I read Justified by @jondelarroz, and I enjoyed it.

Mr. Del Arroz has taken an interesting approach: Crusaders vs Jihadis in Space, and he does not pull his punches, nor adulterate his characters or plot with any anachronistic cultural self-castigation or other idiosyncrasies of our real modern West. The protagonist does suffer a crisis of faith after killing for his God, but it does not lead to the sort of resolution a modern leftist critic would appreciate. Quite the opposite.

Del Arroz’s space fantasy is fanciful and fun, an action-packed romp with only slightly more scientific crunch than Star Wars, and a childlike simple approach to its fantastical tech reminiscent of Heinlein’s approach in Starship Troopers (the book, not the cinematic parody). The story does not focus on how things work or why, but just revels in nanite-infused superhero antics.

A superhero cast out from his clan, among the beleaguered normies on a backwater world enslaved by space-Muslims.

That said, it is not a book for young children, but rather for adolescents who are old enough to grapple with concepts of sexuality and sexual violence. A female protagonist is made to wear revealing clothes and is groped and not quite raped by her captors on more than one occasion. It’s handled in the manner of a story for teens, with escape or rescue in the nick of time, before the intended crime can be consummated. There is also considerable violence of war (with light swords and energy balls, as well as blasters) which is handled about right for the young teen boy audience, quickly and not too luridly.

Overall, Mr. Del Arroz’s writing here betrays the foibles of a new writers. An occasional misused word, an occasional turn of phrase peculiar of modern conversation rather than written English. This is not to be conflated with the simplicity of his style, which I suspect is intentional and is, in any case, appropriate to the material. Del Arroz’s simple and quick storytelling is exactly appropriate to maintaining the attention of a young teen in a modern media environment, while still encouraging said teen to stick with a long-form written story, thereby encouraging literacy and all the benefits that come with it. I maintain that the novel, the long written fictional story meant to entertain, is far more foundational to a civil and enlightened society than most suspect. Feeding youngsters, especially boys, with 75,000 words or more of good storytelling builds not just literacy but endurance, the ability to form and sustain complex thoughts, linguistic and communication skills, philosophy and depth of thought, and other critical skills which even high quality, conservative cinema cannot build. Conservatives could retake the media landscape entirely, but it will not save our civilization if we do not get our young men back to reading long works young. Adventure novels are how that happens. And we need a crop of adventure novels for teens which are prepared to address the issues boys will face today—not just the shallowly topical topics like gender and sexuality, but the deeper, foundational questions like what what a warrior for his faith looks like in the future, and how a young man of faith should relate to war and violence.

This brings me to another of my gripes about the fiction industry: it assumes that young adult fiction is the same as fiction you write for an adult, only with younger characters. This is a terrible approach. What young men need is fiction with adult characters, but written appropriately for the young. So we have here, thankfully!

Justified is the first in a series which I am glad to see Del Arroz has continued (but which I have not yet continued), and I trust Del Arroz will also continue to refine his literary chops, while retaining (at least where appropriate) this quick and simplified voice for younger audiences.

I do have a couple of questions about the theology expressed in this story. Mr. Del Arroz has taken the interesting route of retelling, in an allegorical fashion, the Christ story. As Narnia had parallel Jesus in Aslan, the world of Justified has its own parallel historical Christ figure, Yezuah, who in this case arose mysteriously and led an army to victory, but teaching them along the way mercy, self-sacrifice, and the oneness of salient beings. Ultimately, this figure sacrifices himself for peace, and then returns from the grave to lead his newly unified world into a new era of faith and truth.

I don’t mind it. Christ as a different kind of warlord has a certain literary precedent in Aslan, and a certain scriptural precedent in the theory that the Commander of God’s Army in Joshua 5 and the summoner of fire and brimstone in Genesis are Christophanies (not to mention descriptions of the Second Coming). I always find it refreshing to see Warrior Jesus approached in literature. Hippie Jesus is played out and incomplete, and young men should be familiarized with the full scope of Christ as God Incarnate.

My question is, specifically, while Del Arroz does not address the Christian promise of life after death. Yezuah’s teachings center around good morality and the bringing of a new era of peace and unity, as well as faith in the true God of love, but Del Arroz never mentions the central promise of Jesus, that those who believe in Him will have everlasting life, and a resurrection of their own. This promise seems absent from Yezuah’s teachings in Justified, and so hollows out the representation therein of the Gospel. There is mention of the protagonist praying for the souls of those who fall in battle, but in hopes of what fate? What is the true hope offered to followers of Yezuah? It seems like it would be important, if Yezuah brings the same gospel as the real Jesus, for the protagonist to mention the hope of new and eternal life in communion with the true God to the former slaves he is proselytizing as he trains them for battles in which they will surely die. It would recast their entire approach to death on the battlefield, as it fundamentally recast the early Christians’ approach to martyrdom.

The central promise of Christianity is that, while everyone else has to grapple with how to be okay with death and what comes after death, Christians do not die; they just go from this life to the more real life. That’s a big deal. I hope Mr. Del Arroz has addressed it or will address it in future iterations of this series.

Parental guidance as above. Fit for Christian audiences, especially teen boys looking for action, war, and rescuing princesses, and parents looking for an expression of Christian warriorship fit for their teen boys. Enjoy.