Looking for an adventure to take you and your kids on? Then check out The Door Within. This is an epic tale of a young boy named Aidan Thomas who, with the help of his grandfather, enters a world only known as "The Realm". Grand battles, Dragons, Hammer Wielding Warriors, Mighty Kings, and a Lord of Evil await Aidan. Will he rise to the challenges that are ahead of him? Will he face his fears and realize that he is never alone? Only time shall tell. Wayne Thomas Batson delivers an excellent literary adventure that will captivate the imagination! The Door Within is the first book in this highly anticipated trilogy of fantasy adventures. These books are great no matter what age! Why should kids have all the fun??

When I first started reading this book, I thought it would be dumb and boring. Now it is one of my top five Favorite books!! The plot is intriguing, the characters realistic, and the world Wayne Thomas Batson creates is incredible. I read this book in just a few days because I could not put it down! The way Batson writes makes you feel as if you were really in the story! I would recommend this book for everyone!

The Door Within is a wonderful book written by Christian author, Wayne Thomas Batson. It definitely has a strong Christian perspective on it, with many references to things of the Bible and a Christian allegory like Chronicles of Narnia. The setting is nice, in that it takes place in the USA and also another world, parallel to this world, called The Realm. The Realm seems like the perfect place to live. Lush green fields, sparkling rivers, and small towns. However, evil lies in the most beautiful place. There is Paragory, where Paragor, the figure representing the devil, resides. There is also the Stilling, where anything that is not moving dies. But there is still good in all of this evil. Alleble is where everyone follows King Eliam, the figure representing God. That is the holy city, although Paragor tries to take it time and time again.The theme of this book, and this whole series, is redemption. You can always be redeemed with God, just like in The Realm, you can always be redeemed with King Eliam. It is a great theme for Christians and non-Christians because it shows that anyone can recieve Christ, not just those who are good. Even some of Paragor's men turn to King Eliam. The plot of The Door Within is very in-depth and interesting. It is about a boy named Aidan, who moved to Colorado in the middle of summer vacation. He is, needless to say, not happy about this. Even though its because of his Grampin that they moved. Then he finds these scrolls in the basement that tell the story about King Eliam and Paragal (Paragor before he turned evil) and how Paragal betrayed Eliam. He then travels into The Realm because he believed in the Realm, and has a whole lot of amazing experiences there. He trains under the mighty Captain Valithor, shoots arrows with Nock and Bolt, and travels to Mithegard to lead the undecided to King Eliam. He even gets in a couple of battles! When he returns, he can't wait for his next adventure in The Realm.

Before I read this book in 4th Grade I sped through small chapter-books that were in the more 'elementary' side of my school library. I was never satisfied, reading every book I could get my hands on, but I was getting bored of "The Magic Treehouse" and other such books. Then one day my school librarian showed me this book. I was hesitant at first because I had never really been in to Fantasy, because most Fantasy I had been exposed to was more like fairy tales; Damsels in Distress, fairies, etc. But I started to read this book (which at the time was huge for me) and was immediately drawn in to a captivating story of a teenage kid named Aiden.

Aiden had been living in Maryland. He seemed to never fit in...until he met Robby Pierson. Robby was an Athletic kid, much the opposite of Aiden, but accepted Aiden as he was. Being friends with Robby gained Aiden popularity. Things seemed to be going well for Aiden, but then unexpectedly he had to move out west to take care of his ailing Grandfather. It was the summer, and Aiden didn't know any kids in the neighborhood, had exhausted his supply of video games, and had nothing to do. He was mad at his parents, his Grandfather, and was bored out of his mind. But then one day Aiden makes a startling discovery in his Grandfathers basement that launches him into a world of dragons and knights!

This book is an excellent example of good, clean Christian literature that supports good values while having a good and exciting storyline. I would recommend it to anyone over the age of ten. It is fairly long and may be a bit too scary for most kids under that age, for it does have some violent battle scenes. But if you are 10 or older, this book is a must read!

As far as I am concerned, this series is amazing! It is one of the top five best I have ever read! My hat is off to you, Sir Batson!

I purchased all three books in this Trilogy for my 10 and 11-year-old avid readers. Not only did they LOVE them, they have read them several times. The books include a lot of sword fighting action and a good story line that keeps boys engaged.