Jimmy Akin Comments on Harry Potter

With the new Harry Potter book out this weekend, Jimmy Akin has put up a timely blog entry about Harry — along with suggesting a good alternative. You can read Jimmy's comments here. Jimmy introduced us to the alternative entitled Starswarm.  By the way, I could never get into the Harry Potter books, but my wife and daughters love them and always snatch up the newest book in the series and then cuddle on the couch reading them together. I could never understand what they saw in them myself.

Here are the comments I posted on Jimmy's blog:

Hey Jimmy:   You mentioned Janet and I in this blog so I thought I would comment. First, we love your blog and refer to it and recommend it regularly.

Second, after you sent us  Starswarm  we got a slow start reading it — not for lack of interest but for lack of time. But once we got started, we couldn't stop.

This story unfolds in an interesting way. You are at times inside Kip's head and discovering everything along with him, including who he is and why he is special.

Once we started reading we found ourselves staying up later each night to fit in "just one more chapter!"

Then Sunday arrived and Janet said, "Steve, hope you're not too busy today because we are going to lock ourselves away and finish this story." I agreed completely and I read until my voice was sore and then she took over. We took turns until the sun set over the horizon and the story was done. We were sad it was over.

We wished there was a part two. That, by the way, is one of the few things Janet liked better about Harry Potter than about  Starswarm.  With Harry Potter you have many books and the story develops slower and draws you in over multiple volumes.

But  Starswarm  is a more wholesome story and the character is noble without the troubling questions of magic and sorcery. In any case, Janet and I highly recommend  Starswarm  and we are greatful to Jimmy for introducing us to this fascinating story. Let us know if a part two ever appears!