Alexandra & Joyce Swann {Book Review}

These books are very different from most books I read for pleasure, but I still enjoyed them none the less. I have seen these books compared to books by authors such as Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker, if those authors interest you.

The Fourth Kingdom  was actually written back in 1988 when Joyce Swann saw an interview on 60 minutes where an elderly German national was saying that the world needed a secular savior. That one comment was the start of this book. One of the main characters in this book shares Hitler’s desire for a completely “pure” race of people. This is what drives him to do many of the things that happen in this book that pertain to genetic cloning.Then, in The Force , this story is continued, and actually takes place in the future when cloning of humans is already happening. In fact, the world’s most beautiful women are being murdered – again and again. One of the questions this book seeks to ask is “How far would you go to live forever?” This theme, with genetic cloning and the future of science, continues on into this book as well.

I think these books take a bit of intellect to read. They are definitely not the “fluffy” reading that oftentimes the fiction books I read can be. There is a lot of science, technology, genetics, and cloning that goes into these stories. However, there is also a Christian family that remains the “main characters” for the most part through these books. I love that they are very intelligent, scientific people themselves. So often in our culture today people associate science with NOT being a Christian thing. But, this book will show you how you can use your scientific intelligence to give glory to God. The discussions that are in this book pertaining to faith and science are very intriguing to me and I would never have been able to bring all those things together in a story like the Swann ladies have!

If I had one critique it would be that the sheer volume of characters sometimes left me overwhelmed with details. But again, I loved the stories, but a few times I had a hard time keeping up.