There was one item that brought us close to making this a “yellow”/Prayerfully Consider. Nearly all of this story is placed as you would expect, back 400+ years ago in France. But the way the author gets them there involves a bad guy who attains an ancient relic that is rumored to give the possessor strange abilities. Unfortunately, this relic is named “the devil stone” and it ends up giving the villain “eternal life”, which the story confirms as true. This is certainly a major outlier from the rest of the story.

We should also mention that while this is set in a simpler time, much of it comes across as more of a modern view into that simpler time than a book completely set back then (the main character, who comes across as a typical modern worldly boy time travels back and we see the story through his eyes). There are a few times where the modern worldview looks down on this simpler time as well.

The main character is, as we see often today, not a great example for your kids. He mentions having “to survive without the internet or cell phones”. This is made worse by him saying that he never goes 5 minutes without checking his phone. He mentions never going to bed before midnight. This is all shown in a “normal” light and never as potentially negative. He is also not very kind. The book launches with him not being nice or respectful to his parents. He calls his grandpa’s journal a “mind-numbing piece of garbage”. He calls one of the characters he meets a “good liar”.

One of the musketeers, who does grow quite a bit in the story, is at first seen at a party. He is with two women who are referred to as his girlfriends and he puts his arm around their waists when walking.

There are a couple comments that readers of this author will not be surprised by concerning the environment. While Christians need to be first in line for protecting the creation God has entrusted us with, there are a couple of oversimplified “shots”, such as “before people paved and polluted” the world.

The terms “godforsaken”, holy cow and idiot are used. A villain is called satanic. There are threats to “slit your throat” and “hack you to pieces”. A plan is referred to as a “suicide mission”. A couple of comments are made about “the French”.