Unholy Night

A former St. Paul's family, now living in Sudbury, came to worship with us this summer. It was great to see them, and the young teen son had a novel with him and we chatted about it the author before the service. I'm fairly sure it was the one pictured above called Unholy Night. The author Seth Grahame-Smith has also written Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, which of course you have all read, right? The Lincoln book is now a motion picture.

Back to Unholy Night. I couldn't resist when I saw it at the library. It is about the birth of Jesus, although the three "Wise" Men are actually Con Men, thieves, brigands who narrowly escape death at the hands of Herod. By accident rather than choice they come upon the Holy Family in Bethlehem and are part of their flight to Egypt. There is a magus (singular of magi) but he is a bad guy. Nuff said, except that the biblical stuff is downright reverent, with quotes from scripture at the beginning of each chapter. Warning -- this is a fairly violent, swashbuckly book, but I found it entertaining.

How do you feel about writers taking artistic license with the original biblical stories, especially those about Jesus? Some book club members didn't like Anne Rice (hey, another vampire writer!) messing with the story in Road to Cana. I don't mind, within limits.

http://groundlingearthyheavenly.blogspot.ca/2012/09/as-seen-on-tv.html