Tuesday, June 28, 2011

The Skin Map by Stephen Lawhead

The Skin Map is a book that takes you on a multi-dimensional adventure as you follow Kit Livingstone through various times and places. Unaware that the ability to travel these other worlds runs in his family, he has a chance meeting with his great-grandfather who teaches him about the ley lines that connect one world to another. Kit’s journey turns him from a victim of the ley lines peculiarities into a navigator of the same, in order to join his great-grandfather in a quest to find and preserve the skin map. This map is the most comprehensive map documenting the ley lines…and is indeed made out of human skin.
I thought the book was very entertaining, filled with heroic acts and plot twists. I enjoy stories that take me to other times and places…other realms. The only negative is that there didn’t seem to be much depth. Only parts of the book made me feel like I was “there”,while much felt like a story being told to me. I think this contributed to a secondary feeling that the story wasn’t very fluid. Many of the characters were dispersed across time and space, therefore engaged in individual adventures. Moving from one set of characters in their time and place to another set, felt a bit choppy and in some cases, their stories seemed to lack significance.

The book does end wanting a sequel…so perhaps the negatives will be diminished by the continuance of the story. Either way, I was definitely entertained. And if you enjoy sci-fi adventure, you probably will too!
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book for free through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.