Elijah: The Sidonian Conflict - a Review

Elijah: the Sidonian Conflict, by Vince Stone, is the sequel to Elijah: the Prophet Child. When we last left Elijah, he was chasing after Sectarian, a ruthless Baal priest who had kidnapped the Princess Adina and was taking her to Sidonia. Elijah feels it is his fault that she has been abducted and is determined to rescue her.

Vince Stone has given us another great story that will be enjoyed by young and old alike. It is a story without vampires, wizards, zombies, or other not-so-nice creatures. It will keep the interest of those whom most books bore quickly. Best of all, it gives one a true hero to look up to.

Not much is known about the childhood or the life of Elijah when he was a young man. The author has come up with an extremely interesting life for this prophet, and yes, there is definitely a lot of fiction thrown into it.

The Brotherhood doesn't allow Elijah to make this journey all alone with Biscuit, his faithful donkey.. Micaiah, Malchus, Lemuel, and Kyra (the only female), are among those who accompany him. They end up having to split into groups and travel separately. Elijah and Kyra travel together. By the time they are close to Tyre, their bellies are rumbling and they are very fragrant, but not in a nice way. They stop in a nearby village to get food from a Falafel Hut; this particular restaurant sounds a lot like the Subway of today. Later on they visit a Captain Deemus to purchase fish and bread.

When Elijah and Kyra finally make it to Tyre, it is almost time for Toros Goros, a show put on for the entertainment of the public where bulls are allowed to kill Christians or, even better, prophets of Yahweh. Before the prisoners are brought out int the arena, Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, performs a special dance for their guest, Ahab. Elijah is astonished and horrified to find that he is acquainted with this young lady. This is definitely a part where Mr. Stone used a writer's literary freedom to make the story more interesting and to give it a bit of a twist. I'm only going to reveal the true identity of Jezebel, but only because this is told in the first part of the book and won't ruin the rest of the story. Jezebel is really Princess Adina, the girl whom Elijah has gone there to rescue!

You also get to meet a younger, gentler version of Ahab. Who knows? He may not have always been as evil as he becomes in his older days. And he was most likely greatly influenced by his extremely wicked wife, Jezebel.

When the prisoners are brought into the arena, Elijah is once again astonished. They have captured his friends, who are now going to be slaughtered very painfully by these huge bulls. Elijah must come up with a way to rescue them. Does Elijah come up with a way to rescue his friends? Does he in some way defeat these powerful bulls? I'm not going to tell you what happens here, but it rivals the encounter that Elijah has with the priests of Baal in the Bible.

And what about Adina? She doesn't act much like she is a prisoner. Actually, she really seems to be enjoying herself. Will Elijah be able to get her to return with him to her father? And do all of the prophets survive their journey to and from Sidonia? Is Sectarius punished for abducting Adina?

In order to find out the answers to the above questions and even more, you will have to read the book yourself. I'm sure you will enjoy it, as will all of the young people in your family. Elijah: Bearded for Battle, the final book in this trilogy, will probably be released in the summer of 2012. I know I look forward to reading it and I will let you know when it is available.

I bought a copy of this book from Amazon. If you would like to buy a copy of this to read for yourself, there is a link below. There is also a link for the first book in this series, Elijah: the Prophet Child.

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