Post Two for Nor Iron Bars A Cage

Ta daaaa daaaa tatatata tatatata ta taaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa ta daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! My sister, being an actual professional race horse jockey, would cringe at my text rendition of a races opening fanfare! Good thing for me she’s far too busy to see that. Well, not to mention lucky for me she doesn’t have a computer either! But we are not here to place bets on my sister. No, we are here to place bets on Byntar. And no, Byntar is not the name of a race horse, but it is the name of a world!

In Nor Iron Bars A Cage, the author Caprice Hokstad has created a very interesting world indeed. And let me tell you, world building is not as easy as some might think. A lot goes into creating social and political structures, religions, ways of life and how things are done day to day in the world of the author’s imagination. A writer has to give enough of the familiar to make the world they are creating believable and Caprice uses something we are all familiar with and she uses it quite well. What is this thing she uses to propel her story forward, create a platform to work from, and keep her story moving? Slavery.

Slavery. We hear the word and cringe. Slavery means to be at times naked and alone, abused at a master’s whim. Tortured and maimed. Wars are fought over it, people killed because of it. We have enough of it in our own history to know the harsh facts.
But Caprice has taken this most deplorable rank of servitude, and reminds us that to Jesus Christ, we are as slaves. Or at least we should be. In the New Testament there was the steward, the servant, and then the bond slave. Oh if only we could be as slaves to Christ! But how hard it is to do! In Nor Iron Bars A Cage, Keedrina, a slave in the house of Duke Vahn, revels in the position as slave to the Duke. Being near him is all that matters, and thus, in servitude, she finds her happiness. As should we all. But how easy is it for us to do this when it comes to God? Not an easy task.

I’ve tried to classify Nor Iron Bars A Cage. Is it a love story? A romance if you will. An adventure? Science Fiction/Fantasy? What? It contains a bit of everything, so one might classify it as mainstream fiction. I classify it as a darn good read. One to read and then ponder. The story makes you think and wonder about where your own heart is at and who it really belongs to … and who does it serve?