[Book Review] "The Skin Map" by Stephen R. Lawhead

There is much cause for celebration whenever a new Stephen Lawhead book comes out, especially since he is known for writing series and the last book may have come out two or three years ago. This book is the start of a new series and as such, there will be a new book a year for the next couple of years.

This book is a little different for Lawhead, but still reminiscient of the Paradise War series with the world between world idea. Lawhead adds in his famous style for going into great detail about places, especially within a historical setting.

I do feel that Lawhead is trying to hard to make this book a movie-series type feel, and he jumps around a lot from character to character. However, by the end, it seems he's just getting started and the next book may flow more easily with a better development of characters.

Lawhead has been blamed for being quite bloody in his previous books (though the Raven King series was not so much), and I think he's toned it down a lot. I think fans of Dan Brown's books will probably like this book and series. Though there is not much mention of Christianity in this book yet, I believe it will all be tied in some way. Lawhead subtly weaves it in. There is reference to Providence guiding the characters while the lead bad guy denies Providence and goes with a chaos theory.

As usual with most of the series that Lawhead writes, this one leaves you hanging, but this one the most. We must wait until September 2011 for the followup.