Concerning & Potentially Concerning Content

It is important to know that this is one of those series that introduces additional concerning content in a later sequel. While we have not reviewed it yet, the third and final book has same sex relationships weaved in as a part of the story. There is not much out there on how in-your-face this is, but several of the handful of parent and kid comments on Common Sense Media mention it (of course, that site would promote something like this, which is why Christian’s should be very cautious with secular review sites). --- There are a few instances of references like a “sexy female voice”, bikini tops, professional swimsuit models. At one point when extensive security cameras are discussed a character offers, if you want to see the most attractive girl at the moon base getting ready for a shower let me know. A story is told of a woman who caught her butler stealing her lingerie (she attacks him, biting part of his ear off). — There are several unfortunate cases of small jokes that are intended to be funny: bathroom graffiti that says, “for a good time call Princess Leia” and a description of an item being like a sadistic plumber who mated a vacuum cleaner with an octopus. Mentions of torture devices, Lady Gaga, James Bond, highly evolved, the “I’m too sexy” song, being buried alive, “godforsaken”, psycho, corpse, “blows” (as in “my life blows compared to yours”), own private hell. Multiple uses of things like idiots, moron, jerks, loser. One negative reference has an adult figure asking a child not to tell their parents about something important (they agree and don’t tell them). — The main character has plenty of behavior we would not want our children to model. He is frequently dishonest, makes comments saying things like life in space sucks. There are a couple instances where he mentions rules he disobeys, one he considers stupid. In one instance he tells a new recruit to do something, but then tells them not to let the leader see because it is not allowed. — Finally, there is some interesting content that is slipped in that should be brought up. The story is set in the future and we are told nearly everyone on the base are mixed-race couples. While racial equality is a biblical and good thing, the fact that there are no exceptions to this on the whole futuristic “advanced” society base except for the awful/rude/terrible family is an interesting choice of message to put in front of children. There is also a comment that “humans rarely leave a landscape better than they found it”. While humans have failed in many instances of our mission to steward creation, this is a major overstatement to just toss in front of children. In a similar instance, there is dialog around potential contact with an alien race. The author uses this as a chance to say that, The Europeans didn’t sail across the ocean six centuries ago to make nice with the Native Americans; they wiped them out and stole everything they had. And there’s no reason another race would do any different. To which another character responds, Of course there is. Just because humans are evil doesn’t mean the rest of the galaxy is too. Again, this is a gross oversimplification of multifaceted, complicated swaths of history and humanity we would not want a child to just swallow down. It certainly leaves out the endless amount of good Christians have done and continue to do while working to follow Jesus.