Derke is a miracle man. He has a wonderful wife and two children. But when disaster strikes and in a single day he loses everything that means anything to him—Derke’s faith is severely shaken. Persuaded to become a necromancer by one of the most powerful necromancer’s there is, Derke finds himself traveling deeper and deeper into the realm of darkness that was so loathsome to him when he was a miracle man. With the help of a dwarvan priest can he find his way back to God again? Will he ever learn that though bad things may happen…God still loves him?
This was one of the most bizarre books I have ever read. Not that it wasn’t interesting. It was certainly that! It was just bizarre and sometimes creepy as well. In fact, I would call the first half of the book creepy. Rebirths starts out with a grieving Derke who is persuaded the day of his tragedy to come train as a necromancer. I didn’t think that to be very realistic. Usually, spiritual darkness is not a conscience decision; it’s more insidious and subtle. And where Derke was concerned it just wasn’t very believable. He chose to give himself over to evil much too quickly. But—other than that—there seemed to be no great flaws in the plot of the book.
This book has frankens, vampires, ghouls, skeletons, and zombies in it. In fact, Derke himself became a skeleton for a good portion of the book! I just thought that was supremely weird. However, the battle between good and evil is wonderfully portrayed—perhaps even enhanced by the bizarre creatures and circumstances in it.
There is a little bit of romance in it—which was just enough to relieve the reader of the darkness beforehand. Also, just to mention this, the front cover describes exactly what the plot of the book is about. I was impressed by that.
This book is written from a Catholic’s point of view. I’m not Catholic, but I didn’t mind since the book described how it is possible for God to save you from your sins in vivid detail. But there was one point near the end which I disagreed with. Derke had just killed someone—out of self-defense but also out of revenge. He asked his priest friend to shrive him. The priest gave him a penalty of 40 days of fasting lunch and had him pay an amount of money to the church. This was unnecessary. Derke’s sins had already been paid for by the blood of Christ. If we sin, then we don’t have to pay for that sin because Jesus already paid the ultimate sacrifice. By doing this Derke was saying that Jesus sacrifice was not good enough and that more still had to be done in order for Derke’s sins to be covered completely. We may suffer the consequences of our sin here on earth but we don’t have to do good in order to make up for that sin. Jesus has already paid the cost.
I give Rebirths 3 out of 5 stars. I believe that teenagers would probably like reading this. Especially if the enjoy reading about zombies and vampires and things like that.