What do you think?
Rate this book
Zaanan #1
The Fatal Limit
DATELINE: 3007 A.D.
Imagine yourself in a futurustic world governed by an evil computer. Imagine that you are traveling by starjet dodging laser blasts determined to destroy you! This is just the first of many adventures you will share with ZAANAN our hero, as he uncovers the highly guarded secrets of "The Fatal Limit!" Voyage to the year 3007 A.D. and see tomorrow... Maybe your tomorrow!
Imagine yourself in a futurustic world governed by an evil computer. Imagine that you are traveling by starjet dodging laser blasts determined to destroy you! This is just the first of many adventures you will share with ZAANAN our hero, as he uncovers the highly guarded secrets of "The Fatal Limit!" Voyage to the year 3007 A.D. and see tomorrow... Maybe your tomorrow!
224 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1989
6 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 12, 2022
Back when I was a child, my mom would always bring home things from the Christian bookstore for me. One day, she brought home the 2nd book in the Zaanan series, and 8-year-old me was hooked. I was so excited when I went with her to the bookstore and finally found book 1, and eventually books 3 & 4.
Cut to me as an adult, and it seemed like I had dreamed up this series. I lost our copies in a move, and I had never seen them again. And I have to say, a (1) Christian dystopian sci-fi (2) starring a mulleted superhero-like figure with cybernetic arms (3) that has illustrations on every page (4) and that is actually an analogue for missions behind the iron curtain SEEMS like the kind of thing from your childhood that you dreamed up. Then I tracked them down and found them on Thriftbooks, and confirmed it wasn't a dream.
The crazy part is that the story kind of works. The books are explicitly Christian, but it's not nearly as obnoxious as it was in some other Christian childrens books. The fact that it's really about missions behind the iron curtain gives it a sense of legitimacy that helps gloss over some of the rougher edges. It's clear the books were rushed out the door. They could have greatly benefitted from an editor, or let's be honest, a 2nd draft. But what is here is an interesting time capsule from a series that I'm not ashamed to have read as a kid, and have no problem putting in my own kids' hands now.
The author has actually started writing this series again, finally putting out the 5th book in 2019. I contacted him, and he is working on a 6th book as well. I don't know that the same ideas could really work in the 2020s like it did in the 1980s and 1990s, but it's clear he has a passion for this work and wants to finish the story he started writing 30 years ago. It's hard to fault him for that.
Cut to me as an adult, and it seemed like I had dreamed up this series. I lost our copies in a move, and I had never seen them again. And I have to say, a (1) Christian dystopian sci-fi (2) starring a mulleted superhero-like figure with cybernetic arms (3) that has illustrations on every page (4) and that is actually an analogue for missions behind the iron curtain SEEMS like the kind of thing from your childhood that you dreamed up. Then I tracked them down and found them on Thriftbooks, and confirmed it wasn't a dream.
The crazy part is that the story kind of works. The books are explicitly Christian, but it's not nearly as obnoxious as it was in some other Christian childrens books. The fact that it's really about missions behind the iron curtain gives it a sense of legitimacy that helps gloss over some of the rougher edges. It's clear the books were rushed out the door. They could have greatly benefitted from an editor, or let's be honest, a 2nd draft. But what is here is an interesting time capsule from a series that I'm not ashamed to have read as a kid, and have no problem putting in my own kids' hands now.
The author has actually started writing this series again, finally putting out the 5th book in 2019. I contacted him, and he is working on a 6th book as well. I don't know that the same ideas could really work in the 2020s like it did in the 1980s and 1990s, but it's clear he has a passion for this work and wants to finish the story he started writing 30 years ago. It's hard to fault him for that.
June 4, 2016
Set in a future were citizens are strongly controlled by the government, and religion has been abolished this book tries to take the “utopian on the surface, dystopian underneath” theme to the Christian young reader audience. It’s a pretty hard jump. I think if they had take the same story and worked it into an adult piece of literature it would have gone off better. It’s not really the sort of subject that works well in a book written at 3rd grade level with pictures every other page.
June 3, 2013
Two words: Power Gloves!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews