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Remnant Trilogy #1
Noah: Man of Destiny
Noah: Man of Destiny takes readers on a captivating, coming-of-age journey. Noah learns about the Most High while standing against a sinister belief system emerging throughout the land. Whether escaping legendary beasts, tracking kidnappers, or pursuing his future wife, Noah acquires the skills he will need when God calls him to his greatest adventure: surviving the global Flood.
[[Witness the struggle of a righteous man's battle against a culture that thought of evil continually
[[Explore what it may have been like for a righteous man to relate to God before the Bible was written
[[Non-fiction portions in the back of the book help explain historical concepts and provide teaching sections that deal with issues and concerns that arise in the account.
Gain fresh insights into the people and events of the pre-Flood world through the engaging, adventure-filled first novel of the Remnant Trilogy.
[[Witness the struggle of a righteous man's battle against a culture that thought of evil continually
[[Explore what it may have been like for a righteous man to relate to God before the Bible was written
[[Non-fiction portions in the back of the book help explain historical concepts and provide teaching sections that deal with issues and concerns that arise in the account.
Gain fresh insights into the people and events of the pre-Flood world through the engaging, adventure-filled first novel of the Remnant Trilogy.
297 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2016
118 people are currently reading
608 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews
June 8, 2021
I found this book intriguing and believable, yet different enough that you could tell the authors were not trying to rewrite Scripture. I appreciated that the authors clearly stated at the beginning that part of their desire with the book was to help the reader learn to distinguish between fiction and biblical facts; I think they did a great job in achieving this goal.
The story itself was energetic and interesting. The authors did well with bringing cultural elements into the story. To build the case for a world seeing the spread of sin, they brought in the worship of a false god as well as a deceptive, manipulative woman. While absent of fornication, some of the descriptions and interactions with the seductive woman may not be suitable for young men. I think it would be a good read aloud to older children, providing you skipped over a few portions.
Overall, I greatly enjoyed the book and look forward to reading the next one in the trilogy.
The story itself was energetic and interesting. The authors did well with bringing cultural elements into the story. To build the case for a world seeing the spread of sin, they brought in the worship of a false god as well as a deceptive, manipulative woman. While absent of fornication, some of the descriptions and interactions with the seductive woman may not be suitable for young men. I think it would be a good read aloud to older children, providing you skipped over a few portions.
Overall, I greatly enjoyed the book and look forward to reading the next one in the trilogy.
June 3, 2020
I really liked the book. Book 1 of 3 didn't have a biblical basis (scriptures to back up), but did paint a scenario of what Noah's early life could have been like. I does show him being employed by a shipbuilding company and being a skilled carpenter. It also encompasses the rise of evil in the world.
April 7, 2019
Book One of the Remnant Trilogy covers Noah's early life. I had several problems with this book. One problem was the more modern language that was not appropriate to the period that crept in upon occasion such as "yeah." Also a rainbow appeared in the sky during a rainstorm, prior to the rainbow that God sent as his promise to never again flood the earth. Some rather sensual descriptions as a daughter of an area King tries to seduce Noah were also disturbing although Noah did evade her each time.
I did appreciate the descriptions of Noah's journey to become a ship's carpenter although never mentioned in the Bible it is believeable as it was probably a minor detail that God would use in choosing his righteous person if the earth was to be flooded. The descriptions of the life and times were also well done.
.
I did appreciate the descriptions of Noah's journey to become a ship's carpenter although never mentioned in the Bible it is believeable as it was probably a minor detail that God would use in choosing his righteous person if the earth was to be flooded. The descriptions of the life and times were also well done.
.
September 10, 2018
I'm a Noah's Ark buff, so I've read more than my fair share of fictional accounts of Noah's life. This trilogy is right at the top of my all time favorites! I love how the authors bring the earliest heros of the faith to life, while contrasting the right ways of the Creator with the corruption of the fallen world. The trilogy is extremely well written. It's full of page-turning adventure and excellent character development. Each book holds a powerful and pertinent message when compared to the days we are living in today. "As in the days of Noah...". I have already loaned these books out to multiple friends and they all love them.
November 26, 2019
Noah⭐️
Everyone knows the story of Noahs Ark but this is before the Ark and Noahs younger years. We get to see his love of knowledge and learning. His loving nature and why God picked him.
Everyone knows the story of Noahs Ark but this is before the Ark and Noahs younger years. We get to see his love of knowledge and learning. His loving nature and why God picked him.
August 31, 2017
I appreciate the intent of this book, that is, to dispel myths about the pre-flood world and give readers a biblical picture of what life might have been like during the early life of one of Genesis's most prominent figures. The book presents a number of creative ideas about pre-flood culture, though I think the story world had potential to be a lot more than it was. As a story, however, I think this book falls rather flat. I did enjoy the origin story of the villain though; she is actually one of the more human, realistic, villains I've read in my experience with YA fiction. The rest of the characters however, especially Noah, feel like cardboard cut-outs. The book isn't particularly well written: the dialogue is cliche, and the book reads more like it was written by an engineer than a poet. The narration often stops to let the reader know where objects are in relation to the character, how many cubits away things are or whether they're on the right or left. This doesn't really help the reader picture what's going on as much as just distract and confuse. There really isn't much of an overall plot. There is no overall conflict driving the story; the book pretty much just follows Noah around around wherever he goes. There is some conflict, but it is sparsely scattered around the story. The story did finally feel like it was going somewhere near the the end, but then it stopped short - to be continued in the next installment. Based on my reaction to the first book, I'm not particularly interested in reading the rest of the trilogy.
July 8, 2018
Enjoyable, fairly easy read. An interesting, fictional take on Noah & his life. I loved that they stuck to the Bible wherever possible, but that they also fleshed out (very well, I thought) a well-known Biblical character, making him seem more real and historical (as, in fact, he was an historical person). Can't wait to read the second and third books in the series!
June 25, 2024
I greatly enjoyed this! It was very intriguing fiction. The culture in this era was well written. I am looking forward to reading the second book.
February 4, 2024
Opening Ramble
My favorite poem (J’s poetry degree is starting to rub off on me, I guess) is the 31st part of Petrarch’s Il Canoniere, usually referred to as part of its first line: "Questa anima gentil". The speaker describes the final journey of a departed soul, travelling through space star by star on its way to Heaven. It’s touching, haunting, and comforting, but there’s just one thing about it I find especially interesting—
It's completely wrong.
Like, celestially wrong. The order of the planets in the solar system is off. The soul passes Venus, then the Sun, then Mars, then Jupiter and "every other star". Read this poem to nerds in 6th grade who just made styrofoam solar system models and they’d think it’s hilarious.
History buffs will know there’s a pretty straightforward reason for this planetary confusion—Petrarch predates Copernicus by two-ish centuries. He didn’t know any better. Couldn’t know any better, bless his heart.
Nevertheless, it’s a beautiful poem. The soul becomes brighter than the Sun and more beautiful than Venus. Its power conquers Jupiter. I love how frames death as a moment of transcendence, even triumph. It’s a lovely thought, and can be read by anyone, regardless of faith.
It’s also one of those works where the speaker’s profile is more interesting than the corpus—something that usually happens when the subject is death. Is this written to comfort someone after a tragic death? To comfort the speaker himself? Maybe this is the speaker’s attempt to come to terms with his own death. To find some meaning in an inevitable but unknowable fate.
Call me cynical, but I lean towards that last reading. To me, the speaker is assuring himself that his departure from the Earth will be beautiful and meaningful—but he takes solace in concepts that are verifiably wrong.
All of this—the beauty, the sadness, the factual inaccuracy—rolls together into a uniquely compelling whole. But I wasn’t satisfied with just calling it compelling. I wanted to know exactly why this appealed to me. Was this pathos? Well, I certainly pity the speaker, but I wouldn’t call him conventionally pathetic. No I terms I knew really applied to this one.
So I texted my favorite poetry MFA to get some answers. J told me something that would forever change the way I consume media:
“There’s a difference between a work being factual and being true.”
Which sounds hair-splitty and pedantic, I know (classic J), but I can’t get this thought out of my head. A work can be factual and/or true—it can speak to a personal truth, even if the facts are wrong. A work can be completely factual and not have any truth in it; my business school textbook come to mind. And this doesn’t just apply to art.
With all this talk about truth and facts and death, I’m sure you feel things veering into the subject of religion. You’re right, but let’s stay out of it for a moment longer and dwell on a concrete, secular example: love. If you’ll pardon the Rick and Morty-ism, love is FACTUALLY a chemical reaction that compels animals to breed. But if you were to say that love as an emotion isn’t REAL, you’d sound like—well—a Rick and Morty fan.
So fact and truth can (not) exist independent of each other. BUT—and here’s the interesting part—acknowledgement of the fact diminishes the power of the truth. Think of it like explaining a joke: the life of someone who knows that love is a chemical reaction is necessarily less fulfilling than someone who (willfully) ignores this.
Yes, necessarily. If you attempt to bend the truth of love into the facts of chemistry, your human experience is less than someone who doesn’t do this. All you gain is some Greek-sounding terms and an ability to kill the vibe at parties. Personally, I’d rather just believe in magical butterflies in my heart that really like my wife.
And that’s the problem with Noah: Man of Destiny.
Overview
Noah: Man of Destiny by Tim Chaffey & K. Marie Adams takes "holes" in the Biblical narrative of Noah and fills them with a paint-by-numbers but (suspiciously) competent fantasy coming of age story. Think *The Eye of The World* but for homeschool kids. There's pterodactyls at a couple points (take that, Lauren M. Davis). A T-Rex too, I think.
At least half of the author duo (Chaffey) is a Bible literalist and Young Earth Creationist associated with the life-sized replica of Noah’s ark out in Kentucky somewhere. In extra content before and after the book, the reader is invited to view this not as fiction, not as fact, but a decently-plausible account of events that COULD HAVE actually occurred.
It’s a book full of contradictions—go figure. One one hand, of all the books we’ve read for the podcast, this is the most interesting and has the most potential. On the other hand, this one is the most wrong-headed and deserves the least to exist. I’ll try to contextualize it in this review, sort of a companion to the podcast episode.
The Good
I’ve intentionally avoided researching either author to keep my review unbiased—I don’t think I’ll end up having much in common with people this big on the Old Testament. But I think I should, because the control of the fantasy genre here is suspiciously good.
Not great—if you’ve read a fantasy coming of age novel, you’ve read this one—but good. Let me explain: A lot of this comes from the Bible literalism aspect. You see, many Old Testament figures were described as living hundreds of years. The courting pool was smaller, so some unions were formed that most modern cultures wouldn’t be okay with. For a bit in the Old Testament, all animals were vegetarian.
Noah: Man of Destiny chooses just to display these as facts of life. As worldbuilding flavor. Yes, people live for hundreds of years, cousins married cousins, and all animals ever lived together in peace. This is established, taken for granted, and we move on—there’s no hint of authorial insecurity. Whatever the reason why the authors did this, it works very well as worldbuilding.
This has led me to coin the term suxposition: exposition through supposition. Rather than explain anything, the narrator supposes that all of this is normal, therefore not worth dwelling on. Many of our outsider artist podcast books, such as Empress Theresa and Nova’s Playlist, do this inadvertently because the writers take certain things for granted. Suxposition tells the reader “this is how the world is. No I will not explain it to you. Suck it.” I consider this to be the best and most powerful form of exposition, and hope one day I can get it to catch on.
This book also succeeds at a key part of fantasy fiction that many authors, published or not, don't understand—the key to good speculative fiction is to crank something in the world up to 11 in order to explore some aspect of life or society. The world of this coming of age story is as adolescent as the main character, which leads to really satisfying parallels. We sort of remember our ancestors, but they’ve begun to pass and it’s hard to tell what’s history and what’s myth. Diverging views on Adam and Eve illustrate this very well. I especially love what comes from the maneuvering the authors do to justify that aforementioned “everyone’s a vegetarian” detail. Characters wonder aloud whether animals have ALWAYS had this many spikes and sharp teeth, and what they were meant for—effectively asking themselves whether the world has always been this cruel. I’ve asked myself that a lot growing up.
The conflation of eating meat and evil is also really interesting from an animal rights perspective; I can’t wait to hear what J has to say about it, but what I can tell you is it’s a great and subtle way to depict a world slowly but surely tilting towards corruption.
Naamah is very interesting and has immense potential as a character. It’s a shame that she was introduced so late and maybe one day I’ll pick up the next couple books just to see what they do with her.
Noah worked as a main character just barely more than not. His chaste, homeschooled, well-to-do, “how are you sir thank you ma’am” personality WOULD have worked well against the increasingly alien and hostile settings—if those settings were working as they should.
The other characters are fine, I guess. I’ll have more to say later about the twee, friendly little dialogue (TFLD), but every now and then it works and makes for a sweet scene. I vaguely remember liking one or two Noah/Emzara scenes, but that’s more of a broken clock than an actual win. Still worth mentioning.
The Bad
The absolute worst part of this book is what made it nigh-unreadable, and led to me coining another term: TFLD. Twee Friendly Little Dialogue.
Half of this book’s dialogue is “how are you?” “Good how are you?” “I’m well. Thank you for your help on the farm last year. Me and my wife love you so much. You're a good young man.” “I’m just happy to help, sir.” Repeat ad nauseum. It’s not "unnatural"; people give platitudes and exchange small talk in real life, but it’s about nothing, serves no purpose, and makes everything feel hokey and shallow.
The other half of the dialogue here is borderline-catechistic conversations about God and Biblical history. This is annoying, but this is a Christian book for Christian kids so that might have to stay. BUT, the TFLD never should have even been written in Draft 1.
J told me, and might mention in the episode as well, that the book has no central plot—I disagree, for the most part. The central plot is the invisible “promise” of the Flood. In more traditional fantasy, there would be an actual prologue with action and death and supernatural events. Something that tells the reader “stick with it through the silly adventures on the farm. We’re going somewhere eventually.” I vacillate on whether I’d want a prologue here, but we don’t NEED one—this book is made for a demographic already aware of where this is going. Still, it’s not going there powerfully enough.
For us to understand the Flood narrative, we need to understand that the world was too far gone into sin and decay. The order of severity here is all wrong. When we start out, there’s a hint of child sacrifice, with a quick couple chapters where our heroes save some village children from kidnappers, but it comes and goes very early in the novel. You could be forgiven for forgetting about it; it was like a shonen anime filler episode.
Meanwhile, the city-state Havil, where we spend most of our time gawking at the world's evils, is full of people guilty of the following: eating meat, coveting wealth, worshipping idols, dressing scantily sometimes, and practicing polygamy. While child sacrifice is implicitly involved somewhere, again, it disappears from the text completely.
I'm not saying that we should make a tier list of sin (or that God does!) but you can see from a narrative perspective how the last paragraph sounds MUCH less concerning than the penultimate paragraph. Ultimately, while I do what like what IS there, there’s just not enough of a sense that the world is in moral free fall, or correct order to how the details are put across. I wonder if maybe this is because of the target market—we can't go all Game of Thrones with our depravity, otherwise Jake the Youth Pastor can't recommend it to his Wednesday Warriors group.
Aterre, a robber-turned-friend who travels with Noah, used to be part of the evil cult and represents the biggest missed opportunity in the interplay of proto-Judaism vs the various fictional mystery cults. More on that in the episode.
The Why
So, Tim and Marie: the Bible is open, the fedora is off, I am asking you in good faith: why write this book?
We will assume, for the sake of making this interesting, that the answer is not "to sell tickets to my creationist theme park in Kentucky". This isn't a poorly written book—sure, it's a bit generic, but most things are! But I just can't get it out of my head all the bulletpoint apologetics before and after the text. The NEED to make all of this work. To prove your personal truth by making it factual.
Well, maybe it kind of worked, because whenever I got pissed off by the TFLD, I would close the book and research the actual Flood narrative—something I haven't really done before. And I was shocked at how true it rang—its purpose, symbolism, and place in the larger narrative of the Bible are much stronger than I first thought.
Let me make it clear—that truth has nothing to do with anything the book or the museum is trying to accomplish.
I don't need to know all the details of Noah's predisposition to carpentry to understand the truth of salvation through faith in God. I don't need to know all his friends and enemies to see the parallels and prophecy that run from the Old to New Testament. If I'm interested in the truth about God's covenant with humanity, the absolute last thing I need to know is how many cubits around the boat was.
My favorite poem (J’s poetry degree is starting to rub off on me, I guess) is the 31st part of Petrarch’s Il Canoniere, usually referred to as part of its first line: "Questa anima gentil". The speaker describes the final journey of a departed soul, travelling through space star by star on its way to Heaven. It’s touching, haunting, and comforting, but there’s just one thing about it I find especially interesting—
It's completely wrong.
Like, celestially wrong. The order of the planets in the solar system is off. The soul passes Venus, then the Sun, then Mars, then Jupiter and "every other star". Read this poem to nerds in 6th grade who just made styrofoam solar system models and they’d think it’s hilarious.
History buffs will know there’s a pretty straightforward reason for this planetary confusion—Petrarch predates Copernicus by two-ish centuries. He didn’t know any better. Couldn’t know any better, bless his heart.
Nevertheless, it’s a beautiful poem. The soul becomes brighter than the Sun and more beautiful than Venus. Its power conquers Jupiter. I love how frames death as a moment of transcendence, even triumph. It’s a lovely thought, and can be read by anyone, regardless of faith.
It’s also one of those works where the speaker’s profile is more interesting than the corpus—something that usually happens when the subject is death. Is this written to comfort someone after a tragic death? To comfort the speaker himself? Maybe this is the speaker’s attempt to come to terms with his own death. To find some meaning in an inevitable but unknowable fate.
Call me cynical, but I lean towards that last reading. To me, the speaker is assuring himself that his departure from the Earth will be beautiful and meaningful—but he takes solace in concepts that are verifiably wrong.
All of this—the beauty, the sadness, the factual inaccuracy—rolls together into a uniquely compelling whole. But I wasn’t satisfied with just calling it compelling. I wanted to know exactly why this appealed to me. Was this pathos? Well, I certainly pity the speaker, but I wouldn’t call him conventionally pathetic. No I terms I knew really applied to this one.
So I texted my favorite poetry MFA to get some answers. J told me something that would forever change the way I consume media:
“There’s a difference between a work being factual and being true.”
Which sounds hair-splitty and pedantic, I know (classic J), but I can’t get this thought out of my head. A work can be factual and/or true—it can speak to a personal truth, even if the facts are wrong. A work can be completely factual and not have any truth in it; my business school textbook come to mind. And this doesn’t just apply to art.
With all this talk about truth and facts and death, I’m sure you feel things veering into the subject of religion. You’re right, but let’s stay out of it for a moment longer and dwell on a concrete, secular example: love. If you’ll pardon the Rick and Morty-ism, love is FACTUALLY a chemical reaction that compels animals to breed. But if you were to say that love as an emotion isn’t REAL, you’d sound like—well—a Rick and Morty fan.
So fact and truth can (not) exist independent of each other. BUT—and here’s the interesting part—acknowledgement of the fact diminishes the power of the truth. Think of it like explaining a joke: the life of someone who knows that love is a chemical reaction is necessarily less fulfilling than someone who (willfully) ignores this.
Yes, necessarily. If you attempt to bend the truth of love into the facts of chemistry, your human experience is less than someone who doesn’t do this. All you gain is some Greek-sounding terms and an ability to kill the vibe at parties. Personally, I’d rather just believe in magical butterflies in my heart that really like my wife.
And that’s the problem with Noah: Man of Destiny.
Overview
Noah: Man of Destiny by Tim Chaffey & K. Marie Adams takes "holes" in the Biblical narrative of Noah and fills them with a paint-by-numbers but (suspiciously) competent fantasy coming of age story. Think *The Eye of The World* but for homeschool kids. There's pterodactyls at a couple points (take that, Lauren M. Davis). A T-Rex too, I think.
At least half of the author duo (Chaffey) is a Bible literalist and Young Earth Creationist associated with the life-sized replica of Noah’s ark out in Kentucky somewhere. In extra content before and after the book, the reader is invited to view this not as fiction, not as fact, but a decently-plausible account of events that COULD HAVE actually occurred.
It’s a book full of contradictions—go figure. One one hand, of all the books we’ve read for the podcast, this is the most interesting and has the most potential. On the other hand, this one is the most wrong-headed and deserves the least to exist. I’ll try to contextualize it in this review, sort of a companion to the podcast episode.
The Good
I’ve intentionally avoided researching either author to keep my review unbiased—I don’t think I’ll end up having much in common with people this big on the Old Testament. But I think I should, because the control of the fantasy genre here is suspiciously good.
Not great—if you’ve read a fantasy coming of age novel, you’ve read this one—but good. Let me explain: A lot of this comes from the Bible literalism aspect. You see, many Old Testament figures were described as living hundreds of years. The courting pool was smaller, so some unions were formed that most modern cultures wouldn’t be okay with. For a bit in the Old Testament, all animals were vegetarian.
Noah: Man of Destiny chooses just to display these as facts of life. As worldbuilding flavor. Yes, people live for hundreds of years, cousins married cousins, and all animals ever lived together in peace. This is established, taken for granted, and we move on—there’s no hint of authorial insecurity. Whatever the reason why the authors did this, it works very well as worldbuilding.
This has led me to coin the term suxposition: exposition through supposition. Rather than explain anything, the narrator supposes that all of this is normal, therefore not worth dwelling on. Many of our outsider artist podcast books, such as Empress Theresa and Nova’s Playlist, do this inadvertently because the writers take certain things for granted. Suxposition tells the reader “this is how the world is. No I will not explain it to you. Suck it.” I consider this to be the best and most powerful form of exposition, and hope one day I can get it to catch on.
This book also succeeds at a key part of fantasy fiction that many authors, published or not, don't understand—the key to good speculative fiction is to crank something in the world up to 11 in order to explore some aspect of life or society. The world of this coming of age story is as adolescent as the main character, which leads to really satisfying parallels. We sort of remember our ancestors, but they’ve begun to pass and it’s hard to tell what’s history and what’s myth. Diverging views on Adam and Eve illustrate this very well. I especially love what comes from the maneuvering the authors do to justify that aforementioned “everyone’s a vegetarian” detail. Characters wonder aloud whether animals have ALWAYS had this many spikes and sharp teeth, and what they were meant for—effectively asking themselves whether the world has always been this cruel. I’ve asked myself that a lot growing up.
The conflation of eating meat and evil is also really interesting from an animal rights perspective; I can’t wait to hear what J has to say about it, but what I can tell you is it’s a great and subtle way to depict a world slowly but surely tilting towards corruption.
Naamah is very interesting and has immense potential as a character. It’s a shame that she was introduced so late and maybe one day I’ll pick up the next couple books just to see what they do with her.
Noah worked as a main character just barely more than not. His chaste, homeschooled, well-to-do, “how are you sir thank you ma’am” personality WOULD have worked well against the increasingly alien and hostile settings—if those settings were working as they should.
The other characters are fine, I guess. I’ll have more to say later about the twee, friendly little dialogue (TFLD), but every now and then it works and makes for a sweet scene. I vaguely remember liking one or two Noah/Emzara scenes, but that’s more of a broken clock than an actual win. Still worth mentioning.
The Bad
The absolute worst part of this book is what made it nigh-unreadable, and led to me coining another term: TFLD. Twee Friendly Little Dialogue.
Half of this book’s dialogue is “how are you?” “Good how are you?” “I’m well. Thank you for your help on the farm last year. Me and my wife love you so much. You're a good young man.” “I’m just happy to help, sir.” Repeat ad nauseum. It’s not "unnatural"; people give platitudes and exchange small talk in real life, but it’s about nothing, serves no purpose, and makes everything feel hokey and shallow.
The other half of the dialogue here is borderline-catechistic conversations about God and Biblical history. This is annoying, but this is a Christian book for Christian kids so that might have to stay. BUT, the TFLD never should have even been written in Draft 1.
J told me, and might mention in the episode as well, that the book has no central plot—I disagree, for the most part. The central plot is the invisible “promise” of the Flood. In more traditional fantasy, there would be an actual prologue with action and death and supernatural events. Something that tells the reader “stick with it through the silly adventures on the farm. We’re going somewhere eventually.” I vacillate on whether I’d want a prologue here, but we don’t NEED one—this book is made for a demographic already aware of where this is going. Still, it’s not going there powerfully enough.
For us to understand the Flood narrative, we need to understand that the world was too far gone into sin and decay. The order of severity here is all wrong. When we start out, there’s a hint of child sacrifice, with a quick couple chapters where our heroes save some village children from kidnappers, but it comes and goes very early in the novel. You could be forgiven for forgetting about it; it was like a shonen anime filler episode.
Meanwhile, the city-state Havil, where we spend most of our time gawking at the world's evils, is full of people guilty of the following: eating meat, coveting wealth, worshipping idols, dressing scantily sometimes, and practicing polygamy. While child sacrifice is implicitly involved somewhere, again, it disappears from the text completely.
I'm not saying that we should make a tier list of sin (or that God does!) but you can see from a narrative perspective how the last paragraph sounds MUCH less concerning than the penultimate paragraph. Ultimately, while I do what like what IS there, there’s just not enough of a sense that the world is in moral free fall, or correct order to how the details are put across. I wonder if maybe this is because of the target market—we can't go all Game of Thrones with our depravity, otherwise Jake the Youth Pastor can't recommend it to his Wednesday Warriors group.
Aterre, a robber-turned-friend who travels with Noah, used to be part of the evil cult and represents the biggest missed opportunity in the interplay of proto-Judaism vs the various fictional mystery cults. More on that in the episode.
The Why
So, Tim and Marie: the Bible is open, the fedora is off, I am asking you in good faith: why write this book?
We will assume, for the sake of making this interesting, that the answer is not "to sell tickets to my creationist theme park in Kentucky". This isn't a poorly written book—sure, it's a bit generic, but most things are! But I just can't get it out of my head all the bulletpoint apologetics before and after the text. The NEED to make all of this work. To prove your personal truth by making it factual.
Well, maybe it kind of worked, because whenever I got pissed off by the TFLD, I would close the book and research the actual Flood narrative—something I haven't really done before. And I was shocked at how true it rang—its purpose, symbolism, and place in the larger narrative of the Bible are much stronger than I first thought.
Let me make it clear—that truth has nothing to do with anything the book or the museum is trying to accomplish.
I don't need to know all the details of Noah's predisposition to carpentry to understand the truth of salvation through faith in God. I don't need to know all his friends and enemies to see the parallels and prophecy that run from the Old to New Testament. If I'm interested in the truth about God's covenant with humanity, the absolute last thing I need to know is how many cubits around the boat was.
December 13, 2024
I've finished the novel part. The first chapter was good. I felt the next couple were rather slow but they were setting up the story world. After that, it moved along at a steady pace.
As far as the story arc, I thought it was well thought out. I enjoyed the narrative part of the book. I didn't see a whole lot of character growth. The dialogue tended to be clunky. I do wish he had used more modern terms for the animals and vegetation. I spent too much background energy trying to figure out the orb fruit was lettuce and that the bounder was a rabbit. Just call it by the familiar name and let me focus on the story.
I did appreciate the way he moved in contradictions to many of the traditions we have regarding the preflood world, yet stayed true to the Biblical narrative.
The ending was satisfying, with a bit of a cliffhanger. I'm not sure that I will read through to the next book.
I have not read the back matter yet. But I'm familiar with the work of Answers in Genesis and I expect it to follow that line rather closely.
EDIT--
I've now read the backmatter. As expected, it follows the AiG work, so no surprising information there.
He did explain his choice to use alternative names for items and I suppose it makes sense. But, presumably, none of the characters spoke English so all their dialog is anachronistic. Don't pull me out of the story to try to figure out what they're saying.
As far as the story arc, I thought it was well thought out. I enjoyed the narrative part of the book. I didn't see a whole lot of character growth. The dialogue tended to be clunky. I do wish he had used more modern terms for the animals and vegetation. I spent too much background energy trying to figure out the orb fruit was lettuce and that the bounder was a rabbit. Just call it by the familiar name and let me focus on the story.
I did appreciate the way he moved in contradictions to many of the traditions we have regarding the preflood world, yet stayed true to the Biblical narrative.
The ending was satisfying, with a bit of a cliffhanger. I'm not sure that I will read through to the next book.
I have not read the back matter yet. But I'm familiar with the work of Answers in Genesis and I expect it to follow that line rather closely.
EDIT--
I've now read the backmatter. As expected, it follows the AiG work, so no surprising information there.
He did explain his choice to use alternative names for items and I suppose it makes sense. But, presumably, none of the characters spoke English so all their dialog is anachronistic. Don't pull me out of the story to try to figure out what they're saying.
April 29, 2025
As a piece of Christian and Biblical historical fiction this gets 3 stars because its a solid read with a good understanding of Biblical science and what we know about the pre-Flood world. I also know that a lot of people would enjoy this book and I'd be more than happy to recommend it to them.
For myself personally, it gets 2 stars. The story isn't terrible, but I found it underdeveloped. The characters and dialogue were flat, the plot meandered a bit, and the worldbuilding seemed to try a little too hard. The writing style was also very plain, which made these things stand out even more.
My opinion aside, if you are looking for an easy, historical fiction to read that seeks to honor God and is really clean (there's one somewhat sensual scene, but it's quick and done in a way that isn't scandelous), I would definitely say give this book a try!
For myself personally, it gets 2 stars. The story isn't terrible, but I found it underdeveloped. The characters and dialogue were flat, the plot meandered a bit, and the worldbuilding seemed to try a little too hard. The writing style was also very plain, which made these things stand out even more.
My opinion aside, if you are looking for an easy, historical fiction to read that seeks to honor God and is really clean (there's one somewhat sensual scene, but it's quick and done in a way that isn't scandelous), I would definitely say give this book a try!
April 21, 2022
I really wasn't sure what to expect going into this. After all, the Bible doesn't give us many details about life before the flood. But it must have gotten pretty bad for God to decide he needed to "reset" the world. I was curious to see...how bad DID it get?
So it surprised me that in this depiction of Noah, things weren't that bad. There was evil in the world, but it seemed less widespread than it is today. Granted, this is only book 1 in a trilogy, and Noah's only 46, so there's plenty of time for wickedness to spread before the flood. I guess I just expected a world with more corruption even before Noah's lifetime.
While I enjoyed seeing ideas of what pre-flood life could have been like, the first half of the story didn't have much conflict, and Noah's character felt a little bland. Later, a bigger plot developed, so that kept me interested. I'll probably continue the series in order to read about the time right before the flood.
So it surprised me that in this depiction of Noah, things weren't that bad. There was evil in the world, but it seemed less widespread than it is today. Granted, this is only book 1 in a trilogy, and Noah's only 46, so there's plenty of time for wickedness to spread before the flood. I guess I just expected a world with more corruption even before Noah's lifetime.
While I enjoyed seeing ideas of what pre-flood life could have been like, the first half of the story didn't have much conflict, and Noah's character felt a little bland. Later, a bigger plot developed, so that kept me interested. I'll probably continue the series in order to read about the time right before the flood.
May 5, 2024
This book was a pleasant surprise and I enjoyed it more than I expected to. The author’s are clear that it is a work of fiction and at the back of the book, make efforts to expand upon where their inspiration came from, both historically and Biblically, while reiterating that the need for creativity. I accepted the book as that and while not bothered by it, some of the modern language used (such as “yeah”) seemed out of place and did slightly impact my experience. That said, it was interesting, engaging and the plot continued to grow with good character development that makes me want to read the second book to find out what happens. Be aware that this book is very much a cliff-hanger and the story is incomplete/unresolved so reading the series is likely necessary. Not an issue for me, but worth noting to other readers. For me, it was something different and I’m glad I read it.
October 15, 2021
This story starts with Noah as a young man coming into adulthood and his desire to be a woodworker rather than a farmer like his family. His father sees his desire and sends him to a cousin in another city to learn shipbuilding.
Here Noah meets his future wife and travels to the city of Havilah to learn about metal works with other men from their city. Here the suspenseful dance of good vs evil touch our nice guy Noah and his friends.
An engaging story with a slight "cave man" feel to it. Delve into Genesis more if you are stuck on the lineage or Biblical facts vs creative fiction license. The authors do a recap in the back to answer some of those questions.
Here Noah meets his future wife and travels to the city of Havilah to learn about metal works with other men from their city. Here the suspenseful dance of good vs evil touch our nice guy Noah and his friends.
An engaging story with a slight "cave man" feel to it. Delve into Genesis more if you are stuck on the lineage or Biblical facts vs creative fiction license. The authors do a recap in the back to answer some of those questions.
April 10, 2023
We hear about Noah in the Bible when he is almost 600 year old but this book introduces us to Noah as he may have been at 40 and beyond. It follows his early years as he becomes a carpenter's apprentice and begins to build ships. He is a follower of the Creator growing up in a world that is becoming increasingly evil. There is a twist in the story that challenges Noah's infidelity. It makes the reader look forward to the second book in the trilogy.
April 19, 2024
Was a pretty great story. Very interesting and imaginative takes on the pre-flood world, great storyline. 1 star docked for stereotypical Christian cliches like villainizing women and having only the pagans drink and smoke. Other wise great book and would highly recommend.
February 12, 2025
Review of the trilogy: Amazing idea of what Noah's life could have been like!! Sure, liberties are taken, but the authors do it so well it's totally okay. And the fact that they make it seem so real- really nailing the culture and even adding a whole subplot based on a few verses in Genesis that don't exactly pertain to Noah makes it even better. Chaffey really made me feel super invested in the characters and made me laugh and cry along with them.
March 24, 2025
Overall a fun read. Because it takes place in a preflood world, it almost smacks of fantasy. It contains good world building, action, apologetics, romance, etc. It does get slightly cheesy in some areas, thus the 4 stars.
September 11, 2021
Historical fictional account of Noah. This book is all before the flood and the ark but it was really interesting and I learned new things. It reminded me of the mark of the lion series with less gore. Looking forward to book 2!
February 1, 2018
*This is a review copy from the publisher, Master Books. No review, positive or otherwise, was required—all opinions are my own.*
Noah: Man of Destiny is a well-written, fascinating account of Noah. The author does a great job being true to the BIble with the limited amount of information about the character that it contains. This book covers Noah’s journey to become a boat builder, Noah finding his wife and Noah’s voyage in adulthood. This book helps the character of Noah come off the pages as a real person and not just a character in a story.
At the end of the book there is a question & answer section. This was helpful in gaining more insight on the fact & the fiction side of the story.
I would recommend this book for teens and adults.
https://www.masterbooks.com/r/4431/
Noah: Man of Destiny is a well-written, fascinating account of Noah. The author does a great job being true to the BIble with the limited amount of information about the character that it contains. This book covers Noah’s journey to become a boat builder, Noah finding his wife and Noah’s voyage in adulthood. This book helps the character of Noah come off the pages as a real person and not just a character in a story.
At the end of the book there is a question & answer section. This was helpful in gaining more insight on the fact & the fiction side of the story.
I would recommend this book for teens and adults.
https://www.masterbooks.com/r/4431/
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September 10, 2024I don’t generally rate or review books. One reason is that I am no expert and merely know what I enjoy.
The explanation of various inclusions or exclusions of factors often thought of Biblical heroes and cultures was included in the back of the book. This was very interesting. Some of the reasons I was able to identify during the reading, most were more of a creationist’s impression that I was not familiar with.
Whether this is a certifiable true-to-the-Word story doesn’t matter to me. It was enjoyable.
I do much better with audiobooks, so it was a struggle for me to stop multi tasking while I focused. I read this book as part of the goodreads discussion group for Christian Historical fiction.
The explanation of various inclusions or exclusions of factors often thought of Biblical heroes and cultures was included in the back of the book. This was very interesting. Some of the reasons I was able to identify during the reading, most were more of a creationist’s impression that I was not familiar with.
Whether this is a certifiable true-to-the-Word story doesn’t matter to me. It was enjoyable.
I do much better with audiobooks, so it was a struggle for me to stop multi tasking while I focused. I read this book as part of the goodreads discussion group for Christian Historical fiction.
April 30, 2018
This book is great! It is based up the Bible, and also has some ideas of what might have happened before God sent the world-wide flood. This amazingly detailed book is at the top of my list!
January 21, 2018
This book helps one who knows the historical story of Noah to relate on a more personal level. We follow a man's coming into adulthood through his struggles and triumphs. Although I was disappointed with some of the descriptions as he was tempted by the Princess of Havil, we can see Noah as a real man and not just a childhood story of a man in a boat with a lot of animals. I went into this story knowing that there would most likely be a cliff-hanger since this is book one of three. I am not disappointed with the ending, but wanting to continue on to see how this fictional account ends.
Some reviews mentioned that this book is recommended for ages eight and up. I do not think this is correct. I would rate it as teen and up.
Some reviews mentioned that this book is recommended for ages eight and up. I do not think this is correct. I would rate it as teen and up.
November 20, 2016
The story itself was well-written and engaging; it was filled with adventure, romance, and drama. The storyline stayed true to the Bible where possible, and the creative licenses taken seemed plausible. Additionally I appreciated how the authors challenged stereotypes about Noah and the pre-flood world. I felt I gleaned a more accurate picture of the pre-flood world as I read the historical information included at the end of the book.
April 11, 2017
I was hesitant to read a "what might have been" book concerning people from the Bible but the people who wrote it surely did their research and did what they could to understand the time while creating it to be an engaging read for today.
March 15, 2024
Unbearably bad.
In the absolute worst tradition of YA fiction, Chaffey blends unbiblical and dogmatic creationism with astonishing doses of toxic Evangelical purity culture to create the most cringe-worthy garbage I've read in a long time.
This dumpster fire isn't worthy of a more thoughtful review, so here are a few plot elements pulled straight from the book:
-Dinosaurs roam the earth with humans, because if you're a "true" Christian you MUST accept Chaffey's "young earth" interpretation of Gensis 1--an interpretation that is no longer supported by a single serious Biblical scholar.
-Characters have long, anachronistic conversations about how the explanation for animals' carnivorousness and predatory traits (like sharp teeth) isn't evolution (which is evil, obviously)--it's because they are becoming more sinful in real time.
-Showing a little ankle is really sexy.... in 2000 B.C. (Scholar Chaffey wants you to know that all the Godly ancient women wore maxi skirts--"modest is hottest!" I'm actually not kidding, this is in the book multiple times)
-The primary antagonist, the true evil in Noah's day, is not the violent bands that abducted and sacrificed toddlers--though they're in the book. Nor is it the brutal father who murders the males of entire communities and enslaves their women, who he makes his "wives." Nope, it's the "exotic," SEXY temptresssssssssssssss...
-Said temptressss provides the opportunity for two deep, difficult, MANLY trials Noah must endure. --Trial 1: The temptress sits by Noah and leans towards him! (Don't worry, after a tectonic internal strugle he manages to resist her feminine wiles).
--Trial 2: When Noah and his wife are visiting her city together, the temptress tricks Noah into coming to her room--and then takes off some of her clothes in front of him! After a shuddering, eyes-closed, back-straight, tight-lipped internal BATTLE, Noah just barely manages to escape her evil seduction.
-In the same vein, and probably the single-most repulsive element of the entire book for me: Noah regularly experiences intense "emotions"--heavily implied to be sexual arousal--in response to women's ankles, arms, shoulders, or the temptress' attempt to out-and-out sexually assault him.
*This is a huge, poisonous problem that runs through so much of this kind of garbage purity-culture literature: it (paradoxically) sanctions and normalizes men displaying ravenous and even perverted sexual appetites in response to the smallest stimulus imaginable... while blaming any arousal of those disproportionate appetites ENTIRELY on female behavior (especially clothing choices). This kind of sexual ethic is NOT BIBLICAL. It is toxic. And it is dangerous for both men and women.
-Okay, last one: Noah and his wife never kiss before OR during their marriage ceremony at 46 years old.... but his wife does blush modestly! (So hot.)
What a toxic, misguided book. Please do not let your young adults be spiritually formed by this nonsense.
In the absolute worst tradition of YA fiction, Chaffey blends unbiblical and dogmatic creationism with astonishing doses of toxic Evangelical purity culture to create the most cringe-worthy garbage I've read in a long time.
This dumpster fire isn't worthy of a more thoughtful review, so here are a few plot elements pulled straight from the book:
-Dinosaurs roam the earth with humans, because if you're a "true" Christian you MUST accept Chaffey's "young earth" interpretation of Gensis 1--an interpretation that is no longer supported by a single serious Biblical scholar.
-Characters have long, anachronistic conversations about how the explanation for animals' carnivorousness and predatory traits (like sharp teeth) isn't evolution (which is evil, obviously)--it's because they are becoming more sinful in real time.
-Showing a little ankle is really sexy.... in 2000 B.C. (Scholar Chaffey wants you to know that all the Godly ancient women wore maxi skirts--"modest is hottest!" I'm actually not kidding, this is in the book multiple times)
-The primary antagonist, the true evil in Noah's day, is not the violent bands that abducted and sacrificed toddlers--though they're in the book. Nor is it the brutal father who murders the males of entire communities and enslaves their women, who he makes his "wives." Nope, it's the "exotic," SEXY temptresssssssssssssss...
-Said temptressss provides the opportunity for two deep, difficult, MANLY trials Noah must endure. --Trial 1: The temptress sits by Noah and leans towards him! (Don't worry, after a tectonic internal strugle he manages to resist her feminine wiles).
--Trial 2: When Noah and his wife are visiting her city together, the temptress tricks Noah into coming to her room--and then takes off some of her clothes in front of him! After a shuddering, eyes-closed, back-straight, tight-lipped internal BATTLE, Noah just barely manages to escape her evil seduction.
-In the same vein, and probably the single-most repulsive element of the entire book for me: Noah regularly experiences intense "emotions"--heavily implied to be sexual arousal--in response to women's ankles, arms, shoulders, or the temptress' attempt to out-and-out sexually assault him.
*This is a huge, poisonous problem that runs through so much of this kind of garbage purity-culture literature: it (paradoxically) sanctions and normalizes men displaying ravenous and even perverted sexual appetites in response to the smallest stimulus imaginable... while blaming any arousal of those disproportionate appetites ENTIRELY on female behavior (especially clothing choices). This kind of sexual ethic is NOT BIBLICAL. It is toxic. And it is dangerous for both men and women.
-Okay, last one: Noah and his wife never kiss before OR during their marriage ceremony at 46 years old.... but his wife does blush modestly! (So hot.)
What a toxic, misguided book. Please do not let your young adults be spiritually formed by this nonsense.
January 23, 2024
I'm thankful for authors notes when added at the end of books...the authors notes at the end of this book summed things up for me personally as a reader, they said to the reader several things didn't line up with what you may have expected. this was done on purpose to help break certain stereotypes about Noah and the pre-flood world that we as christians might assume are from the Bible but are not...they also go into a series of questions with possible scientific theories about the earths created state and when things might of changed into what we know the world to be today, such as eating animals...that's all fine I just don't want to suppose theories because I feel like I'd be trying to give a truth that God does not provide to us...this book was good, but it felt nothing like Noahs story it did stand out as fiction for me...like a "fairytale retelling" so to speak...my favorite part was the wedding it was beautifully written. one thing I didn't like it felt like a stretch was pre-flood rainbows...my imagination won't go there the rainbow has been polluted enough in our society from it's biblical account and it's a covenant between God man and earth Gen 6:12-17, that I can't even imagine there were rainbows hanging around waters etc before God set it in the sky as a token of His covenant....the book was good when I separate it from any ties biblically, for myself I was not effected in a way that the word would be distorted, which is a complaint from many who won't read Biblical fiction for that reason and I completely respect that point of view...my view is slightly different whereas I know biblical fiction is just that it's fiction, made up from someones imagination, it doesn't change my thoughts on biblical accounts, its more like I have so many questions on the Bible that it keeps me thinking and searching
December 14, 2019
This book is the first in a series about Noah from the Bible. While Noah does remain faithful to God and his teachings, practically everything else is made up because we know so little about this period of his life. In this book, he's 40 years old. He loves to work with wood and becomes apprenticed to a boat builder. He has to travel to reach this man, so we're shown what the authors think the world was like before the flood. There's a lot of description (along with suspense) as they encounter evil people and wild animals along the way.
Rather than describing animals and plants with words that we are familiar with, like horse, the authors described what the animal or plant looked like. This gave the book a fantasy feel because you're left to guess which kind of animal or plant is being referred to. The authors include questions and answers in the back explaining why they chose to portray things in certain ways. For example, they have rain and rainbows before the Flood. However, they didn't explain a few things, like why peaceful, plant-eating people would own a bow and arrows and know how to use them expertly.
Overall, the book was an interesting read but it wasn't always clear to me why the characters acted in certain ways. Some actions seemed more motivated by the authors' desire to show off more of their world than by what would make sense. There was no sex or bad language.
Rather than describing animals and plants with words that we are familiar with, like horse, the authors described what the animal or plant looked like. This gave the book a fantasy feel because you're left to guess which kind of animal or plant is being referred to. The authors include questions and answers in the back explaining why they chose to portray things in certain ways. For example, they have rain and rainbows before the Flood. However, they didn't explain a few things, like why peaceful, plant-eating people would own a bow and arrows and know how to use them expertly.
Overall, the book was an interesting read but it wasn't always clear to me why the characters acted in certain ways. Some actions seemed more motivated by the authors' desire to show off more of their world than by what would make sense. There was no sex or bad language.
December 26, 2019
I'm not sure why there aren't more books written about the Pre-Flood times in Christian fiction. Seems like there's a lot to do there. This book has the setting and a good story. Taking place in the "early" part of Noah's life it sets the stage for the inevitable cataclysm. The world building is great and of course the author has to take some liberties with what's unknown from the biblical account. The plot moves well with action, love story, meeting new cultures/people groups, and exploring a Pre-Flood world. There is no "Amish love story" here that Christian fiction has sadly become known for. However, the story is pretty straightforward.
The writing is fine and the advancement of the plot benefits from it. There is character development, yet Noah's character could use a little more introspection and learning. There are gaps in storytelling that would be interesting to know somethings like the process of shipbuilding that more skilled writers would give you. That's my biggest complaint about the book that it's written like most Christian fiction where - yes, God is important but it can be so much more than that. However, I enjoyed the world and the story and will read the others in the series. Final Grade - B
The writing is fine and the advancement of the plot benefits from it. There is character development, yet Noah's character could use a little more introspection and learning. There are gaps in storytelling that would be interesting to know somethings like the process of shipbuilding that more skilled writers would give you. That's my biggest complaint about the book that it's written like most Christian fiction where - yes, God is important but it can be so much more than that. However, I enjoyed the world and the story and will read the others in the series. Final Grade - B
March 4, 2018
This book started out a little slow for me, as a peruser of secular novels, but the story picked up towards the end and certainly kept my interest throughout the book. I was happy to see that the book itself is not "preachy" and keeps focus on the story and characters more-so than just using it as a cover for propaganda. I can imagine taking on such a well-known character and story is daunting but Tim Chaffey has done a brilliant and entertaining job of bringing these characters to life with energy while still staying true to the Biblical account. Although I did not agree with everything in this book I enjoyed the back portion which explained why he chose to portray these characters and the world the way he did. This is a fantastic book: Clean and mild enough for a family read yet engaging and intense enough to satisfy any adult reader. Well-balanced and engaging. I was very impressed with this series and cannot wait to read the third. A great book that would be enjoyed by anyone - Not just for Christians.
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