All My Holy Mountain
The Binding of the Blade Book 5
By L.B. Graham
Rating: 7 of 10
I picked up the first book in this series about five or six years ago and read the first four before heading off to seminary and before the fifth book was published. I’m finally now picking the series back up and finishing it. I became familiar with the book because Sarah was a fellow student with L.B. Graham at Wheaton College. He is currently the chair of the Bible department and teacher of English and ethics at Westminster Christian Academy in St. Louis.
Graham has attempted quite a task: to write a fantasy novel in the tradition of Tolkien while at the same time making it more overtly Christian (or at least theistic) than Tolkien attempted to do. Along the way there is some collateral damage caused by the attempt to do both at the same time.
I suspect that most conservative or Evangelical Christians will find Graham’s series very palatable. The good guys are generally pretty good and the bad guys are generally pretty bad. There is not a lot of complexity in the distinction between the two (i.e. the good guys drink cider, not beer or mead or any other alcoholic drink, and there is little to no sex throughout the entire series unless it is implied between people who are married). Then there’s God. God, who goes by Allfather or Master-Maker, is a present and active agent throughout the entire series. Allfather enters into the story through one of two prophets, Valzaan and Benjiah, often at just the last moment to defeat the enemy, Malek, and show who is really in charge in Old Testament Elijah-versus-the-prophets-of-Baal fashion.
While The Binding of the Blade series does not reach the height of The Fellowship of the Ring (what other fantasy story ever has?), it is an entertaining and engaging story nonetheless. I found the surprise ending of the first book challenged my sense of trust in the author, but Graham won it back over the series. I grew to love and care for the characters in the series. What else could explain why I would put the series down to attend seminary and become a pastor and come back to it six years later?
The biggest problem I had with the series is what happens when an author overtly mixes the fantasy genre with theistic and Christian beliefs: the reader comes back into our world disenchanted. Many times throughout the entire series and especially in this last book, God shows up to wipe out the enemy in grand fashion. This is a step beyond Elijah-versus-the-prophets-of-Baal where God takes out an altar, not the prophets themselves. Allfather regularly flexes his muscle in the story and miraculously the enemy is defeated or simply annihilated. But few of us experience God working this overtly in our present world, and the reader is left asking the question: Why? Does God not care? Or perhaps even worse, the reader is left to conclude that God only exists in the world of fantasy where such miracles require the suspension of one’s sense of disbelief.
It must be said that Graham is ultimately attempting especially in this last book to create an eschatological vision (vision of the end times) through the fantasy genre and that this vision calls for God to act in uniquely overt ways (as Christians in general believe that God will act in the end times). But most readers will not make this distinction, and many may be left wondering why God doesn’t act in our world the way that God acts in the world of Kirthanin.
One thing I really appreciated about this last book was how attractive Graham made good look. One big critique of the Fellowship of the Rings movies was that Peter Jackson made Mordor more compelling than Lothlórien or Rivendell. It is usually easier to make evil more gripping than good, but this is not the case in All My Holy Mountain. In fact, there is a scene where Graham through the narrator’s voice reflects on this very thing. It is such a powerful meditation on the difference between good and evil that I will end this review with it.
[Spoiler alert! Do not read this if you think you would enjoy the series.]
Perhaps because he had grown up the son of a murdered father, Benjiah rarely found himself surprised by evil. People sometimes treated one another badly, even horribly. Even in the palace of Amaan Sul, he had seen that. Of course, since riding from Amaan Sul the previous Autumn, he had seen up close the evil that Malek brought, and though it was at times overwhelming, it was not, in any deeper sense, surprising. The lust for power and gain or whatever else a man might desire, and disregard for whoever might stand in his way, was all part of the story. Rulalin’s action [killing Benjiah’s father] had taught Benjiah that lesson before he was born. Evil was utterly predictable.
What had happened these last few days and weeks, now that was something else indeed. Rulalin rejecting Malek and laying down his life to save Benjiah—that was surprising. The Vulsutyrim [giants] repenting of their allegiance to Malek and offering their aid—that was surprising. Even gazing beneath the mask of a wild and warlike people [before unknown but now human allies] and finding the face of beauty [Benjiah’s romance] staring back—that too was surprising.
Goodness and beauty were hallmarks of Allfather, and perhaps His people bore inherently the creativity of their originator. Evil certainly bore the monotonous predictability of its originator.
Amen.
Currently Reading/Listening
The Busy Family’s Guide to Spirituality by David Robinson
Parenting with Purpose by Oddbjorn Evenshaug, Dag Hallen, and Roland Martinson
At the Still Point compiled by Sarah Arthur
Sticky Teams by Larry Osborn
Fascinate by Sally Hogshead
Shaped By God’s Heart: The Passion and Practices of Missional Churches by Milfred Minatrea
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