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Chiveis Trilogy #3

The Kingdom: A Novel

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Book Three in the Chiveis Trilogy War and disease have destroyed the modern world. Centuries later, feudal societies have arisen across Europe. No one can remember the ancient religion of Christianity—until an army captain and a farmer’s daughter discover the Sacred Writing of the one true God. As Teo and Ana encounter the forgotten words of the holy book, they realize its message is just what their kingdom needs. Though exiled from their homeland, they join their hearts in a quest to return. But now an ancient pact has united the enemies of the Christian faith into a dark alliance that threatens to consume the known world. Racing to stay one step ahead of their enemies, Teo and Ana must battle heinous villains, stormy seas, and the powers of the underworld itself. As armies begin to mass for a final battle, the odds favor the forces of evil. Can Teo and Ana bring divine truth to Chiveis—or will the Word of God fade from the earth forever?

450 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 28, 2012

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547 people want to read

About the author

Bryan M. Litfin

29 books174 followers
Bryan Litfin received his PhD in Religious Studies from the University of Virginia and a Master of Theology from Dallas Theological Seminary. His undergraduate work was at the University of Tennessee in the field of Communications.

Bryan now works as Head of Strategy and Advancement at Clapham School, after serving for 16 years as Professor of Theology at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago and 3 years as an editor and writer at Moody Publishers. He is the author of The Conqueror (Revell, 2020), Every Knee Shall Bow (Revell 2021), the Chiveis Trilogy (Crossway, 2010, 2011, 2012), Early Christian Martyr Stories (Baker, 2014), After Acts (Moody, 2015), and Getting To Know the Church Fathers (Brazos, 2007, 2nd ed. 2016), as well as numerous scholarly articles and essays. In early 2022, he will release Wisdom from the Ancients (Harvest House).

Bryan is married to Carolyn, and they have two adult children. He enjoys writing, traveling, teaching, reading, spending time with family, and being involved in his local church.

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5 stars
385 (45%)
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289 (34%)
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140 (16%)
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22 (2%)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 69 reviews
Profile Image for Kathleen (Kat) Smith.
1,613 reviews94 followers
July 23, 2012
This book is the epic conclusion to the Chiveis Trilogy and if you haven't read the first two books in the series, I would highly recommend doing so before picking this one up. It's like reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy and beginning with the Return of the King, you have to struggle a bit to understand it but you would enjoy it more to read it from the beginning to understand where our main characters Teofil and Anastasia are at during this leg of the story.

Overall, I really enjoy this genre of Christian books, much like those who enjoy The Chronicle of Narnia or The Lord of the Rings will enjoy this series as well from author Bryan M. Litfin. This book is based on a post-nuclear earth where everything has been destroyed. All modern technology is gone and the world is forced back into a medieval age where horses, swords and bows and arrow are required to survive.It's almost like it's before the world was created but it is based in the future. Teo and Ana are searching for information on the god, Deus, since very little information has been written on him. This is basically the God of our time, when they met with a man named Popa of Roma who has a version of the book known as the Old Testament but what is missing is the New Testament. However when this gets destroyed, a battle begins between those who want to keep that knowledge a secret and those who want to discover what they are trying to hide. In order to do that, they must figure out what was in the missing text and how that may impact the world they are trying to save.

I received The Kingdom by Bryan M. Litfin compliments of Christian Fiction Blog Alliance for my honest review and have to say, I enjoyed this one more than the first two. It was an incredible conclusion to this series and I can't wait to read more from Bryan in the future. He really creates characters that the readers can relate to and it's nice to know that there are more Christian alternatives for readers that enjoy this type of fantasy fiction. I would rate this one a 5 out of 5 stars!
Profile Image for Ali McNeely.
190 reviews
March 14, 2023
I liked it, I really did. The writing in the trilogy kept getting better, but the second book was still my favorite.

When I got to the last 100 pages of this one I had no idea how he was going to be able to wrap it up, but he did, even adding a little twist.

4 ⭐️ because when I read Christian fiction, or any fiction for that matter, I like when it challenges my theology. I like when I go, “Hmm that’s an interesting thought. I wonder how it holds up when compared to the Bible. I wonder if what I’ve believed DOESN’T hold up when compared to the Bible.” I like things that challenge me to evaluate what I believe with the Truth. This wasn’t that. The theology presented was pretty much the theology of every church I’ve been in for 35 years. Which is fine! But not as thought-provoking.

It did make me SO THANKFUL for the Bible. I love to read it. And not having it would be terrible. What a treasure that’s ubiquitousness causes us to take for granted.

Anyway, an entertaining story that I enjoyed for a few weeks. 📚
Profile Image for Dave Jones.
314 reviews15 followers
October 15, 2018
I thoroughly enjoyed this trilogy. It’s not often that I come across a sci-fi/fantasy Christian story that is so well written. This was exciting and not contrived as much Christian fiction is – especially movies! This story had exciting plot turns without sacrificing the core Christian themes. Those themes were often borrowed from scripture (e.g. the adulteress in Proverbs, Gnostic theology, et al.) as well as history (renouncing God at the edge of a sword.). This is a sort of Christian version of Game of Thrones. I’ve seen a review or two that challenged if this story should be considered Christian due to the presence of demon worship, rape, sex, and violence. I would respond that none of these excursions are described in explicit detail and that these characteristics would be a part of that world. The book also gives realistic response by the characters of such challenges to their Christian walk.

I wonder if it is Litfin’s intent to continue this store beyond a trilogy. The last scene of the book suggests that this is the case. As such, closure of the story is not quite as clean as it should be. Regardless, this is a fun read.

This Kindle volume had the preview matrix suppressed. This was a minor irritation to me as I like to budget my reading time by looking ahead to the next break. The appendix did, however, have a list that paired the cities in the book to the real-world locations from which they are based.

Chiveis trilogy website
Profile Image for Reanne.
401 reviews16 followers
October 30, 2014
The first two books in this series had titles that were almost entirely unrelated to the stories. The "sword" in the first book was completely unimportant. I don't even know what the "gift" in the second one was meant to be. The title for this one seems equally vague, but seems to have marginally more relation to the story. I really think the author should have thought harder to come up with better titles.

This book has some examples of characters making stupid decisions to advance the plot, like the last one did, which were annoying but not unbearably so.

I do like that the author shows that Ana and Teo are physically attracted to each other and that sometimes they feel strong desire for each other. On some occasions, they have to resist temptation, which is sometimes quite hard, and I like that the book shows that realistic side to their relationship. Too many Christian books tame down or refuse to acknowledge the sexual desires of a couple in love. Although I did wonder why the two of them didn't just get married a lot sooner so they wouldn't have had to resist. There really was no reason not to, since it's been clear they are in love since pretty early on.

Oh, and throughout this series, there are odd references to people's earlobes in the description of some characters. I think the author meant to use this to hint at something, but while reading it just comes across like he has some weird obsession with earlobes. .

I did quite enjoy this book. I like the characters, although the bad guys could have used a little more depth. There are some revelations/realizations that never happened (or happened offscreen) which I'd have liked to have seen () and questions I wanted the answers to (). I'd kind of like to see more of this story, not only because of the that's teased at the end, but also to find out things like:

So I can't give it 5 stars because of one or two TSTL moments and the fact that certain things didn't wrap up or get fully explored as I'd have liked (and certain characters didn't get as much page time as I'd have liked), but I still quite enjoyed it overall. I do recommend this series to anyone who likes Christian fantasy (and doesn't mind a very overt Christian message), but I would warn that if you have trouble making it through a rough patch in the first book, keep going because (IMO), it gets a lot better.
Profile Image for David Rollins.
37 reviews
January 8, 2015
The first book in the series was good, the second had quite a few problems that were hinted at in the first book. This book lets all the problems of the first two books grow even more. The trilogy of stories has just too many scenes of near escape and of having the main character, Teo, jump between being beaten up and then becoming some sort of "superman". It is just too much for the reader, since the story devolves into something of a comic book story with turns of the story that seem wildly unrealistic and inconsistent. Descriptions of characters devolve into silly details being expanded. The reader must wonder if the author just tried to pad the story with details because he wanted a trilogy. The story, which ostensibly happens in the future, has some kind of Roman Catholic Church hierarchy holding the only connection to Christianity. Why in the world would scriptures found anew in the future be written in Latin? Why would a future group of Christians be wanting to follow the directives of Papa ( the Pope) alone? There are so many odd details in the story. The oddities continue until the end where somehow the queen had twins with separate fathers. Really?? This detail, seems so wildly impossible that we might as well be inside a work of science fiction. The possibilities of the first book - a society that rediscovers the scriptures had so much potential for a rich story! The next two books took this reader on a very disappointing trip filled with missed opportunities for a much better story.
Profile Image for Rebekah Barkman.
224 reviews11 followers
November 11, 2021
This trilogy was absolutely captivating. Outside of my normal reading genre, I really enjoyed it and could hardly finish the third book fast enough. A bit far-fetched with the way characters continually escape “close calls” but brilliant storytelling nonetheless and a beautiful story of redemption.
14 reviews
January 5, 2024
Wow, I loved this series SO much from beginning to end!!! Teo and Ana's journey was so filled with adventure, romance, and most of all, faith in God. Books like this are SOOO underrated in our society!!! It actually even makes me kind of angry that amazing tales like this are barely even acknowledged because they are categorized as Christian, and the authors get so little recognition for their work because of this. Meanwhile, mainstream fantasy novels are increasingly filled with graphic sex, violence, weird gods, etc...and they get shot straight up to the top of the bestseller lists. I have loved reading epic high fantasy books ever since I read the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings many years ago, but sadly, there are so few to choose from now that don't glorify all kinds of immorality and even evil. This trilogy really was amazing in so many ways, too many to name, so I'll just name a few:
Amazing character growth and development...so many characters really come alive as they grow and change in wonderful ways throughout the series, especially of course, the main characters of Teo and Ana. Let me just say to the gals thinking of reading these books, Teo is literally every woman's dream man *sigh* haha!! He is a man of honor from the beginning, but he goes from being half hearted about the newly rediscovered Christian religion, to its greatest champion. I also really liked Ana's character, she is a wonderful mixture of femininity and vulnerability, but she also has an incredibly brave, kick-a** side to her as well...it was fun seeing her sassy side come out once in awhile too!

A few nitpicky things that annoyed me a little bit, (but aren't really that big of a deal in the scheme of how awesome this series was) were:
The constant mention of how beautiful Ana is, it must have been mentioned like 100 times, like we get it already ;-)...it also seemed like every woman in the books was described as being beautiful, I guess being average looking didn't appeal to the author when he was writing his female characters :-/.

Even though this is a medieval style society, modern words and phrases are randomly thrown in at times which was a little distracting- the author uses terms like "that's great!" and words like "gorgeous" etc...

A little weird and gross how it is hinted in the very beginning of the series that the princess Abeula (sorry if I misspell names, I listened to the audio version of these books), and Teo are sometime lovers, but at the end, we find out that they are half brother and sister?! Yuck. I mean, it's not like they knew, but still...Also, how does a woman give birth to twins who have two different fathers??? Like, is that even biologically possible?

At the ending of book 1, or at some point in book 2, I can't remember, Ana's house literally gets blown up by the command of the High Priestess. But, towards the end of book 3, Ana goes back to her hometown and visits her house and everything is the same?? I don't know, maybe I missed something...when listening to audio books sometimes your mind can wander and you miss a few details, so maybe at some point it was mentioned that her parents re-built their house exactly the same??

The main characters are in love for 3 years, so it's a little annoying and frustrating how Teo doesn't propose to Ana until the end of the last book. I mean, I know their future and even whether they would survive was uncertain, but shouldn't that have been even more of an incentive for them to get engaged or even married sooner, so that they could share as husband and wife the trials they were going through? Like I said above, I VERY much appreciated the morals, and Christian values portrayed in these books, I even loved it in fact, but I feel like the author took it a teensy bit overboard, like when Teo wouldn't even kiss Ana at the Springs for fear of slipping into sin, and then after waiting for 3 long books for them to FINALLY get married, we don't even get a little bit of sizzle or steaminess described on their wedding night. I don't know, it's almost like Christian and/or clean romance authors keep it TOO straight-laced when it comes to sexuality, but then secular authors play up the sexuality to a HUGE degree, and it's way TMI...why can't there be more books where it's more "middle of the road?"

At times, it just seemed like literally everyone was against the main characters and their fight to re-establish Christianity...there were SO many "bad guys," it was almost hard to keep track of them! The High Priestess and the Iron Shield (and all their lackeys), the Outsiders, the Rovers, the Exterminati, the Clansmen, the shamans, bad apples within their own ranks, like Ordo etc...etc...Not to mention that it seemed like almost every man Ana comes across wants to rape her...I wish there had been more descriptions of their allies, and even maybe more a "fellowship" type group like in the Lord of the Rings, instead of Teo and Ana basically having to orchestrate and save everything and everyone almost all of the time (others definitely helped, but SO much fell on their shoulders, it was crazy!)

Finally, Teo literally saves Ana's life like approx. about 12 times in these books, no joke. TRUST me, I absolutely love reading about heroic men saving their women, it's one of my favorite book themes, so I most definitely didn't dislike reading about all of Teo's rescues of Ana, but it was like EVERY single time she was in danger, Teo manages to show up and save her- I don't know, it just didn't feel very realistic.

Anyways, haha, that seems like a lot of negatives I just mentioned, but I'm just a "picky" person when it comes to books, so don't mind what I said too much...for I really and truly LOVED this series. It's truly wonderful and I'm feeling really sad right now that it's over! :-( Definitely a series well worth reading and highly underrated!!! Happy reading :-)
Profile Image for Joleen.
2,657 reviews1,227 followers
October 8, 2024
This was an audiobook I listened to years ago.
It was creative, including a Christian message. I don't remember a lot of it, but overall I do remember I enjoyed this series.
Geared more for a teen reader I'd say.
These Cheveis trilogy books are no longer available at ChristianAudio, only paperback and Kindle through Amazon
Profile Image for Rubi.
2,640 reviews14 followers
August 27, 2022
Man did this book have its ups and downs! One minute I thought Teo finally had the upper hand then, BAM, the enemies would be winning again. I was beginning to wonder how it could all possibly end alright, but it did end well! I wish the ending would have been more conclusive, especially with that surprise that threw in at the end, but overall it was still pretty good. I enjoyed it and loved that the priestess got the end she deserved too. Fun read. Enjoyed seeing the connections from "the old world", our world, to the one from the story. 😊
Profile Image for Althea Graber.
60 reviews8 followers
May 8, 2023
A very imaginative and riveting series. It kept me on the edge of my seat and I was never quite sure what was going to happen next. I listened to the audiobooks and really enjoyed it!

P.S. I could have handled a little less description about how devastatingly beautiful and handsome people were. 😝
Profile Image for Justine.
689 reviews
August 6, 2017
"'Peace on earth will be achieved when the Promised King ushers in his reign. Until then, peace is brought by the blood of brave men who stand up to oppression'" (200-201). This is a riveting conclusion to the trilogy.
18 reviews
January 22, 2020
It was a really good series and I had trouble putting it down. I loved that I was able to see little subtle hints of Biblical References. The characters were very well written and I found myself invested greatly into their lives. Also, the plot was really good and there was little repetition.
Profile Image for Julie.
47 reviews
July 25, 2020
Took awhile to get into it, but overall was quite impressed. What a good finish!
I do have to admit, it seems as if something else may be written after, but even if it's not, its still a great ending.
329 reviews
September 9, 2020
I enjoyed the third installment as much as I did the previous two books on the series. I also loved the edge of your seat action and there was great development of the main characters spanning all three books.
Profile Image for Lori.
198 reviews
June 10, 2017
Great conclusion to a very enjoyable trilogy.
Profile Image for Joshua Milligan.
110 reviews
October 9, 2017
A fantastic conclusion to a suspenseful trilogy that keeps you guessing and engaged throughout the entire story.
Profile Image for Trinity West.
3 reviews
January 5, 2019
More people need to read this trilogy. It's an incredible fiction tale filled to the brim with beautiful characters and confronting truths.
Profile Image for Kailey.
71 reviews2 followers
January 7, 2019
I felt like it took me a bit longer to get into this book than it did the first two, but it ended up being amazing. I thoroughly enjoyed this series.
Profile Image for Joe West.
36 reviews2 followers
January 22, 2019
If you like action, if you like religious, even if you like to read then pick up this series. Purely amazing. What a writer.
Profile Image for Katharina.
90 reviews7 followers
February 22, 2022
A brilliant, fantastical story of the struggle of the ages; of light breaking into darkness and good triumphing over evil. I was captivated the whole way through this trilogy!
Profile Image for Tabitha.
135 reviews7 followers
September 12, 2022
Would've been WAYYY more satisfying for Anastasia to kill the high priestess in the end instead of the character who actually killed her... But I'll take it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
190 reviews
July 5, 2025
these are wonderful books. Christianity at its best...
Displaying 1 - 30 of 69 reviews

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