The Adventures of Jecosan Tarres, Book 1: The Journey by Laura Lond

The Journey is the first installment in Laura Lond's The Adventures of Jecosan Tarres Christian fantasy trilogy. The story takes place in the fictional land of Meoria, a traditional for this genre medieval-like kingdom. However, we do not see two other prerequisite fantasy elements, at least not in this first book: fantastic creatures and magic. Meoria is populated by humans. A couple of other possible races are mentioned, but we quickly learn that at least one of them is just another human nation, superstitiously believed by the simple folks to be evil and ugly.

The main character, Jecosan, or simply Jeco, is a twelve year old village boy working as a blacksmith's apprentice. Educated by a priest, Jeco believes in the Creator, known in the land as the Lord of the heavens but not taken seriously by most people. Jeco is an exception. Perhaps that is why he is chosen for a special assignment. One day an elgur, a spiritual being, appears to the boy and charges him with a mission: Jeco must go to the capital city of Kanavar, to the king's palace, and somehow stop the coming war. At the palace, the elgur says, Jeco will find help - a mysterious person the spirit refers to as "the Unarmed Warrior, the Unlit Fire." That's all the instructions Jeco receives. Surprised and confused, Jeco promises to do his best. He is given two weeks to prepare for the long journey to Kanavar.

Dalian the blacksmith, Jeco's close friend who has been like a brother to him, is not at all happy to hear about the boy's sudden decision to leave. He does not believe in elgurs and all that stuff, so when Jeco tells him what happened Dalian does his best to talk him out of it. When he fails to break Jeco's resolve, Dalian decides to join him - a possibility Jeco foresaw and had even mentioned to the elgur. The spirit's response was that although Dalian is a dangerous companion, the journey can be good for him.

Dalian, Jeco, and Gart, a huge golden-yellow dog that steals the show quite a bit, set off to Kanavar. Their journey goes well at first, but soon enough they begin facing difficulties. First, Jeco bumps into an arrogant young lord who gets angry at him over nothing and wants to lock him up in a tower; then a group of vagabonds shows suspicious interest in his dog and, unable to persuade him to sell it, gets Dalian drunk and steals Gart at night. Jeco is devastated; Gart was more that a dog to him, he was a dear friend. Things only get worse from that moment and on. When soldiers are called to report the robbery to, they notice Dalian's new pair of boots that he'd bought back home unbelievably cheap. The boots turn out to have been stolen, and Dalian and Jeco are taken to jail. There, Dalian's sharp tongue and rebellious attitude cause even more trouble; he angers the judge, and both prisoners end up in the iron mines. The elgur was right: despite his good heart and sincere concern for Jeco, Dalian is a dangerous companion.

However, the dark powers trying to stop Jeco are not the only ones at work. As they are taken to the mines, the prisoners get the attention of a passing-by lord. The elderly lord questions Jeco and, finding his story and the sentence rather strange, promises him to investigate the matter. Later on, Jeco learns that one of the lord's responsibilities is recruiting people to serve at the king's palace. That gives the boy hope. Perhaps it was not a coincidence?

I have read a review of this book that listed Jeco's goodness and desire to do what is right as a drawback. I could not disagree with it more. While modern-day fiction seems to favor character flaws and mistakes, I believe we still need heroes to look up to. Classic authors knew what they were doing when they had good heroes and bad villains; yes, perhaps some of it was a little bit black-and-white, but those heroes gave inspiration and instilled the desire to be like them, to improve yourself - at least that was the case with me. I found it very refreshing to see that The Adventures of Jecosan Tarres follows this fine tradition. Do not get me wrong, Jeco is definitely human and not some kind of a super-hero, but you can trust him to do his best and keep a good heart. Think of Oliver Twist and A Little Princess and you will know what I mean.

I highly recommend this book to all readers who enjoy a thoughtful story, good adventure, and interesting, well-developed characters.

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Want more Christian parenting information? Check out:

The Christianity in Chrsitian Fiction
Book Review: "Byzantium" by Stephen Lawhead
Raising Christian Teens in A Pagan Focused World

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