Since the fall of some rebellious angels from heaven, there has been a great war going on between light and darkness — a great contest between good and evil. The Earth and its inhabitants have been on the receiving end of this conflict. The army of light needs a courageous human to stage a meaningful war against the dark spirits who have possessed human agents on earth, using them to carry out diverse acts of wickedness.
In Spyder Bones by Oliver Phipps, Aaron Prescott was the human soldier destined to bring an end to the decadence championed by many dark spirits in human bodies. However, he had to go through a near-death experience to be fortified for the task he was destined to accomplish. Aaron had volunteered again to be enlisted into the army that was to be deployed to Vietnam. Albeit, he chose to be a medic. As a cavalryman, he was so good that his best friend, Anderson, called him Spider. Returning as a medic, Anderson chose to call him Bones. After a heavy attack on their unit, Aaron fell from the helicopter that was evacuating them from the deadly war zone. This resulted in him going into a coma for several months. While in this comatose state, his spirit transcended into the spiritual realm where he was prepped for the task he was to fulfill in the physical realm. This is not a small task at all. Many who undertook this task has lost their lives in the process. What is the fate of Aaron? Will he finally defeat the forces of evil for good?
The first thing I noticed about this book is that Oliver Phipps really took the time to craft a very captivating story. This didn’t come as a surprise to me as he has become a principality in mystical and war stories. This isn’t a fast-paced book as I would expect from a book that was action-packed. However, this book gradually took form after I’ve read about half of it. The actions began to get a little intense from the sixth chapter. From that point forward, every chapter was action-packed and I got a better grip of it till the end. I had to point this out to help someone who might want to read this book but wouldn’t get some spark from the beginning. Though the beginning was a little slow, it laid a solid foundation for the action that was to come further down the book.
What I liked most about this book was the structure of the book. The chapters were arranged in such a way that each one had a unique purpose that contributes to the overall plot. Yet, preceding chapters opened the door to succeeding ones There was a noticeable end to every chapter with a subtle cliffhanger leading to the next. I have read novels that ended a chapter on a particular note and started the next on a completely different one. Oliver Phipps took a rather different approach that really got to me. He ensured the chapters were standalone, yet flowed seamlessly into the next. This produced a continuous pattern that gave the book a nice reading flow. Another thing that I liked was the writing style used in this book. The author’s narratives were simple and easy to understand. It’s so simple that a primary school kid could understand his stories. He was to a large extent careful in his choice of words and descriptions. There was no excessive description of sexual activities, and the use of vulgar language was as minimal as possible. As a matter of fact, this book can be read by kids who are as young as 13.
The only issue I had with this book is there were parts of it I felt should have been properly checked for consistency. For instance, the first few lines of chapter seven lacked consistency and agreement. Here’s an excerpt:
The question I asked myself after reading these lines was this: How did Sonya decipher the color of the tape from the black and white TV? Though I expected the author to have been more thorough with this sort of thing, I didn’t find this distracting. I did enjoy reading this book.The following morning Aaron sat on the couch drinking coffee and watching the fuzzy images on the black and white TV. Sonya walked in wearing one of Aaron's shirts. As she sat down by Aaron, the morning news announced Marcus Lefevere being shot by police the previous night. Then it went on to report a large amount of heroin being found in the Marcus Lefevere residence. Sonya rubbed her head as she listened and watched the police busily reeling yellow tape around the front doors of the house.
I rate this book 4 out of 4 stars. This is because I can’t give a 3.5 rating. The grammatical errors in this book were negligible and not enough for me to take away a full point. The editing was professional. Albeit, further editing would help fix a few errors I noticed in this book. I proudly recommend this book to people who love stories that revolve around the contest between the forces of good and evil.
******
Spyder Bones
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
