Dragon Ore by Brian Rathbone

Let me start off by saying that I really felt that this series was beginning to be drawn out.  That was until I started to read Dragon Ore.

This story chronicles the final installment to the Catrin Volker saga.  Catrin is (as normally the case) just a normal kid who is given some amazing powers.  She is the Herald of Istra.  Basically the incarnation of a goddess and has been given amazing powers.  Catrin has travelled all over the know world, from her home on the Godfist to the Greatland and on to the Firstland.  In her travels one thing has remained constant ... her friends have been there.  They have protected her and she has protected them.  She gained more friends and more enemies, and at the end she even decided to settle down.

This was a pretty cool series.  I was skeptical at first, but became enthralled in the world of Catrin Volker and her adventures.

See my other reviews on the series here:
Call of the Herald
Inherited Danger

Overall I'd give the series a 3.75/5, only because of the seeming longness of the story.  I'd rate Dragon Ore a bit higher , but it could have been better.

For Dragon Ore:

Rating - 4/5

Pentecost: A Thriller by Joanna Penn

Fatherhood (for the second time) is pretty stinking cool.  Seeing Emma smile up at me just melts my heart.  Hearing Sydney say, "Daddy, I made this for you." turns me into a mess of emotions.  I have been a little lax lately in posting.  I finished this book a couple of weeks ago.

I've always liked the name Morgan for a girl.  And that just so happens to be the main character's name in Pentecost.  Morgan was born and raised in Israel, and has a twin sister that she never really knew since Morgan had lived with her father and her sister lived with her mother.  They were (and still are) drastically different people.  Morgan is a psychologist at Oxford University in England, where she specializes in the connection between religion and the mental acuity of some  of the problems that it may cause for an individual.  Her sister is married to a pastor and has a beautiful daughter whom Morgan adores.

The story revolves around the Apostles Stones, and the power that they may (or may not) have.  Stories tell of the time of the Resurrection of Jesus and the power that it took for that to happen.  The Apostles took small parts of the stone and kept them as a memento and reminder of that day and the power that they have been given.  Through time the stones were scattered across northern Africa, southern Europe and of course through the Middle East.

Morgan and her sister each have one of the stones ... you can see where this is going.  There is also and evil politician (really ... a politician that is evil ... never) who has a twin brother who has a sever medical condition.  He also thinks that if he is able to get all twelve stones together he will be able to heal his brother.  He does everything he can to get the stones ... kidnapping, murder, deceit, hatred ... you name it, he's done it.

Morgan teams up with Jake Timber from the ARKANE Corporation, to try to get the stones and deliver them to the political madman.  ARKANE specializes in "protecting" religious artifacts, no matter the cost.  Jake is directed to get the stones and get them to the ARKANE headquarters.  Morgan thinks that he is there to help get her sister and niece back ... oh yeah, they were kidnapped by the evil politician.

I'll stop there ... you can probably guess where it goes from there.

It was a decent read overall ... supposedly is is going to be a series.  I'm looking forward to the next installment to see if it can make the story more realistic.

Rating: 3/5