This month’s CSFF blog tour is focusing on Chris Walley’s book from a few years ago entitled The Shadow and Night. I actually bought a version that includes books 1 and 2 (The Power of Night) of the Lamb Among the Stars trilogy, although this tour is focusing on just the first book.
I am reluctant to fully dive into discussing the book. I’ve only gotten to about page 125 out of 296, so I don’t feel like I can fully comment on it. However, I have had a particularly hard time getting into the book, and I’ve got some major reservations so far on what I have read. I know that I’ve read other books that took a while to get into, but this one is different so far. I would encourage you to check out my fellow tourmates listed below, as I will be doing this week. I may post more detail about why I’ve had a hard time reading this book depending on my time and what I see on the tour.
You can also check out Chris Walley’s site and blog for more information.
Brandon Barr
Jim Black
Justin Boyer
Grace Bridges
Jackie Castle
Carol Bruce Collett
Valerie Comer
CSFF Blog Tour
Gene Curtis
D. G. D. Davidson
Chris Deanne
Janey DeMeo
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Marcus Goodyear
Rebecca Grabill
Jill Hart
Katie Hart
Michael Heald
Timothy Hicks
Christopher Hopper
Heather R. Hunt
Kait
Carol Keen
Mike Lynch
Margaret
Rachel Marks
Shannon McNear
Melissa Meeks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Mirtika or Mir’s Here
Pamela Morrisson
Eve Nielsen
John W. Otte
John Ottinger
Deena Peterson
Rachelle
Steve Rice
Ashley Rutherford
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Rachelle Sperling
Donna Swanson
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Robert Treskillard
Jason Waguespac
Laura Williams
Timothy Wise
To be truthful, I didn’t feel as connected to Merral as I think I should have for the first few chapters. I also had to have some hints of a possible love story under it all (because that’s just how I roll), which didn’t REALLY happen, but yeah.
I hope you do tell us what your reservations are. I found that I had to keep reminding myself that it’s FICTION, and that any difference in theology that I might find (from the book to myself) is because it’s specualtion and it’s not true, it’s just an idea. It was hard. I had a hard time figuring out how Walley got to where he did with his characters (as far as getting to the 30,000 AD and such). I think it was worth it, in the end.
Ummm… and I’ll stop there because you don’t need me to write a whole blog post on your blog! 😉
It’s a s;ow moving book, but its genius is in the slow buildup of tension so that when th action explodes near the end, it really moves fast. Also remember that in the original publication, this book was TWO books, so that adds to the sense of length.
Power of the Night is just part two of The Shadow and the Night. There are two more books that make up the trilogy. (It was four books, but the Tyndale publishers in America changed that…)
And page 125, if I recall, is close to where it finally starts picking up…
Keep reading!
CH
The prologue took me two WEEKS to read. I kept reading a paragraph, sighing, returning because I knew I had to read the thing for the tour, reading another paragraph…
(I confess, deep in the novel, I started skimming the boring parts.)
My own comments can be found here.
Dratted blogger unwilling to let me comment via wordpress. 😉
When you have a book 600 pages long, it’s bound to be on the slow side. You just can’t keep the action going to that long. So you replace action with building tension. The trick is doing it in such a way as to keep the reader interested.
Mike
Page 125, eh? You’re nearly to where something actually happens. It does definitely pick up from there. Are the first 125 pages necessary? I’m not sure!
This really seems to be the topic of the hour, ain’t it? well, I just left you a pretty long comment back on my site if you’re interested. (And thanks for asking! I’m honored!). In my own personal opinion, I think the 150+ page intro to get things rolling was overdone and may turn off less ambitious readers, keeping them from a great story! Too bad. But CSFF kicked my butt and made me work through it. Glad they did!
CH
Slow start but worth it, seems to be what people are saying. Keep reading!
Rachel~
As I concede in my next post, I hear the idea that things seem to pick up around page 130-150. Thanks for all the comments people!
However, I still wonder if readers are going to shell out hard earned money for a book, shouldn’t there be a little more enticement at the beginning? I wonder if readers weren’t lost because they didn’t have people telling them “just hang on for 50 more pages!”