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52117

"Imagine being pulled into the hereafter. While you're still alive." Nick Seagrave is a big-name executive at a high-end company, who looks good on the outside. To all outward appearances, he's living the high life. But deep down inside, he's spiraling downward, falling apart. Separated from loved ones by the choices he's made, Nick finds himself in utter despair. It is in that moment that he's pulled into another world, a place that will force him to see the consequences of his life, (and thus himself), for what they are. He is in the ultimate Purgatory, where he can experience both heaven and hell with all his five senses, and which leads him on the ultimate journey of discovery. Pushed and pulled between the various sources of evil, and the One Source of all goodness, Nick is forced to confront the One he's been running from his whole life. Passing along the median between the two realms, Nick must make a choice: a choice that will bring him the very brink of the Edge Of Eternity. This is a wonderful book. I highly recommend it. ( )

I am pretty sure I’m in the minority when it came to Edge of Eternity. Most in my book club really loved it — mainly for the allegory that Alcorn creates, which, I must agree, is compelling. My problem was the writing. I’ve heard so many people rave about Alcorn’s books, but there was something about it that did not, at all, resonate with me, and I keep coming back to the writing. The whole book was a series of “This happened. Then this happened. Then this happened.” Descriptions that should have resonated deeper and characters that I should have related to better. Cliches all over the place. The highs should have felt higher and the lows should have felt lower — I could not connect at all. And this comes from someone who longs for heaven! I thought the second half the book was stronger than the first, so I’m glad I stuck with it. I really do think the allegory was beautiful, and some of the images that he describes felt very True, with a capital T. But I just couldn’t love it. The fact this was our October book club book and I didn’t finish it until nearly December shows how little desire I had to finish it up.

Read my full review here: http://letseatgrandpa.com/2011/12/16/book-review-106-edge-of-eternity-by-randy-a... ( )

By far the greatest strength of Edge Of Eternity is the allegorical depiction of the Christian pilgrimage, with many of the duties, joys, and pitfalls described. Alcorn gives a realistic view of what a new believer should expect as he travels toward the celestial city, so this book might be worthy material for one new to the Faith. On the other hand, I cannot say that I found the writing all that engaging and even found the pace to be somewhat plodding at times, especially in the beginning. Most troubling to me was the allegorized picture of the atonement which resembled more the theology of Mel Gibson or even Kenneth Copeland than John Calvin. With this theological weakness in mind, Edge Of Eternity may be worthy of mild commendation as a guide to practical Christian living. ( )