“A man’s what God made you to be, son. So be that, and while you’re at it, you might as well go ahead and be the best one you can be.”
So embarks Jack Zulu on his latest quest to protect, defend and lead amidst warring worlds and against an egomaniacal supervillain intent on converting Jack to his dark and complete tyranny, testing Jack’s physical, psychological, and spiritual strength in withstanding the promise of shared power.
The second book in the Jack Zulu series, Jack Zulu and the Girl with Golden Wings, is a compelling, action-packed fantasy, wherein strong, Christian characters fight to overpower evil and destructive forces intent on overtaking the worlds.
Crafted by seasoned storyteller, author S.D. Smith of the bestselling Green Ember series, and his son J.C. Smith, the Girl with Golden Wings picks up two years after the first book in the series, Jack Zulu and the Waylander’s Key, ends.
While Jack has officially earned hero status in the Wayland, the world between worlds that connects his small hometown of Myrtle, West Virginia to lands undiscovered by many earth-walkers, he is still riddled with self-doubt and despondency over his internal struggles with pride and power.
Jack’s struggle is amplified by greater self-discovery. He learns that his choices directly impact the future and destiny of the worlds, and he must carve out his own path to fulfill an unforeseen purpose, without the guidance and strong hand of his father, whose death remains shrouded in mystery.
Jack joins an entourage traveling through the war-torn world of Thandalia, where legends of miraculous healing and tremendous valor are overshadowed by the destruction and tyranny proliferated by Rancast, a human who has acquired god-like powers and destroys everything that stands in the way of his quest for total and absolute rule. The success of the journey is paramount to the leaders of the alliance upholding the worlds’ freedom.
The party moves cautiously through foreign canyons and valleys immersed in otherworldly hues under the ultra-bright light of the Thandalian sun, their mission is to rally Thandalia’s holdouts and its remaining inhabitants by parading the Thandalian princess, Jack’s longtime friend Michelle, through the towns to where the military has just won a major victory. There, the girl with golden wings will be presented to her ancestral people as an emblem of hope and light against the dark forces beleaguering the people and their homeland.
But the journey is marred by treachery; wolves hide in sheep’s clothing and Jack must determine where his loyalty truly lies as temptations to turn inward multiply, confusing his sense of purpose.
Christian youth will find a plethora of familiar themes in the second Zulu book, from the admonishment of infant death, about which a character tells Jack, “evil gods have always demanded the blood of children. Sometimes it’s for crops, other times for a better career or an easier life, but it’s always blood and it’s always kids. We do it in our world, too. We just call it by another name,” to the redemption and mercy offered to each person who chooses the side of good.
Jack’s primary mentor, a good and wise sage who holds high status in the Wayland, encourages his apprentice to lean into his Christian beliefs. “We are all of us guilty,” he says, “but the enemy wants that to be the end of the story. It is not. The story is not over. Forgiveness is ours and a chance to start again. Again and again. We must turn not to the Accuser but to the Advocate. There-there-my good friend, will we find the way of life.”
The heroes’ arduous trial through a sacred wood, only complete through ritual and sacrificial offerings, serves as a purifying spiritual test of Jack’s character before his final trial, furthering the story’s Christian underpinnings.
Ultimately, it is Jack and Jack alone who must decide how to defeat and overcome the turmoil within, and the villainy that surrounds him and threatens the girl with golden wings. In conclusion, the Smiths curate a cliffhanger ending that promises more books to come.
A story desperately needed in young adult fiction, and increasingly absent from the mainstream, Girl with Golden Wings celebrates sacrifice, morality, and the refusal to submit to the oppressive will of the enemy; characters seek heroism by submitting to Christian tenets, relying on mercy, grace, and forgiveness to attain altruistic ideals.
The Smiths draw on elements of high fantasy and complex histories in the tradition of Lewis and Tolkien, appealing to multiple generations of readers, building the series on foundational, objective truths that counteract the increasingly subjective cultural “moralism” defining modern youth entertainment. Well worth the read and a highly anticipated continuing series.
Ashley Bateman is a policy writer for The Heartland Institute and blogger for Ascension Press. Her work has been featured in The Washington Times, The Daily Caller, The New York Post, The American Thinker and numerous other publications. She previously worked as an adjunct scholar for The Lexington Institute and as editor, writer and photographer for The Warner Weekly, a publication for the American military community in Bamberg, Germany. Ashley is a board member at a Catholic homeschool cooperative in Virginia. She homeschools her four incredible children along with her brilliant engineer/scientist husband.
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