THE VAULT BETWEEN SPACES by Chawna Schroeder

Would you leave Glory to go into a concentration camp? Oriel did.

“After the girl arrived at HopeWell, life continued on much as it always had. Gray skies oppressed. Damp, autumn winds chilled. Prisoners woke each day to sharp words, tasteless food, purposeless work, and an endless misery escapable only by death.

Yet after she arrived, everything changed.”  from Chapter 2

Would you leave Glory to go into a concentration camp?

What I liked:

The warfare that entailed the dramatic use of Scripture and songs were my favorite parts of the book. I hope that someday the songs in the book are set to music. The songs and poetry throughout the book were beautiful and well done. I especially enjoyed the discussions about grace and mercy.  “I’ve added brokenness to the world too. But Creator is gracious and merciful, and upon that mercy we must all cast ourselves.”  This quote from the book is something we should all remember.

“I’ve added brokenness to the world too. But Creator is gracious and merciful, and upon that mercy we must all cast ourselves.”

The writing is beautiful and clear. Most of the creatures that move around in Terrestrial and Echoing dimensions are delightful and marvelously inventive. Most of the characters are likable and interesting.

I enjoyed the depictions of many kinds of love, family, brotherly, sacrificial, and Godly. There’s even a slight tint of romantic love.

What I did not like:

The demonic creatures of smoke and fire with red eyes and taunting threats. I’ve had enough of bright, white angels or angeloids with swords fighting black, slimy demons with red eyes. Well, it’s not the author’s fault that she caught me in a jaded mood. Also, plenty of people love spiritual warfare stories that look like battles from three thousand years ago on the plains of Thermopylae. If you are one of them, you will love this book.

The Vault Between Spaces was interesting book in many aspects, one of which was that I had so much trouble pegging the novel down and therefore understanding how to interpret the scenes. It began with a main character acting so improbably that I thought this was an allegory. So were the characters tired cliches or were they archetypes acting their roles in a morality play? The concentration camp was so grim that I then decided this was a dystopia. Then came magic and automobiles, so maybe an urban fantasy? Then supernatural and/or spiritual creatures in this world that is not ours, so a high fantasy? By the end of the book, I had finally decided this was a creative allegory using the tropes of high fantasy, dystopia, Christian and Jewish Scripture, and a smidgen of science fiction in service of a tale about spiritual warfare.

For those of us who love genre mash-ups and ideas wrenched from one place and plopped into an unexpected place will likely love what this author has done. Those of use who like our genre categories firm will find this merry-go-round of a book dizzying.

I recommend this book to older teen and adult fantasy lovers who can follow alternating multiple points of view.

Ratings:

Heat: None.

Cursing: None

Violence: Concentration camp and warfare violence with beatings, fantasy blows, slicing and stabbing and shooting.

This book is available on Amazon.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book with a request for an honest review.

Lelia Rose Foreman has raised and released five children. Everyone survived. She also homeschooled fourteen years with similar results. You can find her Christian science-fiction, A Shattered World in English or Spanish. She writes science fantasy adventure, Tales from Talifar with her oldest son, a video game artist, under the name Rose Foreman. You can contact Josh Foreman at breathoflifedev.com