Searching For Zen: A Tale Of Divine Destiny
Searching For Zen: A Tale of Divine Destiny by Albert T. Franklin tells the story of a simple boy who is given god-like powers by a divine being and embarks on an epic quest. It’s on this quest that he learns about his powers, himself, and building friendships with others.
When the boy(Zen) is informed by the herald of a divine being that he has been given incredible powers and must save the land from darkness and evil, he at first tries to hide his powers because he is worried people will be afraid of him due to his unnatural and unusual abilities. His powers can be used for many things: he can create objects out of nothing, stop time, learn the memories of people he touches, and kill others in sometimes very graphic ways. He only uses his powers for violence when he or his friends are in danger but because of the frightening nature of his powers that he scares people on multiple occasions.
Part of his journey is learning when and how to use his powers. Initially he is lonely and isolated because of his powers. Zen often helps others and over the course of the book assembles a group of friends from very different walks of life; several of them are misfits or people who have been deeply hurt in one way or another. Zen is able to connect with them to help both his new friends and himself. He also finds love and must make difficult decisions about how to handle this.
The premise is very interesting. An ordinary person being given god-like powers and learning how to use them.
The world itself is unique. At first, I thought the book took place in a non-existent fantasy setting but over the course of the book real life things are mentioned such as the Greek, Roman, Persian, and Viking civilizations. At one point the characters meet a sultan who mentions Allah. There is also some modern-sounding slang and dialogue used at many points in this book. The world itself seems to be either a fantasy world with elements taken from real life or an alternate version of Earth with fantasy elements. This choice seems a bit unusual, but it does make the world a bit more unique than a standard fantasy novel.
The world is not explained very much, and the characters go to locations without much of an explanation of what or where those places are. I wouldn’t say this is a negative thing though, the complexities of the worldbuilding are usually not relevant to the plot or story, which this book seems to be more focused on.
The opening of the book explains a bit about the world and the premise. We see a conversation between a deity and his herald which comes across a bit like a religious creation story, which I think is a strong hook and adds intrigue to the book. We are told in the beginning of the book that the land is in chaos and the elites of the world are exploiting the vulnerable. A champion is chosen to save the land from itself. There is some social commentary about abuse of power and even though this world is not a modern capitalistic one there are economic social commentaries about the exploitation of the poor. Many people in this book experience problems and hardships in their lives due to lack of financial freedom. Zen solves several people’s problems by giving them coins which he materializes with his powers. In the beginning of the book Zen and his mother must pay rent to a landlord who has no sympathy for them being unable to pay because of the very trying times they live in. I would say the message can be a bit on the nose sometimes which I would argue is fitting because the story is fairly straightforward in terms of morality. The world can be very dreary, but Zen is able to find a light in the darkness by supporting his friends and trying to help others.
This story depicts the struggle between good and evil in a somewhat simple way. Several of the villains are very over the top and comically evil while the heroes are for the most part pretty upright and virtuous. Since this book has many humorous scenes, very melodramatic villains, and modern-sounding dialogue it can sometimes come across as campy.
Zen must make choices about how to use his powers which ties into the theme of good vs evil. There are other themes about found family and friendship which we observe over the course of the story as Zen grows closer to his new companions. I would go as far as to say the book promotes the idea that the greatest thing in life is companionship. When Zen reflects on his life it seems he is most proud of the relationships he has formed on his quest. Zen is unsure how his quest will end and there are themes explored about appreciating the people around you while you have the chance. The God of this world values freewill which is a theme covered in this story.
Some of the chapters in the beginning are short. As the book goes on the chapters seem to get a bit longer. Sometimes the pacing can be fast, and many things happen in a few chapters. The prose is fairly simple and does not have many dramatic flourishes. There is even some slang in the prose itself which I found slightly unusual. This book does have a bit of a tendency to “tell” instead of “showing”. When describing events for the most part the event is described in simple terms. For example, when Zen is learning about another character’s past the book says: “He went into the village where she had grown up happily with her parents and three younger siblings. The poor but loving family did their best to survive hard times.” We aren’t given any examples of how the family interacted with each other or what sort of things they did that made them a loving family, or examples of things they did because they were poor. Some scenes have more dialogue than others and the scenes that are less dialogue heavy can come across as a summary of events rather than an experience the reader is seeing firsthand. I won’t go into detail about the ending to avoid spoilers, but I will say it ends a bit ambiguously.
I think it’s worth noting there are some content materials readers should be warned about. There is a fair amount of nudity and violence/gore. Neither are described in much detail, but the violence is described slightly more. Some of the characters do talk about sex and there are mentions of sexual assault that are sometimes important to the story so viewers sensitive to that may want to proceed with caution. For these reasons, I wouldn’t recommend this book to any young readers. I think this book would appeal to someone who wants to read a more mature and sometimes dark fantasy novel.
Perspective: 3rd Person, Generally Limited
Tense: Simple Past
Length: 201 Pages
Kindle Unlimited: Yes
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