SONS OF LIGHT is a sweeping saga of the Jewish struggle for freedom from the Roman Empire. The debut novel by John Merrill is a significant new look at the early years of the Zealot movement, led by Judas the Galilean and others, which culminated in the massacre at Masada.
Merrill brings to life some of the first century’s greatest heroes and villains from Judas himself, to Herod the Great, Augustus Caesar, Hillel, and John the Baptist. Their lives are intertwined with those of several well-drawn fictional characters as well as a number of familiar Biblical figures.
SONS OF LIGHT opens in 47 B.C. as Hezekiah, the freedom fighter, trapped in the Judaean desert by a young Roman officer named Herod, slays his young daughters to save them from a fate far worse. The reader then plunges directly into the Jewish rebellion against the greatest military power on earth as Merrill weaves an intense tale of the personal and political for Hezekiah’s descendants. Fact and fiction are seamlessly interwoven as the author moves from the glories of the Second Temple in Jerusalem to the gardens and villas of Rome. Drawing on five years of intensive research into the New Testament, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and classical historians like Flavius Josephus, as well as modern accounts, this epic story follows in the tradition of Mary Renault’s tales of Alexander the Great, and Robert Graves’ I Claudius.
Scholar Richard A. Freund, Director of the Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Hartford says SONS OF LIGHT is “a tour de force of historical fiction…as Merrill takes on the most explosive story line imaginable with detail and finesse…The ending leaves the reader waiting for the next installment!”
For more information including an excerpt of the book, author bio, reviews, and more visit www.sonsoflight.net.
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