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'Chasing Embers' shows the cost of forgetting our past
Writing a novel of ideas is always a dicey proposition.
Ideology, even good ideology, can sour a narrative quicker than flies in milk. It is the truth of the characters that should appeal to the reader above all; whatever lessons the story has should emerge on their own.
Part 'Hunger Games,' part 'The Giver,' 'Chasing Embers' offers an uncommonly meaningful — and uncommonly American — adventure.
The skill with which an author manages to camouflage didactic intentions with a gripping plot and compelling dialogue is what separates art from mere editorializing.
In their new young adult novel "Chasing Embers," co-authors Glenn Beck (co-founder of Blaze Media) and Mikayla G. Hedrick face this challenge head-on. In his author's notes, Beck admits that the project began with his ruminations on the current state of American politics, in which speech is suppressed and our very history marginalized and erased.
Beck imagined a world where this state of affairs had come full circle. After a brutal global war, civilization has re-emerged in the city of Oasis. The citizens of Oasis are under the strict control of the Topos corporation, which forbids remembering the past — and with it, the truth.
The only resistance to this totalitarian rule comes from the Oarsmen, a group of rebels who gather, preserve, and memorize fundamental texts from American and world history. They then teach these texts to others, mainly children.
Beck built this world; it was then left to Hedrick to pick up the reins and create the protagonists to carry the story forward: Ember, a teenage girl whose parents disappeared after running afoul of the regime, and Sky, a teenage boy who stumbles upon a secret that could lead him to doubt all that he was raised to believe.
Both Sky and Ember start the story as model Oasis subjects; they've fully embraced the Topos ideology of total control of the population. This makes the reader pity them as the story unfolds, but it also makes them hard to like. They both betray loved ones in cruel ways.
The novel alternates between the first-person perspectives of each character, chapter by chapter, an approach that quickly gives us an intimate look at their difficult choices and misplaced courage.
Beautifully sprinkled throughout the book are snippets of timeless wisdom from America’s past. These excerpts provide a baseline conscience for the naïve protagonists and for the reader. We hear from the U.S. Constitution, WWII, Squanto, and Jesus, among others. In particular, the example of William Tyndale beckons Ember toward bravery.
In the end, the two authors prove to be well-matched collaborators: Beck trains our attention on an America that runs on lies, while Hedrick engages our imagination with an entertaining, hopeful story.
Part "Hunger Games," part "The Giver," "Chasing Embers" offers an uncommonly meaningful — and uncommonly American — adventure. This tale of young love suppressed by an evil government avoids the usual superficial cliches.
There is solid intellectual meat here, more than enough to whet the appetite for further installments. Readers will no doubt be eager to track Sky and Ember's trajectory towards true heroism, propelled by the rocket fuel of the past.
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