So what brings you here? Are you looking for book reviews? I've got them. Musings about writing? That too. Thoughts on video games? In abundance. And some posts about Christianity? In spades. Welcome to the Least Read Blog.
I guess I'm in a Stackpole kind of mood. After finishing his latest trilogy, I had a hankering for Talion: Revenant.
While this isn't Stackpole's first published novel, his author's notes at the end make it clear that this was the first novel he wrote. It's interesting comparing this to his last three; the plot is a little more simple and focuses around one character, namely Nolan ra Sinjaria.
Nolan is a Talion. The Talions are an ancient order of peace keepers. Some are trained as soldiers, some as cavalry. Some fly hawks the size of horses. Some learn arcane spells. Some are clerks. But Nolan is a Justice. Justices wander the Shattered Empire and set things right.
The Master of all Talions has a particularly dangerous assignment for Nolan. He has to head to Hamis to stop an assassin from killing the king. But this mission dredges up painful memories from his past, not only from his years before becoming a Talion but also from his days as a student.
What makes this book a fun read is that Stackpole seamlessly jumps from Nolan's mission to Hamis to his past. He always has something that makes the transition fit together (for example, at the end of one chapter, he receives a distressing written message from an ally; at the end of the next chapter, he receives a distressing written message from a former friend).
Nolan is an extremely likable character as well. You almost wish he could patrol your neighborhood by the time the book is done. While he is interested in dispensing justice, he wants to do so in a way that doesn't terrify the inhabitants of the Shattered Empire (a quality that not all Justices share).
If you want a taste of this story, read Shepherd, a short story about Nolan. And then go and read the book.
What has me hopeful is that at the end of Shepherd, Stackpole says that there could be another Talion book in the works. I hope there is. I enjoyed questing with Nolan for a second time and I hope I can do so again soon.
Last night I finished reading The New World by Michael Stackpole. But I can't talk about that just yet because that's the third book in the trilogy. I haven't talked about Cartomancy yet.
Cartomancy continues the story started in A Secret Atlas and, for the most part, focuses around the Anturasi family. All of them have trials to face.
Keles Anturasi is a prisoner in Felarati. He needs to find a way to escape from the clutches of Prince Pyrust and find his way back to Nalenyr. Jorim Anturasi, having learned that he used to be the god Tetcomchoa/Wentoki, must relearn his divine powers. Nirati Anturasi, having been brutally murdered, finds herself in a magical land with her grandfather, Qiro.
But there's more to it than just the Anturasis ... er, however you would make that name plural. The swordsman who called himself Moravan Tolo struggles not only to remember who he is, but he also faces an invasion by horrific creatures that serve the evil Prince Nelesquin. Ciras Dejote, Moravan's former apprentice, searches through the Wastes for the Empress Cyrsa. And Prince Cyron, the ruler of Nalenyr, must deal with both internal and external threats as he tries to defend his country both from Prince Pyrust and Nelesquin's invaders.
Complicated? You bet! But that's part of what makes this such a fun read. Like I said in my review of A Secret Atlas, it did take a second reading for me to keep all the characters straight, but by the time I read Cartomancy, it was a lot easier.
My only complaint is that I saw the surprise twist at the end coming. That's it, really.
That brings us to the final book in the trilogy, namely The New World.
Things have not gotten much better. Keles, having escaped from Felarati, discovers that he has incredible powers that he doesn't understand and can barely control. Jorim, having reclaimed his divine identity, finds himself trapped in the Nine Hells, trying desperately to stop Nessagafel, a fallen god. Nirati discovers the truth about her grandfather and her lover, Nelesquin, and fights to stop them.
And on the non-Anturasi front, Moravan Tolo, who has recovered his identity, continues to fight against Nelesquin, who looks poised to conquer the known world. Ciras Dejote has succeeded in finding Cyrsa's retainers and leads them into the battle. And Prince Cyron finds himself in an unlikely alliance.
This book was wild, to put it bluntly. Lots of fighting, lots of battles. Stackpole has a wit about him that keeps me coming back to his stories time after time after time.
The only problem with the story as a whole is that it was so complicated, I didn't see all of the connections. The best example of this is the struggle between the gods with Jorim and Nessagafel at the center. I didn't see how that connected with the fight between Nelesquin and Cyrsa until Stackpole explained it at the very end. It almost seemed like there were two unrelated stories in the book, both highly engaging, but I wish the connection would have been a bit clearer.
Naturally, I had a problem with the theology presented in the book. Stackpole's musings about the nature of faith and how it relates to the gods was interesting but fell kind of flat for me (for obvious reasons).
In spite of that, the climax was phenomenal and had me laughing out loud with delight.
If you haven't read Michael Stackpole, he's worth the effort. Trust me. You'll like his books.
Shiver me timbers! If ye be lookin' fer adventuer on the high seas, matey, then look no further.
Oh, forget it. I can't do a whole review in pirate-talk.
Anyway, the story centers around Packer Throme, a seminary drop-out turned swordsman. He wishes to get on board the Trophy Chase and help Scat Wilkins, notorious pirate, to hunt the legendary Firefish, a ferocious creature known for its exotic meat.
The story is also about Packer's sweetheart, Panna Seline. Panna doesn't want Packer to go and so she leaves the safety of her home and heads out after Packer only to get caught up in an adventure and a plot bigger than her.
Polivka's writing is great. He kept my attention and, during a climactic part of the book, kept me reading. It was as if I had glue on my hands. I simply could not put the book down. He has an eye for swashbuckling adventure and his prose carries you through the action scenes.
Having said that, there were a few things that bugged me.
First of all, there's how Polivka handled point-of-view. Most books I read handles P.O.V. the same way: if the author is going to jump into the head of another character within a chapter, there's an extra return between paragraphs making it clear that a shift has happened.
Polivka didn't do that. Instead, he would jump to a new P.O.V. at the end of each paragraph instead of at the end of a section. That took a little getting used to because we'd suddenly be in someone else's head and I had no idea we were going to make the jump.
But that's not what bugged me. Instead, what bothered me is that even though he was handling P.O.V. shifts in his own unique way, Polivka would still throw in random section breaks at times that didn't feel right. It was the same scene, no major time had passed, but yet a new section started even though we had been bouncing between P.O.V.s in the former.
It's strictly an aesthetic thing, I know, but it bothered me as I was reading.
The second thing that bothered me was the fact that Polivka seemed to be keeping a foot in reality and a foot in the fictional, so to speak. The countries of Nearing Vast and Drammun are obviously fictional. So are the Achawuk and the Firefish. The Christianity, though, is straight out of our world.
I kind of wish that Polivka would have either kept the story entirely in our world, simply inserting the Firefish into this reality (and playing with the history of Europe in a counterfactual historical kind of way) or pulled the trigger completely and invented a Christianity-analogue for his fictional realm, one that would be easily recognizable and relatable.
I'm not sure how easily he could have accomplished this. I'm not even sure if it's a good idea. But for me, personally, it felt awkward.
There is one other issue I had with the book, but I'm not sure if I can or should share it. I'm still processing it mentally. Maybe I'll bring it up in the tour; maybe I'll keep it to myself.
At any rate, don't let my minor pet peeves dissuade you from reading this book. It be a rip-roarin' yarn of adventure on the high seas. Arrrrrrr!
An' be sure to cast yer eyes on what me mateys on the S.S. Blog Tour are sayin' as well.
Tomorrow the blog tour will start up for The Legend of the Firefish by George Bryan Polivka. I'll be submitting my review tomorrow and probably blathering on the other two days. But there's something that occurred to me this past month that I wanted to share with my tourmates. Rather than dedicate one of the three days of the Firefish tour to it, I figured I'd post it a day early so anyone traipsing into my blog can see this and hopefully react.
I had a brainstorm the other day about marketing Christian speculative fiction. Obviously we are all hoping to call attention to this worthy field. The way I see it, we basically are trying to reach out to two groups:
1) Established Christian fiction readers
2) New Christian fiction readers, perhaps people who like sci-fi, fantasy, and the rest but are unaware that there is a Christian version of it.
My idea deals with how to reach that second contingent. There is a place where sci-fi and fantasy aficionados gather on a yearly basis, a place where the powerful are flocking to see and be seen, a Mecca of sorts for those who might appreciate a good speculative read.
I'm talking of this place:
That's right, I think the Christian speculative fiction genre should invade Comic-Con International!
Even if you're not a comic book geek at heart (or a closet comic book geek like me), I'm sure you've seen the press that Comic-Con has been getting lately. This is the place where Hollywood goes to premiere their big ticket projects like the upcoming Iron Man movie or the fourth installment of Indiana Jones. Apparently this past year, somewhere around 10,000 people crowded through the doors for one day.
Could you imagine if we could get a booth at Comic-Con? I'm not saying that all 10,000 would pass by our booth. Some may even give us the fish eye. But there might be a few people who would stop by and give this well-deserving genre a look-see. They may even buy some books. They may even become fans.
So what would we need for a booth? Well, off the top of my head:
1) Money. And lots of it unfortunately. According to this form, it costs $1,800 for a bare-minimum 10X10 booth. I don't know if that's per day or just one flat fee.
2) Swag. I've never been to Comic-Con before, but my brother-in-law is a veteran. He says that the way to get people to your booth is to give out free stuff. Posters, tote bags, that sort of thing. If we're going to attract any attention, we would need to be able to shout, "Free stuff over here!"
3) Books. We'd need a stack of books to sell to the convention goers. Probably not that many, but we would want to be able to sell whatever we could.
4) Volunteers. People would need to man the booth. Probably a few shifts of people. That way it's not just one person trapped in a 10X10 space for hours on end.
5) Authors. It'd be cool if authors would come to sign their books. They could talk to potential readers and that might help a little.
6) Booth babes. Well, maybe not...
Now granted, this might be a little ambitious, but maybe it's time we think a little out-of-the-box. Even if we connected with a few new readers, it could be the start of something good.
I'm a big fan of Michael Stackpole. At first it was just because of his Star Wars novels (which, in my not so humble opinion, are better than those of Timothy Zahn. Yes, I went there!). But I finally decided to read his other books such as Talion: Revenant and the DragonCrown War Cycle. So I was extremely excited a few years ago when this book came out.
But I had a little trouble with A Secret Atlas the first time I read it. Lots of characters, lots of place names, and a very complex plot. I read it a second time when the second book in the series, Cartomancy, came out. And now I've read it a third time since the third book, The New World, came out.
I'm glad I did. I didn't fully appreciate how rich a world Stackpole created the first time around.
The story revolves around the Anturasi clan, the royal cartographers of Nalenyr. They are charged with charting the world around them, a world emerging from the throes of what they call the Cataclysm, when a massive release of wild magic brought about an ice age. The charts created by Qiro Anturasi, the clan's patriarch, allows the merchants of Nalenyr to prosper greatly, much to the envy of their neighbors.
Qiro sends his two grandsons, Keles and Jorim, out on expeditions into the unknown. Keles is sent to explore the Wastes, a place where wild magic still reigns. Jorim is sent south on a ship called the Stormwolf to discover new lands. Both men are accompanied by interesting companions as they put themselves in danger, trying to appease their tempermental grandfather.
But other forces are afoot. Prince Pyrust, the regent of Deseirion, is intent on building an empire for himself and threatens Nalenyr. And on top of that, sinister forces are building that could easily tear apart the world as the Anturasi's know it.
Like I said, I had to read this book three times to truly appreciate it. The world that Stackpole has created for his characters to inhabit is so rich and densely layered with cultures and history that it took me that many times to become truly comfortable with it. Don't let that daunt you, though! Maybe I'm just slow.
Part of the reason I had trouble with the density of the backstory is that I missed some details the first time through. For example, at the end of the book, a character reveals himself. This character is a major bad-guy who gets mentioned in passing once or twice earlier in the book. But because it was only in passing, I had forgotten about him completely when he finally popped up. I was completely confused the first time when I got there. The second and third time, though, I caught the earlier references.
That's only a minor criticism. Really, go read these books. They're a good magical romp set in a world that is slowly being discovered.
I've been listening to a podcast by a guy who calls himself Jengaship. I met Jengaship at Red vs. Blue. He schooled me in a Biblical debate and I really respect him for that. He's a witty, erudite guy and he's now branched out into a call-in podcast called the Late Nite Jengajam. I can't always liten to it live, but I always catch up on my iPod.
Anyway, Jenga recently sponsored a contest at the Jengajam's website. He wanted witty, articulate comments on his posts. The winner would receive some airtime to plug whatever he or she wanted. I made a comment that was basically nothing but a silly sycophantic rant.
I won.
Which kind of put me in a quandry. I'm not some Internet celebrity with an impressive project in the works like some of Jenga's previous guests or even future guests. I'm just a barely published author who hasn't quit his day job of being a Lutheran pastor. What projects could I plug? It felt like something of a waste.
But then I put my mind to it and I realized that there were a few projects of mine (or in two cases, projects I'm remotely affiliated with) I could plug. The list started to grow and, before long, I realized that I had so much I could plug, I would run over. What to do, what to do?
So I decided to simply plug my blog and leave this entry for whoever decides to come along. Sorry for the long explanation for those who tuned in to the Jengajam, but here are the projects I could have plugged:
1) "Adventures in Dating" -- This is a machinima series produced by a lady named Decorgal. I provide the voice for one of the characters, namely Elijah. It's done in the Sims 2 and, to put it bluntly, Decorgal is a wizard with the Sims. She is. If she weighed the same as a duck, she'd be in trouble. As much as I enjoyed the Strangerhood, this is so much better.
I could try to sum up the series, but Decorgal did that already in this handy dandy video:
So watch the video, then go download the series and keep an eye out for me.
2) My TEW Diaries -- About a year and a half ago, someone introduced me to the Total Extreme Wrestling videogames (the current game is TEW2007). Entirely programmed by one wrestling fan in England, the TEW series puts you in charge of a wrestling promotion. You are the head booker. You hire, you fire, you book the matches, plan out the storylines, and try to bring your promotion to dominate the business.
For copyright reasons, the game isn't released with real world data (but the dedicated TEW community has crafted numerous mods that allow you to control the WWE/F and the rest at various times). Instead, the game is released with data for the Cornellverse, a fictional universe with over a dozen different promotions you can control. To put it bluntly, the C-verse is incredible. The backstory is rich and densely layered and fans can and do get lost in it easily.
What got my attention about this game is the "dynasty" or diary forum. People will tell stories about what's going on in their games.
Needless to say, that piqued my interest.
So I created a diary about a year and a half ago called "SWF - This Means War!" The SWF, or "Supreme Wrestling Federation," is roughly analogous to the modern WWE. I tossed in a few characters of my own and I was able to build something of a following with it.
When TEW2007 was released, I started a new diary called "MWA - This Means War!" It's basically a sequel to the first.
I won't lie to you, the diaries are long (especially the SWF one), but I'm proud of the work I've done in these.
3) The Christian Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog Tour - I'm a writer who loves sci-fi and fantasy. I've even written a Christian sci-fi trilogy. Problem is, Christian sci-fi and fantasy is kind of a dead genre. There's not a lot out there and what little there is often gets overlooked.
To combat this, some people put together a blog tour. Every month, we blog for three days about a chosen book, magazine, and/or website. The idea is to generate buzz about the genre and raise awareness so there can be more opportunities for writers like me.
Believe it or not, it actually works. One way to gauge this is by checking out Technorati's Popular Books page. This ranks books by how much they're being discussed in the blogosphere (or, at least, the portion of the blogosphere that Technorati tracks).
This past month our blog tour took place immediately after the last Harry Potter book was released. Guess what books dominated the Technorati Popular Books page. That's right. Potter everywhere! But because of our concerted effort, we were able to get our book up to number 12 by the end of the week.
I've been participating in the tour for about a year or so. It's been fun. Here are a few of my favorite posts that I've made:
Sin Boldly! - an essay in which I discuss whether or not Christian authors should portray "big sins" in their writings
Fearless Day Three - From our last tour. I hadn't read the book but I did some fast tapdancing on the last day of the tour and I think the results came out all right.
So there you go. This is why I couldn't fit it all into five minutes! Yes, I need to work on brevity. I'm well aware of that.
I finished reading DragonFire by Donita K. Paul. This is a good continuation of Paul's series of books on dragons.
Kale and Bardon, married for three years, are faced with quite the crisis: Paladin, Wulder's protector of Amara, is gravely ill and at death's door. Burner Stox and Crim Cropper, an evil husband and wife wizard team, have broken with Pretender and each other, creating a seeming three-way war that threatens to boil over and destroy everyone.
In their desperate bid to save their beloved kingdom, Bardon and Kale must separate, Kale going with her father, Bardon with his mother-in-law, to bring an end to the fighting.
If you haven't read the first three books of the series, it's probably better to start with those before you get to this one (beginning with DragonSpell). The cast is large, the concepts and backstory tangled, and it's easier to simply start at the beginning and work your way here.
Paul once again creates an engaging story, one that kept me reading well into the night. I got lost once or twice, but I think that's because I started "skipping forward," jumping over paragraphs to see what happened next. Not Paul's fault at all, I just get sloppy when I read sometimes.
There is one thing that bugs me about this series, though, and that's the role of Paladin. Is he supposed to be the Christ-figure for the series? If he is, then I've got a major problem with some of the things Paul says about him in this book. If he isn't, then Paul should have made that clearer earlier in the series.
I guess incarnational theology is always a bit tricky to pull off in a fantasy series. In spite of my misgivings, this is a great book for Christians of all ages. But like I said, best to start at the beginning if you haven't already.
So we finish up the blog tour for Robin Parrish's Fearless.
I admit, I've been sweating this entry simply because for a while, I was worried I'd have to admit that "I got nothing" (so sorry to the grammaticians out there). But as I thought about it tonight, I realized that I could say something. So bear with me and keep in mind, these are the rambling thoughts of a guy who hasn't read the book. If my thoughts don't intersect with Fearless in any way, it reflects poorly on me, not on Mr. Parrish.
You remember two days ago I said I wished I had read the books? Well, I thought about why tonight and I came to a realization. The reason why is because I can resonate with the basic plot of the books.
From what I understand, the basic premise of Parrish's books is that a group of people have discovered that they've been given special gifts and abilities. Just that idea alone is enough to pique my interest because really, who hasn't wished for specials gifts at one time. The plot resonates because it touches a deep desire within me.
And if you think about it, it's obvious that this plot resonates with a lot of other people as well. Look at the smash hit Heroes: ordinary people wake up one day to discover they have incredible powers and have to "Save the Cheerleader, Save the World." Or X-Men. Same basic idea, namely seemingly ordinary people given tremendous abilities.
Or think of the current literary juggernaut who's been dominating the world the past week or so, dear old Mr. Potter himself. I think part of the reason why those seven books have so captivated people's imagination is because of the way they kick off: an ordinary little boy finds out there's life beyond his cupboard beneath the stairs, to learn he has special gifts and abilities and possibly a heroic destiny.
These stories spark our imaginations because they touch on a deep seated yearning inside us. I want to be special. I want to have unique powers. I want to be a hero.
But usually, sadly, there's a counterpoint to that desire, one that drags us back to reality. The reason we yearn for that is because we believe, deep down, that we're not special. We have no unique powers. We're anything but heroic.
When we think that way, we've missed something important. It puts me in mind of 1 Corinthians 12:12-20, which reads:
"For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit, we are all baptized into one body -- Jews or Greeks, slave or free -- and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
"Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot would say, 'Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,' that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear would say, 'Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,' that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God arranged the members of the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many members, yet one body."
In other words, we may not all have incredible powers. We may not even think we have special powers. But we all have unique gifts given to us by our Lord.
More than that, we are all heroes in His eyes. Think of what Peter writes in 1 Peter 2:9 - "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." Notice that Pete doesn't say some of you were chosen, a couple of you are royal priests, a minute quantity are God's own people. He says "you." All of you. Together. You're all chosen, royal priests belonging to God. To paraphrase a bit, you're all heroes.
Martin Luther once said (and I'm paraphrasing here; I really need to find this quote someday) that a housewife changing a dirty diaper is giving God as much glory as an archbishop giving a sermon. What he meant is that God is the one who has called us to be where and who we are. He has given us each unique gifts and abilities to carry out that calling, be it "superhero," pastor, writer, housewife, clergy, or whatever. We are heroes in God's eyes when we carry out that calling, using the gifts He's given, to the fullest of our potential.
You're all heroes. You all matter.
So there we go. Does it have anything to do with the book? Ya got me, I dunno. But that's the danger of giving a pastor an open forum.
Go check out what the other participants had to say:
Next month is Legend of the Firefish. Don't worry. I've placed my order with Amazon already. I (hopefully) won't have to wing it when we do this again.
We're continuing the tour for Fearless. Here are some of the websites I think you could check out:
Part of my deep regret at not reading this book series came from Valerie Comer, who posted the opening section of the book. A good hook is always needed to draw someone into a story. Robin Parrish has one. Just imagine how you'd feel if you saw yourself walking down the street!
Daniel I. Weaver shares his mixed feelings about the book, something that I understand all too well. I've been where he is and know how much it stinks.
Head on over to Speculative Faith and see what Blog Tour Overlord Rebecca LuElla Miller has to say about the odd marketing that Fearless has received.
And as always, there's Mir. I'm always intrigued by what she has to say and she doesn't disappoint this month with a thorough look at the book.
So there you have it. A few places you can check out for more information.
I have no idea what I'll do tomorrow. None whatsoever.
Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa, I have not read the book for this month's blog tour, which is Fearless by Robin Parrish.
Oh, I could make all sorts of excuses as to why, such as I couldn't get ahold of the books (since this is book two in a trilogy, you know). Or I could go for the sympathy factor and say that I had my appendix out recently and haven't been totally "with it" for two weeks (but really, that's no excuse since you don't need your appendix to read a book). Or I could say that my mind has been elsewhere (like Hogwarts).
But those aren't good enough.
I especially feel bad after seeing this:
After watching this trailer, I realized that this is the sort of book that I'd probably get a bang out of reading.
But this brings up an interesting question: when's the last time you saw a trailer for a book? When I interviewed Sharon Hinck back in April, she mentioned that her son was putting together a YouTube trailer for one of her books and that just struck me as odd. But then, after watching the trailer for the Fantasy Tour and now this one, it's making sense.
We need to get the word out about our often overlooked genres. If that means producing viral videos, so be it!
I don't know what I'll do tomorrow. Maybe some more grovelling. Or maybe I'll take a spin through the other blog tour participants and see what they're up to.
Of course, you can always steal my thunder by doing that now:
Not fifteen minutes ago, I finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I am under strict orders not to reveal any spoilers to my wife, who has yet to read it. And since I only read it so fast so as to avoid having hte plot ruined by on-line spoilers, I shall do my best to keep my review spoiler free.
I enjoyed this final book. I thought that Rowling did an admirable job tying up all the loose ends. She even did so reaching back through other books. There were a few times when I was absolutely bewildered as to what she was talking about; thankfully, she would then gently remind me and I would sit in my chair, stunned that she had pulled something out from that far back.
Turns out that my predictions about the plotline were waaaaay off. I only got one death prediction right (and then, I didn't get the circumstances right at all). Well, actually, come to think of it, I kind of saw another death coming but that one also didn't play out the way I thought it would.
What really struck me were the number of Christian references that pop up throughout the book. Rowling quotes two separate Bible verses in short order at one point. There's some parallels between Christ and Harry that I won't get into. I don't know if the latter is a Joseph Campbell Power of Myth kind of thing. Personally, I'm hoping that the rumors I've heard that Rowling is a Christian is true and she was tipping her hand a little.
Would I let my son read this book? Sure. But like all things, I'd want to be there to explain things and put it all into context. It'll be interesting to see what Rowling comes up with next. I have my doubts that she'll be able to top this, but I'm more than willing to giver her a chance.
This one really shook me up. It should shake you up as well if you read it (and you really, really should).
The Myth of a Christian Nation by Gregory A. Boyd is simply a must-read for all American Christians. Dr. Boyd brings up some very valid questions about how we conceive of the relationship between America and Christianity and the way he answers his own questions make a lot of sense.
Boyd's basic premise is this: there are two types of kingdoms. The first can be called the "kingdom of the world." Every government on earth, including America, falls into this category. Kingdoms of the world are concerned with "power over," i.e. exercising authority, making laws, controlling people either by the sword or by threat of the sword.
Jesus, on the other hand, came to establish, not a kingdom of the world, but the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is radically different from any kingdom of the world. The way Jesus described it was as a kingdom of "power under." Those who belong to this kingdom are to be servants of all, to take up their cross, not the sword.
Boyd's basic argument is that you can't mix the two kingdoms together and he fears that that's what mainline evangelical Christians are trying to do. By forcing "kingdom of God" concepts into the "kingdom of the world" (namely the U.S.), Boyd says that Christians are mixing the two improperly and worse, they're corrupting the teachings of Christ with political power.
Boyd's arguments are very persuasive. He says that rather than engaging in political activism, Christians should instead be about loving their neighbor. Instead of trying to force morality on people through laws, we should instead be loving them as Christ loved them.
I'm not doing justice to his arguments. To put it simply, Christians everywhere should read this book. I fear that the American church is guilty of equating God with America and that we have, in a very real way, created an idol out of the American flag. We need to realize that there is a difference between the two and that equating the two can only lead to trouble.
About two years ago, my brother got married. At the church where the ceremony was performed, I discovered a little book called The Lutheran Handbook. They had copies of this little blue book in every pew. The entire wedding party had a blast looking through it. I enjoyed what I saw so much I ordered a couple copies for myself. I thoroughly enjoyed the tongue-in-cheek look that the authors delivered on Lutheran culture as a whole but I also appreciated the thoughtful way that they handled some elements of Lutheran beliefs.
So you could imagine my delight when I found The Lutheran Handbook II! Thicker than its predecessor, this new edition promised to delve slightly deeper into Lutheran theology and not just tweak Lutheran foibles.
And, for the most part, I have to say that they did their job well. They had thoughtful articles on Luther's "two kingdoms" principle, they had a great glossary on objects that are used in Lutheran worship, they even had a section of lists in the back, like "Top 5 Monsters of the Bible."
But as much as I enjoyed it, I had a few minor complaints. The first might seem a little petty: they left out my seminary. In the first section of the book, they went over Lutheran colleges and seminaries. They listed every seminary the ELCA has, as well as the seminaries of WELS and the Lutheran Brethren, but they left both St. Louis and Fort Wayne off the list?
The other gripe I had is that the author, rather than try to be even-handed on every subject (which might have been a better idea) let his or her personal tastes show. In the article on "contemporary worship," they illustrated it with a smiling, happy, very friendly looking woman. In the article on traditional worship, they illustrated it with a dour-faced old man who looked more likely to bite you than talk to you. Is that really necessary? Not all of us who enjoy traditional worship are like that!
But for its few faults, this is still a great book for Lutherans and even for you non-Lutherans who are trying to figure us out.
This afternoon I took in Transformers and I have to say, I'm not as horrified as I thought I'd be.
Let me explain why: I don't like it when people mess with my childhood memories. I loved the Transformers cartoon when it was on the air. I thought it was just a great show. The first DVD I bought after my wife got me a DVD player was the animated movie. When I heard they were doing a live action version, I was excited at first but grew more and more tentative. I mean, George Lucas didn't do right by his own creation. How would Michael Bay do with someone else's?
I'm pleased to report, I think he did pretty well. The movie was mostly eye-candy (big explosions, huge robots duking it out, and a pretty girl who falls in love with a geek. Yes, they understand the audience all too well), but there were still some sweet moments and Bay worked in some decent comedy as well.
I have to say, I was a bit upset at the trailers when I didn't hear the classic transforming noise (yes, I'm a geeky fanboy, so sue me). But I think I caught an updated version of it a few times.
And how awesome is it that they got Peter Cullen to do the voice of Optimus Prime? That alone helped a great deal bridge the old cartoons with this modern update. Once again, outing myself as a geeky fanboy, when I realized that Sam and Mikhaila were about to meet Prime, I got chills.
My only real gripe with this movie was that they could have easily split the plot into two separate movies and it might have made things a little less chaotic at the end of the movie. I don't want to say too much because I hate spoilers personally and don't want to be responsible for spreading any, but suffice it to say you could have had two separate quest movies out of this one, the first for a person (or large robot, as it were), the second for a certain McGuffin that shall remain nameless.
It's pretty obvious by the ending that they're leaving the door open for a sequel. If it turns out anything like this movie, they'll have a pretty decent franchise on their hands.
I just want to start this review by saying that I am a Tolkein fan. I look forward to reading The Hobbit to my son. I loved both the book and the movie versions of The Lord of the Rings. That being said, I'm less than impressed with The Children of Hurin (and yes, I know I'm misspelling that; I don't know how to do the accent over the "u").
I can understand, given the interest that all things Middle-Earth draw, why Christopher Tolkien would edit together these tales from the extensive back story that his father created for his tales. Die-hard Tolkien fans would probably devour these tales and spend hours or even days debating their intricacies. Sadly, it is those very intricacies that will make this book largely inaccessible to the general public.
Worse, the only reason why this book got published is because of the recent success that Tolkien has enjoyed. If an unknown fantasy author (such as myself) tried to publish this work, I'd be more than willing to bet that all they'd get is a stack of rejections.
Reading this book hammered home some valuable lessons when it comes to writing:
1) Show, don't tell! For the love of the Valar, Tolkien, stop telling and start showing! There were large sections of the story where Tolkien just summed everything up and didn't show us what happened. There was one passage, where Turin has an argument with an elf (I think the elf's name was Saeros, but I might be wrong), where he just told, told, told. I wanted to shake the book and scream, "You could show this scene so much better! Give me some descriptions, fer cryin' out loud!"
It leads me to wonder if Tolkien ever really intended for these stories to see the light of day. Perhaps if he had, he would have put a little more effort into fleshing out the scenes and making them a bit more lively. As it is, this read like an after-action report and not so much as an engaging story.
2) Careful with the names. Okay, it's a feather in Tolkien's cap that he created umpteen-million fake languages. It's absolutely mind-boggling to me that he invented vocabulary, grammar, and so on. But that also works against him. I got very frustrated more than once when I came across words that were basically strung-together consonants with a few vowels peppered between. I couldn't figure out how to pronounce those words and so I shuddered every time I came across them.
And also, I get that Turin moved around a lot, but for crying out loud. The man accumulated about a dozen names and switched back and forth between them regularly. I had to keep checking the glossary to make sure I was tracking with the story.
3) Don't assume too much. One of the real problems I had with this book is that it assumed that the reader was familiar with most, if not all, of the backstory of Middle-Earth. News flash: not all of us are. A lot of names and concepts got tossed around in the story that made very little sense to me. Once again, the glossary saved me because I could find a terse explanation of what those concepts or people were. But still, I shouldn't have to have a glossary to follow a story.
It's not that I didn't like the book. I did up to a point. But really, I don't think my enjoyment of Tolkien's other books was increased by reading it.
So if you're a die-hard Tolkien-o-phile, by all means, read this one. If you're not, save yourself the time and headache and give it a miss.
I've read most of Dekker's books. There are a few I haven't gotten to yet. By and large, this is a pretty good book. The story is complex and keeps you guessing as to what is actually happening. I had the major plot figured out about halfway through, but I do that. I overanalyze books and try to figure out the plot. This time it worked. Next time it might not.
The story is basically about a killer named Sterling Red (what is with Dekker naming his villains after colors?) who has five people trapped in a small town outside Las Vegas. These five people have some sort of connection with Red and he's out to punish them for some past misdeed. He engages them in a deadly game where they have to determine who the ugliest is and then kill that individual. But since this is a Dekker story, you know it's not as simple as that.
For the most part, I enjoyed this story. It's not as blatantly Christian as some of Dekker's other work. As a matter of fact, aside from some references about beauty and ugliness that's kind of Christian and a few references to snakes, this book could probably pass as a secular thriller. I'm not complaining about that; I think it's fine if an author who usually writes Christian stories stretches his or her legs in the secular realm once in a while. What bugged me about this book is that Dekker can't seem to break free from his Circle Trilogy. He had the same problem in Showdown, only it's not as pronounced in Skin. Dekker can't seem to get his mind out of those previous books. If you've read the Circle Trilogy, you'll recognize elements of it in the story. Thankfully, a person who hasn't read the Circle Trilogy can still get into this story and follow it, but I just wish that Dekker would write a book that didn't in some way reference the trilogy (although that'll be a good trick; according to a blurb in the back of the book, Dekker's next four books are a continuation of the Circle Trilogy!).
Perhaps the one thing that bugs me the most about this book is the fact has such broad overarching science fiction elements. I can't get more specific than that without revealing some major spoilers, but I can't help but wonder why so much of the CBA is so closed to sci-fi and yet Dekker can publish this. Doesn't seem fair, but then, I suppose, most sci-fi authors don't have the track record of Dekker.
So I guess if you like a good thriller, this book won't let you down. But if you're looking for a blatant Christian message, it's probably better to read something else.
No, it's not the Fantastic Four (although they are all pretty fantastic). It's the Fantasy Fiction Tour. Four authors of Christian speculative fiction traveling up the East Coast to let people know, "Hey! There's more to Christian fiction than romance novels and cozy mysteries!" Not that there's anything wrong with romance novels and cozies ... oh, shoot. I fear that I've put my foot in my mouth this time.
Er.... Okay! I need a distraction, and what better distraction than flashy moving pictures.
But I'm going to make it challenging. One of the following videos is about the Fantasy Fiction Tour. One isn't. I'll leave it up to you to figure out which is which.
I'm a severe Type B personality wrapped up in an introverted package, and yet I like to write. What can I say? Married, one son, a pastor in the Lutheran Church -- Missouri Synod. Want to know more? Keep reading!
I guess I'm in a Stackpole kind of mood. After finishing his latest trilogy, I had a hankering for Talion: Revenant.
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