Category Archives: Book Reviews

I had the pleasure to read By Darkness Hid by Jill Williamson, first book in the Blood of Kings series, from Marcher Lord Press (2009). Though by far not a short read at 490 pages, it is a quick paced read, and charming, and engaging. Jill is a talented author from Oregon, whom I’ve had the pleasure of meeting at Writers Conferences. Though she originally targeted the series for YA, I have to agree with her publisher, sixteen and seventeen in the characters’ world is much more like eighteen and nineteen in ours. Achan Cham and Vrell Sparrow  are young, but they’re dealing with most adult issues.

Such as a prince that wants to force Vrell to marry him, leading her to go into hiding as a boy, and battling political forces that leave Achan caught between two masters and two lives, one as an oppressed class of orphans called strays that are treated worse than slaves, where he sleeps in the pantry and is constantly beaten by the cook. In the other life, he’s a squire being trained for knighthood. The cook insists Achan drink a nasty tonic every day; the knight insists he doesn’t. And when he misses his dosage, he can hear voices that aren’t there, slowly coming to realize he has the gift of bloodvoicing (telepathy) granted by God (who of course has a different name) to the ancient king of Er’Rets, which passed down only through that king’s bloodline, making an oppressed orphan the descendant of kings.

I have to say, telepathy is not my favorite thing because of the usual connections to the occult and the devil, but Williamson came up with an original and biblically defensible work-around. She’s a pro at building fantasy worlds, and it well shows.

My main other annoyance was the handling of the double narrators–we spend the first three chapters with Achan, so just when we’re nice and used to him, he disappears for four entire chapters while we meet Vrell, and just when we’ve fully adjusted, we’re back to Achan–and fully need Williamson’s reminder of where we left him. But weeks have past for Vrell, while it’s the same day still for Achan, leaving the reader confused about the time line.

Similarly, when Vrell finally crosses Achan’s path, he’s in the middle of a major battle that represents a plot turn, and we’ve missed most of it along with her. I found that mildly disappointing, but generally couldn’t put the book down, and wanted to hoot when the “twist” proved my theory right. She did her job there wonderfully, in my book. I like being right as much as I like being surprised–in fact, I think I may like guessing the “gotcha” more.

This one will please the palette of anyone who enjoys fantasy, adventure, giants, coming of age, and stories about reversals of fortunes and medieval palace intrigues.

Other sites on the tour:

Brandon Barr
Keanan Brand
Gina Burgess
Beckie Burnham
Melissa Carswell
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
Emmalyn Edwards
April Erwin
Sarah Flanagan
Tori Greene
Ryan Heart
Joleen Howell
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Leighton
Rebecca LuElla Miller
New Authors Fellowship
John W. Otte
Crista Richey
Chawna Schroeder
Andrea Schultz
James Somers
Rachel Starr Thomson
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Dona Watson
Phyllis Wheeler
KM Wilsher

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing
The Sword Crossway Books (April 30, 2010) by Bryan M. Litfin

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Bryan Litfin was born in Dallas, but lived in Memphis, Tennessee and Oxford, England, where he discovered that the house of his favorite author, J.R.R. Tolkien, was only five doors down from his own. Bryan still enjoys epic adventure stories, as well as historical fiction. However, most of his reading these days is taken up by academia.

After marrying his high school sweetheart, Carolyn (a true Southern belle), he went on to study for a master’s degree in historical theology at Dallas Theological Seminary. From there he went to the University of Virginia, taking a PhD in the field of ancient church history. He is the author of Getting to Know the Church Fathers: An Evangelical Introduction (Brazos, 2007), as well as several scholarly articles and essays.

In 2002, Bryan took a position on the faculty at Moody Bible Institute in downtown Chicago, where he is a professor in the Theology Department. He teaches courses in theology, church history, and Western civilization from the ancient and medieval periods.

On the morning of January 6, 2007, Bryan woke up with an epiphany. Having finished writing his primer on the ancient church, he had the idea of trying his hand at fiction. The thought occurred to him that the writer of speculative fiction typically has two options. He can create an imaginary land like Middle Earth (which offers great creative freedom but is unrealistic), or he can delve into genuine history (which is realistic, yet limted to what ‘actually occurred.’) However, if a writer were to create a future world as in the Chiveis trilogy, it could be both realistic and creatively unlimited.

This little dream stayed in Bryan’s mind while he researched how to write fiction, and also researched the European landscape where the novel would be set. He planned a trip to the story locations, then went there in the summer with a buddy from grad school. Bryan and Jeff rented a Beemer and drove all over Europe from the Alps to the Black Forest with a video camera in hand. With that epic setting fresh in his mind, Bryan returned home and began to write.

Today Bryan lives in downtown Wheaton in a Victorian house built in 1887. He is blessed by God to be married to Carolyn, and to be the father of two amazing children, William, 11, and Anna, 9. For recreation Bryan enjoys basketball, traveling, and hiking anywhere there are mountains (which means getting far away from the Midwest – preferably to his beloved Smokies).

ABOUT THE BOOK

This novel poses the question, “If a future society had no knowledge of Christianity, and then a Bible were discovered, what would happen?”

Four hundred years after a deadly virus and nuclear war destroyed the modern world, a new and noble civilization emerges. In this kingdom, called Chiveis, snowcapped mountains provide protection, and fields and livestock provide food. The people live medieval-style lives, with almost no knowledge of the “ancient” world. Safe in their natural stronghold, the Chiveisi have everything they need, even their own religion. Christianity has been forgotten—until a young army scout comes across a strange book.

With that discovery, this work of speculative fiction takes readers on a journey that encompasses adventure, romance, and the revelation of the one true God. The Sword speaks to God’s goodness, his refusal to tolerate sin, man’s need to bow before him, and the eternality and power of his Word. Fantasy and adventure readers will be hooked by this first book in a forthcoming trilogy.

If you would like to read the first chapter of The Sword, go to HERE

ANDREA’S COMMENTS: Fun and insightful, this will please fans of both low fantasy adventure and post-apocalyptic novels. The sword play is realistic and mostly discreet in my opinion, but this is not for readers especially squeamish about blood and carnage (as in stuff blowing up.) If you’re easily offended at preaching, the bible study scenes will be drudgery for you. Other than one literal “Teo” “Ana” moment, the romance element worked well and was appropriate given the heroine is still a virgin at the end and they live in a religious atmosphere based on the baal cults. If scenes merely implying pagans are about to commit sexual sin offend you, or the hero and heroine snuggling up and not doing anything, this isn’t for you, take note.

Note I am merely observing who might not like this–I actually enjoyed this, though I do hope it gets another edit before it’s release, the average reader probably won’t be so annoyed. This future world scenario is quite well thought out, while subtly raising an interesting eschatology question: what if the decline of our civilization, rather than being a sign of the end of the world, is only a sign of the impending collapse of our civilization? The destruction he envisions rivals the destruction of the Great Tribulation to such a degree that folks who think Left Behind was book 67 of the bible will hate this, and  I personally doubt we’ll see an even worse catastrophe than the Tribulation’s twice culling  a 1/3 and 1/4 of Earth’s population,  until the last page of history is actually written, in my opinion, it’s fair game.

Plot spoiler: The bad guys using trickery to invert Elijah’s duel with the prophets of Baal may offend some readers. In the text, the author defends portraying God as apparently deciding to forfeit the duel by saying the duel constituted twisting God’s arm. This is defensible only on the basis of the prophets of baal calling for the duel this time. Otherwise, the biblical text forces the author into the position that, if you’re a prophet walking as close to God as Elijah did, you can twist God’s arm and get fire to fall from heaven and burn up a sacrifice badly drenched, but the rest of us are out of luck. That is a theological land mine and whether he set it off depends on the reader’s views.

Truth Or Dare , the first in Nicole O’Dell’s new Scenarios series from Barbour publishing,  has a wonderful premise and concept: allow the reader to make a key decision for the main character and choose between two different endings based upon that decision. Most curious souls will end up reading both of course; at least I usually exhausted all the possibilities in the Choose Your Own Adventure series.

The Scenarios series features young heroines whom middle school age girls will easily relate to and has enormous potential to help today’s youth make better decisions by showing them the consequences of choices they may have to make themselves someday.

However, I fear it may not get that chance, as in my opinion O’Dell surrendered a tad too often to the temptation to tell them as well as show them. Kids today are savvy; they know when they’re being lectured and they don’t like lectures in disguise. In Truth Or Dare , several characters stop the plot to outright sermonize.

Now, lest there be confusion, I am not one prone to complain that message-oriented books are too preachy. So long as you keep me entertained, I don’t mind a lesson. But even I found myself skimming over the preaching and I fear the target audience will feel talked down to. For most readers, if we want a sermon, we’ll go to Sunday Morning Worship, and this is no less true for children than it is for adults.

In contrast, the Choose Your Own Adventure books’ decision making process  showed clearly the results of one’s actions without any preaching at the reader, that I can remember at least, and allowing us to both learn and have fun, which is the stated goal of the Scenarios series.

I feel a bit uncertain in terms of the writing. It is a juvenile book, but O’Dell’s style seems to me  reminiscent of books intended for 7-10-year-olds and the topics are definitely geared for the 10-15-year-old age bracket stated in her promotional material. Truth Or Dare features four eighth graders playing truth or dare at sleep overs. One poor girl is repeatedly dared to embarrass herself to a crush (call him and say, “I like you,” and “will you go out with me?”) One girl is dared to drink a can of beer and the decision the reader has to make is whether or not to accept a dare to buy a beer.

So it’s not a middle grade book, and the POV choices and the amount of telling convey a maturity level not up to the standards of  the other YA books I’ve read, and I wouldn’t expect such a severe drop in maturity from books aimed at high schoolers versus middle schoolers–it is highly unlikely that the freshman and sophomores included in her target audience will pick up a book about middle schoolers.  So she might want to use older characters in future books and a more mature voice. A middle schooler will usually be happy to read about high school students, but high school students are far more likely to read books about college students than middle school students.

So it comes down to this:  regardless of age, if you feel the topic is one your child is ready to think about, this is a series you would want them to read. And the attractive cover and the compelling, relate-able characters will probably be enough to get your child to open the book. Unfortunately, with the amount of preaching, I am unfortunately not confident your child will read it all the way through. Honestly, it surprises me that O’Dell’s editor didn’t catch that, as it is common knowledge in this industry that kids don’t like to be lectured anymore than adults.

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing Timescape from Thomas Nelson (July 14, 2009)  by Robert Liparulo

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Robert Liparulo is a former journalist, with over a thousand articles and multiple writing awards to his name. His first novel, Comes a Horseman, was released to critical acclaim. His other titles include Germ, Deadfall, and Deadlock—secured his place as one of today’s most popular and daring thriller writers.

He is known for investing deep research into his stories and has appeared as an expert on the topics that arise in his fiction on such media outlets as CNN and ABC Radio.

Currently, three of his novels for adults are in various stages of development for the big screen: the film rights to Comes A Horseman. were purchased by the producer of Tom Clancy’s movies; and Liparulo is penning the screenplays for GERM and Deadfall for two top producers. He is also working with the director Andrew Davis (The Fugitive, Holes) on a political thriller. Novelist Michael Palmer calls Deadfall “a brilliantly crafted thriller.” March 31st marked the publication of Deadfall’s follow-up, Deadlock, which novelist Gayle Lynds calls, “best of high-octane suspense.”

Liparulo’s bestselling young adult series, Dreamhouse Kings, debuted last year with House of Dark Shadows and Watcher in the Woods. Book three, Gatekeepers, released in January, and number four, Timescape, in July. The series has garnered praise from readers, both young and old, as well as attracting famous fans who themselves know the genre inside and out.

ABOUT THE BOOK

David, Xander, Dad, and Keal have discovered a terrible secret. Now, finding Mom is only a small part of their mission. And time is running out. Using the portals to build an empire, Taksidian wants the house for himself, and there’s nothing he won’t do to get the family out. The consequences of his meddling reach far beyond the family–to the future of the world itself. The Kings know their survival depends on stopping the bloodthirsty assassin. If only they can find his weakness in time.

Will their tinkering in time reunite the family and save the future . . . or set mankind on an irreversible course of destruction?

Andrea’s Comments: Okay, I just learned that I am used to science fiction and fantasy titles being apart of the CSFF tour, because I could have sworn this was for their August tour coming in a few weeks . . . only to figure out it was a CFBA tour . . . that ran last week. *Slaps forehead*

Seriously, reading this right next to the review coming up later this month for another YA title I was asked to review was interesting, because the ages of the books young heroes indicate a similar audience: 9-15 year olds for Timescape, but the writing of Timescape is far more mature. I tend to lean towards Timescape being meant and well targeted for the teens.

Though spending signficant time in the heads of a nine year old, a twelve year old, and Dad is quite daring for YA, the author pulls it off well. Even his having  Dad mentally referring to himself as Mr King made more sense than one YA novel that annoyed me by having the heroine mentally calling her own mother Mrs. Last Name.  Of course, he wouldn’t call himself that realistically, but the departure makes sense as a device to make it easier for a young reader to cope with being in the head of an adult, though whether it’s actually strictly necessary I can’t say. I think some youths might surprise us.

The amount of research is patently obvious, and for the most part worked in appropriately, meaning I buy that the character explaining this both knows this and would tell it to the other person at this moment.

Like a lot of thriller and action adventure authors, Liparulo is convieniently ignorant of the Bible’s position on obeying civil authories. While Liparulo states in the book a popular opinion that it’s okay to break the law, etc. if the fate of mankind is at stake, or they are ignorantly endangering your loved ones, Romans 13 and the book of Acts is quite clear the only time it is biblically acceptable to disobey civil authorities is when their orders/laws contradict God’s. So this isn’t the simple matter of opinion one might think. One could make a respectable argument that they’re obeying God rather than man in saving a life, but I didn’t understand that to be the author’s argument, or if it was, it could have been far better stated.

Though, I have to say, the common trope of the police officer getting in the hero’s way and endangering lives by not listening to him/her is very insulting to the men and women who fight every day on America’s streets to protect our citizens. And ironically, it didn’t even actually show up on stage in this book. It was in a previous book and a couple of characters decided to rehash it when they were feeling guilty about sneaking into the hospital after hours.

Is it wrong for a writer to have characters who break the law? Actually, I’ll have to say it’s not. If having sin of any sort portrayed in your books was prohibited, Christians would need to stop writing and stop reading because no sin means no conflict and no conflict means no story.

What we need to be careful of is pretending this is saintly behavior. While I appreciate there are doctrinal disagreements, the fact is, there is a standard of truth, the bible, and the simple fact of disagreement doesn’t make truth any less true. I don’t want to major on minors, but we do need to be careful regarding Romans 13 and civil disobedience, because in the world’s eyes,  it reflects poorly on the Church when we break the law–including traffic laws. If you must speed, please don’t do it with a Jesus fish on your bumper.

But I digress.

Seriously, for book four, Liparulo did good. Despite the “stop, read this series from the beginning” warning, I was able to figure out what was going on fairly quickly for being dropped into the middle of the climax from page one–and we hadn’t reached the end of it by the last page, either.

It was much like starting to listen to an episode of the Old Time Radio Superman show in the middle of a series, only he made the character’s recaps far more believable. I did think he carried his justification a bit too far when when the character prone to  mentally rehearsing events started recapping this novel’s events too, but the author also seemed to know when the reader had had enough of that.

Starting in media res and ending with a cliff hanger is a dangerous move that can lend the feel of reading one volume of a multi-volume novel, and from the middle of the set at that, but if he laughs at danger, he shows himself a professional (albeit one that needlessly tosses in my pet peeve-thought tagging–here and there, but that’s not uncommon among long time established authors) .

Parents should be aware there is quite a bit of blood and severed body parts in the book, which some parents may not feel appropriate for their child, and that the Christian content is so subtle I had trouble identifying any clear Christian themes without the reading guide. That’s  largely a matter of the individual reader’s preferences, however,  so I want to make you aware of this issue without prejudice. If extremely subtle is your cup of tea and gore does not cause any spiritual problems for you, this is a wild romp and a fun ride.

This month the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy blog tour is featuring Tuck by Stephen R. Lawhead, the third book in the King Raven trilogy. Like all book threes, it struggles to arise to the challenge of standing alone, and compared to it’s own race, does fairly well, though it slides dangerously close to that zone where new readers still feel like latecomers who’ve missed most of the story (because they have) and existing fans are going, “yawn, I know this already,” though I’d say most of the recap was necessary.

Lawhead’s craft is a tad old fashioned for my tastes, and some readers may have difficulty weeding through some of the long paragraphs. His fans, however, probably won’t care that Lawhead has yet to realize that thought tagging is intrusive and unnecessary, or that it appears he hates the word “said.”

What  readers will get is a romp through the welsh forests and lots of medieval warfare and politics, labeled as fantasy mainly because it’s his take on Robin Hood, and a rather inventive one that should still satisfy fans of the legend. What they won’t get much of is Christian content, besides the good guys praying and the bad guys trying to buy their way out of hell (literally.)

Personally, it disturbs me when I see the good guys practicing deception and getting away with it, as if God somehow blesses what he despises. A big portion of the plot actually turns on Bran (Robin  Hood) disguising himself and entering an enemy’s fortress under false pretenses. While it’s tempting to applaud his genius and cleverness, our God  hates lying. Deception is the domain of the evil one and should never be celebrated by God’s people.

In real life, such ungodly, immoral tactics are not at all a good idea if  you’re wanting God’s blessing on your campaign, as Bran professes and desperately needed.

That said, deception is a common feature of Robin Hood portrayals, though Lawhead crosses the line a bit on the thieving part. Some Robins Hoods plunder the thieves and give the loot back to the owner, which is morally defensible, but I can’t say everything stolen in Tuck falls in that category. For instance, at one point they rob the Abbey supplying enemy troops of their stores, which is not morally defensible.

In general, stealing from person A to give it to person C for no better reason than Person A is rich and Person C dirt poor is immoral–even when it’s practiced by our modern-day elected government officials. Most of the guilty politicians, I might add, have even more money than Person A and aren’t opening their own coffers.