by Jason Joyner | Oct 24, 2012 | Biblical worldview, Blog, Bright Empires, CSFF, speculative fiction, Stephen Lawhead, The Spirit Well, themes
In Which The End Game Becomes Visible, If Only For A Moment.
This mind-bending series is a fascinating mash-up of quantum physics, historical mystery, and pre-Starbucks coffee culture with an Indiana Jones twist. Lawhead is a gifted writer and this ambitious five book set challenges his readers with a forth and back approach as the characters wind through multiple dimensions stretching from Macau to ancient Egypt to modern day London and even the Stone Age.
This is all well and good, but if this is the Christian Sci-Fi and Fantasy tour, where is the Christian part?
There have been praying monks and characters who mention God, but there is also a mysterious well with resurrection-like power and the pesky dimension-hopping that seems to contradict things we know. Why is this series published by a Christian publishing house?
The Spirit Well gives us our first substantial insight into the spiritual underpinnings of the series on pages 304-305. Cassandra Clarke is a young paleontologist who was swept up by this dimensional traveling to 1930’s Damascus and has met up with two strange people from the Zetetic Society. She is being asked to join this group in their quest to encourage the “transformation of the universe.” The society members are afraid that reaching a special landmark called the Omega Point will be thwarted by the enemies of good unless the Society can succeed.
The skeptical scientist points out a fallacy at this:
“So,” concluded Cass, “Almighty God is not strong enough alone to bring about His purpose for the universe. He needs you and your society to make it happen; otherwise it has all been for nothing. Is that what you’re saying?”
That isn’t the end of it. Cassandra voices a reasonable doubt at what she’s being told. Still, her experience of traveling through time and space has changed her paradigm already. The beauty of what has happened so far in the Bright Empires series is brought out by the elderly Mrs. Peelstick in response:
“…God has always worked through the small, the insignificant, the powerless – it seems to be sewn into the very fabric of the universe…
…Over and over again, we see that when anyone willingly gives whatever resources they have to Him – whether it is nothing more than five smooth stones gathered from a dry streambed or five little loaves of bread and two dried sprats – then God’s greater purpose can proceed…
…And one poor, wandering country preacher – homeless, penniless, friendless, and despised by all but a handful of no-account fishermen and a few women – gave himself so fully to God that the combined might of the two most powerful forces in his world – the Roman empire and the religious authorities – could not stop him.”
One simple speech, expertly seated in the mid-point of the series, anchors this tale in the ways of the Almighty God. Stephen Lawhead has been writing at a high level for many years. He didn’t reveal the spiritual underpinnings right away. The wait made it more poignant when it finally came. Patience is a powerful weapon for the author.
We may want to rush to make it known that our work points to Jesus. I think it is better when it is placed in the proper context. After 2.75 of the series, we finally see the glow of the Light of the world. It is not dwelled upon. The characters move on. But the wait is worth it. The impact left me with a highly satisfied feeling, seeing an image in the tapestry pop out after it was just out of view the whole time.
Sure, the dimensional aspect is not in our usual understanding – but this is speculative fiction after all.
There’s something to perseverance, both in writing and in reading. Lawhead stated he’s waited 15 years to write this book, and just now feels he can do it justice. I’m thankful that an enjoyable yarn has such a careful craftsman at the helm.
Does this book sound interesting to you? Leave your thoughts below. Be sure to check out the other blogs posting. Becky Miller keeps a list of the posts for you.
We’ll see you next month. Unless one of us stumbles upon an active ley line first…
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by Jason Joyner | Oct 23, 2012 | Blog, Bright Empires, CSFF, reviews, speculative fiction, Stephen Lawhead, The Spirit Well
In Which The Blogger Brings It All Home In Style.
Welcome back to the CSFF Tour of Stephen Lawhead’s latest book in his Bright Empires series, The Spirit Well.
Yesterday I did a quick overview of the first two books in the series, but if I was really walking in the spirit of this series, I might well do things out of order.
Why is that?
The whole series focuses on the idea of the multiverse (called in the books the Omniverse) – an infinite number of alternate dimensions out there. Imagine a world where the Nazis invaded North America, or one where the wheel wasn’t invented. The characters in this series don’t go in the past per se, they jump to different dimensions. In the first book a ley traveler stops the Great London Fire in the 1600s by waking the baker who inadvertantly started it.
With that as a background, shall we begin?
A detailed synopsis is impossible without giving away fun things from the first two books. The main protagonist Kit is stranded in Stone Age times, which doesn’t seem to bother him all that much. His girlfriend Mina is busy mastering ley traveling and avoiding the machinations of the ruthless Lord Burleigh. A new character, paleontologist Cassandra Clarke, goes from a modern-day dig in the Arizona desert to 1930’s Damascus and becomes a popular woman with a group that looks to play an important role in the rest of the series.
The centerpiece of the books are the Skin Map, the tattooed skin of one Arthur Flinders-Petrie. This gentleman was the leading expert in ley travel and kept a unique code on his chest to help him navagate the complicated waters. The Spirit Well delves into the unpleasant business of how Arthur became separated from his map, while other characters both fair and foul seek the Skin Map for their own purposes.
Lawhead has attempted a complicated story, a tale only a master at his craft could accomplish. Thankfully, the author is such a master. The book gives a handy list of important characters followed by a short recap of the events so far. He then introduces the new character Cassandra to be his launch point into book 3.
One must pay attention and hang on tight, as the book does not proceed in a truly linear fashion. If you’re dealing with the multiverse, why should you? It weaves back and forth through many characters and locales in pushing the plot forward (for the most part). For readers of the series, there are points that explain questions from the first two books, which just whets the appetite for more.
There is action and excitement at times, but other moments are chances to admire Lawhead’s gift for bringing the reader into the varied settings. He is a world traveler and excellent researcher, so the details are expressive and inviting. I want to visit Damascus after reading the book (though perhaps not right now).
The story winds its journey like a lazy river. There are moments of rapids and white water, other times with beautiful scenery to enjoy, and occasions where it seems to wind back on itself. Still, the tale flows toward an ending that looks to be a revelation.
I really enjoyed the first book, but felt the second book had a slight letdown. The Spirit Well wins deeper affection from me. I am frustrated that I’ll be waiting another two years for the final resolution, but the Bright Empires journey is quite worth it.
So this is one man’s opinion. Becky Miller keeps a list of all of the tour participants, and there is more information there. Jim Armstrong picked up the book fresh without reading the others, and shares his thoughts on a complicated book viewed with new eyes.
I’ll be talking more about the faith element of the book tomorrow – this is a Christian tour after all. How can a book of multiple dimensions be considered Christian fiction?
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Oh, I did receive a free copy in exchange for a fair review – nothing else.
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by Jason Joyner | Oct 22, 2012 | Blog, Bright Empires, CSFF, speculative fiction, Stephen Lawhead, The Spirit Well
In Which We Jump Back To Move Ahead.
Welcome to the October 2012 CSFF Tour, featuring the best Christian Sci-fi and Fantasy reads available.
This month is a treat because we get to feature one of the greatest speculative fiction writers out there:
Stephen Lawhead. His prolific work has been published and re-released and he keeps on stretching his boundaries and using new concepts to
fuel his latest work, the Bright Empires series and the third in the five volume tale,
The Spirit Well.
The enjoyable part of following a series on the tour is getting to read each one and not losing track of them. The difficulty becomes remembering all that happens and writing about it coherently, but I shall persevere and attept to set the record straight.
In the first book, The Skin Map, a rather ordinary Brit named Kit Livingstone got an unexpected visit from an older chap – who happened to be his great-grandfather. The man was quite spry for someone who should be dead.
It turns out that Kit’s family has the ability to travel via ley lines, special energy forces that were marked by primitive populations through mounds, lines, and other features that have long baffled modern research. These portals open to alternate dimensions, into the very Omniverse. Pretty handy overall.
The Skin Map introduces the quest for, you guessed it, the skin map, a series of tattoos on the skin of the most prolific ley traveler that could show the way to the fabled Spirit Well. Kit chases it and his girlfriend Mina (whom he accidentally lost while ley leaping, but ended up landing on her feet anyway). As any good quest should, he has a villian after him in the form of the evil Lord Burleigh, who has a group of thugs called Burley men trailing the hapless Kit.
In the second book The Bone House the adventure continues as Kit escapes death thanks to his resourceful Mina, the man behind the Skin Map (literally) plots the rescue of his beloved wife, and more is revealed about the origin of Lord Burleigh. Through twists and turns in time and space, we end up with Kit at the very edge of the mysterious Spirit Well.
Thus begins book three, which continues the tale. And this blog will continue to discuss tomorrow. If you’re waiting for more, please check out my fellow travelers below as we explore the labyrinthine Skin Map and see if we can do better than Kit. Or you can check out my prior posts on The Skin Map and The Bone House to get more in-depth on the previous books.
Jim Armstrong
Julie Bihn
Red Bissell
Jennifer Bogart
Thomas Clayton Booher
Thomas Fletcher Booher
Beckie Burnham
Brenda Castro
Jeff Chapman
Christine
Karri Compton
Theresa Dunlap
Emmalyn Edwards
April Erwin
Victor Gentile
Jeremy Harder
by Jason Joyner | Sep 27, 2012 | Biblical worldview, big ideas, Blog, CSFF, Mike Duran, speculative fiction, The Telling
I left off last time on our CSFF tour feature of The Telling by Mike Duran with a teaser. I reviewed the book, but didn’t address the main idea of the book.
That requires a post of its own.
Mike’s main character has a gift he calls “the Telling.” It is basically prophecy – he gets words for people or others. It often comes with a physical sensation that makes him sick.
Prophecy isn’t controversial, is it?
The problem in the book is the ninth gate of hell that happens to be nearby and is threatening to take over the small California town of Endurance.
A gate of hell isn’t controversial, is it?
The demons that infiltrate Endurance make copies of people’s bodies, creepy doppelgangers that know the person’s every thought and desire.
That isn’t controversial, is it?
None of this would be controversial if it weren’t in the Christian fiction arena. The thing that could make it very risky is that there is a clear representation of faith and needing God’s touch in the midst of more unorthodox aspects of the story.
I don’t want to spoil the story, but needless to say Zeph Walker has some issues since he has a huge scar marring his mouth inflicted by a psychotic stepmother. After being hurt, he stopped using the Telling – or it left him. Either way, there’s a theme of finding your way back to faith. The tagline for the book is awesome: A prophet never loses his calling, only his way.
So the theme of coming back is a decidedly Christian one. However, since The Telling mixes God with mythical gates of hell, demons that don’t possess but make really good paper mache copies of people, strange demon fighters, and a blend of science and the occult – is it truly Christian fiction?
I say yes.
I don’t believe a novel has to be orthodox to be Christian fiction. Maybe it comes from too much familiarity with Mike Duran – I know that he loves Jesus and loves the Church and the Word. But we have a huge precedent with C.S. Lewis and the Chronicles of Narnia. Witches and talking horses and all sorts of magic run through the story, yet all but the most conservative of Christians accept it as one of the prime examples of exemplary Christian fiction. Even though J.R.R. Tolkien didn’t claim to be writing Christian fiction with The Lord Of The Rings, it is still considered a more veiled version of Narnia.
I know others will disagree. We had a fine gentleman with good thoughts leave the CSFF because too many stories we featured weren’t orthodox enough for him. So whose orthodoxy will we use? In mine, prophecy is good to go, but other Christians won’t agree to that at all. This will continue to be an issue no matter what we do.
I wish I had been able to visit the other blogs on the tour and see the chatter. Unfortunately between computer glitches and backed-up sewer lines in basements (honey, let’s do a spontaneous renovation of the downstairs) I haven’t seen much of anything. I aim to fix that and check out the opinions, because I’m sure this is going to be an interesting conversation. As always, our stalwart leader Becky Miller keeps up with the latest and greatest posts of the tour.
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by Jason Joyner | Sep 27, 2012 | Blog, CSFF, Mike Duran, reviews, speculative fiction, The Telling
The CSFF is featuring Mike Duran and his latest book The Telling.
Like I mentioned yesterday, I met Mike at the ACFW Conference this last weekend and we talked a few times. When I mentioned the tour for his book, he told me to be honest with my opinion. Mike has posted about the lack of real critique in Christian fiction circles before, so it didn’t surprise me that he said to go for it.
But first, what is The Telling?
Zeph Walker is a disfigured loner in the town of Endurance, on the edge of Death Valley. Hiding out on his property, his only real contact with people is in his dilapidated Book Swap store. His hideous scar, stretching from his nose across his mouth to his chin, has earned him the name Zipperface.
But Zeph has not always been like this. He used to have The Telling. He would know things about people, situations, events. He turned his back on this gift long ago.
When two law enforcement agents show him a body in the morgue that is a carbon copy of himself, he begins to be drawn in to a mystery that has been brewing underground for years. For Endurance is known for being the location of one of the nine mythical gates of hell.
As Zeph meets new friends that are also finding suspicious things going on in their little town, a choice is presented. Face the threat and face the past, or succumb to the evil lurking in the abandoned mine nearby.
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As you can see, Mike Duran does not lack for imagination. When he announced his tagline on his blog: “A disfigured prophet must rise up to close one of the nine mythical gates of hell,” I knew we were in for a ride.
Mike has a distinct style. He writes supernatural fiction, dealing with the elements of angels, demons, spirits, and the ragged edge of faith. However, he does so with a lyrical style. Mike cares about the language used, and he takes great care to paint the picture of what is going on with metaphor and simile. His words don’t just move the plot along, but they weave a picture. This is one of Mike’s strengths, but it does make his writing a little more dense. The book is not an easy pick-up and read. There’s effort expended in working through the passages.
Like his first book, The Resurrection, he deals with flawed characters with significant weakness. Zeph was horribly scarred by his stepmother. Spunky senior citizen Annie Lane has fought isolation and feeling like she may have been passed by in her destiny. There’s even a lot of empathy for one of the antagonists, Fergus Coyne, who battles in his own decision on how to confront his past. The bottom line is that you care about these characters because they have significant doubts and challenges – things we can relate to as readers.
Now to the plot and the big idea of the book. I’m going to rate the writing to finish today, and tomorrow will tackle the implications of the themes.
Mike said he threw the kitchen sink at this book. Government conspiracy theories, prophecy, demons, body-snatching, and cactus jelly all in one swirl of suspense. This makes it very interesting. To me, it also made it tricky to follow everything that went on. I will admit that I read it in fits and starts due to my schedule, but the back and forth of the varied plot points got confusing – enough that it dampened some of the enjoyment. Between the twists and four different point of view characters, I had to step out of his world to figure out who was doing what and where it fit.
It is a good book. I didn’t feel it was a great read. Fellow writers are notorious to please, because we read books with different eyes than a standard fiction fan. If I had to rate it on a scale, I’d give it 3.5 stars out of 5. There’s a lot to think about in this book, there are interesting characters, and a skillful use of language, tempered by a mildly confusing plot.
I didn’t talk about the themes and big ideas. Check back tomorrow for that – I promise it is the most interesting part.
Also, check out the other posts on The Telling. Becky Miller lists all the posts so far.
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by Jason Joyner | Sep 24, 2012 | Biblical worldview, Blog, books, critical thinking, CSFF, Mike Duran, speculative fiction, The Telling
It’s time to “Tell” you about the September Christian Sci-fi and Fantasy Tour.
This one is a pleasure for me because the CSFF is featuring Mike Duran and his latest novel, The Telling.
Mike Duran is an author and prolific blogger. His blog Decompose is a fertile ground of ideas that make you think. Not only does Mike post provocative thoughts on faith, fiction, and culture, but the community of commenters he has following him often expand the posts into very interesting realms.
Mike is not afraid to ask the hard questions or probe issues regarding Christian fiction and speculative ideas. However, he has a deep love for the Church and regularly pokes at the foibles of atheist and relativistic thinking.
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| Mike and I chatting it up |
The best part about Mike is that he is real and he is interested in people and exploring these issues. I know this because I had the great pleasure of meeting him this last weekend at the ACFW Conference in Dallas.
If this post sounds gushing because I just met the guy and I’m talking him up, you can forget that idea. The web does not allow for really knowing people, no matter how much you think it does. The face-to-face with Mike and bouncing ideas off him and other like thinkers (here’s a shout to fellow CSFF tour member Morgan Busse) over meals was a highlight of the conference to me.
Over the next few days we’ll be talking about Mike and The Telling. I’m sure it will be a tour with a lot of discussion. I invite you to check out my fellow tourmates below for more information.
Jim Armstrong
Noah Arsenault
Keanan Brand
Beckie Burnham
Brenda Castro
Jeff Chapman
Christine
Theresa Dunlap
Victor Gentile
Nikole Hahn
Bruce Hennigan
Julie
Carol Keen
Emileigh Latham
Meagan @ Blooming with Books
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Anna Mittower
Kathleen Smith
Donna Swanson
Jessica Thomas
Steve Trower
Dona Watson
Shane Werlinger
Phyllis Wheeler
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