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The Skin Map, Bright Empires Series #1

By: Stephen Lawhead

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In This Series

Description	Price	Availability	AddInclude
Bright Empires Series, Volumes 1-3	$43.99 Retail: $75.97	Available to ship on or about 08/05/12.	Add To Cart
The Bone House, Bright Empires Series #2	$16.99 Retail: $25.99	In Stock	Add To Cart
The Spirit Well, Bright Empires Series #3	$17.99 Retail: $24.99	Available to ship on or about 08/19/12.	Add To Cart
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Play	Title	Media Type	Artist/Author	Time	Price	Purchase
/preview/74/87/548047_1.mp3	1. Author Visit to CBD			?		Album Only

Product Description

Kit Livingstone's great-grandfather has re-appeared with an unbelievable story--the ley lines throughout Britain are not merely the stuff of legends but truly are pathways to other worlds. So few people know how to use them, though, that doing so is fraught with danger.

But one explorer knew more than most. Because of his fear of being unable to find his way home, he developed an intricate code and tattooed his map onto his skin. But the map has since been lost and rival factions are in desperate competition to recover it. What none of them yet realize is that the skin map itself is not the prize at the end of this race . . . but merely the first goal of a vast and marvelous quest to regain Paradise.

Enter the ultimate treasure hunt--with a map made of skin, a playing field of alternate realities, and a prize that is the greatest mystery of all.

Product Information

Format: Hardcover
Number of Pages: 512
Vendor: Thomas Nelson
Publication Date: 2010
Dimensions: 9.25 X 6.13 (inches)

ISBN: 1595548041
ISBN-13: 9781595548047
Availability: In Stock
Series: Bright Empires

Publisher's Description

It is the ultimate quest for the ultimate treasure. Chasing a map tattooed on human skin. Across an omniverse of intersecting realities. To unravel the future of the future.

Kit Livingstone's great-grandfather appears to him in a deserted alley during a tumultuous storm. He reveals an unbelievable story: that the ley lines throughout Britain are not merely the stuff of legend or the weekend hobby of deluded cranks, but pathways to other worlds. To those who know how to use them, they grant the ability to travel the multi-layered universe of which we ordinarily inhabit only a tiny part.

One explorer knew more than most. Braving every danger, he toured both time and space on voyages of heroic discovery. Ever on his guard and fearful of becoming lost in the cosmos, he developed an intricate code--a roadmap of symbols--that he tattooed onto his own body. This Skin Map has since been lost in time. Now the race is on to recover all the pieces and discover its secrets.

But the Skin Map itself is not the ultimate goal. It is merely the beginning of a vast and marvelous quest for a prize beyond imagining.

The Bright Empires series-from acclaimed author Stephen Lawhead-is a unique blending of epic treasure hunt, ancient history, alternate realities, cutting-edge physics, philosophy, and mystery. The result is a page-turning, fantastical adventure like no other.

Author Bio

Publisher's Weekly

A promising tale of interdimensional voyaging disintegrates rapidly into a clunky and incoherent mess. Londoner Kit Livingstone and his unpleasant girlfriend, Wilhelmina, are separated and sent back to an alternate 17th-century England. There Kit's great-grandfather Cosimo reveals secretive time travelers are racing the evil Lord Archelaeus Burleigh to locate a map holding an earthshaking secret. Stranded when Cosimo vanishes into a portal, Kit falls in with the beautiful Lady Fayth while Wilhelmina struggles to survive on her own in Prague. Lawhead (The Endless Knot) has come up with plenty of clever concepts and colorful settings, but they can't compensate for thinly drawn, incompetent characters and the lack of a coherent story line. (Sept.) Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information.

Product Reviews

Thomas NelsonThe Skin Map, Bright Empires Series #1

Overall Rating:ÃÂ

4 out of 5

Quality:ÃÂ

4.2 out of 5

Value:ÃÂ

4.1 out of 5

Meets Expectations:ÃÂ

3.6 out of 5

22 out of 2685%customers would recommend this product to a friend.

38 Kit Livingstone's great-grandfather has re-appeared with an unbelievable story--the ley lines throughout Britain are not merely the stuff of legends but truly are pathways to other worlds. So few people know how to use them, though, that doing so is fraught with danger. <p>But one explorer knew more than most. Because of his fear of being unable to find his way home, he developed an intricate code and tattooed his map onto his skin. But the map has since been lost and rival factions are in desperate competition to recover it. What none of them yet realize is that the skin map itself is not the prize at the end of this race . . . but merely the first goal of a vast and marvelous quest to regain Paradise. <p>Enter the ultimate treasure hunt--with a map made of skin, a playing field of alternate realities, and a prize that is the greatest mystery of all.

Summary of Customer Ratings & Reviews

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Overall Rating:ÃÂ

4 out of 5

Quality:ÃÂ

4.2 out of 5

Value:ÃÂ

4.1 out of 5

Meets Expectations:ÃÂ

3.6 out of 5

22 out of 2685%customers would recommend this product to a friend.

Click on filters to refine your results.

Product Reviews

This review is fromThe Skin Map, Bright Empires Series #1.

Overall Rating:ÃÂ

5 out of 5

Incredible Journey Through Time and Space

Date:November 20, 2011

Nora Finding Hope

Top 100 Contributor

Location:Atlanta

Age:45-54

Gender:female

Quality:ÃÂ

5 out of 5

Value:ÃÂ

5 out of 5

Meets Expectations:ÃÂ

5 out of 5

Kit Livingstone and his girlfriend (only because he didnÃ¢ÂÂt have the time to find another) Wilhelmina are watching life pass them by. Until one day Kit is in the middle of a day where everything is going wrong, he starts to walk because the transit system is not working and is caught up in a storm. When things settle he runs into a man who says heÃ¢ÂÂs his great-grand father. How could that be? HeÃ¢ÂÂd never met this man before. He turns to flee when Cosimo tells him, Ã¢ÂÂI need your help with a project. It will be the adventure of a life time Ã¢ÂÂ of several lifetimes. But it will change yours forever.Ã¢ÂÂ Cosimo has discovered a way to travel through space, time and alternate universes using ley lines, which are forces of energy that are intersections between worlds.

Kit doesnÃ¢ÂÂt know what to think. Was this real or a dream? He has to go home and sort this out. Cosimo lets him. He needs a willing partner who believes in the search for the Skin Map which will lead them to Ã¢ÂÂthe secret of the universe or something even more significant and momentous? He told Kit.Ã¢ÂÂ Should he join the quest to find the Skin Map? He gathered that itÃ¢ÂÂs a treasure map everyone wants because itÃ¢ÂÂs the road map to the ley-lines. What would he do?

Thanks to BookSneezeÃÂ® who provided me with a complimentary copy of this amazing audio book. The man reading had a British accent and read with so much expression and created different voices for the many characters I felt as if I was there. The reader brought The Skin Map to life for me. It was a very unique experience. I really enjoyed. I've never read anything so riveting and illuminating as The Skin Map. Stephen Lawhead is a brilliant and imaginative writer. I liked his well timed sense of humor and his quirky characters. I liked his main characters and his sub-characters some are compassionate, quick witted and others are full of surprises.

The author starts the story in current time and whisks them back to Sept 1666 where life is quite primitive. The time travel is through ley lines. Kit is dropped into Cosimo and Sir Henry's world this way. They both keep Kit in the dark about their search for treasure. The author reveals things to Kit and the reader at the same time. I liked that but poor Kit gets in trouble because he doesn't understand the rules and what this mission is all about. I was so captivated by the adventure and search for the skin map, time travel, and them running from the bad guys I felt as if I might run into Kit during my daily routine. They were that believable.

I could see this series as an amazing big screen movie. This author did a great job of creating visual scenes and a setting I could picture and feel part of. I canÃ¢ÂÂt wait to read the next book in this series. These books are a little expensive because they are in hard back but IÃ¢ÂÂm telling you they are worth every dollar you spend to read this master story teller. I highly recommend this great adventure.

Nora St. Laurent
The Book Club Network
www.bookfun.org

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This review is fromThe Skin Map, Bright Empires Series #1.

Overall Rating:ÃÂ

3 out of 5

Reviewing THE SKIN MAP by Stephen Lawhead

Date:December 9, 2011

BevK

Top 1000 Contributor

Location:WI

Age:Over 65

Gender:female

Quality:ÃÂ

3 out of 5

Value:ÃÂ

4 out of 5

Meets Expectations:ÃÂ

2 out of 5

Reviewing THE SKIN MAP by Stephen Lawhead
The body of this book was very entertaining. I rate the book as a good read although a little disjointed at times. It's a typical Stephen Lawhead SyFy book except that this one leaves a lot of questions in your mind, [characters and situations are mentioned, but not followed through]. It does not have a definite ending.
It took a long time loading the book on an iPad, and then the chapters were not in order; it skipped all over, so in listening to it, it would take quite some time to find where the next chapter was. [This could be the iPads fault or the software from the book that caused this to happen.] To aid me in finding the next chapter, I borrowed a hard-copy of the book. It would have been great, and without problems, using the CDs in an auto on a trip. The British accent took some getting used to as well as British terms that our English language finds obsolete.
It appears there may be sequels coming; the book itself is not complete and leaves you hanging at the end.
I received this book free from BookSneeze in a 9 disc CD format for review.
Posted by IBELIEVE2 at 10:20 AM

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This review is fromThe Skin Map, Bright Empires Series #1.

Overall Rating:ÃÂ

5 out of 5

Another great story by Stephen Lawhead

Date:October 30, 2011

John Chancey

Top 250 Contributor

Location:North Carolina

Age:25-34

Gender:female

Quality:ÃÂ

5 out of 5

Value:ÃÂ

4 out of 5

Meets Expectations:ÃÂ

4 out of 5

The writing of Stephen Lawhead has always impressed me. He is a true master of the craft. He has the rare gift of being able to approach familiar subjects (like time travel and parallel dimensions) and to introduce them in new and engaging ways. And, I must say, that this story is very engaging.

The summary of the plot doesn't quite do it justice: two modern-day people are magically transported to a different world, where they must race against the evil men to get the ultimate prize. That is the gist of the story, but there is SO much more to it!

Mister Lawhead is able to lead you along, following several different characters - and only give you enough information to know their stories are crucially connected, but never enough information to have you guess the outcome. That is the mark of a great writer. His version of time travel possibility is one of the more complete (and clearly stated) that I've ever read, which gives the story a certain credibility. And the idea of the map being made of human skin is certainly realistic (as it has been done by real people), but wonderfully creative nonetheless.

There were a few times where the story focused on one person for so long that, when the next chapter re-visited another character, it took me a moment to remember what was going on the last time I read about them - but this is not a criticism of the writing as much as it is a criticism of my memory! Other than that, I can think of no negative comments to make of this book. The characters are believable, the emotions are tangible, and the mystery is tantalizing. In short, I can hardly wait to read the second story in the series!

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher as part of the Booksneeze bloggers' program. I was not required to write a positive review.

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This review is fromThe Skin Map, Bright Empires Series #1.

Overall Rating:ÃÂ

4 out of 5

Date:September 20, 2011

elinsmom

Age:35-44

Gender:female

Kit Livingstone always thought his grandfather Cosimo had deserted his family. He went to the market one day and never returned. Imagine Kit's surprise when Cosimo shows up almost one hundred years after his disappearance and tells Kit and amazing story of traveling through time. Kit is a little skeptical, until he makes the journey for himself. This is how The Skin Map begins.

The Skin Map is a fun beginning to The Bright Empires series by Stephen Lawhead. Throughout the story, the characters travel through "leys" which are roads that lead to parallel universes. All of these universes have been mapped out by a previous traveler and tattooed on his body. When he died, the map was removed and eventually lost. Kit and his friends must find the map before it falls into the wrong hands.

The Skin Map is a fast paced, enjoyable story. The time travel element makes it easy for characters to show up in unexpected places, and, some times, to get lost. I had some trouble keeping track of everyone. I had to go back a couple of times to figure out who was where and what they were doing, but overall it was a fun read with enough suspense to make me want to read the next book. I would recommend The Skin Map to anyone who enjoys the Science Fiction or Alternate History genres.