Rise of the Dibor by Christopher Hopper

I've been looking for Rise of the Dibor for a couple of years, since I started running into the author, Christopher Hopper, online. He's a youth pastor in northern New York state and someone who loves and follows God with deep passion. He's also a worship leader and recording artist with eight cds.

I was intrigued by the premise for Hopper's novel: What if Adam and Eve had never sinned? Would Satan still have found a way to enter the world? This fantasy novel takes place on Dionia, a sister-world to Earth, and shows how evil enters a pure and beautiful world. Luik and a group of his peers are trained to be Dibor, an elite force trained to do battle against the deceit of Morgui.

The novel gets out to a slow start. This is both good and bad, because Hopper's intent (I'm sure!) is to show the world of Dionia before Morgui becomes strong there. And a perfect world, sadly, is a boring world. I found I skimmed parts of the first couple of chapters, especially a game of rokla sportscast in great detail. (If you want to know how rokla is played, read the novel!)

Even if you don't care (and I didn't), you'll likely enjoy this richly imagined tale. Once things get rolling, Luik finds himself in the thick of things that come to a head after various people disappear and Morgui's army prepares to attack the capital city of Dionia. The skirmishes and battles are described as thoroughly as the rokla and to much better effect :) I'm looking forward to reading book 2, The Lion Vrie, which just so happens to be at my local library waiting for me.

One negative I really noticed with this novel is that it badly needed a fine-toothed comb edit pass as it was full of the kind of errors spell check doesn't catch. I was constantly pulled out of the story with homonym errors such as manor for manner, to name only one that happened numerous times. Punctuation errors such as missing periods and quotation marks did little to help me relax into the story. Still, the plot and characters exerted their effort to pull me back each time.

The third novel is out soon (sorry, I can't remember the title!) and Hopper is also contracted by Thomas Nelson to cowrite a Young Adult fantasy series with noted author Wayne Thomas Batson. The first novel in this series is out in the fall of 2009.

Book Tour--Turning the Paige

Turning the Paige

When I saw this title in the upcoming blog tour list, I took a second look because I have a character named Paige in one of my works-in-progress. Then I noticed that Laura Jensen Walker's character is a divorced woman of 35 who moves back in with her aging high-maintenance (read: passive-aggressive manipulating) mother, and I thought that I might enjoy the tale.

Turning the Paige is a great read in many ways. I got sucked straight in with this opening:

My mother killed my marriage. Stomped all over it with her Pepto-Bismol pink pumps and ground it to divorce dust.

Okay, maybe that's not entirely fair. Mom wasn't solely responsible for the destruction of my marriage. Like many couple, Eric and I had some problems. But the biggest one was my mother. I turned the page in our wedding album on what would have been our five-year anniversary to a close-up of the two of us--happy, bright, shining, and in love. So in love. But that was then and this is now.

My fingers moved up the glossy page to the cleft in Eric's jaw. I loved that Kirk Douglas cleft and had spent many happy hours kissing it. And the delicious lips above it. Now someone else was kissing them.

I slammed the album shut. And as I shoved it back into the closet, the phone rang. I walked over to the nightstand to check the caller ID. Probably a telemarketer.

As the phone continued to ring, I squinted at the name. Now where'd I put my reading glasses? By the time I finally found them, the answering machine had clicked on.

"Paige?" My mother's querulous voice filled the air. "Are you there? Or are you out again? Seems like you're never home anymore." She released a loud sigh. "I was hoping you could come over for just a minute and pull down my other quilt from the top of the linen closet. This one's getting too hot and heavy." She lobbed one of her famous guilt grenades. "Oh well, guess I'll just have to make do. Talk to you soon."

My turn to expel a loud sigh.

Paige also has a sister, Isobel; though she lives many miles away she plays an important role in the novel. I enjoyed the story up until the last few chapters. They seemed to be a travel guide to Scotland that, while interesting, didn't keep the plot moving. Something else in the very end came as a bolt out of the blue to me, totally unforeshadowed. Even so, the ending was satisfying and I'd read another book by this author.

This novel is part of a women's fiction series called Getaway Girls, in which Paige and her friends have a book club and often plan adventures that echo those in the books they're reading. I can really see this kind of series working in women's fiction, because you get to know the various characters but focus on different ones in each book. I was also amused that one of the other women in the series was named Chloe. I've got a Chloe and a Paige in the same novel, too!

Hunter Brown Day 3

So today it is time for my infamous practice of posting the first few paragraphs of a novel and picking them apart. We'll get that over with first. Here is the opening of Hunter Brown and the Secret of the Shadow:

It was the last day of school and I was running for my life. My friends and I had just pulled one of the best pranks ever. It's not like we were trying to get in trouble, it's just that we were determined to get even with the school bully before summer break. After all, Cranton had gone out of his way more than once to make my life miserable this year so it wasn't as if he didn't deserve it. Besides, the last day of school was the perfect time for payback.

Stretch and I had planned out the whole thing weeks in advance. We called it Project:Fireball, and elaborate scheme that required hijacking a bag of brownies from my sister's bake sale and modifying them with a bottle of Stu's Unreasonably Wicked Hot Sauce. All we needed was a decoy. Kitty Swanson, the most popular girl in the whole school, had been Cranton's crush for the entire year and was the perfect candidate. The objective was simple enough: inject the brownies with hot sauce and leave them in a bag on Cranton's "reserved" cafeteria table, along with a note from Kitty in the girliest handwriting we could manage.

Stretch and I watched with anticipation, recording every moment of our latest attempt to humiliate Cranton on my video camera. If everything went as planned we would be posting the footage on our Web site for the whole world to see. It would be the thirteenth and final installment of our online video series. Our subscriber list had grown considerably over the school year as we devised and recorded some of the greatest pranks ever achieved by a student at Destiny Hills High School.

Thinking back over the whole novel, I'm not sure this lead-up directly feeds into the main plot. It does show that the narrator, Hunter, is a prankster with a history of being the underdog and trying to get even. Does this pull you in?

The first few pages really felt like a knock-off of The Never Ending Story with a couple of major plot points in common: getting trapped in a dumpster or garbage bin in an effort to escape the bullies, and finding themselves in a magical bookstore with a magical book.

I'm really happy to announce that the book, while obviously allegorical (and therefore a little predictable, but maybe not to tweens!), struck off into more original territory after that. One of my favorite bits involved the fantasy mounts of Solandria (giant iguanas, pg 255-6):

"Man, I'm going to regret this," I said, closing my eyes and cracking the reins. The creature lurched up the tree with a jerk, and before you could say, "What am I getting myself into?" it scampered up and came to a sudden stop. My head was aching, and when at last I opened my eyes, I discovered why. I was hanging precariously upside down on the underside of a tree limb--the very same limb that Hope was currently occupying above me, or was that below me? How is this even possible, I wondered, looking down, which was up, at the Ugua's grasp on the branch. It reminded me of the little gecko I'd found climbing the walls and the ceilings of my grandparents' condo in Hawaii three years ago. I never did figure out what kept the gecko up there.

I looked up, which was down, at Stretch, who was still uncommitted, staring up in disbelief.

"Come on, Stretch," I called down. "It's not as bad as it looks." Who was I kidding? I was terrified.

All in all? I think this novel by The Miller Brothers will be a great read for its target audience, kids age 9-12 or thereabouts. The second installment in the series will soon be available.

Hunter Brown and the Secret of the Shadow

This month the CSFF Blog Tour is touring another YA fantasy book. I share my novels with several families with teens and tweens so I'm not generally against reading these books and talking about them, though I'd prefer more adult-oriented novels for me.

When I opened the package containing Hunter Brown and the Secret of the Shadow, my first response was that it was a cute cover but I didn't remember that the book was geared for children. However, I order the books a couple of months in advance, so I figured I'd just forgotten. I wasn't in the mood for a kids' story so it took a few days for me to open the book and start to read.

Have a good look at this cover. Can you see why I was surprised to discover that the characters are fourteen years old? I held the book up for my husband to see, and asked him what age the cover looked like it would appeal to. He came up with the same number I had: that it looked like it was for eight-year-olds.

Please remember it's been nearly 20 years since we've had an 8yo in the house, so we may not be the best folks to guess at characters' portrayed ages. But my gut instinct was that no 10-14 year old (the target age for books about a 14 year old) would want to be caught reading a book that looked like it was intended for an 8 year old.

I went to the publisher's website and found that they don't publish a lot of novels and wondered if they were simply inexperienced in the way of appealing covers. Then I went to the website for the novels and revised my opinions again! Tomorrow I'll talk more about the website and what it adds to the experience of the books. And what that has to do with the book's cover.

Here's what other bloggers are saying:
Brandon Barr, Keanan Brand, Melissa Carswell, Amy Cruson, CSFF Blog Tour, Stacey Dale, D. G. D. Davidson, Shane Deal, Jeff Draper, April Erwin, Karina Fabian, Marcus Goodyear, Todd Michael Greene, Katie Hart, Ryan Heart, Timothy Hicks, Jason Isbell, Cris Jesse, Jason Joyner, Carol Keen, Mike Lynch, Magma, Rebecca LuElla Miller, Nissa, Wade Ogletree, John W. Otte, Steve Rice, Crista Richey, Chawna Schroeder, James Somers, Rachel Starr Thomson, Steve Trower, Speculative Faith, Fred Warren, Phyllis Wheeler, Jill Williamson

Book Tour--Love Finds You...in Humble, Texas

Summerside Press is publishing a series called Love Finds You:

Want a peek into local American life--past and present? The Love Finds You^TM series published by Summerside Press features real towns and combines travel, romance, and faith in one irresistible package!

How does it work? Well, (Love Finds You) in Humble Texas is the only book in the series that I've read.

I mentioned recently that I don't read a lot of romances--not because I don't love love as much as the next gal, but because it seems a bit of a stretch to invent so many ways to keep a couple apart realistically for the sake of the story. And yet, the convention of a novel requires that there be true conflict. Preferably something that isn't obviously too manufactured. (Well, that's kind of funny, being as of course the author is manipulating it all, but you know what I mean...don't you?) Being as I'm rewriting a romance novel of my own these days, I'm constantly watching out for what is *realistic* and what isn't.

So the set-up for this story is that two sisters--one an image consultant and very *together*, and the other a retail worker who lacks self-confidence--both fall in love with the same man. Miss Priss saw him first, decided he wasn't the guy for her, sets him up with her sister, then decides she loves him after all and wants him back. The humble, introspective sister is very kind and allows this to happen...if the guy is willing. But of course they don't tell him what's up.

To me this arrangement took a bit to get off the ground. When Trudie, the heroine, allowed her younger sister Lane to get another chance at the gorgeous Mason, I wasn't invested in her character enough yet to see this as believable. Once the story got rolling, it mostly worked, but the introduction to the issue felt awkward to me.

Here's the opening paragraph:

Trudie Abernathy always wondered about two things. First, how was it that some people could live charmed lives while others accumulated troubles like those beetles that spent their time rolling up balls of dung? And secondly, how could one person fall in love as effortlessly as a sneeze, while another hobbled along on love as if it were a twisted ankle?

One of the premises of the entire series is that the interesting name of the featured town be a significant part of the story. Thus Trudie of Humble, Texas, is the *humble* sister, but in the end things work out well for everyone. I read the novel in a couple of evenings and found much to enjoy. Enough to make me wonder what cool town names haven't been written about yet in this series!

Anita Higman is the author of over 20 books ranging from romances to mysteries to devotionals to plays to children's books. Wow, busy gal with a diverse set of interests! She lives in Texas. But not, I believe, in Humble.

Book Tour--Cyndere's Midnight--Day3

I'm always interested in a novel's hook. The first few paragraphs go a long way in either enticing me to read more or allowing me to set the book down for *later*. Of course, sometimes later never comes. An author such as Jeffrey Overstreet, whom I've already learned to trust may get a bit more of a break than someone I haven't read before.

Cyndere's Midnight starts with a brief prologue. I'm about as much of a fan of prologues, in general, as I am of omniscient point of view. This prologue reveals Auralia (though not named) working her colorful magic in The Expanse, proving that she is still there but choosing not to be seen.

Chapter one starts with Cyndere (pronounced SIN-der):

Cyndere walked down to the water to make her daily decision--turn and go back into House Bel Amica, or climb Stairway Rock and throw herself into the sea.

Okay, I have to pause here. As first sentences go, that one is an attention grabber. We have a character who has a habit--a habit of choosing every single day whether this is the day she will suicide or not. I don't know about you, but I kept right on reading. What had happened to her to make this sort of despair a part of her routine? And why, if it was so very tempting, hadn't she done it yet? Back to the opening:

It had become a habit. Leaving her chambers early, while the mirror-lined hallways were empty of all but servants, she would traverse many bridges, stairs, and passages and emerge on the shores of the Rushtide Inlet, escaping the gravity of distraction. Today in the autumn bluster, she wore her husband's woolen stormcloak at the water's edge. She brought her anger. She brought her dead.

While the fog erased the wild seascape, waves exploded against the ocean's scattered stone teeth, washed wide swaths of pebbles, and sighed into the sand. They carried her father's whispers from many years past, mornings when he had walked with her along the tide's edge and dreamt aloud. His bristling gray beard smelled of salt, prickling when he rested his chin on her head. He would place one hand on her shoulder and with the other hold a seashell to her ear. "Hear that?" he'd say. "That's your very own far-off country. You will walk on ground no one has ever seen. And I'm going to find it for you when I venture out to map the Mystery Sea."

He had done just that. While Cyndere's mother, Queen Thesera, stayed home to govern her people within House Bel Amica's massive swell of stone, King Helpryn discovered islands, sites for future Bel Amican settlements.

A shipwreck took the king when he tried to cross a stormy span between those islands.

Most all the reading I've done about opening scenes says not to give too much backstory right up front. First the reader needs to care about the character NOW before she gives a rip how the character came to this moment of their lives. Yet after this sordid beginning Overstreet goes on to document, albeit poetically, the demise of Cyndere's brother and husband. How does he keep our attention through what is basically three pages of history? Because of the strength of that opening sentence. Let me repeat it:

Cyndere walked down to the water to make her daily decision--turn and go back into House Bel Amica, or climb Stairway Rock and throw herself into the sea.

In her book Beginnings, Middles & Ends, Nancy Kress provides us with The Swimming Pool Theory:

Structuring fiction is like kicking off from the side of a swimming pool. The stronger and more forceful your opening kick, the longer you can glide through the water. The stronger and more forceful your opening scene, the less your reader will mind a "glide" through nondramatized backfill.

I think Overstreet's opening sentence is strong enough to propel us through three pages that show us what led up to it. Do you?

As near as I can figure out, there are two more strands to Auralia's Thread. Strand 3, Cal-Raven's Ladder, is due out in 2010.

Book Tour--Cyndere's Midnight--Day2

I've spent much of the past week mulling over Cyndere's Midnight. What did I like better than Auralia's Colors? Was there anything that didn't live up to the potential of the first book?

What I liked better, for sure, was the more defined third person point-of-view, getting closer to the characters, getting into their skins, feeling what makes them tick. I also liked that there was more action, and a more discernable plot line. I'd loved the poetic grace of Jeffrey Overstreet's prose in the first book, but I have to say that it wasn't greatly diminished by the faster pace of book two. This is a strong, well-written book.

The Christian Manifesto posted an interview with Overstreet in which they discussed Cyndere's Midnight. Feel free to read the whole thing, but here are a couple of bits I'd like to explore further.

Overstreet says:

I was five years old. I saw an ad for Jaws in the paper. You know the ad—that famous image of the swimmer, and the beast rising up from underneath. That picture still scares me. It made quite an impression on my five-year-old imagination. And for the first time, I coped with my fear by writing a story about it. It was called “The Sea Monster,” 9 or 10 pages of green paper with felt-tip pen drawings, stapled together. I have it in a file somewhere. It was just a story in drawings, but I turned it into an epic battle between a swimmer and a thing with massive jaws. I just had to resolve that tension, that closing gap between the woman and the monster.

Now, Cyndere’s Midnight is in bookstores—and what is it? Well, on one level, it’s a story about a beautiful woman and a monster with big teeth… and that scary space between them.

I have to say I didn't see anything of the movie Jaws in this novel, so I found it intensely interesting that Overstreet sees this novel as his interpretation of the concept.

The interviewer asked again, more specifically, what this book was about. Here is the answer:

After Auralia’s Colors, I wanted to explore what might happen if a beastman came into contact with the same mysterious beauty that Auralia unleashed upon the world. Right away, I realized that this story was a strange variation on “Beauty and the Beast.” But in my version, “beauty” meant something different. Here was a woman broken by grief, and a man broken by a curse. Both were drawn to the same magical, beautiful place. Their shared experience of that beauty became the core of the story.

From this quote I gather that Overstreet's theme for Cyndere's Midnight is that of healing the brokenness. Many people have difficult things in their lives. Some--a few--have been truly broken by deep pain. It is to these that Overstreet extends his story of healing. Tomorrow we'll look at the opening sequence, where you'll get an idea of what pain is found in the midnight Cyndere endures.

Book Tour--Cyndere's Midnight by Jeffrey Overstreet

In the past few years I've had the privilege of reading quite a few speculative fiction releases by various Christian authors through the Christian Science Fiction Fantasy Blog Tour. There have been very few that I simply didn't like, but there have been equally few that I have loved. The Sword of Lyric series by Sharon Hinck are amongst the truly loved...and Auralia's Colors by Jeffrey Overstreet. Even though it was written in omni.

I talked about Auralia's Colors here and here and here when I read it just over a year ago. I looked forward to the second novel in the series and have recently completed reading it.

Cyndere's Midnight is the second *strand* in The Auralia Thread series. At the end of the first book Auralia herself disappeared. Not in a way that smacked of foul play, just that her initial job was done. So while she doesn't really play an immediate role in this second novel, the mark she left on The Expanse is still growing and still affecting everyone she came in contact with.

About the only thing I didn't love about the first novel was Jeffrey Overstreet's use of omniscient point-of-view. I quickly got sucked into the novel anyway and found it didn't bother me once I was immersed. In Cyndere's Midnight I found that Overstreet used a limited third viewpoint and that it helped me to feel closer to the characters.

There are four major players in this novel, some of whom we knew well from the prequel: the ale boy, who still doesn't have a name; Cal-Raven, now king of the remnant of Abascar; and the beastman, Jordam, whom Auralia's colors had *tamed*. Cyndere is new--I don't remember if she was mentioned in the previous novel or not, but she definitely wasn't a player.

Cyndere and her husband had a dream to help the beastmen to throw off the curse that had brought down their house, but Cyndere's husband was killed by the beastmen while trying to make contact. Devastated, Cyndere swings between severe depression and hints of hope that the dream might yet become a reality. When she and Jordam meet at a mysterious well where Auralia's colors are prevalent, the world of The Expanse is set upon a new course.

Tomorrow we'll have a look at some of the prevalent themes in Cyndere's Midnight, but if you are interested in reading what other bloggers are saying about this book in the meanwhile, check out these links:
Brandon Barr, Keanan Brand, Rachel Briard, Melissa Carswell, Amy Cruson, CSFF Blog Tour, Stacey Dale, D. G. D. Davidson, Shane Deal, Jeff Draper, April Erwin, Karina Fabian, Andrea Graham, Todd Michael Greene, Katie Hart, Timothy Hicks, Jason Isbell, Jason Joyner, Kait, Carol Keen, Magma, Rebecca LuElla Miller, Eve Nielsen, Nissa, Wade Ogletree, John W. Otte, John Ottinger, Steve Rice, Crista Richey, Alice M. Roelke, Chawna Schroeder, James Somers, Rachel Starr Thomson, Robert Treskillard, Steve Trower, Speculative Faith, Fred Warren, Jill Williamson

The Book of Names by D. Barkley Briggs -- Day 3

Here it is, the wrap-up day for the blog tour for A Book of Names. It's been interesting to read what various folks have said about it. (Check my Day 1 post for the complete list of tourists.)

Steve Rice doesn't let the fact that he hasn't read a book stop him. Check out his Genuine Fake Review for a few laughs as he reviews the Amazon book reviews.

Becky Miller and Chawna Schroeder expressed concern about the darkness portrayed in some of the scenes, particularly from the villains' pov scenes. To be honest, this level hadn't quite caught my attention, perhaps in part because it's been quite a few years since I've had a young teen in my house and, in general, I tend to read more mainstream fantasy than specifically Christian. So the advice for parents to preview for younger readers may not be a bad idea.

On the other hand, Keanan Brand got the goods from his 10-year-old niece, Jamie, who read the book and agreed to be interviewed about her impressions. Here is the link to the first segment, and here is the link to the second. I'm heading back later today to check for the third installment. After all, Keanan says this (emphasis my own):

I'm still reading the book, and should finish it by tomorrow, in time for my last post for this month's tour. I liked the poem and the map at the beginning, but--I confess--aside from the opening sentence, the first page just didn't grab me. Maybe that's because it wasn't intended to get a grown-up's attention. Jamie, however, devoured the book like a bear raiding picnic baskets at the park, and would have consumed more if the second book had been available.

(Hang in there, Jamie. Book 2, Corus the Champion is available for pre-order now!)

So of course, you know me. I have to post up the opening bit of the novel for you. Like Keanan, I wasn't smitten with the poem (too long, too cryptic), so I'll just head straight into Chapter 1:

The day was gray and cold, mildly damp. Perfect for magic. Strange clouds overhead teased the senses with a fragrance of storm, wind, and lightning, and the faint, clean smell of ozone. Invisible energy sparkled like morning dew on blades of grass.

Standing alone in an empty field on the back end of their new acreage, Hadyn Barlow only saw the clouds. By definition, you can’t see what’s invisible, and as for smelling magic? Well, let’s just say, unlikely. Hadyn saw what was obvious for late November, rural Missouri: leafless trees, dead grass, winter coming on strong. Most of all he saw (and despised) the humongous briar patch in front of him, feeling anew each and every blister and callus earned hacking through its branches.

Making room for cattle next spring, or so he was told; this, even though his dad had never owned a cow in his life. He was a history teacher, for crying out loud. A college professor. Hadyn’s shoulders slumped. It didn’t matter. Everything was different now.

Mr. Barlow didn’t let his boys curse, but low under his breath, Hadyn did, mildly, just to prove the point. Life stunk. That was the brutal truth.

All true for the most part. Yet standing alone in the field, bundled in flannel, something else prickled his skin--something hidden in the rhythm of the day, at its core--and it wasn’t just the chill wind. He couldn’t shake it. A sense of something. Out-of-placeness. Faced with a friendless sophomore year, Hadyn knew that feeling all too well. It attacked him every morning, right before school.

But this was something more, more than the usual nervousness and name-calling stuff. His intuition was maddeningly vague. Hadyn sniffed the air, eyeing the field. A fox scampered in the distance. Bobwhites whistled softly. This had been his routine for weeks. Go to school, come home, do chores. Today was no different. Except for the clouds.

Download and read the entire first chapter here.

Even though The Book of Names doesn't have a rapid-fire opening scene, I still found it intriguing. What was different about this day, really? What, in combination, made Hadyn's life stink? Why only mention his father? Why would a man, a history professor, who'd never raised cattle decide he wanted cows at this stage of his life?

I can feel the day, and I can feel Missouri in November. I believe that author D. Barkley Briggs has been there. I'm grounded, rooted, and already feeling the magic in the air that he is certain to spring any minute now.

And he does.

Thanks for touring with me!

The Book of Names by D. Barkley Briggs -- Day 2

D. Barkley Briggs wrote this novel (and the rest of the upcoming series) for his four sons, which is one of the best reasons I can think of for penning a manuscript. I asked Mr. Briggs about the connections between his family situation and the novel. He says:

"The story is very much rooted in my kids' lives and the impact of the last few years on our family. The names are even similar to my kids' real names: Hanson, Hadyn....Evan, Ewan....Gatlin, Garret....Gabe, Gage. I've infused the book with aspects of their personality, and the realities of the loss we suffered when my wife lost her battle with cancer at a young age. Our world turned upside down in every way imaginable. It was like being exiled to a foreign country, and all you really want is to go back home. So while the pain you read is real, the point of the story was to find a way to immerse myself and my boys back into the adventure of life.

"I think it's important for people to realize the magic and thrill of the tale, no strings attached. The average reader will easily lose themselves in the fantasy without feeling the heaviness of what compelled me to write it. For many, it's just going to be a great read, nothing more---and that's exactly what I want. But for others, for kids and parents that have been knocked around a bit, they'll read it with an additional level of empathy. Regardless, I think most teens and preteens will appreciate the honesty with which I've tried to present some of the issues they have to face. Hope so, anyway! As it relates to my boys, I simply wanted to find a voice for the hardship that they could feel was their own, that would enable them (and me) to live again.

"In short...the fantasy is entirely my creation, but the journey is very much theirs."

Knowing the situation does bring a deeper understanding of the story in The Book of Names. Readers not going through a similar grief will still feel the edge of the pain that the characters Hadyn and Ewan (in particular) have gone through, lending depth to the tale.

The main message Mr. Briggs sends his sons--and to those who read the words over his boys' shoulders is summed up in The Calling:



Don't give up. Hang in there. Answer the Call.

The Book of Names by D. Barkley Briggs

It's time for the Christian Science Fiction Fantasy tour for January. I love being introduced to new books, new authors, new series. It seems that most of the fantasy novels coming out in Christian circles are aimed at a Young Adult audience, and this month's pick, A Book of Names, is not the exception.

In this article, debut author D. Barkley Briggs talks about what draws him to fantasy:

This is the power of speculative fiction. This is the power of fantasy: to capture the mind, to both focus and liberate the emotional, imaginative faculties, to form real and symbolic connections, to viscerally associate yourself with a magical, desirable, grand-scaled life.

He goes into greater detail of what he means in a follow-up post.


The Book of Names thrums of the author's dedication to exploring those fantasy connections while never once bopping the reader on the head and saying: "This is what I want you to get."

Here's a brief introduction to the novel:



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

Stand-In Groom by Kaye Dacus

I don't read a lot of straight-up contemporary romance novels. Not because I don't believe in romance--I certainly do!--but because it seems many stories are awkward at finding the right balance. I mean, we all know the plot pattern, right? Boy meets girl, there's some almost insurmountable bumps in the road, it all comes out fine, and the ending is HEA (happily ever after). Because we know that they'll get each other in the end, the wrap-up is never in doubt. We don't read romance for the ending but for the path.

My personal opinion is that it's hard to find believable conflicts to put in the path of these two characters who are obviously going to end up together. Conflicts that are significant enough that it's not some silly misunderstanding that could've been cleared up on page ten and saved us all from thinking "If they only talked to each other!!!" Because I'm a writer myself and have penned one contemporary romance (alongside a pile of fantasy novels), I've brainstormed a lot of conflicts in search of ones that are realistic and workable. It's not as easy as writers like Kaye Dacus make it look. I'd say she nailed the conflict department. The premise of Stand-In Groom?

When professional wedding planner Anne Hawthorne first meets the handsome Englishman George Laurence, she wonders if God has finally answered her prayers for a husband. But when the "best man" for her turns out to be a client--and someone else's to-have-and-to-hold--Anne quickly realizes that planning his wedding will be no honeymoon. Can she remain professional while falling for the groom?

A personal assistant for a wealthy man who wishes to keep his identity--and his engagement--a secret, George Laurence has come to Louisiana to plan his employer's wedding and pose as the groom. Not only is this a challenge to the tenets of his Christian faith, but he can't stand the fact that he's deceiving Anne, the first woman who ever made his heart really sing. Will George ultimately risk his career to keep the woman he loves?

And what will happen when Anne finds out the groom's true identity? Can Anne and George find a way to a happy ending, or will this "I do" ruse destroy their chance at love?

Having an evening with no real plans and no real energy this past week, I read this novel published by Barbour Books in one sitting. And I quite enjoyed it. I'll be happy to read subsequent books in this series.

If you're interested in reading the first chapter, click here.

Shade by John Olson Day 3

Aha! I found it!!! Here's the book trailer for Shade by John Olson.



Let me know if you read it!

Shade by John Olson Day 2

Yesterday I promised to tell you why I didn't order up Shade by John Olson when I had the opportunity to get a free preview copy. Well, first off you know I'm not really into scary. It's hard to know how scary something is going to be, though, unless you hear a personalized testimonial. (Even then you may not be sure, but it helps!)

Randy Ingermanson has co-authored a couple of books with John Olson and they are, apparently, quite good friends. And in April I attended a workshop taught by Randy. In it, he told us how excited he was for his buddy, and then told us the following story about Shade (which Randy has posted on his blog here and which I am shamelessly stealing):

In any event, as John’s writing buddy, I read SHADE at a physics conference in 1999. I finished it about 1 AM and went to bed. But I couldn’t sleep, so I turned on the light and checked in the bathtub for vampires. (They hide there sometimes.) I checked under the sink. I checked in the medicine cabinet. (You probably know about mirrors.) Then I went back to bed.

But I still couldn’t sleep, so I turned on the light and checked the room thoroughly again. Then I went back to bed.

But I STILL couldn’t sleep, so I made one last check. Those vampires can be sneaky little devils. After an extremely careful check, I went back to bed.

BUT I STILL COULDN’T SLEEP. So I turned on the light. And left it on all night. I can’t sleep with the light on, so I was a wreck the next day. But the point is that I survived the night.

All that was ten years ago. I’m now halfway through SHADE and you know what? It’s scarier this time. It’s better written. (I’ll take credit for that. John learned everything he knows from me. Ya heard it here first.)

Bottom line: SHADE is probably the spookiest book you’ll read all year. DO NOT read this book if you can’t take spooky. It also takes a bit of brain-power to “get it.” DO NOT read this book if you are a shallow reader who won’t “get it.”

Here is your chance to prove you are a deeper reader than me. Someone who "gets it"--whatever "it" is.

Have you read Shade? If not, does Randy's recommendation make you want to read it? Or, like me...chicken out?

Shade by John Olson

So this month the Christian Science Fiction Fantasy Blog Tour is reviewing Shade.

I was looking for the direct link to the trailer, so you'd understand why I didn't order this book for review, but the direct link seems to be broken. You can go here and scroll down to view it.

The author, John Olson has several other books available, some co-authored with Randy Ingermanson. Tomorrow I'll tell you the REAL reason I didn't order this book! Meanwhile, have a look at what the other tour members are saying:
Brandon Barr, Jennifer Bogart , Justin Boyer, Keanan Brand, Kathy Brasby, CSFF Blog Tour, Stacey Dale, Janey DeMeo, Jeff Draper, April Erwin, Karina Fabian, Todd Michael Greene, Katie Hart, Joleen Howell, Jason Isbell, Jason Joyner, Kait, Magma, Margaret, Rachel Marks, Melissa Meeks, Rebecca LuElla Miller, Eve Nielsen, Nissa, John W. Otte, Steve Rice, Mirtika or Mir's Here, Chawna Schroeder, James Somers, Robert Treskillard, Steve Trower, Speculative Faith, Jason Waguespac, Laura Williams, Timothy Wise

Hero, Second Class by Mitchell Bonds

On October first, Marcher Lord Press released its premier offerings: three speculative novels from a Christian worldview. I ordered two, and just finished reading Hero, Second Class by Mitchell Bonds.

Hero, Second Class is the story of apprentice hero, Cyrus Solburg, encompassing his years of training with Sir Reginald Ogleby, also known as The Crimson Slash, and his first solo quest as a Hero, Second Class. Reg has a habit of narrating his own battles (and asking Cyrus to record them, please) because, he says: (p 56)"You think I'd trust some half-wit bard who's never held a sword to accurately describe epic combat? You might as well ask a blind poet!" It's Reg's job to teach Cyrus everything he needs to know to become a hero in his own right, even if the First Thing about being a hero changes every time Reg thinks of something new.

Here's a sample (p 76-77):

"Who just counterspelled me?" he (the villain mage) demanded.

Cyrus smiled. "Over here, Shorty. You want to use magic? Try me."

The mage smiled back, though in a decidedly more evil fashion. "Insolent whelp! I'll show you a thing or Five."

As he pronounced the last word, he flung his hands out, twisting his arms as he did so. His thin wisp of beard blew forward in the backwash as five fragments of flaming frost flashed through the air.

Cyrus had time to either scream or drop to the ground before the ice reached him. He opted for the latter, flinging himself into the snowbank. The inexplicably incandescent icicles passed overhead, smashing harmlessly against a large rock.

A slash of flame rent the newly chilled air and carbonized the mage's hiding-tree. Keeth (dragon) waded out of the drift, shivering massively. "I d-don't l-l-like c-c-cold!"

The Crimson Slash drew himself up to his full Heroic six foot four inches, not counting the boots, and pointed his sword at the now-exposed mage. "Frostbite! I challenge you to a Hero's Combat! Stand your ground!"

Cyrus clapped a hand to his head. Not again, he thought.

The Villain turned slightly aside. "You do? I didn't expect that. Very well. I must use the most powerful spell I have left."

The Crimson Slash shifted his shield to Spell Blocking Position Delta.

"Teleport!" the mage yelled.

"No!" shouted the Crimson Slash, lunging forward.

"Bok in a bucket," Cyrus muttered.

The mage vanished in a shimmer of powdery snow.

"By the Seven Furies..." sputtered Reginald.

Methinks that gives you a bit of a taste of Bonds' voice in this rollicking fantasy spoof. This is a land where Capital Letter and Assymetrical Numbers add strength to magical spells, where Villains band together under an Arch Villain to take over the world, and where Cyrus, with his unusual abilities, is forced to make an impossible choice of who he will save in the final battle.

But is it the final battle? Of course not. Hero, Second Class is Book 1 of The Hero Complex. I, for one, will be around for Book 2.

Reminiscent of Patricia Wrede's The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, this novel can be enjoyed by folks of any age, but is complex and witty enough to be appreciated by adults. I enjoyed a novel that allowed me to read a few chapters at a time, but that I always wanted to come back to.

If you enjoy spoofs, puns and tongue-in-cheek humor, pick up Hero, Second Class. I'm pretty sure you'll be glad you did!

Reflection's Edge Day 3

Not having anything further myself to say about the YA spec fic novel Beyond the Reflection's Edge, I'll point you to a few blogs that are more interesting than mine.

Stacey Dale posted an interesting interview with the book's author, Bryan Davis.

Another interview was posted by Shane Deal. I chose not to go to the direct link for you on that--the interview is on Day One--because Shane posted interesting content three days. On the third day he chose to analyze the names chosen by the author.

Ask Andrea discusses the reasons Christian parents might (or might not) want their young teens to read this novel.

At the blog Fantasy Thyme, Timothy Hicks looks at different aspects each day as well: the amount of research Davis put into his real-life settings, for example, and the character arcs for the major players.

Steve Rice also runs three interesting posts, today's post being about some of the theological conundrums that the novel raises. Personally, I'm with the camp that if the author can cause the reader to suspend disbelief, the story can work anyway. I don't think most folk, teens or otherwise, or suddenly going to start believing in alternate dimensions after reading this novel and its successors. Or start jumping through mirrors. My issues with the suspension of disbelief (as noted on Day One) were more to the line of the story continuing to bounce into reality, which loosened my grip on that suspension.

Interestingly enough, Chawna Schroeder asked Davis a question about the multiple dimensions and why he chose them. He says:

In the Echoes from the Edge series, I wanted to do a bit of time travel, but every time travel story I have read contains at least one paradox, and the impossibility of the situations always took away from the story. So, I invented parallel worlds that existed at different points in time, allowing my characters to travel, in a sense, through time. If they altered something in the past, it didn’t create a paradox, because their actions didn’t affect their own world.

These journeys fulfilled my hope to expand readers’ spiritual vision while exploring the great “what if” questions without an annoying logical impossibility. Alternate realms allowed for a generous dose of the coolness factor while still providing a sense of reality, because my characters kept going back to the real world. I think readers enjoy that, because the story does the same for them, providing a doorway to another world from the safety of their reading chairs.

Greg Slade says this: I'm trying to figure out a way to describe this book, and I'm really tempted to say, "take equal parts of Indiana Jones, Spy Kids, and the X-Files, blend at high speed, and leave spinning." He also comments on what he sees as the book's flaws: Do I have gripes? Well, yes, but they don't strike me as exactly fair: personally, I find the pace a little too breakneck, but I'm no fan of thrillers, and Davis is writing one, so complaining that it's too thrilling is, well, just showing my prejudices. I'm also frustrated that so much of the backstory remains untold, but this is only the first book in the series, and if it revealed all the mysteries, why would people even bother to read the second one?

Robert Treskillard asked his 14 year-old son to review the novel. Great idea, getting the goods directly from the target audience!

Reflection's Edge Day 2

I have a habit of showing the opening paragraphs of a novel, so I'll do that again for this month's tour book, Beyond the Reflection's Edge.

Nathan watched his tutor peer out the window. She was being paranoid again. That guy following them in the Mustang had really spooked her. "Chill out, Clara. He doesn't know what room we're in."

She slid the curtains together, casting a blanket of darkness across the motel room. "He parked near the lobby entrance. We'd better pack up and leave another way." She clicked on a corner table lamp. The pale light seemed to deepen the wrinkles on her face and hands. "How much more time do you need?"

Nathan sat on the bed nearer the window, a stack of pillows between his back and the wall, and tapped away at his laptop. "Just a couple of minutes." He looked up at her and wined. "Dad's slide rule must've been broken. It took almost an hour to balance the books."

Clara slid her sweater sleeve up an inch and glared at her wristwatch. Nathan knew that look all too well. His tutor's steely eyes and furrowed brow meant the Queen of Punctuality was counting the minutes. They were cutting it close, and they still had to get the reports bound at Kinko's before they could meet his parents at the performance hall for the company's quarterly meeting. And who could tell what delays that goon in the prowling Mustang might cause? His father had noticed the guy this morning before he left, and he looked kind of worried, but that could've been from the bean and onion burrito he had eaten for breakfast.

(I hunted for a link for the whole first chapter, but I couldn't find one.)

Does this first page hook you, the reader? What do we learn about the characters and the situation?

Well, we have a boy, Nathan, whose family is wealthy enough that he has a tutor and a laptop. He seems to do the books for his dad's business, and they're staying at a motel. The tutor, Clara, cares about punctuality and about the guy in the Mustang. Nathan hasn't seen his parents since that morning, when his dad seemed worried about the guy. If we should all be worrying about the guy (and we find out within a very few pages that we should, indeed, be taking him seriously), I'm not feeling the tension in this opening.

Nathan is obviously somewhere between the ages of being old enough to do the books and still having a tutor, and I get a reasonably decent impression of Nathan within the next few pages.

Also missing, in my opinion, is any real hint of Clara's age or any other description other than wearing a sweater. Clara, who remains a fairly major character, turns out to be a woman old enough to be Nathan's grandmother. When that came out, quite a distance into the story, I had to mentally revise all the scenes thus far to bring them into line with a woman that much older than what I'd assumed an undescribed tutor would be.

The whole story is rather surreal, but you know what? It's that kind of novel! Just imagine characters crossing from one dimension to another using a mirror, a camera, and a violin--it can't help but be rather surreal!

I finished the book Monday night, and I hear that Book Two, Echoes From the Edge, is already out.

What do I find typical of Bryan Davis, the author? A couple of things. This is very complicated inter-dimensional stuff, and you don't exactly learn about it in school. And while I'm willing to suspend disbelief for a novel or ten, the flood of fake-technical terms here kept pounding me. Instead of the author allowing me to just step into that dimension and accept it, I felt he kept trying to explain the unexplainable.

The Dragons in Our Midst series that I'd read previously did much of the same thing, for younger readers. I guess I prefer the stories I read not to continuously challenge my suspension of disbelief.

Then again, I 'm not the target age of this novel (13-16?), so take that comment with a shaker of salt. Having the characters bop back and forth between three dimensions--with suspicions of a fourth--and meeting their other selves from the other dimensions was pretty weird. That might be a compliment. I'm not sure. But I'll definitely pass this novel on to folks with teens and I'll be interested in hearing their reactions later on.

Beyond the Reflection's Edge by Bryan Davis

This month's book tour is Beyond the Reflection's Edge, a Young Adult science fantasy by Bryan Davis. A couple of years ago I won a four-book series by this author--a series that was angled a bit younger than this novel. First off, I'm not a teenager nor do I have one in the house any more. I might well be out of touch with what appeals to teens, but the cover of this novel did not pull me in. It has a very serious feel that is almost adult non-fiction in feel, as far as I'm concerned. Even though I knew it was a novel, and one in a genre I normally enjoy, it sat on my table for over a week because it just didn't call out to be read. It wasn't until the book tour was looming over me that I pulled it out and started in.

I know, that's lame! I'm about 2/3 of the way into it now, and understand what the cover portrays. There's a hint of musical scores in the background--important because the main character, Nathan, is a violinist, and music plays an vital role in the story. And of course the hand pressing on a mirror is also indicative of the title and the very strange mirror that plays its own part.

So far I am finding the story to be typical Davis. What do I consider to be typical? Hm, I guess that will be material for another day. For now, if you want to know what other bloggers are saying about this novel, check out some of these links. I see a few new names on this list!

Brandon Barr, Jennifer Bogart , Justin Boyer, Keanan Brand, Kathy Brasby, Jackie Castle, Courtney, CSFF Blog Tour, Stacey Dale, D. G. D. Davidson, Shane Deal, Janey DeMeo, Jeff Draper, April Erwin, Karina Fabian, Marcus Goodyear, Andrea Graham, Todd Michael Greene, Katie Hart, Timothy Hicks, Joleen Howell, Jason Joyner, Kait, Mike Lynch, Magma, Terri Main, Margaret, Rachel Marks, Melissa Meeks, Rebecca LuElla Miller, Eve Nielsen, Nissa, John W. Otte, Steve Rice, Ashley Rutherford, Mirtika or Mir's Here, Chawna Schroeder, Greg Slade, James Somers, Steve Trower, Speculative Faith, Jason Waguespac, Laura Williams, Timothy Wise

A Constant Heart by Siri Mitchell

I used to accept more books for review on the blog, but I've become somewhat pickier about the ones I choose. I don't have a lot of time to read--sadly, when it seems I could get a free book every week or so, should I want them! Most contemporary novels don't appeal to me a whole lot.

However, back in the day I reviewed The Cubicle Next Door by Siri Mitchell and quite enjoyed it, so when I saw one of her new books on the list, I decided to ask for it.

As is so often the case, A Constant Heart has not yet arrived and it is time for the book tour. However, I read the first chapter here and discovered that it isn't a contemporary novel at all, but a historical romance from Elizabethan England. (You'd think the cover would have told me that, but our list doesn't come with covers!) It sounds quite amusing and I think I'll quite enjoy reading it once it finally arrives.

The young lady is the daughter of a knight, and the young man an earl in need of a fortune. As you might guess, and typical for the period, this marriage is not at all about love. In fact, they haven't met yet. But what caught my funny bone, he writes sonnets and cannot figure out what might rhyme with carriage.