CSFF Blog Tour: Broken Angel Day 2

About halfway through Broken Angel by Sigmund Brouwer, I set the book aside and commented to myself, "Someone’s obviously been reading his Gregory Boyd."

For those who haven’t read this month’s book, you may want to stop reading. I don’t know how much of what I’m about to explain will ruin the plot, but just to be on the safe side. As I said yesterday, the book is set in the near future in a totalitarian theocracy called Appalachia. The citizens are kept illiterate and are monitored at all time through devices they’re forced to carry called vidpods. No one is allowed to own a book, not even an audio version of the Bible. Punishment for violating Appalachia’s laws is severe, namely stoning. It’s a harsh life, the depiction of which is bound to make many Christian readers uncomfortable.

What amplifies that discomfort is the fact that those who wish to escape Appalachia want to get to what’s called "Outside." In Outside, there doesn’t seem to be a church of any kind. There are no morals restraining their actions. And yet, it’s this God-less society that so many people consider a better alternative to Appalachia’s religious atmosphere.

It’s a very dark picture that Brouwer paints. Would a modern theocracy be so bleak?
I happen to think it would, mostly because it’s a confusion of God’s two kingdoms, a mixing that isn’t beneficial to either.

This is an idea that Martin Luther played around with during the Reformation. Luther taught that God has two kingdoms, the kingdom of the right hand and the kingdom of the left hand. The kingdom of the right is the Christian Church and is founded on grace. This is the kingdom that Jesus speaks of to Pilate in John 18:36 when He says that His kingdom is not of this world. It is a kingdom of grace, forgiveness, and faith.

The kingdom of the left hand are the governments of the world. It is the way that God governs the rest of humanity, by working through the authorities of this world. Paul talks about this in Romans 13:1-7, where he tells the Romans, "there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God." It is a kingdom of law, meant to curb the evil that human beings often engage in.

It was Luther’s contention that the two kingdoms should not mix because they will either dilute or taint each other. A government ruled by true Christian forgiveness would be too lax in administering the law, which would only lead to chaos. A Church involved in the administering of laws could easily tip toward legalism and forget about grace. In short, the Church should never wield the sword of government. Luther even went so far as saying that it would be better to be "ruled by a good Turk than a bad Christian prince." (And remember, the Holy Roman Empire was facing an invasion by the Turks when he said that!)

Gregory Boyd, in his book The Myth of a Christian Nation, expands on this theme. It’s a book that I think all modern Christians should read. He points out that Christ didn’t ask for us to spread his kingdom through political means. Instead, it’s better for Christians to work as servants where they are. He details a number of reasons why this mixing of the two kingdoms is such a bad idea. The most persuasive to me is that the sins of "Christian" government can easily be laid at the feet of the Church. For example, by calling America a Christian nation, Christianity’s critics can blame such debacles as slavery, racism, or eugenics on Christian teaching, even though such things aren’t compatible with the faith.

Brouwer’s setting for Broken Angel is, I think, a natural outgrowth of what Luther and Boyd wrote about. In this dystopian theocracy, the politically active Christians finally get sick and tired of being marginalized and ignored. So they take their ball and go home, so to speak. They set up shop behind a high wall, set up an economy based on cheap labor and selling carbon emission credits (a very cool touch, I thought), and enforce their version of Christianity, harsh and legalistic.

It’s a cautionary tale, one I think more American Christians should consider. Christ never called on His followers to force anyone into His kingdom or coerce their behavior through political means. Christ’s true kingdom is one of service, not swords.

Agree? Disagree? Either way’s fine. But Brouwer’s book is good food for thought, as is Luther’s teaching and Boyd’s book. If nothing else, it’s something that all Christians should at least consider ... especially during an election year.

Go see what the others think of Brouwer’s book:

Brandon Barr
Justin Boyer
Keanan Brand
Jackie Castle
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Janey DeMeo
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Mark Goodyear
Andrea Graham
Katie Hart
Timothy Hicks
Christopher Hopper
Joleen Howell
Jason Joyner
Carol Keen
Magma
Margaret
Shannon McNear
Melissa Meeks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Nissa
Steve Rice
Ashley Rutherford
Hanna Sandvig
Chawna Schroeder
Mirtika or Mir's Here
Sean Slagle
James Somers
Donna Swanson
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Laura Williams

ACFW Advance Scout Week 1: The trip to the Conference and what to do

Hello, fellow ACFW-ers! Some of you know me, some of you don’t. I’m John Otte, a speculative fiction author and I’ll be attending the ACFW conference in a little over a month. As you all know, it’s being held in Minneapolis this year.

Many ACFW-ers are doing conference prep in their blogs, discussing pitching, one sheets, conference etiquette, and so on. Well, the conference is being held just 20 miles from my home. I thought it might be fun to be an advance scout for all of you. This is the first of four "scouting reports," a sort of unofficial orientation to Minneapolis and its environs. I hope to post one each week on Monday night until the week of the conference.

Let’s start with something that I’m sure is on many of your minds.

The Weather -

Many of you have probably heard stories about Minnesota’s weather, especially our winters. This is because when you come right down to it, Minnesota only has two seasons, namely "road construction" and "winter." But luckily for all of you, you’re coming in September. That’s a very pleasant time of year, with temperatures hovering right above freezing. It’s also the time of the annual polar bear migration. If you have time, be sure to check that out. It’s a really impressive sight.

A picture from last year's migration

I’m kidding, of course. The temperatures average around 70 degrees for a high with a low of 50 degrees or so. It did get down to 33 degrees 17 years ago, but that probably won’t happen this year. Of course, we’re also going to be spending a lot of time in the hotel, so you won’t have to worry too much about the outside weather.

Many of you will arrive at the Minneapolis International Airport. I thought you might like a brief tour of what you might see on your way from the airport to the hotel.

My guess is that the hotel shuttle or taxi you’ll take will go along 494. If so, pay attention on the left. You’ll drive right by the Mall of America. I won’t go into too much detail about that now; come back next week and the week after for more details.

The trip will probably take you at least ten minutes depending on when you arrive. If you have the misfortune of making this trip during rush hour, it might be longer. The reason why is our next landmark, namely the corporate headquarters for Best Buy.

This impressive building sits close to where 494 hooks up with I-35W. You might even be able to spot it as you’re coming in for a landing. Consider it a sort of architectural rorschach test. What you see in these buildings might tell you a lot about yourself. For example, those with a more historical or nautical bent might see three ships. If you’re a sci-fi fan like me, you’ll see Jawa sandcrawlers.

Whatever this campus looks like, it’s the cause of delays during rush hour. When the Best Buy corporate employees are loosed, they snarl up the traffic. That, plus the intersection of two major freeways, always means traffic congestion. So if you have the misfortune of trying to drive by during rush hour, expect to crawl for a while.

But the Best Buy buildings also mark where you’ll see our hotel for the first time. As you come up a small hill, if you look out the front of the car, you’ll see the Sheraton in the distance. There it is! Your journey to the conference is almost at an end!

That is the hotel. Really!

But based on some of the threads in the forums, it would appear that some of you are car pooling. That’s great! If you’re coming in on I-35 or coming from the west on I-90, might I suggest two landmarks to visit?

The first is about 35 miles west of where I-35 and I-90 intersect. In a small town called Blue Earth, there is a 55-foot tall statue of the Jolly Green Giant. Stop by and have your picture taken with it.

The second is 20 miles to the east of the same intersection. In the town of Austin, we have the Spam Museum. I’ve never been myself, but I hear it’s pretty entertaining.

Either of these might be a little out of your way, but hey, when’s the next time you’ll be in the Land of 10,000 Lakes?

Tonight I also want to make a few suggestions for those of you who might be traveling with spouses or children. If your spouse or offspring are not participating in the conference, they may be looking for some things to do in the area. What follows is an incomplete list of attractions in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area:

1) The Mall of America -

The hotel has a shuttle to the Mall (more on that in two weeks). There’s a lot of stuff to do at the Mall, but again, I’ll talk about that in two weeks. Just to get you salivating a little earlier, I offer seven little words: No sales tax on clothing in Minnesota.

2) The Minnesota Zoo or Como Zoo -

The Twin Cities offers two zoos. Como Zoo is free to the public and has a pretty good selection of animals. Como also has a conservatory (also free) and an amusement park for littler kids (not free).

The Minnesota Zoo is a bit pricey, but it includes a brand new exhibit about animals from Russia. They also have dolphin shows and a monorail that takes you through the exhibits.

3) The Minnesota Renaissance Festival -

This isn’t that far from the hotel. If you like people dressed in period costumes and medieval shows and crafts, this is for you. Sadly, one of the best acts at RenFest is incomplete now. "Snot" of "Puke and Snot" died recently.

4) Museums -

We have a number of cool museums in the Twin Cities:

The Walker Art Center - Just what it sounds like. It’s an art museum. And it’s been a while since I’ve been there, so I couldn’t tell you what they have. Sorry.

The Science Museum of Minnesota - This is really cool. They will have a CSI-themed exhibit, along with a number of dinosaur fossils, a museum of medical hoaxes, among other things (including an Egyptian mummy!).

The Minnesota Children’s Museum - While geared for younger kids, this is a fun venue with lots of activities that trick kids into learning.

The Minnesota History Center - I’ve never been here but I hear it’s cool.

5) The Water Park of America -

If your family gets sick of the hotel’s pool, have them head on over to this water park within a stone’s throw of the Mall of America (hence the name). This facility has large water slides and a number of other fun water-related rides. While it’s connected to a hotel, it is open to the public (but definitely not for free).

6) Comedy Sportz -

This is a high energy, family friendly improv comedy troupe. If you’ve ever seen "Whose Line Is It Anyway?", you’ll like their show. Only they’re live and they don’t have the luxury of editing out the non-funny jokes.

So there are just a few ideas of what non-conference family members can do. It’s not a comprehensive list (obviously). If you want more ideas, head on over to the Explore Minnesota website. You’ll find all you need there.

That’s it for this week. Next week, we’ll talk about the hotel itself and the meal options for Friday night. In the meantime, if you have any questions about Minnesota or the Twin Cities, feel free to leave them in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer them.

See you in a month!

A Most Portentious Day:

Happy birthday, Isaiah!

CSFF Blog Tour: Broken Angel Day 1

This month, the blog tour looks at Broken Angel by Sigmund Brouwer.

Set in the not-too-distant future, the story follows the frantic flight of Caitlyn, a young girl trying to escape from Appalachia, a splinter nation from the former United States of America. She’s being hunted by Mason Lee, an infamous and vicious bounty hunter, and Carson Pierce, an agent from Outside. Her only hope of escape is to find the Clan, a mysterious group who can get her beyond the walls of Appalachia. But why does everyone want Caitlyn? And what secret does she harbor?

The book itself is a fast-paced, exciting ride. It’s a short read, which helps ratchet up the tension. Part of the fun for me was reading about this theocratic dystopia and how it developed. That, in and of itself, makes this a worthy read if, for no other reason, to provoke some serious thought and discussion amongst politically minded Christians (but more on this tomorrow).

I do have a gripe with this book and it has to do with the main character, namely Caitlyn. Caitlyn is an unusual girl. She’s slender in build and bone. She’s hairier than most girls. She’s very strong. And she has an unusual lump on her back. Don’t worry about spoilers. All of that comes out in the first several pages.

There’s a mystery about Caitlyn. Or at least, there’s supposed to be. But if you’re paying attention to the title and one sentence in the earlier part of the book, you can figure out what the mystery is. That’s especially true if you’ve got even a passing familiarity with the X-Men. I figured out Caitlyn’s secret almost before I started reading. In the story, though, Brouwer doesn’t reveal the secret until what should be a climactic moment. But because I had it figured out, it came off more as an anticlimax. There was no tension. I knew how Caitlyn would get out of the situation already.

But like I said, that’s a minor issue. If you’re looking for a fun adventure, set in a thought-provoking setting, this is a book you can’t miss.

Be sure to check out what the other blog tour participants have to say about it. I know I’ll be paying attention:

Brandon Barr
Justin Boyer
Keanan Brand
Jackie Castle
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Janey DeMeo
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Mark Goodyear
Andrea Graham
Katie Hart
Timothy Hicks
Christopher Hopper
Joleen Howell
Jason Joyner
Carol Keen
Magma
Margaret
Shannon McNear
Melissa Meeks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Nissa
Steve Rice
Ashley Rutherford
Hanna Sandvig
Chawna Schroeder
Mirtika or Mir's Here
Sean Slagle
James Somers
Donna Swanson
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Laura Williams

Twilight

I just don't get the hype.

Maybe it's because I'm the wrong gender and twice as old as Stephanie Meyer's target audience, but I just don't understand why people are so excited about Twilight.

Part of the problem is the slow start with Bella wondering who Edward is. Duh, he's a vampire. Says so on the back of the book. Maybe the original edition didn't include the tripartite dilemma Bella faces, but the one I read did. As a result, I was getting more and more frustrated as I waited for Bella to figure it all out.

A major problem with the book is craft. I kept running over point-of-view problems as well as poorly crafted sentences. The story itself was interesting. Meyer certainly reworked the vampire lore in an interesting way. And she set up the dilemmas that Bella and Edward will face in the rest of the books well. But to me, the story didn't get interesting or exciting until I was 300 pages in.

Again, it might be a gender or age issue, but this wasn't for me. Clearly.

On the plus side, this did make me hungry (or thirsty?) for John Olson's upcoming book, Shade.

Wicked

Earlier today, I finally finished Wicked by Gregory Maguire. This one has been in my "to be read" stack for a while now. Other books would routinely usurp its place, slowly creeping up the pile and keeping this one on the bottom. In many ways, the book's situation reminds me of Elphaba, the heroine.

After finally finishing it off, I can honestly say, it could have stayed on the bottom of the stack permanently. I know that many people love this book. I know it spawned a musical. Doesn't matter. I had to force myself to keep reading more than once.

For those who are unfamiliar with the story, Maguire recasts the familiar story of "The Wizard of Oz" and tells it from Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West's point of view. She is now the heroine with Glinda, the Wizard, and even Dorothy as the "bad guys," so to speak. He traces Elphaba's childhood as the daughter of a unionist minister, her academic career with Glinda as her roommate, her days as part of the underground, and so on. Some of the subplots and characters were memorable. I particularly liked Boq, the diminutive Munchkinlander with a serious crush on Glinda.

But I just couldn't enjoy myself. Part of it was Maguire's voice. I couldn't stand it. I can't put my finger on it, but I had this feeling that Maguire thinks he's more clever than he actually is.

Another major problem I have is that Maguire really didn't mesh this story with the source material that well. At least, I didn't think he did. When you're creating a story like this, I think it's imperative to work around what's already been established. Maguire didn't, not as well as he could have. I'm all for taking a familiar story and setting it on its ear (the best example of this is how, in two short sentences, Timothy Zahn was able to recast the entire Star Wars saga with Palpatine as the hero in Outbound Flight). But Maguire seemed to just take the familiar characters, keep a rough outline of the original, and then did his own thing.

And finally, I had a hard time swallowing Maguire's obsession with all things sexual. Too much. That's my opinion, but there you go.

I've been tagged!

I was tagged a while ago and I've been a bit lazy .... er, distracted to actually follow through on this. Blog Tour Overlord Rebecca Luella Miller came up with a new blog-tagging game. Her rules are below:

I’m going to list five MUST Read novels and five Keep Your Eyes on These
novels, then tag five bloggers who I’m asking to post my lists on their site.
They may then add one book to each list but must also subtract one book. Finally
they should tag five other bloggers, link here at A Christian Worldview of
Fiction, and comment to this post so visitors here know to check out how they
may have changed the list.

If you aren’t tagged but want to play, copy the how-to paragraph above,
make your own list of MUST Reads and Keep Your Eyes on These, and tag away. It
will be fun to see if we can generate some book wars … uh, I mean, discussions …
good, healthy, respectful discussions! ;-)

So here are the lists as I received them. I've highlighted my changes in red.

My five MUST Reads:
Demon: a Memoir by Tosca Lee (NavPress)
Broken Angel by Sigmund Brouwer (WaterBrook)
To Dance in the Desert by Kathleen Popa (Cook Communications)
Children in the Night by Harold Myra (Zondervan)
The Restorer by Sharon Hinck (NavPress)

My five Keep Your Eyes On These:
Scarlet by Stephen Lawhead (Thomas Nelson)
On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness by Andrew Peterson (WaterBrook)
Auralia’s Colors by Jeffrey Overstreet (WaterBrook)
Winter Haven by Athol Dickson (Bethany House)
Hero, Second Class by Mitchell Bonds (Marcher Lord Press)

My rationale:
Children in the Night was one of the first CSFF books I ever read and masterfully utilizes the symbolism of light and darkness. Myra's world, one where light simply does not exist, is well crafted and believable. I would have listed the sequel, The Shining Face, but you really have to read the first book first.

While Hero, Second Class hasn't been published yet, I think that, based on the description on Marcher Lord's website, it's going to be a wild, fun ride. Just the kind of story I enjoy reading.

So there we go. There's the list with my changes. And as for who I'm going to tag:

Sharon Hinck
Mir
D.G.D. Davidson
Christopher Hopper
Tim @ Fantasythyme

If they've already been tagged, well, I guess that's just my dumb luck. But there you go.

How can you not love this?

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Thanks to my young son, I was given the chance to attend a special advance screening of Star Wars: The Clone Wars this morning. My understanding is that this movie will be spun-off into a cartoon sometime in the not-too-distant future.

As movies go, there are lots of battles, lots of explosions, and a few lightsaber fights. None of them were as good as the Maul vs. Kenobi & Jinn in Episode I or Anakin vs. Kenobi in Episode III, but I digress. In terms of quality, I'd say it's better than Episode I for sure but overall isn't all that spectacular. It's a good diversion, certainly fun to watch, but it was just okay.

Part of the problem is that I kept wondering about some of the characters they introduce. For example, there's the puzzle of Ashoka Tano, Anakin's new padawan apprentice.

Now it figures that at some point, Anakin would have been assigned a padawan. That makes sense. But my problem is how Ashoka fits into the overall story. Obviously she doesn't show up in Episode III. Does that mean she was killed at some point in the War? If so, great premise for a kid's show. While scrappy and a bit funny, Ashoka bugged me thanks to two nicknames she saddled on main characters. Just did not like those at all.

I also wondered about introducing Asajj Ventress into the larger Star Wars universe. Sure, she's been a staple of the Extended Universe for a while now (featuring in the first part of the animated Clone Wars series on Cartoon Network and in the Clone Wars series of comic books), but she's thrown into this movie without much of an introduction. She's just called "Dooku's assassin" and we're told that she wants revenge on Skywalker. Why? It's never explained. A little research might help there.

The plot between the Republic and the Separatists is pretty mundane, nothing noteworthy.

There are a few gripes that I have with the movie, starting with the music. By and large, the score put together by Kevin Kiner was okay. But in the opening, he decided to "update" the Star Wars theme a little. Nothing too drastic, but I was disappointed. It would have been better to stick with the classic in my opinion. And when Kiner tries to evoke a certain noir feeling for one scene, I knew things were going downhill fast.

Speaking of which, pay attention for that noir music. That's the signal that you're about to cross into some really ridiculous territory. But I won't say much more than that. Just think about the character you meet and ask yourself, "How and why is he different?" Really poor.

So how does it all add up? If you're a kid or have one, it should be a good time. If you're a Star Wars purist like me, maybe go to a matinee. Otherwise wait for the DVD.

CSFF Blog Tour: DragonLight Day 3

The Blog Tour for DragonLight wraps up today. I thought I'd end with a cautionary lesson I've learned from the DragonKeeper series. As speculative fiction authors, we have to be very careful with the symbols we use, especially when it comes to Christ.

When I first started reading the DragonKeeper stories, I thought I had the Paladin character figured out. In my mind, he was clearly the Christ figure for the story. He ruled Amara. He had miraculous powers. He had been alive for centuries. It certainly seemed like he filled that role in the story.

But as I read the next books, I became more and more confused. Paladin didn't seem all that Christ-like anymore. Not that he was doing evil stuff, but there were hints that he wasn't the Christ figure after all. After what I thought was such a strong connection in DragonQuest, it was a bit disconcerting.

During the blog tour for DragonFire, I mentioned my discomfort about this apparent Christological confusion, and I was told that Donita K. Paul never intended Paladin to be a Christ-figure for her stories. That made me feel a little better. But as I re-read the entire series in preparation for this tour, even knowing that Paladin wasn't a Christ analogue, I still got the same impression in the early books. While I spotted more hints that it wasn't the case, it still made me uncomfortable.

The same thing happened when I read Auralia's Colors by Jeffrey Overstreet. I was sure the Keeper was some sort of Christ figure, only to be told that I had messed up again.

Perhaps the problem is mine. Maybe other readers didn't see the possible connection or be concerned by it. As a Lutheran, I tend to be a bit Christocentric in my theology and thinking. At any rate, the whole quandry made me realize a lesson. We have to be careful in how we approach anyone (or anything) that might be construed as a Christ figure.

Different authors approach this in different ways. For example, Kathy Tyers and Sharon Hinck solved the issue the same way: they set their stories (the Firebird trilogy and the Restorer trilogy respectively) in a time before Christ. Karen Hancock took an opposite approach in the Legends of the Guardian King books by setting her story a thousand years after the Christ event.

It behooves us as Christian authors to be clear about our characters and the concepts in our stories. Granted, there might be those who get tripped up (like me), but it shouldn't be because we weren't careful enough.

While I may have been sort of negative this tour, it shouldn't discourage anyone from reading these books. They are great books. Go and see what the others have to say:

Brandon Barr
Justin Boyer
Jackie Castle
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
CSFF Blog Tour
Gene Curtis
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
* Beth Goddard
Mark Goodyear
Andrea Graham
Todd Michael Greene
Katie Hart
Christopher Hopper
Joleen Howell
Jason Joyner
Carol Keen
Magma
Terri Main
Magma
Margaret
* Shannon McNear
Melissa Meeks
* Rebecca LuElla Miller
John W. Otte
Deena Peterson
Steve Rice
* Cheryl Russel
Ashley Rutherford
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Robert Treskillard
* Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Laura Williams

CSFF Blog Tour: DragonLight Day 2

On the Rehabilitation of Dragons...

When we talk about DragonLight and the rest of the DragonKeeper series, there's an interesting shift that Donita K. Paul achieves. She rehabilitates dragons from a Christian point of view.

She's not the only one to attempt this. As a matter of fact, I first learned about the DragonKeeper books about the same time that I heard about Bryan Davis's Dragons in Our Midst books. And, I'm somewhat ashamed to admit, I had a negative reaction to both. "Dragons as good guys? In a Christian series? I think not!" The reason for this rather close-minded mindset is because of the symbolic luggage that dragons carry around in Christianity. After all, in Revelation, Satan is depicted as a dragon. It's just a bit natural for people to be wary about books that cast the symbolic image of ultimate evil as the good guys.

But those who would completely reject these books for that reason would miss some awfully good stories. And besides, there are two points that we should remember.

First of all, Revelation is full of symbolic language. Satan is no more a literal dragon than Jesus is a seven eyed, seven horned, glow-in-the-dark lamb. God used that imagery because a dragon would likely evoke certain feelings and concepts in John's mind.

Second, and more importantly, by rehabilitating dragons like this, we Christians are "taking it back." In some ways, it's a redemptive venture, striking out into Satan's realm and claiming back what should have always been ours in the first place.

Think of it this way: Satan can't create anything. He can only twist and distort what God Himself has created. It's a shame to leave Satan with anything that he can call his own when we can snatch it back from him, sanctify it in the light of Christ, and make it our own. And yes, I know that I'm paralleling Paul's discussion of Wulder's high and low races here.

The trick is to make sure that we can relate what's being redeemed to God properly. Another good example is the way that Paul uses "magic" in her books. Let's face it, that's extremely tricky and if it's not done right, can lead to a huge mess. After all, the Bible is pretty clear that Christians aren't to engage in any sort of godless sorcery.

But Paul sidesteps this issue by making the wizards in her book operate under Wulder's authority and by tying magic into the rules of Wulder's creation. As such, they're not operating independently or in contradiction to Wulder, but they're doing so in relation to Him.

Be sure to check out what the rest of the blog tour participants have to say:

Brandon Barr
Justin Boyer
Jackie Castle
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
CSFF Blog Tour
Gene Curtis
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
* Beth Goddard
Mark Goodyear
Andrea Graham
Todd Michael Greene
Katie Hart
Christopher Hopper
Joleen Howell
Jason Joyner
Carol Keen
Magma
Terri Main
Magma
Margaret
* Shannon McNear
Melissa Meeks
* Rebecca LuElla Miller
Deena Peterson
Steve Rice
* Cheryl Russel
Ashley Rutherford
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Robert Treskillard
* Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Laura Williams

CSFF Blog Tour: DragonLight Day 1

Today we begin the blog tour "for real." This month's featured book is DragonLight by Donita K. Paul, the final book in the DragonKeeper series. I've really looked forward to reading this, the final entry.

In it, Kale Allerion and her husband, Bardon, along with the rest of the citizens of Amara, have been at peace after the defeat of Burner Stox and Crim Cropper. Kale's flock of dragons has increased exponentially and Bardon has been hard at work with his duties as a magistrate. But the time has come for them to go on another quest. Along with Regidor and Gilda, they set out to find the lost meech colony.

But all is not well in the lands ruled by Paladin. A strange new sect has arisen called the Followers. They claim to follow new mandates handed down by Paladin himself. And what of the strange attacks by small black dragons who seem focused on destroying Kale?

As the final chapter in this series unfolds, Kale and Bardon find themselves fighting for their lives and those they love against an ancient, slumbering evil that is close to waking up.

While Paul's writing was excellent as always, I finished the book feeling a little disappointed. The story judt didn't hang together that well for me.

For starters, there was the Followers. In my opinion, this subplot felt tacked on, almost like it was filler. I was fascinated and quite excited that Kale and Bardon would be taking on a nefarious heresy, exposing the evil that lurked beneath the surface while putting their lives at risk. Truth be told, I was more interested in the Followers than in the search for the missing meech colony.

This may be "Monday morning quarterbacking," but I think the Followers could have been the center of the book. Instead, they became something Kale and Bardon did while they were waiting around for the "main quest" to keep going. Most of the action (including the Followers rise to power and subsequent fall) happened "off stage," so to speak. They played such a minor role in the book, it almost felt like they were put in to fill out the book a little. Since Bardon and Kale played a very minor role in their downfall, it left me wondering why the Followers were in there at all.

Second, there's the way the book ended. In some ways, it felt like a deus ex machina to me. Or in this case, a deus ex doneel. This includes how Gilda became a true "good guy." It felt a bit unnatural.

And finally, there's the way this book relates to the other four. It felt a bit anticlimactic and it's all because of the villain they faced.

The villain didn't seem worthy of being the "big bad evil" in the final book of the series. There was a definite "hierarchy of evil" in the previous four books that went something like this:

1) Pretender

2) Risto

3) Burner Stox & Crim Cropper.

Risto gets wiped out in the second book. Burner and Crim are brought to justice in the fourth. So you would think that the final book would lead to some massive confrontation with the greatest evil Amara has ever faced, something to do with Pretender. Instead, Paul introduces a new evil, one who is definitely bad but didn't seem like a natural outgrowth of the stories thus far.

That is perhaps the part of that frustrated me the most. While Paul did drop a few hints in two of the previous books about how this final story would play out, it wasn't enough. There should have been other threads about this final big bad guy woven in through the previous books, just enough so that we could look back later and go, "Hey, yeah! I remember her talking about that!"

Instead, the villain seemingly pops up out of nowhere and didn't seem connected to what came before. To put it another way, imagine if in Lord of the Rings, Frodo and Sam defeated Sauron and destroyed the One Ring in The Two Towers and then the former Fellowship did battle with space aliens in the final book.

In spite of what might be perceived as a massive dose of negativity, I have really enjoyed the DragonKeeper books. Like I said yesterday, I've enjoyed sojourning in the creative and colorful world that Paul created. And I'm also looking forward to the next series that's apparently starting up in 2009. I just wish that the final book of this series sat better with me.

Make sure to check out what other people are saying on the tour, especially those with the asterisk next to them. Consider them "Blog Tour All-Stars." They've been with the tour since the beginning, which was focused around DragonKnight:

Brandon Barr
Justin Boyer
Jackie Castle
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
CSFF Blog Tour
Gene Curtis
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
* Beth Goddard
Mark Goodyear
Andrea Graham
Todd Michael Greene
Katie Hart
Christopher Hopper
Joleen Howell
Jason Joyner
Carol Keen
Magma
Terri Main
Magma
Margaret
* Shannon McNear
Melissa Meeks
* Rebecca LuElla Miller
Deena Peterson
Steve Rice
* Cheryl Russel
Ashley Rutherford
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Robert Treskillard
* Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Laura Williams

CSFF Blog Tour: DragonLight Day 0

Starting tomorrow, the monthly blog tour kicks off for Donita K. Paul's latest book, DragonLight. It's the fifth and final book of the DragonKeeper saga. Before I read DragonLight, I went back and read the other four, namely DragonSpell, DragonQuest, DragonKnight, and DragonFire. I wanted to make sure I remembered everything that happened in the series.

It was a wonderful trip through some familiar territory. I love the world that Paul created for her stories. For example, the seven high races that Wulder created and the seven low races that Pretender created via corruption. Each of the fourteen races are unique and colorful. Emerlindians who change color as they mature. Kimens who wear light. Mordalkeeps who cut people off by swallowing them. Quiss who swarm over the land occasionally. And then the bisonbecks who, for some reason, I always picture looking like this:

Then there are the wizards. I love the fact that the different wizards have primary aspects that change their appearance. Wizard Fenworth, the bog wizard, who turns into a tree when he sleeps and constantly has critters scurrying out of him. Wizard Cam, the lake wizard, who drips when he sits and occasionally sprays people. Wizard Lyll, the mortal wizard, who grows old if she sits still too long. It's a colorful conglomeration that makes the book all the more fun.

And finally, there are the dragons, especially the minor ones. Each one has a color and the color determines what talent they have. At first, I wasn't completely sold on that idea, but it grew on me, especially after Dibl hatched. But there are minor dragons who can sing, who can heal, who are engineers, who are basically flying memory banks. That, plus the fact that all of the minor dragons have their own unique personalities, really made the stories sing.

And the stories themselves were great, following the adventures of Kale Allerion as she learns what it means to not only be Paladin's Dragon Keeper but a wizard herself. She makes friends, she makes enemies, in books that are truly great.

Except for the third one. This time through, I had a hard time with DragonKnight. It just didn't have the zing of the other three. Part of it is the fact that it's so long. It's the longest of the series and because of the pacing, takes a while to work through.

There are two other problems with DragonKnight, namely a lack of conflict and a lack of personal stake for the protagonist.

For those unfamiliar with the story, Bardon, a knight in Paladin's service, is supposed to be on a sabbatical when he's saddled with a quest. Three women of various races want him to take them north to save a group of sleeping knights. If they don't make it in time, the knights could die.

There's no obvious bad guy in the story, only the ticking clock. Normally a race against time could be a nailbiter. The problem is, Bardon and the women take a leisurely route. While it sounds like they should be desperate, they don't come across that way. They know they need to get north, but they seem to take it easy. They wind up meandering through the countryside. Instead of coming across as a fevered race against doom, it seems more like a leisurely stroll.

The other problem is that Bardon doesn't really have a perosnal stake in the outcome of the quest. He goes with them out of a sense of duty to Wulder, but not because he'll gain or lose anything from it. This impression is ultimately wrong, but the reader carries it with them throughout the book. At least, I did. Bardon's just along for the ride for most of this lengthy story. As a result, there isn't much to drive it.

But for all its faults, DragonKnight doesn't drag on the overall series too much. It's a delightful story set in a creative, fun world. And tomorrow, I'll discuss what I liked and didn't like about the final entry, DragonLight.

Overlord

I just now finished playing Overlord on my PC and I have to say, I understand now why I was able to get my copy for only $10 at Amazon. It was only worth that much.

In this game, you play the new evil Overlord. You have armor, four spells, and the best part, evil minions.

The minions were great. I laughed at them a lot, especially the first time they swarmed over a herd of sheep and cut them down. I also laughed at the brown minions the first time I realized one of them was using a dead rat as a helmet. Seriously.

The game itself tries to be a send-up of fantasy games. Instead of playing the interpid hero setting out to defeat the forces of evil, you are the forces of evil setting out to destroy the heroes. Only in this case, the heroes have become corrupted and evil themselves. So in some ways, it's more evil fighting lesser evil.

The plot, if it can be called such, seemed slathered on at the last minute. While I was playing through, you could tell that the developers tried to come up with a story to tell. It wasn't until the very end that I realized what that story was. Unfortunately, by that time, I was so frustrated with the game I didn't care. If they had taken a bit more time to develop the story and actually tell it, maybe it would have made the game better.

But what really annoyed me was that this was yet another game that had obviously been developed for console and then imported to PC. There are a lot of them out there. The thing is, the developers at Codemasters didn't take the time to actually rework the controls to make it playable on a PC. Instead, they found rough equivalents for the controls and left it at that.

A few examples: the lack of a true save feature. The only way to save your progress is to go back to certain checkpoints and teleport back to your tower. In a real PC game, you can just hit escape and then save your game. Or even just hit one of the function keys to quick-save your game. This is particularly useful when you're trying to fight your way through a difficult level, such as the Ruborian Desert level. Such a save function isn't possible on a console. I get it. But I'm not playing on a console. I'm playing on a PC.

Another annoyance was the "sweep" maneuver. I had to hold down both mouse keys and move the mouse around if I wanted to directly control where my minions went. Instead, I wound up twitching the mouse back and forth as my minions tried to follow my directions. The hinky camera didn't help as it had difficulty tracking what I was doing. I suspect that in the console version, this works much better. Clearly Codemasters didn't take the time to think through a better alternative.

Finally we have the asinine aiming function. Once again, the developers seemed to forget that PC players would have an actual mouse with which to aim their characters. Instead, I have to point my Overlord in the general direction of what I'm aiming for and then hit "shift." At least a third of the time, this resulted in me locking on to the wrong object, which is a bit disconcerting when it happens in the heat of battle. Again, a function that was clearly designed for console players falls short in the PC port.

Why am I harping on this so badly? Because a good PC port can be done. Bioshock did it. So did Knights of the Old Republic. But unfortunately, so long as certain developers remain lazy, I'll have to be wary of bad ports.

Shame, too. This game had a lot of promise, but weak storytelling and lazy importing made it a bargain bin game. And it fits there. It really does.

Fearless

Last night I finished reading Fearless by Robin Parrish. And I came away from it ... well, a little disturbed, truth be told.

It's funny, this is the book that kind of shamed me into making sure that I always read the books for the CSFF Blog Tour. A year ago, we featured this book and I had to sheepishly admit that I hadn't read it. I was intrigued by what other people had to say and so I added it to my list of "books I gotta read at some point." Since then, I've made sure to get my grubby little hands on every book we're going to review as part of the blog tour so that I wouldn't have to plead ignorance.

Having read it now, though, I wonder what I would have said a year ago.

The premise is still intriguing. Grant Borrows, the prophesied "Bringer," and his team of Ringwearers are acting as superheroes as the world spirals out of control. They use the powers granted to them by the Rings of Dominion to try to keep people safe, all the while trying to figure out what plans the mysterious Secretum of Six holds for them.

On the plus side, Parrish crafts some very action packed sequences. It's almost like reading an action movie. He also weaves in some great mysteries and answers most (but not all) of the reader's questions, thus keeping them satisfied but also getting them on the hook to read Merciless, the final book in the series.

But for all of its good points, there was something that bothered me about these books that I finally hit on as I finished this one. God seems to be completely absent from this so-called Christian fiction. As near as I can tell, there's only oblique references to God every now and then. And I can't recall a single instance of anyone talking about Christ.

Now I'm not saying that I expect a full sermon in every Christian fiction book I read. That would turn me off. But by the end of this book, it was almost as if Parrish were simply borrowing from Biblical stories, lifting concepts and ideas as he needed them.

And maybe I'm reading into it too much, but it almost seemed like Parrish was advocating some sort of "bootstrapping" spirituality, that it's all up to us and the choices we make. It almost seemed like Parrish was cribbing from a pop psychology book rather than grounding his story in any sort of Christian theology.

Maybe I'm overreacting. Maybe I missed it. Or maybe Parrish is saving the Christian stuff for the final book. From a story standpoint, this series has been an interesting ride. From a faith standpoint, not so much.

CSFF Blog Tour: Vanished Day Three

Yesterday I mentioned the hurting, believable characters in Vanished. The day before, I talked about the action-packed plot. Today I want to talk about something that was conspicuously absent from the story. Or at least, something that I noticed was missing: a moral to the story.

A lot of Christian fiction is usually built around a central message. The author has a theme or an idea they want to share about the faith and they do their best to weave it into the plot. Sometimes they're successful and the message can be seen as an organic outgrowth of the plot. Other times, they're not so successful and it feels like you're being bludgeoned with the blunt end of the premise.

Vanished is a bit different. It follows a trend I've noticed in Christian fiction lately where the Christian elements are a bit more subtle and muted. Some of the characters are Christian. Yes, there's a Christian foundation to the plot. But there's no preachiness involved. And if there's a "lesson" about the faith to be had, I'm afraid I have to admit that I missed it.

That's not a bad thing. I've always thought that there were two different kinds of Christian fiction. There's what I call "propoganda." And then there's "FTHTBC" (pronounced fith-ta-bic).

Propoganda is easy to spot. It's blatant in its Christianity. It's produced by and for the Christian community with some sort of lesson for its readers to learn. Outsiders will probably not touch propoganda unless it generates a lot of publicity (i.e. the Left Behind series), it's recommended to them by someone inside the community, or it's written by an author they know and like.

FTHTBC, on the other hand, is "fiction that happens to be Christian." It's very different from propoganda in that the Christian content is more subtle. It's there, it's foundational, but it's not entirely central to the theme. There might not even be a central Christian message. It's simply fiction that stems from a Christian worldview. A great example of this is J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. While Tolkien was a devout Christian, he despised allegory and symbolism in literature and, inspite of what many people claim now, never intended his trilogy to have any sort of Christian theme or message. But because of his strong faith, the Christian elements bled through.

Both kinds are fine. I'm not judging one over the other. The propoganda has its place. So does the FTHTBC. Both can be equally good, so long as the author focuses on his or her craft and writes the best story possible.

I'm not entirely sure how to classify Mackel's Vanished. In some ways, the book is definitely FTHTBC. While there are Christian elements to the book, they're not very blatant. The characters are Christian. They rely on their faith in the wake of the bomb blast. But I was left scratching my head for a moral to the story. Part of my confusion might stem from the fact that the story isn't over yet. The plot will continue in the next book, and so there might be more of a theme and/or message then, enought to nudge this into the propoganda camp.

For now, though, Vanished can be pretty properly identified as FTHTBC. The Christianity is there but it's not as blatant as some. It's a foundation that you don't necessarily have to notice.

But perhaps I'm wrong. Go and see if the other blog tour participants have a different opinion:

Brandon Barr
Justin Boyer
Jackie Castle
CSFF Blog Tour
Gene Curtis
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Beth Goddard
Andrea Graham
Todd Michael Greene
Katie Hart
Christopher Hopper
Joleen Howell
Jason Joyner
Carol Keen
Mike Lynch
Terri Main
Margaret
Shannon McNear
Melissa Meeks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Deena Peterson
Rachelle
Steve Rice
Ashley Rutherford
Mirtika or Mir's Here
Chawna Schroeder
Stuart Stockton
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Linda Wichman
Laura Williams
Timothy Wise

CSFF Blog Tour: Vanished Day Two

In yesterday's review of Vanished by Kathryn Mackel, I mentioned her vulnerable, believable characters. The two central characters, Jason Logan and Kaya de los Santos have both gone through rough times and because of that, they help charge up the story.

Both Jason and Kaya come from failed marriages, ones that fell apart for vastly different reasons. Both have suffered professional set-backs that Mackel reveals gradually through the telling of the story. They've both been battered and beaten down and they're now trying to put their lives back together again. And then, like I said yesterday, everyday life disappears in the wake of the bomb blast.

There are some very raw emotions lurking in their past and it helps make the story more compelling. It's refreshing to see people who are so real. These are no saints with only slightly dinged-up halos. These are people who have fallen and fallen hard and desperately in need of healing. These are people we can all relate to.

Be sure to check out what the other blog tour participants are saying:

Brandon Barr
Justin Boyer
Jackie Castle
CSFF Blog Tour
Gene Curtis
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Beth Goddard
Andrea Graham
Todd Michael Greene
Katie Hart
Christopher Hopper
Joleen Howell
Jason Joyner
Carol Keen
Mike Lynch
Terri Main
Margaret
Shannon McNear
Melissa Meeks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Deena Peterson
Rachelle
Steve Rice
Ashley Rutherford
Mirtika or Mir's Here
Chawna Schroeder
Stuart Stockton
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Linda Wichman
Laura Williams
Timothy Wise

CSFF Blog Tour: Vanished Day One

This month we're looking at Vanished by Kathryn Mackel.

I've been a fan of Mackel's writing since her Birthright Project came out. I'm still kind of in mourning that she wasn't able to completely finish that series (at least, not yet), so it was good to pick up another one of her books and look it over.

Mackel does not disappoint with this one. The town of Barcester, Massachusets, is rocked by a horrific disaster as bombs detonate all around them. The target is apparently the high-speed train that runs underneath their streets. But in the aftermath of the explosions, a strange mist has cut them off from the rest of the world. People who wander into the mist can't make it through. What happened? Where has everyone gone? And how can they find their way home?

Mackel's book starts with a bang (literally) and the excitement doesn't stop. She has created some vulnerable, believable characters (more on that tomorrow) and tossed them into an impossible situation. How can they deal with the wounded, the dying, and the dead when no outside help can make it.

Mackel also leaves enough questions unanswered to make this a great first entry in a new series. She never explains exactly what happened to Barcester. You have a good idea of what might have contributed to it, but the dilemma isn't solved. I know I wanted to keep going to find out what would happen next.

So if you're looking for an exciting ride, one with some very strong speculative overtones, you can't go wrong with this one.

Check out what everyone else is saying:

Brandon Barr
Justin Boyer
Jackie Castle
CSFF Blog Tour
Gene Curtis
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Beth Goddard
Andrea Graham
Todd Michael Greene
Katie Hart
Christopher Hopper
Joleen Howell
Jason Joyner
Carol Keen
Mike Lynch
Terri Main
Margaret
Shannon McNear
Melissa Meeks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Deena Peterson
Rachelle
Steve Rice
Ashley Rutherford
Mirtika or Mir's Here
Chawna Schroeder
Stuart Stockton
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Linda Wichman
Laura Williams
Timothy Wise

Writers of the Future Volume 23

I realized a while ago that I need to branch out in terms of my reading habits. I mostly read Christian fiction, and mostly speculative Christian fiction at that. But there's a lot of other stuff out there, so I decided that I would try to broaden my horizons. To do so, I picked up a copy of L. Ron Hubbard presents Writers of the Future Vol. XXIII. And even though Hubbard's name is in big bold print on the cover, I didn't make the connection with Scientology until I started reading it.

That doesn't mean that there's talk of Xenu or engrams or Tom Cruise in this book. Instead, it's a collection of short stories from a contest entitled (oddly enough) "L. Ron Hubbard's Writers of the Future Contest." According to the rules in the back of the book, entrants cannot have published a novel, book, novella, or more than three short stories professionally.

By and large, these were great stories. Very creative, well written. There were a few that didn't quite do it for me. For example, "The Stone Cipher" by Tony Pi irritated me. He had a dynamite premise: all over the world, statues are "speaking." Their lips are moving at a glacial rate. What are they trying to tell us? The problem is that the main character makes several leaps in logic that, as far as I was concerned, weren't warranted, leaps that Pi then treated as gospel truth.

"The Phlogiston Age" by Corey Brown was another that just didn't do it for me. I think it was a steam punk story of sorts, but it just kind of fell flat.

But there were some great stories in this collection. I would eagerly recommend "The Sun God at Dawn, Rising from a Lotus Blossom" by Andrea Kail. Let me hit you with the premise: King Tut writes letters to Abraham Lincoln. Bizarre, right? But Kail pulls it off and has a pretty decent twist at the end.

Also memorable was "Obsidian Shards" by Aliette de Bodard, a story set in Mayan times (I think. Admittedly, Central American history is not one of my fortes). It's a murder mystery that was really well done.

But all of the entries in this book are worth your time, even the ones that didn't quite work out for me. Needless to say, I'll be adding some names to my list of authors to watch.

So You Think You Can ... wait a sec

Jill and I are trying to watch So You Think You Can Dance. Emphasis on trying. Minnesota weather is acting up and they keep interrupting the show. But not what I'm here to say.

Jill says that if I don't stop goofing off, I can't watch anymore. That'd be a shame, because I really enjoy the dancing. But I have to get this off my chest:












Mary Murphy and Skeletor: separated at birth?

That is all.

Bioshock

I just finished playing through Bioshock and I have to say, it was a fun ride.

For those unfamiliar with this game, the premise is this: you are on an airplane that crashes into the middle of the ocean. But luckily for you, there's a strange island with a lighthouse on it. You go into the lighthouse, only to discover a bathysphere that takes you to an undersea city called Rapture. Apparently a man named Andrew Ryan conceived of Rapture as a place where people could keep what they earned without giving any of it to the government, God, or the poor, where scientists could carry out research unfettered by the petty dictates of common ethics, and people could live in a utopia.

Needless to say, things didn't work out quite that way.

The Rapture you find yourself in is a devastated battleground. Roving bands of splicers, people who have fiddled with their genetic code using a substance called ADAM, wreak havoc and try to kill you. And through it all are lumbering giants called Big Daddies leading girls called Little Sisters through the deserted streets. You have allies. You have enemies. Your goal is to pick through the debris of Rapture and try to escape alive.

I've been hearing great things about this game ever since it came out. Games For Windows gave it high marks and I can see why. From what I understand, the game is somehow based on Ayn Rand's objectivism and is supposed to be a critique of it somehow. I have to admit, I didn't get that part. But that's okay.

In terms of story, the people who created Bioshock did a great job. Rapture is a crazy place to visit with a definite storyline behind what happened in this intended utopia. Plus the journey you go through is a harrowing one. There's a massive twist in the middle (I won't say what it is) that I kind of saw coming, but I got so many details wrong I was simply delighted when it happened. In some ways, it reminded me of Knights of the Old Republic. Storywise, that is.

My only complaint is that it was too easy on easy. Yes, I know, I'm a wimp and should have started on medium, but I wanted to get a feel for the controls and how everything worked, so I played it on easy. By the time I reached the end, I could drop Big Daddies with the greatest of ease and the final boss fight took all of about three minutes. To put it another way, I never died. Not once. Usually in a game like this, I'm used to failing at least a dozen times on the way to the end.

But that doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy myself. I did. And yes, I'll be playing it again on medium. There's another ending to the story I have to see yet and I want to see if the Big Daddies are harder to drop on medium. But it might be a while. I've got something else that will be occupying my time starting next Tuesday.

Who Stole My Church?

This past Sunday, one of my parishioners came up to me after the services. She said she knew I liked reading and she had a book for me. She handed me a copy of Who Stole My Church? by Gordon MacDonald. She said it really challenged her. I can see why.

MacDonald's book is a treatise on how individual congregations can best meet the needs of those around it under the extremely thin disguise of a story. There are characters and something of a plot, but it's mostly all a conceit for MacDonald to get his point across.

The plot, if it can be called such, is this: MacDonald places himself as the pastor of a fictional church, one that recently had something of a set-back. The leadership tried to pass a series of changes to the way the church did things, only to have some of the oldest and most faithful members push back. MacDonald, rather than rail on them, suggests they meet to discuss the changes and why he feels they're necessary. The title comes from the plaintive cry of one of those members at that first meeting.

If we're trying to judge this book as fiction, it falls flat. As a matter of fact, I'd even be tempted to say that this shouldn't be called a "novel" or a "story" or anything like it. It's more like a Platonic dialogue. The characters, while distinct, are foils for MacDonald. They eventually come around to enthusiastically see things his way. The only holdout is depicted as a reactionary and something of a jerk (more on why this bothers me in a bit).

In terms of nonfiction, this book gave me a lot to think about. Lutherans (especially my kind) are a stubborn bunch. There's an old joke that goes, "How many Lutherans does it take to change a lightbulb?" "CHANGE!?!?!" We tell that amongst ourselves because it's true.

But MacDonald makes a strong case that sometimes, change is not only necessary, it's healthy and good. Every congregation should take the time to reevaluate what they're doing at one time or another, if for no other reason than to make sure that everything is still working the way it should. That process may be painful, especially if people discover that something isn't working right, but then, it's sometimes necessary to go through "growing pains."

But there is a problem with the way MacDonald presented his argument. Since he did so through a story, he could simply have all the characters come to agree with him in the end. They all become "enlightened" enough about his new, better way of doing things that they all fall in line and become enthusiastic for the new ways. The only person who doesn't is depicted in a very harsh light afterwards, so much so that MacDonald insinuates that he's almost an abusive husband and not really a Christian.

That's unfortunate, because it leaves the impression that if you don't agree with MacDonald's analysis of how churches should adapt to the 21st century, you're somehow less of a Christian. I would strongly disagree with that assessment. It might have been better if some of his "discussion partners" had ended the journey unconvinced but willing to go along with it. Or better, if some of them made it clear that they still didn't like it, still thought he was wrong, but weren't going to leave the congregation. Simply put, MacDonald set himself up for everyone to pat him on the back for his keen insight.

Had he presented his argument in a standard, non-fiction sort of way, people could evaluate his ideas and take them or leave them. Now, with the fictional story format, a person who doesn't quite buy his arguments is left with the impression that perhaps the problem isn't with the ideas, it's with them and their faith. Not cool.

In spite of that, it's still an intriguing read. I can only hope that more people read it. For people of the younger generation, it's a good insight into the way the older generation thinks. For people of the older generation, it's an argument for why "We've always done it that way!" isn't a valid argument. And for pastors, it's defintiely food for thought about how we should conduct our various ministries.

Lord of the Rings

Late last night I finished my second go-through of The Lord of the Rings. I originally read the whole thing about eight years ago before the first movie of the trilogy came out. About a month or two ago, I watched the the trilogy again and decided it was time to reread Tolkien's original.

I'm not sure what I can say about this that hasn't already been said. It's an epic masterpiece. Tolkien's language is poetic and his voice fits the mythic nature of the story.

At the same time, though, I couldn't help but wonder what would have happened if Tolkien had tried to publish this book in modern times. How would a modern editor have reacted to it?

For example, Tolkien begins the book with what's basically a big info dump about hobbit history and culture. It's nothing but telling with little to no showing. As I waded through it, I kept hearing a nagging voice in the back of my head telling me, "Show, don't tell!"

The pacing of the first book also could have used some tightening up. The pace was way too slow, seeing as the story ranged over several years, from Bilbo's "eleventy-first" birthday up until the day when Frodo left the Shire for Mordor. This first book unbalances the entire story, since we sprint through those years, while the other two books seem to last just a month or two.

Recently someone on The Late Nite Jengajam commented that Peter Jackson did the right thing in the way he edited the story to adapt it into the three movies. I can't say for sure if The Lord of the Rings would have been as popular or beloved if it had been edited to suit modern tastes. Who knows? But I can say this with confidence: if you haven't taken this journey through Middle Earth yet, you should.