Anyone read "This Present Darkenss"?

[Savate]

Has anyone read "This Present Darkness" Frank E. Peretti?

I'm about 1/2 done with it.

Wondered what y'all thought of it. I guess it was really popular about 15yrs ago?

 

[sister_maynard]

It was decently written, but the characterization was often stiff and the plot structure felt forced or contrived in places. I'm glad that I read it, but it's not something I'll reread for fun.

 

[Jane_the_Bane]

Piffle. Or more precisely: exactly the sort of brainless, flashy propaganda that's passed around within the ranks of every absolutist ideology in order to demonize the "others". (In this case, quite literally.)

It was the same with the "socialist realism" of the former Soviet Union, you know? "Brave heroes of the working class against the sinister minions of the counter-revolution, who sought to exploit and enslave the liberated workers once again."

That's what you get when you believe yourself to be in possession of absolute truth: exceptionally bad fiction.

 

[sister_maynard]

That's what you get when you believe yourself to be in possession of absolute truth: exceptionally bad fiction.

I've read worse (*shudder* Donita K. Paul,) but it's true that the way the message overtakes the plot by so much can be annoying. I read to be entertained and to think about things from new or interesting perspectives, not to have one message relentlessly pounded into my head for two books. Reading This Present Darkness (and the sequel) did provide some interesting perspectives, but I was tired of the incessant repetition of the same theme with so little variation.

 

[L3g3nd]

I read it when I was younger. Peretti's vision of spiritual warfare strikes me as ridiculous, as does his Us vs. Them approach to Christianity.

 

[Ellesar]

I've read it, and I loved it

 

[soblessed53]

I've read it, and I loved it

Me too! and the sequel Piercing The Darkness.

 

[Ellesar]

lol. that one too. I love all of his books

 

[TempestTossed]

I never read it. But I did read in elementary school some of his children's books as part of studies. They were boring at the time. I think would love them now, if only for their cheesy and preposterous story lines.

 

[Petrushka]

I read This Present Darkness as well. I really liked it. I like some of his other books better, though, like The Visitation and Prophet.