LEAGUE OF SUPERHEROES, by Stephen Leon Rice

Warning! My review of LEAGUE OF SUPERHEROES, by Stephen Leon Rice may be somewhat biased. It’s not that I’m biased towards the author, although I suppose a case could be made for that. Instead, however, it has to do with me personally. Let me explain.

Growing up I loved comic books, specifically superhero comic books. When I was barely into school I had a dream that I was superman. At one point I wanted to be Thor, but that didn’t sit right with my Christian faith. Then I wanted to be Captain America, until I found out he had some kind of fictitious super-serum injected into him to make him that way. I wanted to be Spiderman too, but doubted that being bitten by any spider would alter me in any way. (Back then we didn’t talk about DNA because we didn’t know that much about genetics). I liked Dare Devil, but aside from the fact that I’m not blind I doubted I’d ever come into the kind of money that allowed him to build an extravagant gym in his NYC brownstone home. So I settled for Black Hawk, an archer and member of the Avengers. I even made at least part of a costume that I planed to wear when I fought crime. I had my own bow and quiver of arrows, and I was a pretty decent archer. A friend of mine made a Flash costume and I once took a picture of him running in our backyard. I moved the camera to make it look like he was running fast. So you see folks, these superheroes were a prominent part of my childhood. Even after growing up I started creating some of my own superheroes, after a fashion. Maybe “super” is a bit much, but I was bound and determined to at least create heroes. (I’m still a comic fan to this day).

In any event Stephen L. Rice has done a superb job of giving us a great storyline, a believable premise about "real" superheroes, and a lot of his own style of humor. Just thinking about 4 teenagers suddenly equipped to battle crime in supersuits brings a smile to my face, especially the geekish kind of kids here. While I wasn't a geek, I was ostracized from many social circles in high school, and the ones I did make it into I felt more klutzy than anything else. Needless to say, high school was not one of my better periods of life.

So what do we have? We have a story narrated by Tom Riley, whose special interests is in linguistics, which he feels isn't really a science, so his natural techno hero is Darklight, who has the power to fly and be invisible. We have three of his friends, Rod Davies, the math and physics geek, who is described as being a "bean pole" (so it's no surprise that his favorite superhero is Titan, kind of a flying humanoid tank), Allen Peters, the computer hacker whose attention to the speed of things draws him to the techno hero Tachyon, and Charlie Taylor, who fancied himself as being called into the mission field as a medical doctor. Charlie's hero was Micromegas, a techno hero with the ability to change size, however, since Charlie saw himself as a future doctor enlarging himself didn't appeal to him as much as shrinking himself down. Well, we all have our dreams, fantacies, heroes, etc. The difference is this band of "Mad Scientists" have their dreams come true when Allen's little sister, Clarice, introduces them to Genie, a 7 year old girl she met in Kidchat. The problem with this 7 year old girl is that she is smarter than Einstein and Newton put together and then there's this problem that she doesn't remember any family members ever, only a friendly man she calls "Uncle". As the story unfolds so do the problems, the humor, the despiration and the action. This is one fantastic ride, especially for someone like me who likes superheroes.

Meanwhile back in the real world, we really can become heroes, after a fashion. No we don't have techo-powered supersuits (at least not yet), but those of us who know Jesus have the power of God available to us. It seems to me that we should focus on that. How can a Christian be a superhero? Well, we have the power of love, which breaks down practically every wall we come up to, and faith. The two have to be worked together. Jesus said that if we had faith in Him we could tell a mountain to through itself in the sea and it would happen. Now that's super, right? More to the point, we run into the arch-enemy, Satan, or at least one of his cronies, on a daily basis. They whisper in our ears trying to get us to look at something, consider something, hold doubt in our heart. If we listen to these voices they are like Kryptonite was to Superman. It's no wonder there are so many people hurting in the world. We, however, have the power of God living in us. If the power to die and come back to life isn't a superpower I don't know what is. God also creates, and has given us the ability to create on our own limited scale. Artists of every type, graphic, music and even us writers, exhibit this God given power. A lot of times, however, I think we're just as poorly equipped emotionally, to handle these powers as the League of Superheroes. We're tiny babies in this period of eternity. Yet even then we can get direction and wisdom from our Heavenly Father and shut down the enemy. That's our job. We have way too many people out there who are falling down on a battlefield they aren't even aware they are on. We know and have the power to go out and rescue them, to get them out of harms way. We can bring them to our Commander, Jesus, who will make all things new. Look to Eph. 6:10-18 and read about the whole armor of God. Then saddle up. It's time to stand up against the enemy and get the wounded off the field. It's time for us to be superheroes. - David Brollier


Okay, folks over at the Christian Fiction Review Blog are having this Tag Team Tour, and since you are here, "Tag. You're it." You found out where today's post is, that is if you came here today, on Wednesday. For Thursday, Friday and Saturday you'll need to hunt the links below to try and find out who is posting. Also, if you are here today you might want to find out who posted on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Same thing goes, "Tag. You're it." Have fun. Enjoy the other posts and the other sites. Don't be surprised to make some new friends along the way. That's why their doing it this way.






Now just because you read the review and have all those links up there doesn't mean that you have all the scoop. If you want to find out more about Stephen Leon Rice you can click his button "Back to the Mountains" below .



And of course you probably want to know where you can read more about this great book and purchase it, so here are some links:

The Writer's Cafe Press
Amazon Books

As far as info is concerned you can't beat Steve's site above, but if you don't have the time to go through all the in depth look at the techno-superheroes try the following site which is loaded with info in a short format:

http://ansric.pbwiki.com/LoSseries

And don't forget the giveaway. That's right Cathi Hassan is giving away a copy of LEAGUE OF SUPERHEROES, by Stephen Rice. To view the details visit her site Cathi's Chatter. You don't want to pass this up.

Remembering Our Heroes

On December 7th, 1941, sixty seven years ago, the attack on Pearl Harbor was devastating. The Japanese had hoped to bring us to our knees, and so they did, in prayer and action. In months we had a fleet that arose out of the ashes of that attack that went on to defeat them in the Pacific. We were not brought low, but realized how lazy we had become and arose to meet the enemy with a determination even the Japanese could not understand. In Europe it was the same. We had watched silently as allied nations teetered and fell under the weight of Adolf Hitler's crushing invasions, but when we entered the war we brought with us something he did not expect. We brought with us the heart of a nation determined to silence the weeping of our allies and still the hand that harmed them. We brought with us a weapon they did not expect, for we brought God with us.

On September 1st, 2001, only seven short years ago, terrorists took over planes and smashed them and all aboard, into the Twin Trade Towers and the Pentagon. Another plane, seemingly headed for a target in Washington, was brought down by the passengers who knew their fate before they rushed these terrorists. Christians witnessed to office workers as the towers billowed with smoke and others jumped out of windows to escape the flames. Every sort of emergency worker pitched in to help find those left in the rubble, hopefully alive. Some of them have died from the smoke they inhaled, others from sheer terror, but most remain, living with the horrors they witnessed. That day, as on December 7th, 1941, America wept.

There is a slight difference between these two events. In the former the people got behind the military and stayed there, if they couldn't join themselves. They resolved to conclude this war on behalf of fellow Americans they had never met. Today, society seems to have forgotten the attacks on the United States. Instead of getting behind the military, who staunchly persevere in unbelievably hostile environments and conditions, we seem to have gotten lazy once again. We want them to come home, not realizing that to do so would bring the war home with them. The newly elected president has said he will remove our presence from Iraq and move them into Afghanistan, which is no more friendly than where they are now, nor less hazardous. Now look at the picture above. They are remembering us, willing to take a stand in whatever land our nation sends them that we might enjoy the continued freedoms of this democracy. They bow their heads before the Almighty God and ask for the strength to keep us, and if possible, them safe. And largely we have forgotten them. We have forgotten to bow our heads before our Creator for their protection, for their safety, and for thanks that these brave men and women have chosen to stand in "harm's way" for us. May we be humbled before the Lord God and repent. May we turn back to Him and away from ourselves. For in doing so we shall find the courage to continue to do right, the power to stand against evil and the pride in being the people God has chosen us to be.

Perhaps we need to be reminded of the words of Abraham Lincoln as he summed up what is known now as the Gettysburg Address. He had come to be part of the dedication of a national cemetery for the fallen at Gettysburg, PA. Yet instead of dedicating the field he offered these words, words which we would do well to remember today,

"But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."