The Future of Publishing?

This past weekend, TIME magazine published a thought-provoking article about modern book publishing. I offer it as food for thought.

It's not entirely surprising what it says. I've heard that the publishing industry has been hurting lately. But it certainly does make me wonder what the industry will look like a decade from now.

Perhaps we'll see more companies like this one.

CSFF Blog Tour: The Book of Names Day Three

One of the central themes of The Book of Names centers around the idea of names, oddly enough. It's not just the titular object that I'm talking about. Briggs seems to base some of his book's idea on the ancient idea that names carry power.

This is actually an idea that pops up in the Bible. Remember Exodus 3? God shows up in a burning bush and tells Moses to head back to Egypt. Before he goes, though, Moses has a question for God: "Suppose I do go and tell the Israelites that You sent me. What if they ask me what Your name is? What should I tell them?" God's answer is the cryptic "I Am Who I Am."

One of the reasons why God might have answered that way is because of what the ancient Egyptians believed. Names have power. If you knew a person's true name, you had power over them. For example, the goddess Isis once gained power over Ra, the supreme god, by learning his true name. It's entirely possible that Moses, with his Egyptian education, asked God what His name was as a back-up position. If he knew God's true name, he could try to control Him.

That's why God replies with the enigmatic "I Am Who I Am" (which is even more cryptic in the original Hebrew; the grammar is a bit vague). He lets Moses know that He can't be controlled by human beings. He's no genie in a bottle.

This idea of names being a part of us reminded me of something I often say when I perform baptisms. All of us are born with a true name, one that describes us fully. That name is "Sinner." But because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross, God can and will change our names to "Christian." Our new name becomes a part of us and changes our destiny.

Anyway, there we go. A little sermonic rambling for your Wednesday. Go see what the other tourists have to say:

Sally Apokedak
Brandon Barr
Keanan Brand
Rachel Briard
Valerie Comer
Frank Creed
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Shane Deal
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Andrea Graham
Todd Michael Greene
Timothy Hicks
Joleen Howell
Jason Isbell
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Carol Keen
Magma
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Mirtika
Eve Nielsen
Nissa
Steve Rice
Crista Richey
Alice M. Roelke
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Rachel Starr Thomson
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Jason Waguespac
Phyllis Wheeler
Timothy Wise

CSFF Blog Tour: The Book of Names Day Two

While I enjoyed The Book of Names once I got into it, there was one thing that kept me a bit uncomfortably almost to the very end. Simply put, Briggs's foundation for his story seems to be a sort of blend between Christianity and Norse mythology. I can't be sure since I've never really studied Norse mythology, but what little I know seems to suggest a connection. For example, Cruedwyn Creed's sword was apparently enchanted by Loki. And many of the mythic names that crop up in the story seem to have a Norse flavor to them.

This disturbed me a little at first. Should we really be blending our faith with pagan beliefs?

But then I realized that I was being a little hypocritical. One of my favorite C.S. Lewis books is Til We Have Faces. For those of you unfamiliar with that tale, Lewis retells the story of Psyche and Cupid with a decidedly Christian twist. Once I realized that, I set my trepidation aside and my enjoyment for the book went up.

I remember a few years ago, fellow Blog tourist Mirtika once challenged us to take one of Aesop's fables (about foxes, if I remember correctly) and then locate Bible verses dealing with foxes to come up with the seeds of a story's plot. I'm afraid I didn't participate that time, but I did purchase a few books on mythology at the time, intending to mine them for ideas. I didn't follow through on that either, but reading The Book of Names made my eyes wander to the shelves and think, "That might not be a bad idea after all."

There is one caveat in all of this. It's my belief that we have to be careful when using mythology as a foundation for our stories that we don't allow the myths to overshadow or twist our Christian beliefs. I say this because there was one thing in The Book of Names that made me a bit confused. In this book, the Christ-analogue seems to be named Aion. There were a few times where Briggs mentions that Aion has come and will come to Karac Tor a total of nine times. Needless to say, that made me a bit confused. But I suppose it may work differently in alternate realities.

Whatever. I'm thinking I might need to start pulling down those mythology books soon. Who's with me?

Before you do, though, make sure that you go and visit the other blogs on the tour and see what the other tourists have to say:

Sally Apokedak
Brandon Barr
Keanan Brand
Rachel Briard
Valerie Comer
Frank Creed
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Shane Deal
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Andrea Graham
Todd Michael Greene
Timothy Hicks
Joleen Howell
Jason Isbell
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Carol Keen
Magma
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Mirtika
Eve Nielsen
Nissa
Steve Rice
Crista Richey
Alice M. Roelke
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Rachel Starr Thomson
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Jason Waguespac
Phyllis Wheeler
Timothy Wise

CSFF Blog Tour: The Book of Names Day One

This month, we're considering The Book of Names by D. Barkley Briggs, a Young Adult fantasy series.

It's the story of the Barlow brothers. They've recently moved to a small farm in Missouri with their professor father. The transition is a difficult one, but Hadyn and Ewan, the two older brothers, discover a strange runestone, one that transports them to a place called Karac Tor. They're told that they could be heroes summoned to help a troubled land. For a mighty sorceress is stealing the names of young people in attempt to unleash a great evil. Will Hadyn and Ewan be able to find their way home again, or will they be consumed by the ever growing evil?

It took me a while to get into this book. I don't know why that is, but once I did, it was worth it. Briggs crafts a rich world with a fascinating spiritual hierarchy (the Whites, the Blacks, and the Grays). His characters are fun to follow, especially as Hadyn and Ewan learn that they have special abilities in Karac Tor.

Personally, my favorite character is Cruedwyn Creed, a swashbuckling warrior with a rather interesting blade. He always kept me laughing to the very end.

It's definitely worth a read. I know I'm looking forward to the next book in the series, Corus the Champion.

Go and check out what the rest of the tourists have to say:

Sally Apokedak
Brandon Barr
Keanan Brand
Rachel Briard
Valerie Comer
Frank Creed
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Shane Deal
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Andrea Graham
Todd Michael Greene
Timothy Hicks
Joleen Howell
Jason Isbell
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Carol Keen
Magma
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Mirtika
Eve Nielsen
Nissa
Steve Rice
Crista Richey
Alice M. Roelke
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Rachel Starr Thomson
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Jason Waguespac
Phyllis Wheeler
Timothy Wise

Star Wars (as retold by someone who hasn't seen it)

Oh my word.

Adam

Jill tracked down a copy of this book for me and brought it home. I'm really glad she did.

Adam by Ted Dekker is a rollicking thriller. FBI profiler Daniel Clark is on the track of a serial killer known only as "Eve." Eve is a careful individual who has killed fifteen women. Clark is desperate to stop him. He's obsessed with Eve, to the point that he drove away his wife, Heather.

Then it would appear that Daniel has caught a break: they think they've found Eve's hideout and they might be able to save his sixteenth victim. Only things go awry when Eve shoots and kills Daniel.

Luckily for Daniel, his new partner, Dr. Lori Ames, is able to bring him back. And now Daniel is even more determined to stop him, especially when he learns that Heather's life is on the line.

This was a rollicking good read and I pretty much devoured it over the past couple of days. Like many of Dekker's latest books, it seems to be a little light on spirituality, but that changes in the last quarter of the book.

I'll just add this one last thought: the book that Father Seymour suggests to Heather Clark toward the end of the book, Hostage to the Devil is indeed a real book. I've read it. It scared me half to death, so much so that I could only read four or five pages at a time and in the middle of the day. Fair warning.

Saving Charlie

Maybe it's that I read this two years too late. More likely, it's just not that good of a book. But I can sum up Saving Charlie in three words: junk food fiction.

Remember how good Heroes used to be? The mystery, the twists, the turns? The plot that was obviously ripped off from Watchmen? When I started reading Saving Charlie, I was hoping that I would be transported back to the realm of Heroes Season One, when things were good, when poor Hiro Nakamura traveled back in time to save a sweet waitress with an incredible memory named Charlie. Instead, I found a bland, cookie cutter story with no twists and little to enjoy.

The problem with the book is that Aury Wallington stuck slavishly to what we already knew about Hiro and Charlie: Sylar (called Brain Man in this book) kills her at her job, so Hiro tries to go back one day to save her, only to wind up going back six months. He sets out to save her, only he falls in love with her and she with him. And then it turns out she's destined to die.

Those who have read my blog know I'm averse to posting spoilers, but here's the kicker: if you saw the episodes with Charlie in the first season, you know the entire plot of this book! There are no surprises, nothing that made me go, "Whoa!" There's little conflict, little confusion, and very little to enjoy.

Here's what I think: Wallington missed a prime opportunity to add to the Heroes canon. Hiro spent six months in Odessa, Texas, waiting to save the woman he loved. Are we to really believe that Hiro would just sit in a hotel room and do nothing? It would have been a lot cooler if Hiro would have found adventure in Odessa with the woman he comes to love.

Just imagine it: there's some sort of crime in Odessa, one that Hiro is blamed for by Lloyd, a cop who yearns for Charlie's affection. Hiro needs to use his powers and convince Charlie to use her phenomenal memory to track down the real culprit because if he doesn't, he'll wind up in jail and he won't be able to meet his destiny.

Wouldn't that have been fun? A new Hiro story! Instead, all we get is predictable plots with the barest flickers of humor.

One reviewer on Amazon summed it up best: It's not Saving Charlie. It's really about saving your money and your time. Don't bother.

Bender's Game

While Isaiah was sleeping, I watched the latest addition to Futurama, namely Bender's Game.

In this latest installment, a dark matter fuel shortage is hitting the world and Professor Farnsworth knows a way to stop the evil Mom. But nothing is ever as simple as it seems.

It was a fun ride. I have to admit, the weird fantasy storyline seemed a bit forced on, like they had half a plot and decided to glom on something at the end, but hey, it's a show that features one-eyed sewer mutants, alcoholic robots, and (my personal favorite) lobster aliens who somehow become doctors.

What really has me a little irked, though, is the lack of continuity between the three new movies. I'll try to keep spoilers to a minimum here.

So at the end of the series, it appeared as though Fry and Leela were finally going to be together. At least, that seems to be what they were building up to, especially given the last few moments of the show. And then "Bender's Big Score" came out and everything was forgotten. Leela is all hot for Lars and she shows little interest in Fry. Well, until the end.

While the anomaly from the end of "Bender's Big Score" does feature prominently in "Beast with a Billion Backs," little else carries through. Fry suddenly forgets about Leela completely to go out with some weird bimbo (I forget her name). Given the way the first movie ended, that seemed a bit off to me.

And now, in this movie, there's no mention of Fry and Leela's disfunctional romance. No mention of Amy or Kiff. To put it bluntly, I expected better continuity.

That's not to say that this wasn't a fun ride. It was. But a little more effort to blend all the stories together (or, at the very least, explain away these relational hiccups) would have been appreciated.

Star Wars Omnibus: Tales of the Jedi Volume 2

About a month ago, I reviewed some Star Wars novels and said that I much prefered reading about the time before the prequels and original trilogy. I may have to revise my opinion a bit, especially since I've finished reading Star Wars Omnibus: Tales of the Jedi Volume 2.

You'd think this would be good. It tells the stories of the ancient Jedi Knights, set approximately 4,000 years before the original Star Wars trilogy. It fills in backstory for the Old Republic, with the Jedi fighting the evil followers of Sith magic. But there are problems.

Some of the problems can't be helped. These stories were written before George Lucas revealed a lot about the way Jedi are supposed to live. For example, one of the main characters, Nomi Sunrider, was married and had a child before she became a Jedi. Two other Jedi are married to each other. And there is plenty of references to other Jedi getting married and having children. Needless to say, I'm curious to see how the folks at LucasFilm will retcon all of this to preserve the continuity in the Expanded Universe.

But more importantly, there's a lot lacking in these stories. Simple craft is one thing that is really missing. The storytellers seemed content to just "tell" us everything in boxes rather than "show" us. That's an odd choice, if you think about it, since this is a visual medium and it should have been pretty easy to show us instead of bludgeon us with the blunt end of the plot.

The story is lacking as well. This volume centers around the reborn Sith, personified in Exar Kun. I had built Exar Kun up in my mind as a titanic figure, darkness incarnate. He doesn't come across that way. He's just a guy who feels like following the Dark Side for no discernable reason.

Not only that, but I really question the whole "Krath" subplot as well. Are we to seriously believe that a five-planet star system ruled by spoiled youth who dabble in Sith magic is a viable threat to the Jedi and the Republic?

The art is a toss up. I didn't really like it, but at the same time, the rough drawings really gave the stories an ancient feel to it. You could tell that this was the "history" of Star Wars, moreso than the Knights of the Old Republic games.

Speaking of which, I couldn't help but draw comparisons to that, especially the first one. If Exar Kun is such a bad guy, why wasn't he more sinister, like Darth Revan or Darth Malak?

There was one bright spot in this book, and that was the final story, "Redemption." I liked the art better and the story flowed better as well. If the whole book was like that, I would have loved it. As it is, it's just okay.