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Windfall: The Reddening Sky
433 pages, Paperback
Published October 1, 2016
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November 18, 2016
"Windfall: The Reddening Sky" is the fifth book of Phil Farrand's Christian science fiction series. The "Windfall" series will comprise a total of 24 novels and is a companion series to Farrand's "Son, Wind, Reign" series. Both series of novels deal with the Christian doctrine of the return of Jesus Christ to Earth to begin a thousand years reign. It isn't so clear cut that the Wind, an alien race that claims it is Jesus and His Host, are truly the Christ and his angels or not. They may merely be an alien race. "Windfall: The Reddening Sky" is the first book of either series I've read. It is also the Beta version of the book, meaning there were numerous typos throughout the book. (Along with other Beta readers, I've essentially acted as a kind of editor for the book.)
"Windfall #5" does have at the front of the book a series of glossaries and a timeline to help new readers follow and understand what has gone on previously. I, however, chose to skip over these helpful addition to see how well I can follow the book. Overall, I found "Windfall: The Reddening Sky" to be very newbie friendly. If you haven't read any of the other books of either series, one shouldn't have any trouble understanding what's going on.
"Windfall #5" is an entertaining, action packed novel with many moments of humor laced throughout. Unfortunately, I do find it hard to say what it's about. The trouble is, for me, "Windfall: The Reddening Sky" did not feel like it was a complete, separate work from the other four books, but rather chapter 5 of a 24 chapter novel. That's not necessarily a bad thing. I mean, it is easy to get caught up in the tale and follow it along, but there is the sense the story is a little incomplete. That one isn't getting the full story, but a tiny fragment of it. It's sort of like how it would be to watch episode 5 of a season four ep of "Game of Thrones". You can probably follow along, but you still feel you're missing out on a lot of back story.
That Phil is a STAR TREK fan shows up in the book, btw. It's little things that give his fandom away. The use of the phrase "away team" ("boarding party" would work just as well), ships having fusion torpedoes (analogous to TREK's "photon torpedoes") and the way planet as designated: "Gamma Draconis Two", etc., rather than a name like "Earth", "Mars", etc. (Of course, TREK used both methods throughout the various series.)
None of this is a big negative against the book. It's still fun and entertaining and worth reading. Phil does create a fascinating universe of his own and goes sparingly with the Christian doctrine. (That Christianity is part of the Windfall series DNA makes how almost graphically sexual this novel is surprising. I would not have expected that. And anyone reading the book should be aware of the presence of so much sex in the novel.)
All in all, "Windfall: The Reddening Sky" is an excellent work. I may have to pick up the other volumes of both series.
"Windfall #5" does have at the front of the book a series of glossaries and a timeline to help new readers follow and understand what has gone on previously. I, however, chose to skip over these helpful addition to see how well I can follow the book. Overall, I found "Windfall: The Reddening Sky" to be very newbie friendly. If you haven't read any of the other books of either series, one shouldn't have any trouble understanding what's going on.
"Windfall #5" is an entertaining, action packed novel with many moments of humor laced throughout. Unfortunately, I do find it hard to say what it's about. The trouble is, for me, "Windfall: The Reddening Sky" did not feel like it was a complete, separate work from the other four books, but rather chapter 5 of a 24 chapter novel. That's not necessarily a bad thing. I mean, it is easy to get caught up in the tale and follow it along, but there is the sense the story is a little incomplete. That one isn't getting the full story, but a tiny fragment of it. It's sort of like how it would be to watch episode 5 of a season four ep of "Game of Thrones". You can probably follow along, but you still feel you're missing out on a lot of back story.
That Phil is a STAR TREK fan shows up in the book, btw. It's little things that give his fandom away. The use of the phrase "away team" ("boarding party" would work just as well), ships having fusion torpedoes (analogous to TREK's "photon torpedoes") and the way planet as designated: "Gamma Draconis Two", etc., rather than a name like "Earth", "Mars", etc. (Of course, TREK used both methods throughout the various series.)
None of this is a big negative against the book. It's still fun and entertaining and worth reading. Phil does create a fascinating universe of his own and goes sparingly with the Christian doctrine. (That Christianity is part of the Windfall series DNA makes how almost graphically sexual this novel is surprising. I would not have expected that. And anyone reading the book should be aware of the presence of so much sex in the novel.)
All in all, "Windfall: The Reddening Sky" is an excellent work. I may have to pick up the other volumes of both series.
Displaying 1 of 1 review