Review: The Re-Awakening (Second Coming #2) by Carter Vance
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 07 10, 2014
Another mysterious, dark read from Carter Vance in regard to the Second Coming!After failing to prevent the rebirth of Christ (The Return, Second Coming #1), the Dark Forces are now out to track Him down in order to keep a watchful eye on Him, being ready to pounce at any time but also to be made aware of His movements and gauge what He could be learning and planning for future events.Meanwhile, these Dark Forces also spend their own time planning for a major worldwide event to take place in which they will almost probably come head-to-head with the Reborn and therefore seek many relics and objects of religious and powerful value to assist them with their cause, in the hope that these items will give them power, wealth and control.The Re-Awakening is written well, if a little on the heavy descriptive side. It is also an educational read in some areas. The author has again clearly carried out a great deal of research into historical events, myths, relics and many religious ideas mentioned in The Bible. This is obvious due to his fantastic in-depth explanation of them and their meaning. Carter Vance supports his fictional side/story well with these historical facts, and biblical/theological ideas. Vance also expresses his knowledge of The World and it’s geography as this trilogy covers almost all areas of the globe.As The Re-Awakening is the second book of a trilogy I found most of this book was the basis for the third and final story in the Second Coming Trilogy. I found the first half, particularly the first third quite descriptive of the relics, their meaning and concentrating on the politics of the Dark Forces, mostly within the Vatican.Due to the heavy descriptive style I found The Re-Awakening to be a more challenging read as it did not keep me engrossed at times. (Although it would be fair of me to mention that this is not my usual/preferable type of read.) Many of the chapters begin at different points and/or with different characters of the story during the first few chapters, making it a little more difficult to follow. Although this does make it an interesting screen-play style read.For a fictional story it does lack the fluid-like story-telling and the reader can easily lose track for a while. Due to this writing style, as I mentioned in my review of The Return (Book 1), there is little connection between the characters and the reader, making it difficult to relate to and sympathise with the characters.As the Re-Awakening is setting up for the finale, Book 3 of the Second Coming trilogy, I did find it interesting how Laz Christos (the Reborn) develops into a young man and how he is educated and experiences life across the globe. Although initially wanting to put The Re-Awakening down, I persisted and was amazed by the end just how much it had actually sucked me back in. It certainly has an air of mystery about it. I did miss the Knights Templar a little as they did have little to do in this book, however I did welcome reading about Laz and his family, as well as the kinky nuns working for the darker side who do add a little relief to the seriousness of the book!A copy of The Re-Awakening was provided by the author for the purpose of an honest and fair review.