The Twilight of Courage

I thought The Twilight of Courage to be a very good book. Its main drawbacks are its length and occasional streched out sections. However, overall I found it to be intriguing and worth coming back to reread later on. I especially like that it is historically accurate and gives information on a few of the little known details of the war without being especially gruesome. It also fills in a little of the gap between the Zion Covenant and Zion Chronicles series concerning a few key characters in one or both of the series.

Under duress, I recently confessed my favorite Thoene novel: Twilight of Courage. (It's like admitting you have a favorite child.) A friend of mine who has read only non-fiction books for the past 7 years agreed to read this one only because it is fiction based on fact. He loved it. (I, in turn, had to read a non-fiction book. He chose for me "Fate is the Hunter", a book so well-written I couldn't help reading it.)I told my friend about the background to this book, which I know because I wrote a review in the Grand Rapids Press years ago: the Thoenes spent four months on a barge in Paris, with assistants, researching this work. They asked elderly Parisians this question: Where were you the day France fell? Seemed they all had a story. From those stories came this book. It's what got my friend to read it. That's what I love about the Thoenes' work. Winston Churchill said something about hinges, that isn't interesting upon what small hinges events turn. The Thoenes seek out those hinges and give them a rightful place by recording them. Fact couched in fiction? Sometimes that's the only way a story can be told. That it is told at all is the only thing that matters. From Marcus Aurelius..."Look beneath the surface; let not the quality of a thing nor its worth escape thee..." Mallowcups for Bodie and Brock. Cheers for their dedication to rusty old hinges.

Quite possibly the two greatest driving forces in the universe, Brock and Boede Thoene write a version of fiction so real, it makes me want to go down to the library and search for the characters names in the microfisched newspapers. I've been reading their work since I was twelve and I get more and more out of each book every time I read them. This book is a true portrait of struggle with subtle but deeply embedded overtones of faith. The Twilight of Courage is one of brightest stars in my library and a magnificent read.

This is a long book, but every page is worth it. It is an outstanding, well thought out, entralling story. I could barely put it down. The characters are very realistic, the message is clear without being pointed. It captures emotions and feelings almost perfectly. However, it does feel like there is a great deal left to be told and explained. Any plans for a sequel?

An excellent book but we do need the sequel. I pray the writer will continue the story. Zion Covenant is one of the best series of books that I have ever read.