Spero elaborates on the events described in ‘Fidelis’, but starts and ends in different places.  This may sound like an odd way to tell a story (book two of a series traditionally picks up where book one finished, after all), but it proves to be a refreshing and clever way to – almost literally – weave a narrative, with a different thread of the future history that Horvath is constructing being plucked out of the tapestry of the whole and examined.

We follow the fortunes of two characters who we met in Fidelis, Tasha and King, from their first meeting just after a massive nuclear strike on the USA.  Told initially from Tasha’s point of view, but thereafter mostly from King’s perspective we get a different look at the unfolding events in this post-apocalyptic landscape.  At first the two friends are making their own way through the troubled country, giving us an insight into events not witnessed by the primary characters of Fidelis, but later we come to the first meeting of Tasha and King with Fides and Fermion, now seen and described through different eyes.

Here is where Horvath’s device of overlapping different characters’ narratives in successive books risks becoming repetitive as we are taken through events we have already read about, but the change in point of view and the individual concerns of the new characters (in the teenage King’s case, touchingly recognisable worries about girls are jarringly set against a back-drop of dystopian civil war) make the story fresh and interesting, even if we occasionally know what is coming next.

Some questions from Book One are answered (who is Fermion?), while others are left unresolved (who are the Shadowmen?).  Puzzles still remain at the end of the book about the characters we have been following throughout – for instance, is Tasha, who slays multiple highwaymen with rather more skill than your average elderly lady, really all she seems?  Tune in for Book Three to find out (I sincerely hope!).

Horvath’s villains are a nice mix of well-rounded characters who can be quite difficult to spot, and out-and-out rotters with nothing to recommend them whatsoever.  This balance between the black-and-white good vs evil ideology of a traditional heroic adventure story (or any of George W Bush’s speeches) and a more thoughtful approach satisfies both emotionally and intellectually.

The diverging paths of the main characters preserve an unknown ending, which does not disappoint for a dangling cliff-hanger on the edge of a cataclysmic battle with the evil Pledge forces, with elements of a Tolkienesque epic mythos seen again in the closing paragraphs.

All in all, I found Spero to be an excellent book, which made me want to go back and read Fidelis again.  The only question remains, what’s he going to call the next one?

We’ve had ‘Faith’ (Fidelis), and now ‘Hope’.  If this were a trilogy, I would have to go for the Latin word for ‘Love’ (taking my cue from 1 Corinthians 13:13) – I’m thinking possibly ‘Amare’.  However, since I have it on good authority that there are seven books planned, then I’m going to have to put my money on ‘Caritas’, the third of the seven Heavenly Virtues (the polar opposite of the famous Deadly Sins) after Faith and Hope – Charity.

Danny F, England.

[Editor:  The third book is indeed titled Caritas!  Good job, Danny!]

(and Fidelis) from the author or from Amazon.com

Fidelis, my first book, is Latin for faithfulness.  The second book, Spero, is Latin for hope.  Spero is an exploration of what hope is and why we need it.  It is an exploration of what things are good to put our hope in and what things are bad to put our hope in.  In the fictionalized America of the future portrayed in the Birth Pangs series, all of the things that people have traditionally put their hope in have been brought low.  There are no government agencies, no schools, and not even churches.  In the face of daily perils, people have to figure out how where they are going to place their hope.

It is interesting to me that the political candidate running on ‘hope’ is also running on ‘change.’  I think this illustrates the root of the problem.  The best place to put your ‘hope’ is where it won’t shift beneath your feet.  Also, we need to be clear about what things we hope to overcome.  Nearly all of our systems and institutions are geared to address certain day to day realities that are important but not, I’m afraid, ultimate.  There is one problem that surpasses them all: death.

Spero is about people- even good people- putting their hope in lesser means to tackle lesser problems and being confronted with the consequences of that approach.  Spero is about being confronted with our chief problem and challenged to consider what possible solutions there might be to that problem… and whether any of these are within our control, or obtainable by our own effort.

“Fidelis” takes place in a not-too-distant or unlikely future, and tells the story of a man crossing the new landscape of an America that has been crippled by disease and ravaged by nuclear strikes, struggling to find his way home. As his journey reveals the horrors and wonders of the altered world, he awakens to realizations about his own soul.

The book wrestles with issues such as truth and propaganda, manhood and bravery, fact, and faith in an adventure story packed with action and suspense.

Horvath, a church worker who became a trucker for a short time, said the series sprang into his mind during his last month on the road when he, like the main character, was separated from his family for long periods of time.

Christians might identify some parallels in Horvath’s novel with the themes in the Bible but Horvath points out that his writing is not geared exclusively, or even targeted, for Christian readers.

“It is an exploration of what it means to be human, and an inquiry into what worldview best explains both man’s goodness, as well as man’s badness,” says Horvath. “You would think after this last century, we would not need to be reminded of man’s badness, but it seems we do. In the Birth Pangs series, no reminder is necessary, just as after the Holocaust no reminder was necessary.”

He continues, “This is one example of where the influence of Rowling, Lewis, and Tolkien come into play. Evil is real in their worlds and there are serious consequences when dealing with it, or ignoring it. Their worlds are not ‘they lived happily after’ worlds. Good people die and stay dead. But there are things worse than death. And there are things stronger than death, too. The undying hope of the human race requires an explanation and not every worldview succeeds in giving one. The clash of worldviews in the face of societal collapse forms the backdrop to “Fidelis.”"

To purchase, learn more, or read a sample, visit Horvath’s website www.birthpangs.com. Horvath is also available for interviews and speaking engagements.

Copies of “Fidelis” (ISBN 0979127610) can be obtained through his site, Amazon.com, and Barnes and Noble.