Bit confusing, but really enjoyed it - easy reading

[Karine Gordineer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked some of the themes of the story but unfortunately those themes were not fully developed. I found the character's were flat and not the best writing I've read. Once I start a book I must finish it.