The Silver Cord by Erik Stevens

While the premise of a story about the fight of Good versus Evil on an angelic plane sounds, if not promising, at least interesting, unfortunately The Silver Cord falls short. True, Stevens does deliver on the action promised, and as the author’s blurb states, his military background must have provided considerable background knowledge. However, beyond the intriguing premise, I struggled to connect with the book and maintain focus.

While the characters tried to remain consistent, they felt somewhat overdone, perhaps in the style of a screenplay where attributes have to be played up in order for the audience to pick up on them. Characters are the backbone of a story, and without a believable protagonist, the reader has the impossible job of crafting her own story grip to maintain interest. Certain aspects of the characters were overdeveloped by excessive adjectives, metaphors, and similes, but other facets were thrown suddenly into the reader’s face. Although Kent McVay and his wife were supposed to be Christians, there was nothing in their interactions or characters that would lead me to this conclusion until it was bluntly stated.

The characterization of God also seemed like an afterthought, thrown in as a plot device to steer characters into a direction they would not have taken of their own accord. And using bolded text to set God’s speech apart makes it look like the author can’t weave it in realistically enough for the reader to pick up on the nuances without drastic visual clues.

Additionally, the progression of the plot did little to ease the reader into the story. At certain points the characters had conversations to excess so that Stevens could explain the workings of the world he was describing. Since the story takes place on Earth and in a sort of “heaven” above Earth, I would have preferred more conventional images. I understood the book to be marketed to Christians, but as a Christian I was somewhat put off by the prospect of people originating as angels and then returning to that original form after death.

The book emanates the excitement of a first novel, but perhaps it’s one that was a little too rushed in the production. A little more character refinement and development would have gone a long way in making the story more palatable.