Book Review: The Last Thing I Remember Series
I just finished a reading a series of books I can’t wait to tell you about. The books are from, “The Homelander” series written by Andrew Klavan. I cannot remember from whom I heard about this book, but I am glad I did.
The books feature Charlie West as the main character. In the first book, “The Last Thing I Remember”, Charlie, a small town All American boy with good Christian morals and values suddenly finds himself thrown into the chaos of today’s war on terror. He is strapped in a chair, beaten and bloodied with his captors just outside the door, and he just cannot remember who he is, why he is there, or who his captors are, but he knows his life is in jeopardy. He spends the rest of this book and three others trying to figure out his identity and history while struggling to make just, moral, and Christian decisions in the real world reality of his situation. Although he cannot remember much, he leans heavily on his Christian ethics to guide him and learns a lot about himself, his own values, and those of others throughout his ordeal. As the story moves forward Charlie discusses with the reader the difficulties that confront him and how his Christian morals or the influence of moral role models such as his father and his karate instructor positively influenced him. He discusses how real world dilemmas brought to his attention what his role models were trying to teach him and how his new reality reinforces the meaning of their lessons. These are all lessons we try hard to teach our children in today’s media society with so many negative influences. This is one that is very positive and delivered in a story you that keeps you perched on the edge of your seat.
The book is very Patriotic but the morality story and Christian overtones are not so overbearing as to seem preachy to the reader, and I don’t think there is much chance that the message of the book will alienate even a non-Christian. The series from start to finish is a barn storming ride that never lets up. Very much like the old Indianan Jones movies, he moves from one action packed event to the next. If you pick up the first book, I suspect you will not put it down until you have finished it, and will be heading out to the store for the next one as soon as you do finish it.
The series is written at the level of a junior high reader but is suitable for anyone older. While my wife and I reviewed the book for our daughters, the whole family and some of our friends have read the entire series and very much enjoyed it. We would purchase a book when it was published, fight to see who would read it next, and wait impatiently for the next book to be published. We purchased these books through Amazon.com.
