Tuesday, January 21, 2014

CSFF OUTCAST BLOG TOUR - DAY TWO



 OUTCASTS

Safe Lands Series - Book Two by Jill Williamson


Day Two of the Outcasts Blog Tour
Sick of Body and Spirit
(click image for Amazon link or click link below)
Outcasts - available from:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Outcasts-Safe-Lands-Jill-Williamson/dp/0310724244/
Author's Web site: http://www.jillwilliamson.com/

I received a review copy of Outcasts by Jill Williamson from Blink, A division of Zondervon, in conjunction with the January CSFF Blog Tour

Safelands Webpage: http://thesafelands.com/


Mason, the scholar,  was looked down by his older brother the hunter and leader. Now, Mason works in the Surrogacy Center as a medical tech and spends most of his free time researching a cure for the disease. Mason still has feelings for Ciddah, his supervisor, but she is infected so he can't become more involved with her. Omar and Mia are infected due to wanting their freedom earlier. These infections of former Glenrock residents add to Mason's pressure to find a cure. However, Mason finds evidence of Ciddah bugging his apartment with recording devices. He feels betrayed by the very person he cares for, and doubly so as he is trying to help cure her.


Today's title comes the the way Outcasts shows how a sickness of the spirit is manifested by an external sickness of the body. In the Safe Lands, this external sickness is shown by dry, peeling skin. Safe Land inhabitants try to cover this appearance by painting their skin and adding up dateable tattoos. Like the illness, sin has a way of seeping out, even when we try to cover up and keep it hidden. Omar and Mia found, to their detriment, that you can't play around with evil, it always changes you in some way. Since the Safe Lands story is loosely based on that of Daniel and company getting taken out of Israel and into to Babylonian captivity, Mason seems the most like Daniel. He is favored by the leaders, he follows the teaching of The Lord though those around him would lead him astray, and he cares for the others in his care. The Safe Lands are a future version of ancient Babylon. In the Safe Lands, poor choices led to ever more extreme attempts to replace The Lord with hollow replacements like drug-dispensing vapor sticks, meaningless one-night stands, and a callous focus on self gratification first.


Jill Williamson has done a good job portraying what might be if society follows it's current course of focusing on the wrong things. She tackles some tough subjects like dug and alcohol abuse, sexual addition, and even contempt for the unborn. Teens, and others, reading Outcasts may find themselves
dwelling on the points Jill Williamson raises as I did, and remembering Mark 8:36. The Safe Landers gained much of what the world offered, yet lost their souls in the process.


 

*Participants’ links:
Red Bissell Thomas Clayton Booher Beckie Burnham Jeff Chapman Pauline Creeden April Erwin Victor Gentile Ryan Heart Timothy Hicks Jason Joyner Carol Keen Jennette Mbewe Amber McCallister Shannon McDermott Meagan @ Blooming with Books Rebecca LuElla Miller Joan Nienhuis Nissa Jalynn Patterson Writer Rani Nathan Reimer Chawna Schroeder Jacque Stengl Jojo Sutis Robert Treskillard Steve Trower Shane Werlinger Phyllis Wheeler Deborah Wilson

1 comment:

Jill Williamson said...

I like what you said here: "Omar and Mia found, to their detriment, that you can't play around with evil, it always changes you in some way." That is part of what I was trying to show. :-)