Voice of the Ancient (The King's Men, # 1)
By: Connilyn Cossette
Expected Publication: August 15, 2023
352 pages
Genre: Adult, Biblical Fiction, Historical Fiction, Christian Fiction
Source: Publisher via NetGalley (Thank you!!)
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Goodreads description--As the eldest son of a Levite and a Philistine, Avidan is torn between his duty to his family legacy and the desire for something more. When Ammonites attack the city of Yavash-Gilead, he takes the opportunity to fight with his cousins for the newly crowned King Saul. But when one of the cousins goes missing during the battle, Avidan stays behind to search for him in hopes that he's still alive.Keziah is the daughter of one of the most powerful clan chiefs in the territory of Manasseh. On the brink of a forced marriage to a loathsome man decades older than her, she has no choice but to run. Dressed as a boy, she takes her horse and heads for the south, hoping to find sanctuary with her mother's family.
Battling to survive the dangers surrounding them, Avidan and Keziah make a pact to travel together. As Keziah's true origins are revealed and Avidan's search for his cousin becomes increasingly futile, they must not only rely on each other to stay alive but learn to trust the true and eternal King of Israel to guide their every step.
With impeccable research and award-winning writing, bestselling author Connilyn Cossette brings to life the first years of King Saul's reign.
Voice of the Ancient had a very slow start for me. The background story needed to be established for both of the narrating characters. But I think it was about 30+% before I felt invested in the story and wanted to keep reading.
Avidan is a Levite. He isn't meant to go to war. His future is serving the priesthood and God. But Avi rebels against the path that has been planned for him. He wants to go with his cousins to fight. He wants to be a warrior. So when the call for every able-bodied man comes from King Saul, Avi slips away with his cousins to join the fight. He has one cousin that is old enough to fight, one who is just shy of being of age, and then their little cousin sneaks out and follows at a distance. Avi quickly finds out that the battlefield is not the place for him, and to be honest, it's a miracle that he survived the battle. When he returns to the spot his younger cousin is supposed to be hiding out waiting for him, Avi finds him missing and a bunch of blood and hyena tracks. The other two cousins believe him to be dead, but Avi can't face going back to his home and his aunt and uncle without his cousin and so he sets out to find him.
Keziah's mother passed away a while back, and her father hasn't treated her the same since. His other wives and their children never treated Keziah very well. And now she's basically being sold to a man in marriage in return his people will protect the clan from the threats around them. The man she has been promised to his much older than her. He is already married to more than one woman, and he gives Keziah no indication that he will be a good husband. In fact, he bruises her simply for speaking to his son. Keziah's mother's faithful servant helps her escape by dressing her like a boy and taking her place in her wedding clothes to fool her betrothed. Keziah runs into Avi when he thinks that she might just be the cousin that he's looking for.
Avi can't let Keziah travel by herself. She's already been robbed and nearly beaten. And besides, traveling with her to her mother's people is actually in the same direction as the only lead his has on his cousin. So two birds with one stone. These two of course fall in love on the way as they share their pasts and experiences and lean on each other for safety and comfort from the challenges they face and the memories they've left behind.
I have to applaud Connilyn Cossette for the amount of research she must have done to be able to write this story so deeply rooted in the culture and historical events happening during this time. She wrote the story and culture in such a way that I wasn't bored or put off. I was interested. And honestly, the number of Biblical stories she was able to include due to Avi's affinity to tell stories was really impressive. Also, reading the Bible growing up, I've so often wondered how it was possible for God's chosen people to so easily forget Him, His miracles, His promises. But Connilyn Cossette does a great job showing how easily this happened. I liked her author's note on how she saw so many parallels between this time period and the one we live in now.
Favorite quotes:
-"A truly great leader will inspire his people to unite, not threaten them into submission."
-"There is no glory in war, only destruction."
-"In the kingdom to come, we may understand all. But for now, our eyes are blind to the ways of the Ancient One, are they not? Only Yahweh knows the end from the beginning. You, my new friend, do not."
-...if there was anything I'd learned from Avi's stories of Yahweh, it was that love was nothing without sacrifice.
I also highlighted three lengthy quotes from the author's note at the end, but I'll refrain from including those.
Voice of the Ancient had a slow start for me. But once things got going I got sucked into Avi and Keziah's story and their journey. I wasn't thrilled that we didn't have any closure on the cousin (I can't remember his name), but I imagine he will take the lead role in an upcoming book in this series. I was so impressed with the amount of history woven into this story. Connilyn Cossette did a wonderful job, and I will certainly be back to check out the other books in this series. Voice of the Ancient gets 4 Stars. Have you read Voice of the Ancient? What did you think? Let me know!
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