Book Review: Eighth Shepherd by Bodie and Brock Thoene (AD Chronicles #8)

Stars: 5 out of 5
Pros: Characters that make a familiar story come to life

Cons: A couple timing issues; one over done scene

The Bottom Line:

Jericho drama

With a familiar story

Brought to gripping life

Shepherding Hearts

The A.D. Chronicles has been Brock and Bodie Thoene's most uneven series to date. Instead of their normal historical drama with plenty of suspense from the last two hundred years, this series has focused on storied from the life of Jesus 2000 years ago. The problem is, anyone who is familiar with the Bible (and let's face it, the intended audience is Christians) will immediately recognize the story. Additionally, some times it felt like they were slowing things down, making it a long journey to reach the familiar climax.

Such is not the case with Eighth Shepherd. While the main story was instantly recognizable, I was engaged the entire way through.

This book opens a few days after that last book ended. Yeshua has just raised his friend El'azar from the dead. The crowds may be excited about the preacher, but the high priest is growing more desperate to crush this threat to his power. And so Yeshua and his followers take off in the middle of the night for the other side of the Jordan to wait out the few months before the Passover.

But in the town of Jericho, there are those who need His love. Shimona, a former leper, has come home healed, only to be sent to tend an orchard in isolation.

But her loneliness is nothing compared to that of Zachai, chief tax collector. Zachai spends his days surrounded by four giant body guards. He is ruthless in his dealings with others, growing richer by the hour. But even he is slowly realizing that his money isn't buying his happiness. But even if Yeshua were to return to the area, would he be able or willing to help Zachai?

I think the thing that made this book so good for me was that it really brought Zachai to life. While I knew he was a hated man who stole from others, the portrayal here really made me see how despicable he was. And yet his loneliness was brought to such life as well you couldn't help but feel sorry for him at the same time you hated him.

Peppered in with the familiar names are characters of the Thoenes invention. The best example is Shimona, first introduced in the second book of the series. It was nice to see her come back into the picture.

As I mentioned, I knew exactly where this book was going from the first chapter. I even knew where Shimona's story was going. Yet, I was engrossed for every page. The human story was brought to such life that I couldn't put the book down.

And that, of course, is because of the great characters. The focus was really on Zachai and Shimona, and they both came to life. The other fictitious characters in the book were equally real if not as prominent. And the characterizations of the real people perfectly fit what we know about them from the Bible.

The series is obviously leading to the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. We appear to be only a week or two away, but who knows how long it really is. Anyway, I found it interesting that they are clearing beginning to set up those events with storylines that flitted through the book without any real resolution. I'm not sure if I would like that if I didn't know where they were leading, but I appreciated the set up.

I do have a couple minor complaints, however. At a couple points, there were scenes that were out of sync with the rest of the story. One example took us from afternoon to evening elsewhere back to that same afternoon. The evening scene could have easily been placed where it belonged chronologically and been less confusing.

There was also one scene as Zachai is nearing rock bottom that was just over the top. Frankly, it was so badly done it threw me out of the novel. And I didn't think it added that much to the book.

But as I said, those are minor issues. I was uplifted with a vivid portrait of God's love and forgiveness. If the rest of the series is as strong as Eighth Shepherd, it will finish with a bang.