The Ascension (Lazarus Chronicles, #2)

by Richard Spillman

[phyllish]

The suspense continues

My rating is 4.5 stars

Since reading The Awakened, I’ve been eagerly anticipating reading more of The Lazarus Chronicles. Fortunately, it is a trilogy and I won’t have to wait much longer for the finale. Well, I hope it won’t be much longer!

I love the way Richard Spillman combines accounts of the resurrected Christ with present-day paranormal suspense. The use of searching through Lazarus’ journal for a code is a great means to make this work.

Hindsight tells me I should have re-read The Awakened before taking up The Ascension. Though I remembered many of the people and broad-stroke details, there were things I did not remember. I am making a point to re-read both of these before reading the conclusion when it comes out.

I don’t specifically recall liking or disliking Declan before. He came into his own here and became one of my favorite characters. He teamed up with Shiri in the Middle East to find the virus that was about to be released on an unsuspecting population. The two of them working together were delightful! Their witty repartee as Declan attempted to get his head around the concepts of the Undead (they are NOT zombies!) and the Awakened had me giggling and wishing I could share it with my husband in a way that would make any sense at all! The two are a fantastic team, making what happened so . . . (Sorry, censored to prevent spoilers!)

Joon was fascinating! A North Korean Christian, he had been taught to treasure the Bible from his youth and to hide it in his heart against the day when they would not have access to a Bible any longer. So when his family was imprisoned in a concentration camp when he was twelve, he had a strong foundation to rest upon. What a testimony! We Western Christians could stand to honor the Bible more in our lives!

I’m almost embarrassed to admit this next thing. I have always had trouble remembering which part of Korea is Communist. Now that I have read about it here and have a much better picture of what it is like in North Korea, I have a feeling I won’t have this difficulty any longer. The sense of living without hope in such a place was depicted so vividly.

The action and suspense were pretty much non-stop. While The Awakened is my favorite, The Ascension was thoroughly enjoyable and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys suspenseful Christian fiction. Even if they aren’t particularly fans of zombies!

Read my full review at Among the Reads


I was given a copy of this book. I was not required to give a favorable review nor was any money received for this review. All comments and opinions are my own.