The Bark of the Bog Owl Book Review – Part 2

Well, I got to the 2/3rd mark of The Bark of the Bog Owl, which is Book 1 of The WilderKing Trilogy, and could I stop reading?

NO! I was just before Aidan Errolson fought the Pyrthen champion named Greidawl, and I had to keep reading! Now remember that this is a retelling of the story of David in the Bible. So this part is the “Goliath” portion of that story and is every boy’s dream: killing a giant in single combat!

One of the issues that fiction author’s face in writing anything is believability. In this story there is the issue of why would King Darrow allow Aidan to be the Corenwald champion? Jonathan Rogers handles this expertly by showing that the King wants to surrender, but the enemy will not accept that without either (a) a battle–which the Corenwalders think they will get slaughtered at, or (b) someone fighting their champion.

Since Darrow wants to surrender, he allows Aidan to fight to satisfy the enemy and to save bloodshed. It made sense and I believed it. What you don’t want to do as an author is to have your readers say “Awww! That would never happen!” or “That doesn’t make any sense!” None of that with this book! The author handles these difficult scenes like an expert.

Way to go, Jonathan!

By the way, has anyone else wondered if the author’s first name made him grow up thinking about King David more than most kids?

Hmmmmmm…..