Lynn Austin – The Chronicles of the King, by Mandy Montgomery

Last week, pastor Daniel looked at the TV series ‘Kings’ and how it could have been so much more if the creators had just stuck with the text. This week, his wife, Mandy, recommends a series of books that are quite faithful to the Biblical narrative with fantastic results. The Chronicles of the King parts 1, 2 and 3 – Gods and Kings, Song of Redemption and The Strength of His Hand.

I’ve been reading the Chronicles of the Kings series by Lynn Austin and have been bugging Daniel to read them because they work so perfectly with what we’re studying in the Old Testament series right now so he asked me to review them for the BC blog.

These books, the first three in the series, essentially chronicle the lives of king Ahaz and his son, Hezekiah, which is perfect for where we are in our Old Testament series. The series opens in the reign of Ahaz and the first scene depicts his preparations for a sacrifice. Only the sacrifice is his first-born son and the god he is seeking to please is Molech. It’s incredibly intense, obviously, but one thing I love about this series of books is that level of drama is maintained. These books totally draw you in and before you know it, you’re hooked.

I love the characters in these books. Austin has done an excellent job of giving all of the people in the Bible story complex personalities and motivations for what they do. It helps to make the story really immersive because you have people like Urriah the priest, and they’re doing all of the things the Bible records them as doing, but you see an imaginative look behind their actions to what might have caused them to do what they did.

So, you have Zechariah, who is guiding young Hezekiah in the first book, but he’s fallen into drunkenness and therefore isn’t much of a guide and Hezekiah isn’t really protected from Ahaz’s evil practices. It’s great because you really get a sense of urgency for Hezekiah because his future hangs in the balance – will he continue the evil of his father or return to the Lord?

It’s so engaging and Austin really leads you to relate to these characters and to feel their struggles and their desire to do the right thing and their frustration when their own nature gets in the way. I totally started crying when Hezekiah wanted so much to provide for his people but his own pride is standing in the way. It’s so true to life.

Austin also does a great job with dialogue. So much of the books are lifted straight from the Bible, which is obviously good, but it really brings a richness to the story when you have Micah speaking to Hezekiah and he’s speaking his actual prophetic words straight from the Scriptures. It’s amazing the way she weaves the actual words of the Bible into the fabric of her story and it’s really powerful the way the words of God capture your imagination in a whole new way.

One of the most useful things Austin does is she brings a lot of clarity to what the land looked like. She’s taking just a few chapters of the Bible and deeply imagining details and personalities. You get a really clear mental picture of the Temple, of the layout of the land, what it looked like, who was there. She does a great job of immersing you in the time and place of the story. She obviously did a lot of studying, which really adds to the books because you know she’s not just making stuff up to entertain you, she’s really seeking to be faithful to the Bible and to bring it to life in a way that doesn’t compromise the integrity of the stories.

So, I think these books are really amazing and I’d recommend them to anybody. The stories are so captivating that whether historical fiction is your thing or not, you’ll find yourself drawn in. There are two more books in the series, but the first three are all about Hezekiah, which is so timely to the sermon this past Sunday and to the reading guide, which will get to Hezekiah next week. So, check them out here and get ready for a good read.