Review: Promising but falls short
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 12 20, 2012
I received a complimentary copy of this book for the purpose of doing a review.I like the idea of this book.  Current events combined with science fiction combined with fantasy appealed to me when I read the description so I was happy to read the book.There were strengths.  I liked the characters.  I found myself caring about what happens to this family and those who band together to assist them.  I liked the action sequences and I liked the fantasy/scifi elements.There were great weaknesses.  The mother's backstory makes no sense.  I won't be a spoiler but for a book that is supposed to be grounded in current events, the backstory is jarringly impossible.  It's impossible that it would have happened and even if you could accept the events as part of the fantasy, the idea that something so public could have happened in the mother's life without her children knowing about it is just not possible.  Good fantasy has to be consistant within the fantasy world and this just wasn't.The premise of why anyone would be "after" the family also made no sense.  Obviously, the premise is not why the mysterious dark force is actually hunting the family but for the intelligent characters to all accept the premise as a reasonable explanation is again, not believable.I found it very preachy, both religiously and politically.  It read like the Tea Party Bible and though I am fiscally conservative myself, I found myself bored and insulted by a fantasy story that preached politics at me as though one particular side of the political spectrum was blessed and spoke the truth while the other side is....what, the source of the darkness?  I suppose that will be in the next book.Which brings me to my final criticism.  There was way too much unnecessary running here and there in the book and then - wham - it's over and you'll just have to buy the next one to find out what happens.  This book ends abruptly and doesn't stand on it's own, as any good story must even when it is part of a trilogy.In the end, I liked much in the book but not enough to make me want to buy the next installment.