Scarlet

Okay, I seem to have fallen down on the job here. I thought for sure I posted a review of Hood, the first book in the King Raven trilogy, but I must not have. So I guess I have a lot of ground to cover, especially since I finished reading Scarlet, the second book in that trilogy, late last night.

I am not normally a Stephen Lawhead fan. I bought copies of Dream Thief and the Dragon King Trilogy about ten years ago. I disliked the former and thought the latter was simply okay. Then about five years ago, while Jill and I were vacationing in Australia, I grabbed a copy of Patrick in an airport bookstore, read it, and left it Down Under. I didn't care for Lawhead's departures from what we know about the real St. Patrick, nor did I appreciate his sympaethetic portrayal of Pelagius.

So you can imagine my reluctance to try the King Raven trilogy, even after I read some glowing reviews for it. But when I saw Hood in a bargain bin at my local Christian bookstore, I decided to give it a try.

I'm glad I did. Hood and Scarlet have gone a long way towards rehabilitating my opinion of Lawhead. I still question some of his theology, such as the blending of druids with Christianity, but he tells a riveting tale. He resets the Robin Hood stories in eleventh century Wales, making Robin Hood not an English hero, but a Welsh freedom fighter, one called Rhi Bran y Hud, or "King Raven the Enchanter." And he does so with a great deal of wit and excitement.

Scarlet continues the story, focusing on poor ol' William Scatlocke (or Will Scarlet, as he prefers to be called). He's turned out of his home by the Norman invaders and so he sets out to find the outlaw Rhi Bran. After joining Rhi Bran's Grellon, or flock, he finds himself embroiled in a conspiracy against the English crown. Can Will survive, especially after he's captured and sentenced to hang?

Lawhead's voice, especially when he tells us Will's story, is superb. He truly puts us in Will's head and you get a definite feel for his cadence and rhythm. Sadly, the voice falters a bit when we get out of Will's head. There was one scene where it seemed like Lawhead was popping in and out of different points of view with little or no warning.

But it's still a great book and definitely worth the read. Personally, I'm looking forward to Tuck, the final book in the trilogy. Past that, we'll just have to wait and see.

Havah

Hoe. Lee. COW!

I find that my words are woefully inadequate to describe my feelings after reading Havah by Tosca Lee. Simply put, this is one of the finest books I've read in a long time and Lee has become one of my all-time favorite authors.

Where to even begin? I mean, Lee's undertaking is massive, trying to tease out a whole novel in what amounts to three chapters in the Bible. But she pulls it off, injecting a lot of drama, conflict, and beauty to very familiar stories. It may be a cliche, but I can honestly say that I'll never look at the early chapters of Genesis the same way again.

Part of what really hit me is the lyrical quality of Lee's prose. I noticed it when I read Demon: A Memoir but it shines like a diamond in this book. It helped transport me to a very different place when I read it and kept me thoroughly absorbed.

The interactions between the characters were also very believable. Obviously I don't know what it would be like to be created perfect and then lose the Garden, but as I read how the adam and Havah dealt with their new lives outside, I nodded and thought to myself, "Yes, that's how it would be."

Lee makes some interesting dramatic choices in telling Havah's story. There were a few times when it seemed like she departed from the Biblical text, but that actually turned out for the best. Her poetic license was exercised with great care and deliberation and really, I can't fault her for the way she constructed her story. Any time I questioned her choices, I wound up retracting my questions a few chapters later.

To put it bluntly, this is an exquisitely crafted story, one that everyone would do well to pick up and read.

CSFF Blog Tour: Shade Day Three

So how much ambiguity is too much?

Recently my wife and I rented and watched Get Smart. While I found it a hilarious movie, I noticed something pretty interesting. The bad guy didn't monologue. There was never any cut-and-dried explanation as to why he did what he did. There was no great speech detailing the many wrongs he was trying to avenge or set right. He just did what he did and it was up to us to figure out why. I kind of liked that. It was refreshing to have that left in the dark. I certainly have my theory, but I can't say for sure that I'm right. And I'm okay with that.

So why do I bring that up when it comes to Shade? Because the book is chock full of ambiguity. Lots of it. Slathered on. To put it bluntly, I was confused an awful lot in this book. I still don't totally understand what a Mulo is. I'm not sure exactly what the Mulo was trying to accomplish. Maybe I missed it (I seem to recall I finished reading this book late at night; I tend to skim when I get sleepy), but the ambiguity didn't diminish my enjoyment all that much. If anything, it helped me get in the characters' heads a bit more since they were all a bit confused at times too.

Now obviously there has to be continuinty and an overarching explanation of all that happens. If we got John Olson locked in a room, he would be able to tell us exactly what was going on and why. But it's all right to leave readers in the dark every now and then. Or at least, I think it is.

The key, I think, is balance. Isn't that the way it is in everything? Too much ambiguity and the reader will become too frustrated to finish the book. Not enough, and things become too predictable and the readers might get frustrated for other reasons.

So there you go. Have I made myself clear? If not, that's okay too.

Go see what the other tourists are talking about on this, the final day:

Brandon Barr
Jennifer Bogart
Justin Boyer
Keanan Brand
Kathy Brasby
Valerie Comer
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
Janey DeMeo
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Todd Michael Greene
Katie Hart
Joleen Howell
Jason Isbell
Jason Joyner
Kait
Magma
Margaret
Rachel Marks
Melissa Meeks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Eve Nielsen
Nissa
Steve Rice
Mirtika or Mir's Here
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Robert Treskillard
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Jason Waguespac
Laura Williams
Timothy Wise

CSFF Blog Tour: Shade Day Two

I think I should tell you about how I bought my copy of Shade.

I was at the ACFW National Conference this past September. The first thing I did upon arrival was head to the bookstore to see what was available. I had very specific criteria: it had to be weird and/or I had to know the author or at least have heard of them. Emphasis on the former. I found a few interesting books but Shade was not one of them.

Later on, I bumped into John Olson. I told him I was a bit disappointed I couldn't find a copy of his book in the store. He told me that they hadn't arrived yet, that they would be available the next day, but that there were only going to be six copies.

Six?

The next morning, as soon as the opening session was done, I bolted out of the ballroom and made a mad dash to the store. Sure enough, the clerks were setting out the stack of six books. I launched myself into the fray and was one of the lucky few to get a copy. And for the rest of the conference, I could smile smugly as I overheard people complain that they wanted a copy but the store had sold out.

Okay, so maybe I ratcheted up the dramatic tension there a little. I'm a storyteller at heart. But why was I so anxious to get my hands on it?

It all has to do with anticipation. Perhaps I should explain.

Two years earlier, at a different ACFW National Conference, I had the privilege of meeting John Olson for the first time. He taught the speculative fiction track and I shared a meal or two with him. In the midst of chatting, he told us all about a story he had written. A story about vampires. Apparently when one of his friends read the story and then had to sleep with the lights on. He told us about how an agent (he gives the name in his Acknowledgements; consider this another enticement to go and buy the book yourself) told him he wouldn't touch the story with a ten foot pole.

Needless to say, I was intrigued. A Christian vampire story? That strong of a reaction from two different people? I had to see this book for myself. When I saw John Olson mention that Shade was coming out on his Facebook profile, I sent him a message to ask him if it was that book. Sure enough, it was.

I bring this up because I think there's a valuable lesson for us author-types. Buzz can really build your book.

Look at what's happened with The Shack. Here's a book that, for good or ill, has built a lot of buzz around itself. People are sharing this thing with all sorts of different people. The buzz sustains sales, keeps it in the public eye, and garners more readers. Just this past weekend, someone asked me if I had read it yet. I haven't. But I'm planning to just so I can see what the buzz is about.

In a smaller way, that's what happened with Shade and me. I looked forward to getting my hands on the book, not necessarily because I enjoy vampire stories (I didn't enjoy the last one I read all that much) but because I had to see what it was all about. It worked on me.

So how do we generate that buzz for our own books? Darned if I know. This blog tour certainly helps. But beyond that, I can't really say for certain. All we can do is keep plugging away and hope that we strike upon it.

Oh, and one last note. One of the five other hands reaching in to snatch up a copy of Shade at the Conference as the aforementioned friend of John Olson's, the one who slept with his lights on. Needless to say, that brought a smile to my face.

Go and see what the other tourists have to say:

Brandon Barr
Jennifer Bogart
Justin Boyer
Keanan Brand
Kathy Brasby
Valerie Comer
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
Janey DeMeo
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Todd Michael Greene
Katie Hart
Joleen Howell
Jason Isbell
Jason Joyner
Kait
Magma
Margaret
Rachel Marks
Melissa Meeks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Eve Nielsen
Nissa
Steve Rice
Mirtika or Mir's Here
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Robert Treskillard
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Jason Waguespac
Laura Williams
Timothy Wise

Just a little bit of unrelated boasting

I know we're in the middle of a blog tour and usually, I try to keep unrelated posts to a minimum during that time. But I just had to share:
At this rate, I may just manage to cross the finish line by the end of the week.

CSFF Blog Tour: Shade Day One

So is Hailey Maniates losing her mind? Or is what hulking homeless man Melchi saying true? Is she being stalked by a Mulo? Or is it all in her head? That's the basic question at the heart of John Olson's latest thriller, Shade.

The story starts out with a bang, with a young Melchi losing his mentor and master to the Mulo. And then we're off and running. Hailey gets attacked by something in her research lab, only to have a fully grown Melchi save her. Soon Hailey is running for her life, unsure of who she can trust or what exactly is happening to her. Melchi seems so sure of himself that an ancient evil is trying to claim her. But can he possibly be right when his stories and theories are so outlandish?

I have to admit, I didn't have a clue what was going on half the time. The backstory of Melchi's beliefs are never fully explained. But that's okay, because the ambiguity works so well with the story. The tension Hailey feels is also pretty believable. She wants to trust Melchi and is instinctively drawn to the gentle giant, but there are so many competing theories for what's happening to her that she can't be sure.

Olson also did a great job of putting the reader into Melchi's strange world. The first time you encounter the full grown Melchi, looking for his lost backpack, he doesn't make a lot of sense. His unique, slightly warped belief system slowly unfolds throughout the book. It's a gradual pace which really helps. It doesn't overwhelm the reader.

My only complaint, and it's minor, is that Olson might have been able to ratchet up the tension a little better. He tries to do so by calling Hailey's experiences into doubt in the early going. Is she suffering from paranoid schizophrenia or was she really almost attacked by some boogey man? But this tension disappears about a third of the way through the book. While Hailey questions what's happening to her, the reader doesn't. Olson tries to restoke those fires toward the end by casting Melchi in a less than positive light. But by that time, we've spent so much time in Melchi's head that it isn't that effective. If Olson had done this earlier, perhaps immediately after Hailey's doubts about her sanity, it might have been a little more effective.

As it is, Olson has put together a thrilling ride through an ancient battle between good and evil, one that brings the reader through harrowing near misses and some great personal salvation.

Go and see what the other tourists have to say:

Brandon Barr
Jennifer Bogart
Justin Boyer
Keanan Brand
Kathy Brasby
Valerie Comer
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
Janey DeMeo
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Todd Michael Greene
Katie Hart
Joleen Howell
Jason Isbell
Jason Joyner
Kait
Magma
Margaret
Rachel Marks
Melissa Meeks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Eve Nielsen
Nissa
John W. Otte
Steve Rice
Mirtika or Mir's Here
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Robert Treskillard
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Jason Waguespac
Laura Williams
Timothy Wise

Only Uni

Like I told my adult Bible study this morning, I blame Camy Tang for the fact that I got very little sleep last night. More specifically, I blame her book Only Uni. You know how you get to a point in a book where you just have to keep reading until the very end. I hit that point last night right about the time I should have gone to bed. Thankfully, I made it through the morning without becoming too incoherent.

But this was a great read. I'm not a regular reader of romance, especially not chick-lit (I mean, hello, Y chromosome), but I had heard some very good things about Tang's books and I had to check it out.

I'm really glad I did. This is the story of Trish Sakai. Trish is feeling a bit ashamed of herself after sleeping with her artist ex-boyfriend Kazuo. In a spiritual funk, she reads both 1 and 2 Corinthians and comes up with three rules for herself: #1, no looking. #2, tell more people about Christ. #3, persevere with God's help.

But this isn't going to be easy. Kazuo keeps popping up everywhere she goes. And then there's Spenser, a hunk who she's assigned to work with. But she's determined to make herself better for God and somehow redeem herself from her past.

Tang's story is an interesting journey into Japanese American culture. There are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments and quite a few gut-punchers as well. And there were a couple big twists I didn't see coming until I was right on top of them. That's part of the reason I was up so late last night. In the interest of fairness, I haven't read the first book in the series, namely Sushi for One, but that wasn't a problem. The book stood alone on its own just fine.

I do have one major gripe about the book. Actually, it's not just this one. It's something that popped up in Jerk, California as well. The kicker is, I can't really go into detail here because if I try to explain it at all, I'll be guilty of dropping major spoilers for both books. I can understand that what was said came from the genuineness of the characters. But the message that was delivered (perhaps unintentionally) really upset me and made me kind of angry.

But that should not stop anyone from reading this. I'm probably overreacting to nothing. If you want a delightful, romantic story told with (as Camy's website puts it) "a kick of wasabi," then this is for you. I'm even tempted to go out for a little Single Sashimi.

Jerk, California

You have to feel for Sam Carrier. This highschool senior suffers from Tourette's syndrome, which makes him something of an outcast among his classmates. His step-dad, Old Bill, who has obsessive compulsive disorder, hates him and absolutely dotes on his half-brother. Sam believes he is worthless, the son his true father ran out on before he died. And then he meets a beautiful runner in the rain and everything begins to change.

Jerk, California is the debut novel of Jonathan Friesen and tells Sam's tale.

I wasn't sure how I was going to like this book. Those who have read this blog for a while know that I tend to gravitate toward the fantastic, straying from speculative fiction only if I know and enjoy an author (or if I got the book for free). But I had heard good things about Jerk, California, and so I decided to take a chance.

I'm glad I did. Friesen has a lyrical quality to his prose that drew me into Sam's story and really put me in his shoes. One of the interesting choices that Friesen made was to tell the story in the present tense. It lent an immediacy to what was happening throughout the story as Sam struggles with his condition and tries to learn who he truly is.

Another nice touch was the way Naomi, the perfect running girl, was presented. She drove Sam nuts throughout the book. She did the same to me. I had no idea what she was thinking half the time, and while I had a feeling I knew how the story was going to end, her portrayal seeded enough doubt in my mind that I was pleasantly surprised.

This definitely isn't your typical Christian novel. There's not a lot of preaching to it, no big spiritual decisions reached at any point, and there was a bit of foul language that took me by surprise but didn't ultimately bother me. But there is definitely a redemptive quality to Sam's journey, one that moved me.

So take a chance on a new author and see what it's like to run a mile in the shoes of J ... Sam.

Hero, Second Class

And so now, I have made it through the first list of Marcher Lord Press. Last night, I finished the rollicking tale that is Hero, Second Class by Mitchell Bonds.

This is the one that I was most intrigued by. Jeff Gerke, publisher of Marcher Lord, has been raving about this book for a while, especially since Bonds was only 18 when he submitted this book to Marcher Lord Press. And seeing as I'm a cautious fan of Peter David's books, I was looking forward to a goofy send-up of fantasy tropes.

Bond's book did not disappoint. Right from the first three sentences, I knew that I was in for a goofy story. We have a hero that narrates his fight scenes, guilds that govern the interaction of the Heroes and the Villains, wise-cracking cat people, invisible centaurs, and a plethora of elvish races with their own unique names.

Bonds accomplished what he set out to do in telling this story. It is a great parody of fantasy stories with plenty of laugh-out-loud moments. A few jokes fell kind of flat for me, especially the times when Bonds "broke the fourth wall," so to speak. But by and large, I was satisfied with the silliness of the jokes and the way he skewered fantasy conventions.

But I did have a bit of a problem with the theological content of the story. I hesitate to bring that up, but in the interest of fairness, I feel I have to. Simply put, there were times when I thought I was reading a standard fantasy book that just happened to have some Christian thought glopped onto it.

The reason I say that is because of the strange pantheon of gods that's hinted at. In the opening paragraph of the book, Bonds makes a reference to Vertis the Sky god. Other gods are named throughout the story. And in the mix is the Creator, the obvious Christian analogue. I guess my question is, how does the Christian God fit into this pantheon of twelve lesser gods? Are the lesser gods not real? It's not discussed in the book. While this might be addressed in future books (for this is the first book in the Hero Complex series), it left me a little uneasy.

The same is true about the fairly standard use of magic throughout the book. How does that fit into a Christian worldview? Again, this will probably be addressed in future books as well, but it again left me a little worried.

Maybe I'm making a mountain out of a molehill. As a matter of fact, I probably am. This is still a solid debut novel full of wit and energy and well worth the investment to read.