Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Soul's Gate James Rubart


Having read several of Rubart's other novels(Book of Days and Rooms) and been impressed with his characters and imaginative settings I immediately jumped at the chance to review his latest book Soul's Gate.


What if you could travel inside another person’s soul? To battle for them. To be part of Jesus healing their deepest wounds. To help set them free to step boldly into their divinely designed future.

Thirty years ago that’s exactly what Reece Roth did. Until tragedy shattered his life and ripped away his future.

Now God has drawn Reece out of the shadows to fulfill a prophecy spoken over him three decades ago. A prophecy about four warriors with the potential to change the world . . . if Reece will face his deepest regret and teach them what he has learned.

They gather at a secluded and mysterious ranch deep in the mountains of Colorado, where they will learn to see the spiritual world around them with stunning clarity—and how to step into the supernatural.

Their training is only the beginning. The four have a destiny to pursue a freedom even Reece doesn’t fully fathom. But they have an enemy Pansie-bent on destroying them and he’ll stop at nothing to keep them from their quest for true freedom and the coming battle of souls.

Comparing that synopsis to what I found when actually reading the book I am left with the conclusion that the Amazon synopsis was extremely misleading.  I expected a book with physical action, cool training scenes, real battles, objective concrete fights---and got none of it. Reading this book has been akin to going to the dentist's office and getting my teeth pulled.

There are no 'flesh and blood' foes they must battle, but there are plenty of demons who among other things make a cameo appearance in suits at the church they go to as a group. No armies to conquer, not even a warrior's training regimine to follow; but there was a 'glory vine' that tried to take over a concert meeting--that only our main characters could see with their new and improve spiritual vision.

And don't forget the plethora of "By the Blood of Jesus" exclamations, and not a few Spirit-Involved prayer sessions where insights and prophecy are spontaneously impressed upon the members.

The book managed to continually rub me against the grain in these happenings through too easy and coincidental revelations, and continual supernatural answers. The writing quality itself was reasonable and Rubart did an excellent job with scene description but it couldn't bridge the chasm between myself and Soul's Gate.





In conclusion: I found the book's content to be a frustration and will look more carefully before I leap with the next Rubart offering. Only read if you enjoy extremely thick supernatural content.

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