This is our final tour day for The Legend of the Firefish. It’s been great touring with you! If you haven’t read the book, be sure to click on the link and purchase a copy. Again, this is a fantastic read, in terms of characters, writing and tension. It’s been a very long while since I’ve picked up a book that I literally could NOT put down. Especially when the tension picked up and all of the various plots were in full motion. My family was clamoring around me for milk, cookies, dinner, wipe my hiney.. . .But no, all things had to wait because I could NOT put the book down.
The tension is well. . .intense and just keeps getting thicker when Packer and the pirate’s crew finally face both the Achawuk and the Firefish. It continues through twists and turns even as the characters enter into deeper understanding of God. Marvelous!
I love to see God act in a story, especially when it’s not contrived or forced in anyway, but is completely natural. And welcome:) So many stories leave God’s intervention out as though it would somehow diminish the story. Not True. God is alive and well!
Polivka obviously agrees and uses this fact masterfully in his novel. In the hopeless battle with the Achawuka, Packer is high above watching in the ratlines and reasons out that God’s will choose his destiny—whether he will live or die—and he prays that God would save them.
. . .He could die this way. He was following the path of his God at last. Packer was a few feet from the deck when his eyes met those of an Achawuk warrior coming up over the port rail. Is this the man who will kill me? The warrior had his spear in his hand. He looked up at Packer. . . Packer put his hand to his sword reflexibely, but he didn’t’t draw it. He put his foot on the rail. As he did, the great ship rocked.
From there the wind, or rather the breath of God, creates their salvation and they are able to be free, at least for a while.
And to conclude, in his acknowledgements, Mr. Polivka thanks Hugh Smallwood for aiding him in details of sailing tall-ships. I thank Mr. Polivka for using all of those details in creating a realistic adventure aboard a pirate ship!
Be sure to visit Rebeca Luella Miller’s post because she’s always great to review the highlights of the tour. You can scroll down to the blog tour participants to find her. Yes, family is clamoring again (you can use your imagination, but if you’re a mom like me you won’t have to try too hard) so I don’t have time to paste in that dreadful html to create the link.
Blessings!
Beth
