Jack is a 10-year-old boy ready for a joyous Christmas vacation, but as punishment for a poor report card, he is tasked with cleaning out his family’s long-forgotten attic. Inside, he finds a chest with a treasure map and a letter that transports him to another time, place, and existence.Jack finds himself living the life of a young man named Niko, an enemy of the State of Ariel, a martyr of the … martyr of the Faithful, sentenced to die during the Independence Day celebrations. When an earthquake strikes, Niko finds the opportunity to escape, discovers a guide known only as the Elder, and teams up with a group of the Faithful to change history.
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Was it possible for an escaped convict to be a hero? That’s the question asked by a boy who finds a map in an old trunk in the attic. Cleaning up the attic during Christmas break was punishment for less than stellar grades, but leads to a challenging mystery from an earlier time, connected to the boy’s ancestry. Boys and girls alike will be intrigued by this well-told and suspenseful story.
The Treasure Map by Tyler Scott Hess is a unique and vividly interesting time-slip novel. And while I got the vibe that the story was directed more to the Young Adult genre, I found myself completely immersed in Jack and Niko’s story. I have read several time slips, but this one is unique in that Jack (the middle-school-aged-boy) actually gets to live out Niko’s story when he is transported in a vision to the land of Ariel and learns first-hand the persecution Niko suffers because of his faith.
The contrast between the normal, loving family environment of Jack vs. the life-threatening, oppressive reality that Niko lived is stark and impactful. It makes the reader grateful for the freedoms we have and our ability to worship our God without the severe persecution mention in this story. It is eye-opening, and is a good lesson no matter your age.
I really enjoyed reading this story, and I am looking forward to seeing what Jack will discover about Niko in the next book in the series, The Compass. The structure and plotlines of the story are so unique, it is unlike anything I have read in quite a while. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys reading Christian fiction/Young Adult Christian Fiction.
I was given a copy of this book by the author with no expectations of a positive review. All opinions are my own.
When a bad report card leads to Jack spending Christmas vacation cleaning out the attic, the last thing he expected to find was a map and letters that magically whisked him away to another place and time. Suddenly he’s seeing events through the eyes of Niko, a young man who lives in a time when the Faithful are persecuted and even publicly executed in an annual celebration. Niko miraculously escapes this execution and then joins a group of rebels who are determined to expose the evils of the State.
I really didn’t know what to expect when I started reading this novella and found that I quite enjoyed it. By the time Jack had visited the other world twice, I was hooked and really wanted to know what would happen. I can’t say the characters were all that engaging, but to be honest, I didn’t really notice while I was reading it. It was a quick, enjoyable read.
By comparison, the “real world” became a bit dull and monotonous. Jack’s plight to clean out the attic was only made slightly more interesting by his inventiveness as he tried to get through it more quickly. But even that didn’t bother me too much, so it must have been less dull than reading about cleaning an attic sounds like it would be. I think the shorter length of the story might have helped with that.
On the other hand, the story in the other world became a bit rushed and muddled in the last quarter or so, so I think in that area, more pages would have helped. It lost a bit of its excitement for me because of this. And the ending was a little confusing.
I’ll just say a few things about the style and editing, which I don’t generally let affect my rating with a self-published book. I’m not saying that there is no burden of responsibility here, but it’s harder for self-published authors. There were some grammar issues, but for me, this area really came down to narration and tense. The first chapter reads like standard fiction–3rd person, past tense, seemingly limited to Jack. Then at the end, it becomes more omniscient, conversational. This crops up again one other place, but I think it would have been better if it had been more consistent. And in the other world, the writing is 1st person and present tense. But at some point in the second half of the book, I began to notice areas where it slipped into past tense. All of these things, and some of what I mentioned above, tell me that the book could have used a bit more editing.
None of that detracted enough from the book for me to not enjoy it overall, though. It was a real adventure and a cautionary tale. My guess is that the “Faithful” are meant to be Christians, but to be honest, the Christianity in the book is incredibly light. You could almost insert any real or fictional religion. And one more thing–before Jack even went to the other world for the first time, I noticed a couple of references to Calvin & Hobbes, in that Jack’s little brother’s name was Calvin, and there was a girl Jack’s age named Susie that was only really in the story to be the Susie Derkins of this book. I made a note to watch out for any hint of a tiger, to verify that it wasn’t a coincidence, and then it turned out there was a character later named Hobbes! (I thought it was great, by the way.) I would recommend this for fans of Christian fantasy & adventure books.