A Clash of Kings

And the saga continues. In the wake of the tumultuous events in A Game of Thrones, the land of Westeros is torn by war. King Joffrey reigns from the Iron Throne in King's Landing, but he's not the only one who claims the throne. There's Renly Baratheon, the younger brother of Robert Baratheon, the former occupant of the Iron Throne. There's also Stannis Baratheon, Renly's older brother who believes he has the better claim. And there's Robb Stark, the King in the North, who seeks to punish Joffrey and his family for what they've done. And lurking beyond the sea is Daenerys Targaryen, last member of the former dynasty that Robert deposed. Plus there's the wildlings north beyond the Wall, and ancient grudges, and ... wow.

Martin's storytelling continues to be superb in A Clash of Kings. The plots are thick and twisted, the betrayals are fast and furious, and you get the feeling that no one is truly safe, not from each other and definitely not from Martin himself. He's created a rich and detailed world with its own histories, mythologies, geographies, and a bunch of other -ies that make this a living, breathing world. And it's a harsh world as well. These books are still not for the faint of heart.

What really has me intrigued is this idea of a growing power, something that's stirring within the world. I have this feeling that in future books, we're going to see even more factions come into play, more so than they are now.

I also love the fact that there's no one side to cheer for in this multi-fronted war. I stand with King Robb for sure. But I also wish Daenerys the best of luck. And I also root for Tyrion Lannister whenever he graces the stage. Would that I could see the three of them on one side. Those of you who have read the book, if that's what happens (or even if it's not), keep it to yourself. I want to find out on my own.

My only gripe (and it's a minor one) is that I saw one of the twists coming. If it hadn't been a twist, it would have made for a sheer, stunning "whoa" type of moment. With the twist, it was more of an "eh, I suppose" moment. That's not necessarily bad. It kept a lot more options open for storytelling and should make future installments fun.

But I'm hooked and ready for the next one. But I may have to take a breather first. This is a lot to digest, but I'm all for a rich, literary meal.

Wordcount Wednesday

So I've actually accomplished something this week! Hooray for me! Last Wednesday I reported that I had read Numb and marked it up. Over the past week, I've gone through and started making the changes that I could. I don't know if they'll be enough, but it's a good start.

I could bore all of you with a chapter-by-chapter breakdown of the changes but I won't. Suffice it to say that I've gone through 22 of the 45 chapters. When I make it through the rest, I'll post a comparison between the old wordcount total and the new.

But Numb is not the only thing on my mind right now. The other day I was thinking over Return of the Mourning Dove and I realized that if I made a few minor changes to the ending, I could set myself up for a sequel or two. Not that those sequels would have to be written; the story stands alone just fine on its own. But it would be a nice option to have open for myself.

So that's about it. Maybe by this time next week I'll be done with Numb. We'll have to see.

CSFF Blog Tour: Offworld Day Two

Yesterday I compared Offworld by Robin Parrish to a summer blockbuster. Maybe I should get a bit more specific about that comparison. To me, Offworld is a popcorn flick ... er, book. While it was an entertaining read and I enjoyed it while I read it, once it was over, I didn't feel really satisfied.

The reason why is because this book seemed really light in terms of Christian elements. Oh, sure, there are some vaguely spiritual elements to it (i.e. Commander Burke occasionally offers up a generic prayer before a particularly action-packed scene), but the Christian content is light to say the least.

Now I know what some of you are saying. But what about the [--- PLOT ELEMENT REDACTED ---] at the heart of the [--- PLOT ELEMENT REDACTED ---]!?! That was Christian!" Yes, it admittedly was. But the aforementioned redacted plot element was, simply put, a MacGuffin.


What's that, you ask? A MacGuffin is a term popularized by the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. It's the supposedly important item that drives the plot of a story and sets the protagonist and antagonist against each other. Yet here's the thing: a true MacGuffin isn't important in and of itself. It could actually be exchanged with something else and the plot wouldn't be affected, not in any significant way.

Sadly, the entire Christian element of Offworld is one gigantic MacGuffin. It has absolutely no intrinsic value to the storyline as a whole. If we were to perform a literal deus ex machina on this story and replace the Christian MacGuffin with a non-Christian one, very little about the overall story would change. Burke and company would still be heading for Houston. They'd still be facing the same ... well, I won't get into that right here. Not much would actually change in terms of plot.

In other words, the Christian content of Offworld isn't central. It's more of an afterthought. At least, that's the way it seems to be from where I'm sitting.

Now there is one other Christian element that exists in this story, but given the sheer repetition of this element in non-Christian fiction (think Harry Potter in The Deadly Hallows), it's not enough to classify this book as truly Christian fiction. It's fiction with Christian overtones.

That doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy this book. I did. Like I said, it's an entertaining read. But I didn't see much more to it than what's on the surface.

Am I wrong? Let me know. And don't forget to enter the contest so you can get a copy for yourself. Go and see what everyone else has to say:

Brandon Barr
Jim Black
Justin Boyer
Keanan Brand
Gina Burgess
Canadianladybug
Melissa Carswell
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Linda Gilmore
Beth Goddard
Todd Michael Greene
Katie Hart
Ryan Heart
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Melissa Meeks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Mirtika
Eve Nielsen (posting later in the week)
Nissa
Lyn Perry
Steve Rice
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Speculative Faith
Stephanie
Rachel Starr Thomson
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Dona Watson
Elizabeth Williams

All Things Are Better in Koine

I wholeheartedly agree! Makes me want to brush up on my Greek and do some exegesis right now.

CSFF Blog Tour: Offworld Day One

Imagine, if you will: you are an astronaut returning from the first manned mission to Mars. On your way home, your ship suffers an apparent communication failure and you find yourself unable to call home. Then you get home and discover that the problem wasn't with your ship. It was actually with Earth itself. Everyone has disappeared without a trace.

That's the premise of this month's book, Offworld by Robin Parrish. The astronaut in question is Commander Christopher Burke, the leader of a four person team. He and his teammates arrive back from Mars to discover that everyone everywhere is gone (as it says on the back of the book). There's no indication of where they went. The only clue they have leads them to Houston. But it seems like someone ... or something ... doesn't want them to make it. Now Burke has to struggle to keep his team together while he also grapples with memories of something that happened to him on Mars. Can they find out where everyone has gone? Or will they be the next victims?

Offworld was a good read. A quick one. Parrish has a compelling visual style to his writing. I often felt like I was watching an action movie. As a matter of fact, if I had to describe Parrish's style, it'd be that of a summer tentpole movie. Lots of action, a healthy dose of explosions, and a bunch of one-liners from a smart-alecky crewmate. If I were going to pick someone to write an action blockbuster, Robin Parrish is the person I would go to.

But in many ways, I was a bit disappointed with this book. But I'll save that for tomorrow.

One other thing that I almost forgot! I have a copy of this book to give away! If you want to win it, just leave me a comment on this post saying that you wish to enter the drawing. Also include your e-mail address in disguise (such as "name" [at] "domain" [dot] "whatever") to avoid the evil of spammers.

For now, go check out what the other tourists have to say:

Brandon Barr
Jim Black
Justin Boyer
Keanan Brand
Gina Burgess
Canadianladybug
Melissa Carswell
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Linda Gilmore
Beth Goddard
Todd Michael Greene
Katie Hart
Ryan Heart
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Melissa Meeks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Mirtika
Eve Nielsen (posting later in the week)
Nissa
Lyn Perry
Steve Rice
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Speculative Faith
Stephanie
Rachel Starr Thomson
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Dona Watson
Elizabeth Williams

A Game of Thrones

A few months ago, I read a short story by George R. R. Martin and enjoyed it so much, I figured I had to take the plunge and try the first book of his A Song of Fire and Ice books, namely A Game of Thrones. One of my youth actually recommended this book to me many years ago but I didn't read it then. I'm actually kind of sorry that I didn't. It's an incredible book.

It's hard to pin down one main character; the story jumps through multiple viewpoints throughout its many pages. But I think I can safely say that the story revolves mostly around the Starks of Winterfell. They are a noble family charged with taking care of the northern end of the Seven Kingdoms. Their world gets up-ended when King Robert demands that Lord Eddard Stark become his Hand. Eddard is reluctant but finally agrees, moving down to King's Landing with his two daughters, Arya and Sansa. There he finds himself embroiled in plots and counterplots, mysteries and danger, stemming from the Lannister family, who are connected to the throne through marriage.

Those of you who have read this book are probably frustrated and think I did a poor job of summing up the story. And I admit, that probably is one of the worst plot summaries I've ever written. That's because Martin's plot is complex. There are plots, counterplots, political and familial tensions woven throughout the story.

The characters are superb. No one is what you would call a "good guy." Everyone is shot through with shades of gray. While there are truly despicable characters (Viserys Targaryen leaps immediately to mind), there aren't what you would call superlatively noble characters. Everyone is flawed in some way and it makes for truly believable characters.

And Martin clearly doesn't get too senetimental about those characters. Or, if he does, he doesn't let that get in the way of messing with them, sometimes in brutal ways. That was a good a reminder for me. I tend to be too "nice" to my characters when I'm writing. Martin's book has reminded me that often, the best thing an author can do is dump on his characters. A lot. In horrific ways.

What's truly incredible is the world that Martin has created. There were times I wanted to see a chart of this world's solar system to try to figure out its odd seasonal pattern (years-long summers followed by years-long winter). And I was delighted to discover that modern sciences played a big role in the plot (although the characters wouldn't understand that). Genetics. I'll leave it at that. And the language, the gritty pictures, it all adds up to a superbly crafter story world that breathes and has a life of its own.

A word of caution to those who offend easily. There is blood. Lots of it. There is foul language aplenty. And there's quite a bit of sex too. If you can't stomach that sort of thing, then this book isn't for you. But if you want a somewhat disturbing, very real story with gritty characters and an incredible plot, then check this one out. Just don't wait years to do it.

District 9

In the interest of fairness, I'll just say here that I haven't seen the G.I. Joe movie or the new Transformers movie. But even in my present state of ignorance, I think I can safely say that neither of those movies can compete with District 9. The reason I say that is because District 9 has two things those movies lack: brains and heart.

Don't get me wrong, there are explosions in District 9. There's a lot of gore, so much at times that I had to close my eyes and wait for it to pass. But this was a powerful movie with a superb story smartly told.

For those unfamiliar with this movie, it's about a group of aliens that drop out of the sky over Johannesburg, South Africa. The ship is filled with aliens the humans derisively label "prawns." After several tense years, the prawns are herded into a slum called District 9 where they are forced to live in absolute squalor.

The movie picks up as MNU, the corporation that runs District 9, prepares to relocate the prawns from District 9 to their new home outside of Johannesburg. They leave this task to Wikus Van De Merwe (played by Sharlto Copley), a complete and total corporate tool. He's being filmed for a documentary about the move and, for the opening parts of the movie, we see what the documentary film crew sees. This is interspersed with "talking head" footage, where experts spin out the backstory of where the prawns came from, how they've gotten along with humans, and so on. And it's pretty clear from what they say that something bad is going to happen to Wikus.

The something bad happens as Wikus is trying to evict the residents of District 9. He winds up getting sprayed with some goo and things pretty much go downhill from there.

This was a great movie. It's smart and original (for the most part; when I first heard of District 9, I couldn't help but draw a parallel between it and Alien Nation), painting a very ugly picture of humanity in general and multinational coporations in particular. There's a dreadful sense of reality to the story, even though it's cloaked in a science fiction premise. Part of what made this movie so gripping is that I could see something like this happening because, let's be honest, humans don't exactly have a great track record of loving people different than them. That's part of the reason why the setting of Johannesburg works so well. If this story had been told in New York, we could wrap ourselves up in a cloak of denial and say, "No way." But with the constant reminder of apartheid and especially District 6.

But if I may, I'd like to diverge for a moment onto the subject of special effects.

Hoe. Lee. Cow.

Weta Works, Peter Jackson's company in New Zealand, outdid themselves with this one. Simply astounding work. I'd say Industrial Light and Magic has a major competitor now.

So definitely go and check this one out. I don't want to get my hopes up by predicting "Oscar" or anything like that. But if ever there was a science fiction opus that deserved a little gold man for Best Picture, this one does.

Wordcount Wednesday

Okay, so I guess it's been a while, huh? I made a decision a few weeks ago that I wouldn't waste anyone's time by posting if I had nothing to post. Yeah, I've been a bad writer. But I was able to kind of kick it into gear this week and dove back into the world of Numb, my latest Christian sci-fi novel.

You may recall that I wasn't all that pleased with it when I finished. I was worried that the whole thing was a pile of broken garbage. I even harbored the sneaking suspicion that it was broken beyond repair.

Silly, silly writer.

Turns out I was being a bit hard on myself. Over the past week, I sat down with a red pen and marked it up pretty badly. I went over the notes I kept while writing and inserted them through where I could. Some stuff will be left out for now. Some stuff still needs to be put in. But by and large, this can be fixed. It can be made better.

So starting tomorrow, I'm diving back in. I'll post before-and-after wordcounts on Wednesday, either for individual chapters or for the whole thing, depending on how long the project takes.

See you in a week.

Win a bunch of books!

No, not from me. But from ubertalented chick-lit author Camy Tang!

Those few of you who follow my blog know that I loved Camy's Sushi series. Well, tonight I noticed that she is giving away boxes and boxes of Christian fiction. I hopped on over to her website immediately and wound up drooling all over my keyboard at the selection.

Okay, granted, most of the books in the box aren't my cup of tea. Or can of Coke, as it were. But there are enough good ones in there that I entered immediately. Personally, I'm hoping for Box #14. Or maybe not, now that I took another look at the list. That first book has me a bit wary...

But whatever. You want books? Camy has them for you! Go and check out the details of her contest. GO GO GO!

Batman: Arkham Asylum

A few days ago I snagged the demo for Batman: Arkham Asylum off of Steam and late last night, I decided I would take it for a spin and see what the game was all about.

Wow. I am impressed with what I saw so far.

As near as I can tell, the overall story of the game revolves around (you guessed it) Arkham Asylum. Batman has returned the Joker to the Asylum, only to have Joker escape almost immediately. It turns out that Joker wanted to go back because he's set a trap for the Batman. Batman is trapped inside the Asylum with Joker in control of everything through his right hand gal, Harley Quinn. I'm guessing Batman will have to fight his way through the thugs and villains housed in the Asylum before squaring off with Joker himself.

First things first: the look. Gritty, grimy, and very realistic. I snagged this screenshot of Harley at one point just because I was so impressed (and I have a soft spot for Harley):

There's a definite dark feel to the game, which is only appropriate. And the voices! According to imdb, it's an all-star cast, all of whom have had experience playing their respective good guys and villains. I mean, you can't do much better than Kevin Conroy for Batman's voice. And while Heath Ledger is the best Joker I've ever seen hands-down, if you're going to have someone do the Clown Prince of Crime's voice, I'd go with Mark Hamill any day.

On to one of the things that Batman does best: fighting.

This was, perhaps, the greatest surprise for me. When Joker unleashed the first wave of thugs after me, the game prompted me to just left click. And I did. And my jaw promptly hit the floor.

I expected just a few simple punches. What I got was a gymnastic display worthy of the Caped Crusader. Flips, kicks, roundhouses, Batman did it all ... and only from left clicking! The game choreographed a spectacular fight just from me doing some button mashing.

This might actually be a drawback. There are a few special moves you can do that require more than left-clicking, but the fighting controls almost seem too simple. It was great late at night when my brain was half shut down, but when I'm more alert, I might want more of a challenge.

Of course, the challenge might grow through subsequent levels. This is a demo, after all, and there weren't any boss fights.

But there's more to Batman than just throw haymakers. I was able to use his grappling hook, take down a few thugs silently, and use "detective mode," which apparently is Batman activating some sort of sight overlay device in his cowl (think the infamous sonar mode from "Batman Forever," only not quite as stupid). That last one bugged me a bit, but I got used to it and switching between it and the regular view was seamless.

Having said that, there were a few things that bugged me.

One is pure aesthetics. For some reason, when Batman was walking, the camera moved so that Batman was on the left side of my screen. I'm used to games like this having the main character dead center on the screen and it made navigating a bit tricky at first. I don't know why you'd do something like that. Maybe there's a way to fix it.

The second was the fact I could tell that this was a cross-platform game. It's easy to tell from throwing the batarangs. Just get the aiming reticle near your target, then lock-on with a mouse click before you throw. It's pretty obvious the system was designed primarily for systems that don't have a mouse. Not insurmountable, just a minor annoyance.

So overall, I liked it. I'm not planning on buying it right away when it comes out in September. I'll be at the ACFW Conference in Denver in September and my discretionary entertainment budget is earmarked for lots and lots of books. But I think I'll be chasing Joker through Arkham Asylum again at some point. I can't wait for the hunt.

Fanboys

I have not laughed this hard in a long time. Seriously. And I have Fanboys to thank for it.

Maybe you haven't heard of this movie. I don't think it got that wide of a release. More's the pity. Such a good movie.

The story is set six months before The Phantom Menace was released. A group of childhood friends, Star Wars fans all, set out on the ultimate adventure. They are going to break into the Skywalker Ranch and steal a copy of The Phantom Menace because one of their friends has terminal cancer. So they set out from Ohio, crossing the country and getting into one misadventure after another.

Great premise, right? I hadn't seen it, but I had heard really great things about it, so much so that I bought it pretty much sight unseen.

Well, not completely unseen. I did find this on YouTube (I'd love to actually post the video, but embedding is disabled for it). After watching that, I decided I had to risk it. I bit the bullet, bought the DVD, and tonight, I finally got the chance to watch it.

And I loved it. There's a lot of crude humor in it, but there's even more nerd and geek references, great nods to the original Star Wars trilogy. The many, many cameos were tremendous. And the last line of the movie? Icing on the cake.

It may not be cool to admit it, but I'm a fanboy. Have been for years. This is a great "love letter" to guys like me.

The Writer's Digest Guide to Query Letters

Lesson learned. Don't grab Writer's Digest books only because of the title. Actually take a moment to flip through them to make sure you know what you're getting. At least I learned something from The Writer's Digest Guide to Query Letters.

Well, maybe that's a bit too harsh. I'm sure that someone could learn quite a lot from this book. But here's the problem that I ran into: the book is mainly geared for freelance writers hoping to query magazines about articles. There is information in there about querying book publishers and agents, but it's buried toward the back.

The other problem is that the information is very, very basic. Beginner stuff, really. I'm not saying I'm an expert on writing query letters, but the information contained in this book was stuff I had picked up from other books, articles, and classes. In other words, it was largely repeated.

So if you're a beginning writer, this is the one for you. If you're not, you probably know what this book offers already.

The Johnstown Flood

You know, sometimes I'm a sucker when it comes to reading books.

One of my parishioners loaned me The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough, saying that I had to read it. And I decided to give it a whirl, especially since I didn't know what the book was about. For a little while, I thought this was about the earthquake that rerouted the Mississippi River in Missouri way back when. Nope, not about that at all.

Instead, this is the horrific story of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a good sized town that was wiped out when a dam burst after a freakishly large summer storm. The disaster basically wiped the town out, killing thousands of people.

Like I said, I had never heard of Johnstown or this disaster before. A quick flip through the center section of pictures and drawings certainly got my attention, especially when I came across a photo similar to this one:

So I dove in and, sadly, I think I might regret it.

McCullough is apparently a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and he certainly shows that much attention to detail. Every person who crosses the book's stage is given a thorough biography, even if they aren't all that important to the overall story. There are a lot of details given that, quite frankly, I could have done without (i.e. the list of individual contributions made by different organizations to the relief effort). Some of it is quite helpful; the faulty dam's pedigree helped set the stage nicely for the disaster to come. But the overall effect was simply dry reading, which isn't exactly what you expect from a book about one of the worst floods in American history.

Overall, I'd say that if you're interested in this time period or in Johnstown in particular, this is a good book to pick up. Otherwise, you could probably let it go without missing much.