Book Review: Face of God by Bill Myers

The Face of God by Bill Myers

Publisher: StoneHouse Ink, 2nd Edition

Publish Date: September 1, 2010

Paperback, 368 pages 
Fiction, Christian, Suspense
ISBN: 978-0982607893

My Review:
Why I read this:  I read my first Bill Myers book a few months ago, The God Hater, and loved it.  I loved it so much I handed to my husband and said read this, he loved it so then I gave it to my dad to read as well.  And I don't just give my husband any book.  It was that good so when I had a chance to review another Bill Myers book for Pump Up Your Book, I said yes right away!

My thoughts: Think Indiana Jones meets a Raymond Khoury book with Christian undertones and you have The Face of God. It's the feel of the book that draws me to these parallels -  an archeologist is involved, and there is a race to get a religious item valued by two religious groups.  And that is just the start to Bill Myers' plot in The Face of God, because there is so much more to this book than even I expected.


Let's talk about characters.  From reading two of Bill Myers' books I feel this is one of his strong suits.  He uses flawed characters, flawed like the everyday man for some and some flawed more than normal, due to influences in their lives.  He also uses various religious, atheist and agnostic characters.  I like the mix.  Yes a lot of Christian books are about the atheist or agnostic learning about Christianity, but you really can't boil Mr. Myers' books down to just that.  The book is about more than that and watching the characters grow and change at the authors pace is wonderful.  Some will stay flawed but be trying to change and some will really get it.  I feel this gives it more of a real-life feel and makes the characters easy to relate to.

Daniel is the preacher who has lost his wife and lost his way and is trying to find his way back to his faith and his son, Tyler.  Tyler is just trying to make it through, he's awkward with girls, he misses his mother and he's trying to make a new relationship with his father because he knows that is what his mom would want him to do.  Ibrahim is the one of the main terrorists mentioned in the book blurb, he has lost his son and he is just trying to find his way in his religion, to do what is right and to find all the stones to follow Allah's will.  Nayla is a college-age daughter to one of the terrorists and she's just trying to follow her religion the best way she can.  She is sent to watch or spy on Daniel and Tyler while they are in Israel.  Helen is the archeologist and she is all mixed up. Working in a man's world plus other factors have her all confused on how to live her life.  All she wants to do is to use science to find the ancient relics.  She doesn't care if she proves or disproves any religion, she just lives for the dig and the find.

I think Mr. Myers did an excellent job in this book of making it easy to relate to both the Christian characters  and the Jihadist  characters.  I felt something for each of them and not a strong hatred towards the terrorists (who happen to follow the Islamic faith, but a very skewed version of the Islamic faith).  I think this is what the author wanted to achieve, for us as readers to see we are all flawed and God wants us to love one another no matter what our "religion" is.  He does a wonderful job with this through his characters and the plot.  The reader actually sees what is driving both parties, the pastor and the terrorist and that makes it easier to see and understand both sides of the story.  Mr. Myers lays the characters feeling right out and that with their motivation makes this book really stand out to me.

The plot is very fast paced.  I was pretty much drawn right into the book form the first page and stayed up reading for quite awhile the first night even though I kept nodding off (it's the sleep medicine I take, not the book).  If it hadn't been for the sleep medicine I believe I would have been up until 3am finishing this book.  As it stood I could not wait to get back to it.  I wanted to know more about the characters and how things would all work out because the book was speeding towards the conclusion at a breakneck pace.  For this book I actually fought myself to not read the last few pages, and I'm not the type to do that at all.  I didn't read those last few pages until I came to them naturally and all I can say is Mr. Myers has another winning book on his hands.

Fast-paced, excellent characterization, if you didn't check out The Face of God when it came out before, be sure you check it out now.  It's another one that I will be passing on to my husband and then to my dad.  It's that good.  Bill Myers now has a fan for life.

My Rating: 4.75/5.0

About the Book:

“THE TERRORIST has learned of supernatural stones used by the Old Testament High Priests to hear the audible voice of God. As the mastermind of a deadly plot that will soon kill millions, he has had a series of dreams instructing him to find the stones. Everything else is in place. The wrath of God is poised and ready to be unleashed. All that is stopping him is . . .

THE PASTOR. His wife has been murdered and his faith is crumbling before his very eyes. With his estranged son, he also searches for the stones in hopes they will rekindle his dying faith and love.

With the lives of millions hanging in the balance, these two men of opposing faiths collide in an unforgettable showdown. “The Face of God” is another thrilling and thought-provoking novel by a master of the heart and suspense, C.S. Lewis Honor Award winner, Bill Myers.”

About the Author: 

Writer/director Bill Myers’s first major success was as co-creator/writer/co-producer of Focus on the Family’s children’s video series, McGee and Me (40 awards, broadcast in 80 countries, 4.5 million books and videos sold). On its heels he wrote the My Life as… series (over 2.1 million books sold).

Other successes include his teen series, Forbidden Doors (winner of the C.S. Lewis Honor Award), and his best selling adult novels, Blood of Heaven, Fire of Heaven, Eli, Soul Tracker, The Face of God, and The Wager (also a motion picture staring Randy Travis). As a writer/director, his work has won over 60 national and international awards, and as an actor he was the voice of Jesus in the NIV Audio Bible and has made several guest appearances on Adventures in Odyssey.  His books and videos have sold over 8 million copies.

He holds an honorary doctorate from The Nimes Theological Institute in France where he has taught. He enjoys traveling and lecturing as well as serving as lay college pastor for his church.
He lives with his wife and two daughters in Southern California.


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FTC Information: I received this book through Pump Up Your Book Tours for a honest review.  I have Amazon links on my review pages but I do not make any money from these because of NC laws.  I put them solely for people to check out the books on a retail site.