Red Dwarf X: Trojan

Ah, Red Dwarf. I’ve always been a bit of a Red Dwarf geek. I won’t go into the whole back-story right now, you’ve got google for that, but I will share a few thoughts about the first episode, Trojan.

Following Dave’s resurrection of the show in the rather disappointing Back to Earth mini-series a few years ago, they have returned to the show’s sitcom roots, studio audience and all, and in doing so some of the old magic that was missing in BTE was back.

Rimmer was back to his snivelling best (and gurning like a pro), there was some great random banter between Lister and the Cat, and Kryten was… a bit fatter than he used to be, but basically the same old Krytie. No sign of Kochanski, thankfully; a woman’s touch about the Dwarf was ok as a one-off joke, but the chemistry between the four guys was always at the heart of the show. Also no sign of Holly so far, but we’ll see what comes of that later in the series.

One of the great things about Red Dwarf was that it was always a science fiction series rather than just a sitcom set in space. It used proper sci-fi ideas, and those were back here too.

In the past the boys from the dwarf were often off exploring some long abandoned spaceship, and this week’s example, the Trojan, was powered by a quantum rod, which used the power of quantum entanglement to effectively contract space-time.

It was, in some ways, an episode of two halves, I thought: the first half was the funny half, moose jokes and the like, while the second half dealt with the serious stuff, the science and the philosophy. Yes, you could even get a meaningful conversation started out of this episode if you wanted to - as long as you could stop making moose jokes.

Sure, there were plot-holes if you were that bothered, the continuity from series 8 still remains a total mystery (possibly best to just pretend Red Dwarf X follows straight on from series 6 or 7 anyway), and I'm not sure what I make of the new Red Dwarf set yet...

But, based on the first episode, I think Red Dwarf X looks like being a return to form in terms of humour, chemistry, and science-fiction. And, naturally, the DVD set is on my Christmas list already.

CSFF Blog Tour: The Telling by Mike Duran

Ok. Enough with the tangents. Let's actually get to the point of the tour shall we? The point, of course, being Mike Duran's supernatural thriller The Telling.

Until such time as I have read it (look out for a review next spring), here's the blurb:

A prophet never loses his calling, only his way.

Disfigured with a hideous scar from his stepmother, Zeph Walker lives his life in seclusion, cloistering himself in a ramshackle bookstore on the outskirts of town. But Zeph is also blessed with a gift—an uncanny ability to foresee the future,to know peoples’ deepest sins and secrets. He calls it the Telling, but he has abandoned this gift to a life of solitude, unbelief, and despair—until two detectives escort him to the county morgue where he finds his own body lying on the gurney.

On the northern fringes of Death Valley, the city of Endurance is home to llama ranches, abandoned mines, roadside attractions...and the mythical ninth gate of hell. Now, forced to investigate his own murder, Zeph discovers something even more insidious behind the urban legends and small-town eccentricities. Early miners unearthed a megalith—a sacred site where spiritual and physical forces converge and where an ancient subterranean presence broods. And only Zeph can stop it.

But the scar on Zeph’s face is nothing compared to the wound on his soul. For not only has he abandoned his gift and renounced heaven, but it was his own silence that spawned the evil. Can he overcome his own despair in time to seal the ninth gate of hell? 

His words unlocked something deadly,

 And now the silence is killing them.

I'm not quite sure where to start with all that, other than to say that this is going on my Christmas list. And I'm not sure if it's the llama ranches or the ninth gate of hell that swings it, but I think Endurance sounds worth a visit too.

Linky goodness:
Reviews of the book by Becky Jesse (who got missed off the list I posted yesterday), Nikole Hahn, and Kathleen Smith among others.
Bruce Hennigan reads a map
Jessica Thomas reviews it in three parts
Becky Miller talks demons and lost prophets
The author's website
My review of The Resurrection by Mike Duran

CSFF Blog Tour vs Tuesday Tunes

Contrary to whatever impression this blog has given you so far, this week the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog Tour is featuring The Telling by Mike Duran.

The 'Telling' of the title is what the book's protagonist calls his uncanny ability to foresee the future and know peoples’ deepest sins and secrets, and so, it being Tuesday and me not giving a fig if this might seem controversial on an ostensibly Christian blog....

It's the Top Ten Psychic Tunes!

10. Jah Wobble: Psychic Life
Apparently Mr Wobble took his name from the way Sid Vicious said John Wardle (his real name) when he was drunk.

9. Men Without Hats: Telepathy
A Canadian bloke singing over the top of a Commodore 64 playing The Buggles. Probably.

8. Crash Test Dummies: The Psychic
It's basically that Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm one from 1993, with words. About a girl with psychic powers.

7. The Killers: Read My Mind
The 57th Greatest Song of All Time, yet somehow only the 7th greatest Psychic Song. I bet XFM never saw that coming.

6. Ned's Atomic Dustbin: Premonition
We had some great bands in the English Mid-west back in the 90s. This is no Kill Your Television, but the sound of Ned and his indie rock bandmates takes me back to my mis-spent youth.

5. Cud: Take The Time And Read My Mind
Another band straight out of my Sixth Form days, and this is really quite a pleasant listen... which probably means it's a song about dying horribly or something.

4. Hawkwind: PSI Power
The original cosmic rockers tell us about the downside of being psychic.

3. Ozric Tentacles: Psychic Chasm
I don't listen to enough Ozric Tentacles. That's going straight on my to-do list: listen to more Ozric Tentacles. Followed by: say Ozric Tentacles in the course of normal conversation.

2. Kenickie: Psychic Defence
Yes, we're back in the 90s again, this time for an insanely hummable little brit-pop number.

1. Blue Oyster Cult: Veteran of the Psychic Wars
So, you take a Hawkwind lyric, get Michael Moorcock to write a story about it, and set it to music for a hard rock band. How was that ever not going to top the list?

And with any luck, you should have no excuse whatsoever for delving into the weirdness that is my musical taste:

While that's playing, let's not forget there's a blog tour going on. Follow it here: Jim Armstrong Noah Arsenault Keanan Brand Beckie Burnham Brenda Castro Jeff Chapman Christine Theresa Dunlap Victor Gentile Nikole Hahn Bruce Hennigan Jason Joyner 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

Monday Review: The Realms Thereunder by Ross Lawhead

In conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour, I received a free copy of this book from the publishers for review. Admittedly, that was about eight months ago, and the tour has moved on to The Telling by Mike Duran now, but despite having a good excuse for delaying, I should really meet my end of the deal and provide a proper review.

Before we begin, for those who don't know, I don't do fantasy. It just doesn't work for me. However, most of the books we see on the Tour are written and/or set in the USA, so when I got the chance to read something set this side of the pond I decided to put that aside and give it a go. Besides, Lawhead told us this wasn't about a fantasy world, it was the world which exists beneath the one we see (hence the title). So, great, a fantasy England, with English folklore woven into it. Could be good.

But, I have to say, although the underground world our young heroes Daniel and Freya explore with a couple of Saxon knights could be considered 'not a fantasy world' in the traditional sense, older Daniel's adventures in the book primarily took place in, and trying to return from, Elfland (the faerie realms, to be precise). Riiiight. Given that I was hoping for the story world to be a little more Rowlingesque, I did feel I'd been somewhat mis-sold as I waded through the faerie realms.

The book is made up of two sets of stories - young Daniel and Freya's experiences in Nidergeard (the underground world) as teenagers, and their individual exploits some years later, Daniel in Elfland, and Freya... well, therein hangs the wossname.

Back in February, I wanted to share my unique British perspective on this with the tour as a whole, but having not finished the book, didn't know whether it would later become apparent - or indeed serve a purpose to the plot - that Freya was kidnapped by an Atlas of Britain.

It didn't take me a second thought to realise that Professor Felix Stowe was named after the largest freight port in the UK, and when he introduced us to First Lieutenant Gerrards Cross, Brent Wood et al, I was wondering whether this was deliberate, or whether the author was just rubbish at making up names and hoped his American publisher wouldn't notice. But when Freya started quoting from books by Cookham Dean and Dudley Port, I'd about had enough and wanted to throw the book off the cliffs at Rosslaw Head.

Never fear though, for Freya - being an educated woman who can probably even spell Abbingdon correctly - did eventually work out that all was not as it seemed and that she was being held captive by an A to Z. But we never found out what their agenda was, or why they had such outrageously silly names. Which was a shame, because although many of Freya's actual pages were largely pointless, save for hypnotising both Freya and the reader, hers was the only part of the story I actually wanted to follow.

So, in summary, maybe my expectations of the story and setting were off, and it says something that despite being set in Fairyland and not England after all, I still finished the book. But ultimately, as much as I wanted to like this book, I just didn't. And those bits that I did like were treated as so insignificant in the overall story that they are not enough to sell me on the rest of the series.

Linky Goodness:
My initial thoughts on The Realms Thereunder
 

But that's enough about that, I think I would much rather have read The Telling by Mike Duran, like these bloggers have:
Jim Armstrong Noah Arsenault Keanan Brand Beckie Burnham Brenda Castro Jeff Chapman Christine Theresa Dunlap Victor Gentile Nikole Hahn Bruce Hennigan Jason Joyner 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

NaNoWrAntMo

Yes, it's September, or to give it its proper name, National Novel Writing Anticipation Month, those thirty days in which writers and crazy people the world over start to get all twitchy at the thought of starting another 30 day novelathon (in about seven weeks time).

And more often than not, start to panic when they realise they haven't got a clue where they are going to start on November 1st.

As for me, apart from a couple of vague attempts at short stories, I have hardly written anything this year, and as a result have my spare ideas from last NaNo plus one or two others rattling around inside my head, competing for my attention over the next couple of months. So, mainly for my own easy reference, here's my current WIPlist (or rather, ideas list, as most of these are insufficently developed to qualify as 'in progress'):

• An Old Testament Space Opera. I think I can put an original enough slant on the story of Joseph and his brothers for it to work. 
• A comic fantasy. I think DragonQuest (NaNo 2009) needs a prequel.
• A paranormal/slipstream/ weird novel which sort of exists in my head but whose plot I haven't been able to distill into a sentence or two yet.
• A collection of short stories which may or may not be interconnected. This would give me the chance to start any or all of these ideas, and more, and see which have the legs for a novel and give me plenty of raw material to work on over the next year.
• A memoir. Also not strictly within the rules of NaNoWriMo, but if NaNo isn't about breaking the rules, what is it about?
  
• Some sort of timey-wimey story, either time travel or alternate history, in which Christ's life on Earth forms a critical point. 
• The wild card option. Just pluck some characters, a plot and maybe a few other things at random from the adoptables threads, mix them all together and create something entirely rubbish...

And left over from NaNo 2011:

• An alternate history of WW2. I have sort of an idea for this, but I’m not sure I can make it stand out from the squillions of alternate WW2 scenarios already played out in fiction. Unless….
• An alternate version of Left Behind – in which the rapture occurred during WW2, the Cold War, or the 1990s...Has the minor drawback that everything I know about the rapture and what comes thereafter I learnt from reading the Left Behind series years ago - and I've no wish to revisit them now.

I may put a poll up in the near future, just out of interest, to see what my reader would like to see. Unless I can make up my own mind, I may even go with the result...

Monday Review: The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde

I know what you're all thinking, and yes, it is true - I am about to review a *ahem* fantasy novel. A fantasy novel for the young adult market, no less.

But fear not, I have not yet taken leave of my senses, for it is a fantasy novel for the young adult market by Jasper Fforde, and as eagle-eyed readers may have spotted, that qualifier was enough to sell me on the YA fantasy novel bit.

Being for the younger market, it's shorter than your average Thursday Next novel, and a much fluffier affair than Shades of Grey, but definitely retains the flavour of a Ffordian world.

It also has as its protagonist a wise-cracking teenage girl who unexpectedly discovers that she is the last in a long line of slayers, so, you know, comparisons are bound to be come to mind - except, possibly, to the teenage target audience who might only know Buffy as some obscure old skool vampire show that knocks around on the daytime TV schedules.

But I digress. The Last Dragonslayer is set in the unUnited Kingdom, a dystopian land of faded magic, agency Wizards and Fizzy Pop, where the last dragon still lives safely in the no-mans land between the kingdoms of Hereford and Brecon - until, that is, the Last Dragonslayer is summoned...

You get the picture. Essentially this is the origin story of Jennifer Strange, Dragonslayer; but it is also the origin story of a world which, in the rest of the trilogy, will be changed because of her actions. Whether that world turns out just to be Hogwarts with jokes remains to be seen (at least by me). It certainly could go that way, were it not for that qualifier again: 'by Jasper Fforde', which of course means it is far more likely to turn into Buffy meets Monty Python, and what's not to love there?

So, yes, it's a YA novel, so it's not as deep or as dark as Shades of Grey, the characters are not as well formed as Thursday Next (at least not yet), and there is of course a coming of age theme (none of which are bad things, unless you really dislike YA novels or a quick, easy read). Yes, it's a fantasy novel, with magic, dragons, quarkbeasts and so on. But above all, it is a Jasper Fforde novel, with the brilliantly imagined world, surreal Ffordian humour, and those special features tucked away in the dusty corners of the author's website. Definitely one to add to any comic fantasy bookshelf.

 

Linky goodness:

My review of Shades of Grey

Dragonslayer Trilogy website

Phursday Photos at the Paralympics

I can hardly believe I got up at 5am to go and watch sport once, never mind twice, but it seems I must have done, because there is photographic evidence.

Having said that, before last weekend if you had asked me what the minimum requirement for competetive cycling was, I'd have said two legs - either natural or prosthetic.

Turns out I was wrong. Didn't get any photos of the German team sprint - too busy watching as 3 guys with 10 limbs between them broke the Paralympic record - but they were a definite highlight of the day.

Even so, no apologies for the obvious team bias in the photo selection...

CSFF Blog Tour vs Tuesday Tunes

This month the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog Tour is featuring Eye of the Sword by Karyn Henley, which sounds to me a lot like the kind of fantasy novel I don't read. I am, however, reliably informed that it has angels in it, so, obviously, it being Tuesday and all....

It's the Top Ten Angel Tunes!

10. Shaggy: Angel
I'm sure he didn't sound like that in What's New Scooby Doo....

9. Belly: Angel
And we open on some good old-fashioned jangly indie pop like they had in the 90s.

8. Space: Avenging Angels
In the top ten purely for its use of the phrase 'kick-ass angels'. Which, as of this moment, I've bagged as a title of a forthcoming story.

7. Nightwish: Wish I Had An Angel
Finnish symphonic rock, just because we can.

6. Spiritualized: Angel Sigh
Followed by more early 90s indie weirdness, this time with more of a prog-rock edge.

5. Madonna: Angel
Ah, happy days, when she wasn't just too darned old to be doing this stuff.

4. Ash: Angel Interceptor
That should be the title of a story too.

3. Moby: Homeward Angel
And on to the now traditional electronic offering... We should get Moby on here more often, shouldn't we?

2. U2: Angel of Harlem
Some cracking tunes this week, if I do say so myself! Classic U2 is often hard to beat though...

1. Eurythmics: There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart)
But this song, which will forever be linked to a wet family holiday in Cornwall when I was eleven, was always a shoe-in for the top spot.

Now Spotify the Top Ten to check out what aural delights you're missing out on - oh, and why not browse some of these links, because I'm sure there was a reason for all this self-indulgent Spotifying...

Julie Bihn Thomas Fletcher Booher Keanan Brand Beckie Burnham Jackie Castle Brenda Castro Jeff Chapman Christine Theresa Dunlap Cynthia Dyer Victor Gentile Ryan Heart Janeen Ippolito Jason Joyner Carol Keen Emileigh Latham Rebekah Loper Shannon McDermott Karen McSpadden Meagan @ Blooming with Books Rebecca LuElla Miller Anna Mittower Mirriam Neal Nissa Faye Oygard Nathan Reimer Chawna Schroeder Kathleen Smith Donna Swanson Jessica Thomas Steve Trower Shane Werlinger Phyllis Wheeler

Phursday Photos at the Olympics

I'm not normally the sort of person to be interested in sport of any flavour, but the Olympics dropping on your doorstep is kind of a once in a lifetime occasion, so we kinda had to go...

Unfortunately the organisers'  plan to allocate tickets to people who didn't actually want them means the closest I could get was to camp out at the side of the road for the cycling road race... but at least I got a good snap of Team GB's cyclists to show for it, as well as getting to soak up some of the Olympic atmosphere...

 

        

  

 

Monday Review: The Transmigration of Timothy Archer

This weeks review is a slight detour from the usual intersection of sci-fi and Christianity, in as much as it isn't science fiction, but it is written by one of the genre's big hitters, Philip K Dick.

It is, in fact, his last novel, and quite a diversion from his usual fare; not only is it not the science fiction he was known for, it was written from the viewpoint of a single, female narrator, both aspects which suggest that he could have broken into mainstream literature, had he not died shortly after completing this novel.

Also because of PKD's premature death, The Transmigration of Timothy Archer has unofficially taken the place of the final volume in the 'Valis Trilogy', Valis and The Divine Invasion (more of which at some point in the future).It is, however, only thematically linked, and very much a stand-alone story.

The initial premise of the novelis that some newly-discovered scroll frgaments cast doubt on the authenticity of the gospels. Already controversial bishop Timothy Archer (based on Dick's friend, outspoken bishop James Pike) subsequently goes on a journey of questioning his faith, risking his job and livelihood, and having a romantic subplot along the way.

While it does make for an interesting look at the nature of faith, the overall tone of the story is pretty depressing. It definitely isn't a sales pitch for any kind of religion, so one to avoid if that's likely to bother you. Various story events are also loosely based on the life of James Pike too, but that won't detract from Dick's story unles you are already familiar with the life and work of Bishop Pike.

On the other hand, if you like the storytelling and/or philosophising of Philip K Dick, it's an interesting deviation from his usual fare and shows another side to his talent.

Linky goodness:
PKD on amazon
www.philipkdick.com

Tuesday Tunes: Top Ten Shades of Grey

Don't misunderstand this as milking the tenuous link. Oh no. What's happened is I've realised that this Top Ten malarky is actually quite fun, so why only do it once a month? You never know what you might stumple upon while exploring Spotify.

And while I probably could have created a Top Fifty Shades of Grey, that would have been rather hard work so I've settled for the usual ten.

10. Taproot: A Golden Grey
Taproot were discovered by that Fred Dibnah from Limp Bizkit. What more do you need to know?

9. Question: Earl Grey
A mellow little jazz number that Captain Picard would have liked. Jazz, Earl Grey, smooth. Engage!

8. Karen Matheson: Early Morning Grey
Are there any Gaelic speakers in the house? I really hope she's not swearing....

7. Trivium: A Grey So Dark
Sorry, your volume control is going all over the place today isn't it? We're going all thrash metal for a few minutes now.

6. Deerhunter: Fluorescent Grey
It's a slow starter, but once it gets into its indie-prog-rock groove (apparently they prefer the term 'ambient punk') it's actually pretty good.

5. Haywyre: Grey
Every top ten needs at least... well, at least one piece of electronica, so, um, here you go.

4. Kreidler: European Grey
More electronica, this time from Germany.

3. Spirit Caravan: Melancholy Grey
Low tempo, high noise doom rock... melancholy with teeth. Turn it up to eleven, and let the street know you're feeling blue.

2. Fat Jon the Ample Soul Physician: Berlin Grey
Seriously, that should be the name of a book, not a hip-hop producer. And as for the music, I'm not sure if it's supposed to be smooth jazz or some kind of trip-hop... Catchy tune though.

1. Kirsty Hawkshaw: Battleship Grey
This is exactly what I'm talking about: I've never heard of Kirsty Hawkshaw, but the combination of her vocals and the knob-twiddling of Tiesto that give this track a slightly Portishead-esque sound, and I'm hooked. (Turns out Kirsty was the voice of Opus III about 20 years ago, if anyone's interested.)

Now Spotify the Top Ten to check out what aural delights you're missing out on - and who knows, maybe I'll find another 40 to add to the playlist at some point...

Monday Review: Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde

I knew there was a reason for picking up an old copy of Nineteen Eighty-Four around Christmas time. And it was this: to make sense of Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde.

Shades of Grey is the story of an ordinary young man, Eddie Russet, a largely unremarkable drone of the Colourtocracy, whose lot in life at the opening of the book is to undertake a chair census in the Outer Fringes.

And Eddie's adventures, for it is possible to have adventures in chair-counting, and his will they/won't they romance with the cute but feisty Jane Grey, lead us on a voyage of discovery about the world of Chromatacia, and the Rules by which its residents live.

Existing several centuries after the apocalyptic 'Something That Happened', Chromatacia is ruled by a hierarchy based on perception of colour, the monochromatic Greys being the working classes; Eddie, a Red, being fairly lowly; and the Purples being at the top of the pecking order. The technology is a strange mix of what had gone before: Model A Fords driving on self-healing organoplastoid roads, for instance; and life is lived under the ever watchful eye of Head Office - a name which, for certain sections of society, will instil rather more fear than that of Big Brother.

All of which is to say that this is a very Orwellian dystopia, but one with a dash of Ffordian madness. Shades of Grey is not as laugh out loud funny as some of Fforde's Thursday Next books, but it's a fun read if you like that kind of absurd humour, and definitely an original look at the dystopian genre, once you get your head around the premise of the Colourtocracy.

It could be said that Shades is a little light on plot; however, as the first book in a trilogy it does a good job of introducing the reader to a well-rounded world with plenty of hinted-at mystery, and sets the players up for the rest of the series. The supporting characters, too, seem to have taken a back seat to world-building, although I did find myself caring what happened to Eddie and Jane. But all that aside, the world itself is so much fun that who cares if the characters are only there to explore it and the plot doesn't kick in until book two.

From a Christian perspective, I have to mention the Word of Munsell, from which Chromatacia has derived its all-encompassing (but often nonsensical) Rulebook. The Rules start with a Golden Rule of sorts:

Everyone is expected to act with due regard for the well-being of others.

Then there are more potentially useful rules for the wellbeing of the state and its residents:

Marriage is an honourable estate, and should not be used simply as an excuse for legal intercourse.

A unanimous verdict by all the primes will countermand the Head Prefect.

But then the rules start to wander into the 'serving no useful purpose' territory:

Ovaltine may not be drunk at any time except before bed.

And of course, some are deliberately silly:

The cucumber and the tomato are both fruit; the avocado is a nut. To assist with the dietary requirements of vegetarians, on the first Tuesday of the month a chicken is officially a vegetable.

But the story makes the point that some of the rules are mind-bogglingly stupid. The number that lay between 72 and 74 was banned for reasons lost in history, as was counting sheep and making spoons. It also makes note that some rules were followed mindlessly for centuries, despite being obviously flawed:

Children under ten are to be given a glass of milk and a smack at 11 a.m.

Conversely, of course, such variations have also been abused by those seeking to take advantage of any tenuous loophole they could find; both approaches point out the potential for flaws in interpreting any ancient text, whether by mindless legalism or liberal loopholery.

Hopefully as the series progresses we will find out more about Munsell and his wisdom,but either way, I suspect this is going to be a series that gets better as it continues.

   

Oh, and let me just reassure my reader that there is absolutely no bandwagon-jumping intended here. Jasper Fforde does not specify how many shades of grey the title refers to. There may be fifty shades of grey, or there may only be three. It's probably not important. What's important is that this book will be a far better way to spend a few hours than certain other books you may have seen reviewed elsewhere on the interwebs.

Tuesday Tunes: Back to the Planet

I promised (threatened?) to unleash this on the unsuspecting blogosphere a while back, so, while I decide what to do with Tuesday Tunes from here on, please take a moment to enjoy what I still laughingly call the Sci-Fi Song of the Week.

This week, the only song I own a copy of on the original 12 inch orange vinyl. Yes, surely such a thing could only have happened in 1993!  Back to the Planet present their punk rock ode to the evils of pop culture, Teenage Turtles, in which are posed the eternal question: Is your brain on the blink?

CSFF Blog Tour vs Tuesday Tunes

This month the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog Tour is highlighting Beckon by Tom Pawlik, which carries the tag line 'Come. And live forever.' In which spirit it is time to introduce the Top Ten Songs About Living Forever, painstakingly chosen by a mysterious tribe who have been holed up in a cave for centuries with nothing but Spotify to teach them about the way of the world above ground.

10. Jeff Buckley: Eternal Life A song inspired by anger over "the man that shot Martin Luther King, World War II, slaughter in Guyana and that weird millionaire in Beckon, Wyoming who was kidnapping immigrants."

9. The Primevals: Elixir of Life The Scottish garage rock band categorically deny hunting dinosaurs through anomalies. Which is kind of a shame, because taht would be an interesting TV show.

8. Ookpikk: Soda Fountain of Youth Every top ten needs at least five minutes of quality electronica, and, well, who can resist a title like that?

7. Queen: Who Wants To Live Forever? Which is, in fact, the question asked by the book of the month.

6. Arrested Development: Fountain of Youth Unnecessarily catchy and suitably summery funky hip-hop.

5. Madness: Forever Young They just are, aren't they? I mean, Suggs is like 50, but he's still the naughty schoolboy from Baggy Trousers.

4. Dave Davies: Life After Life (Transformation) I couldn't come up with a suitable Kinks song for this month, so here's a 2002 solo offering from Dave. It couldn't be much further from the power chords of You Really Got Me if it tried though....  

3. Pretenders: Forever Young Not a cover of the Madness song. A cover of a Dylan song.

2. Gym Class Heroes: Live Forever [Fly With Me] More catchy hip-hop, of a slightly mellower flavour this time.

1. Evanescence: My Immortal Stunningly, hauntingly, gorgeously beautiful. But enough about Amy Lee, enjoy the music :)

Now Spotify the Top Ten, and pop back to yesterday's post for the links to the rest of the tour.

Monday Review: Beckon by Tom Pawlik

In conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour, I received a free copy of this book from the publisher, Tyndale House. Bonus points to them for mailing a copy outside the US, but that won't affect my review.

Beckon is named after a barely noticeable Wyoming town, lurking somewhere on the outskirts of the Twilight Zone, where things are not quite as they seem. Which is odd in itself, because it's not until about a third of the way into the book that we actually arrive there.

The first part of the story is divided, somewhat unequally, into three parts, each introducing one of the main characters and their reasons for visiting Beckon. George Wilcox is looking for a cure for his wife's Alzheimer's; Elina Gutierrez is a disgraced cop on a personal mission to find her missing cousin; and our hero, Jack Kendrick, is on a quest to find out what happened to his father, guided by the wise and enigmatic Old Ben (wait, what?).

I found the story a bit of a slow burner; I wanted to discover what was going down in Beckon, not go potholing with Jack and Ben. However, when Jack does eventually arrive, and we flashback to see how Elina and George came to be there, the story of Beckon is slowly fleshed out and the stage is set for the final showdown.

I thought the way the three stories were split was a bit odd to start with, but it works well enough to make the ending satisfying, and helps maintain that air of mystery around the town of Beckon while you're on the way.

For all the story started slowly, once we were in those caves, I was absolutely in the caves. The writing totally took me in, I could picture every scene (although, it may have helped that the cave scenes were pretty much darkness throughout...) and absolutely believed it - except once.

*Spoiler approaching!*

Giant alien zombie cave spiders I could believe. Weird, barely human creatures covered in strange tattoos that seem to co-exist with the spiders, I could believe. But when we are given a physical demonstration of how quickly the people of Beckon are able to heal themselves, that was just a little less believable than the rest, and took me out of the story for a moment.

*End of spoiler*

I tend to find stories like Beckon - supernatural suspense novels with a Christian motif - often come across a bit Stephen King-lite, and the same could be said here, but in this instance it's not entirely a bad thing. King would have had a lot more gore and swearing, certainly; there are gory moments in Beckon, but not too many or too graphic - I wouldn't be surprised if the author had to work very hard to get the right balance. And Beckon clearly demonstrates that novels like this do not need an f-bomb every three pages, or indeed at all.

All in all, Beckon is a well-written story with plenty of action and suspense, a dash of humour, an interesting evil and a subtle but present hopeful note as befits a book aimed at a Christian audience.

Your tour, as ever, continues this way:
Noah Arsenault Julie Bihn Thomas Clayton Booher Thomas Fletcher Booher Beckie Burnham Brenda Castro Theresa Dunlap Nikole Hahn Ryan Heart Bruce Hennigan Janeen Ippolito Becky Jesse Jason Joyner Carol Keen Leighton Rebekah Loper Katie McCurdy Shannon McDermott Karen McSpadden Rebecca LuElla Miller Nissa Joan Nienhuis Faye Oygard Crista Richey Kathleen Smith Jessica Thomas Steve Trower Fred Warren Shane Werlinger

CSFF Blog Tour: Night of the Living Dead Christian

I don't normally like to get too personal on this blog, especially on a tour week when there's a slim chance that somebody might actually read the thing, but just in case my review of this month's featured book, Night of the Living Dead Christian by Matt Mikalatos, is a little frivolous and concentrates on how much fun Matt's writing is, I thought it might be appropriate to share the paragraph that really jumped out and bit me in the neck. And there were plenty more like it, snippets of dialogue that contained real thought-provoking truth. As a writer, moments like these serve to remind me of the power that stories can have - even silly stories about vampires and zombies. As a flawed and arguably monstrous human being, this particular moment was really a little closer to home than it had any right to be!

Anyway, this is Lara, the reformed vampire, relating what she learned from a pastor:

He showed me the fountain, but I'm still drinking from it. There's a well inside of me, but sometimes I want a drink that's faster, easier, and I take what I can get. There's a part of me that's not a vampire anymore, and there's this other part that still wants to be, sometimes. So every day I have to get a little sunshine, because sunlight doesn't kill vampires, it just burns the vampire out and leaves the human stronger. But until all the work is done I'm a vampire with a tan.

I think I need to be less afraid of the sunlight.

Gillian Adams Julie Bihn Red Bissell Thomas Clayton Booher Thomas Fletcher Booher Keanan Brand Beckie Burnham Morgan L. Busse Theresa Dunlap Amber French Tori Greene Nikole Hahn Ryan Heart Bruce Hennigan Janeen Ippolito Becky Jesse Jason Joyner Carol Keen Leighton Shannon McDermott Rebecca LuElla Miller Nissa Joan Nienhuis John W. Otte Crista Richey Sarah Sawyer Chawna Schroeder Rachel Starr Thomson Steve Trower Fred Warren Shane Werlinger Nicole White Dave Wilson

Monday Review: Night of the Living Dead Christian by Matt Mikalatos

In conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour, I did not receive a free copy of this book from the publisher, because Matt Mikalatos' last book, Imaginary Jesus, was so staggeringly awesome there was no way this would escape my wish list. And by virtue of having a birthday earlier this month, I managed to get a copy in time to review it for the tour and not even deprive Matt of his hard-earned royalties. Yay me!

Anyway, the book. Given the fact that Matt Mikalatos is clearly insane an eccentric genius, I opened this book expecting something like a paperback Shaun of The Dead with a little spiritual insight mixed in for good measure. And, apart from the fact that it is less about zombies than it is about a mad scientist (actually, I would have thought that the British would be more likely to use the term eccentric genius, but what do I know?), a spiritually interested werewolf, the worst robot of all time, and our Generic Christian hero, Matt Mikalatos himself, that's almost what it is. There are zombies; they belong to a church that wants to remove the brains of its congregation. One of them is even adopted by story Matt - he's called Robert, and the fact that author Matt has the nerve to just go with the obvious gags like that just make me love this book even more.

Culbetron snickered. "He just said 'at stake' to a vampire. Hee hee hee."

More Christian books should embrace childlike humour. Anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child and all that. Also the phrase 'It's clobbering time!' That should be in more Christian books too.

So far, so Shaun of the Dead. But what of the spiritual insight? Well, drawing the parallels between the common stumbling blocks to a truly transformed life and B-movie monsters works so well that it had to be done sooner or later. It may well have been done before, but that doesn't matter because Matt Mikalatos does it so well. I wouldn't be surprised to find that he has a degree in Stealth Theology or something, because he just slips those little nuggets of truth in among the silliness.

Vampires, werewolves, zombies, mummies - they can all be cured. If they want it badly enough.

And that is one of the great things about this book. In amongst the monsters and the silly jokes and all the other mayhem, suddenly something will just jump off the page and you will be face to face with your own dark side. Take a quick glance at the amazon reviews for the book, and you'll see words like 'convicting' come up almost as much as ones like 'hilarious'. The book doesn't pretend that there is an easy cure to any of our monstrosities - as Lara the vampire says, 'It's simple, but it's not easy.'

For me personally, I think this book works because the author is talking my language. He understands my life, my sense of humour, my enjoyment of things geeky, my parental frustration...

the kids were probably doing the afternoon snack ritual, which involves the children begging for snacks, rejecting whatever is offered to them, and then complaining about their day until they finally take the offered snack and are given sufficient energy not to be upset about all of life anymore. My presence mostly just adds an extra step, the part where I yell at them to stop being so cranky and eat something...

And as if knowing that part of my day so intimately wasn't enough, at the end of the story Matt (or, arguably, Krista) has a baby girl whose middle name is Hope...

So, all that being said, the big question is: had the Matt Mikalatos managed to live up to the expectations set by his debut novel?

Well, I was laughing out loud by the end of page two, but on the whole I didn't do that quite as much as I did while reading Imaginary Jesus. What I did do a lot of though, was think. And I had a whole lot of fun while doing it. So, yes, definitely, Night of the Living Dead Christian is every bit as essential a read as Imaginary Jesus is.

But don't take my word for it, go and ask these people (some of whom may have less in common with the author to start with).
Gillian Adams Julie Bihn Red Bissell Thomas Clayton Booher Thomas Fletcher Booher Keanan Brand Beckie Burnham Morgan L. Busse Theresa Dunlap Amber French Tori Greene Nikole Hahn Ryan Heart Bruce Hennigan Janeen Ippolito Becky Jesse Jason Joyner Carol Keen Leighton Shannon McDermott Rebecca LuElla Miller Nissa Joan Nienhuis John W. Otte Crista Richey Sarah Sawyer Chawna Schroeder Rachel Starr Thomson Steve Trower Fred Warren Shane Werlinger Nicole White Dave Wilson

Tuesday Tunes: LZ7 & Matt Redman - 27 Million

Yes, I know what day it is, but I got a gold star for blogging in the face of adversity last week, so you can't reasonably expect timely posting this week as well.

Anyway, this week rather than trawling the Tube for some footage of Back to the Planet (next week - possibly even on Tuesday) I'm going to share a little video, which I hope speaks for itself, and then ask you to go and download the song.

There are an estimated 27 million slaves in the world today - that's more than at any time in history. If you want to belong to a more civilised society where this kind of thing does not happen, download the song from your preferred digital media stockist and help raise awareness of the size of the problem, and money for the A21 Campaign to help fight it.

I'll even make it easy for you - here are some links: iTunes (UK) Amazon Play.com 7 Digital iTunes (US)

If not, I want to know what more constructive use you found for that 99p.

CSFF Blog Tour: The Realms Thereunder

No of course I haven't finished it. There's no review here. Except to say that I'm getting a whiff of Narnia, mixed with Alfred the Great, and the map in the front is showing just a little hint of Arthurian legend, although I've not seen him mentioned on the tour, so maybe that is for later in the series.

There are plenty of reviews you can read though (although, I haven't in much detail because I'm still reading the book):
Janeen Ippolito's character assassinations summaries;
Rebekah Loper's possibly technical review;
Nissa's Rune Poem review;
Shane Werlinger does it in three parts; and
Jason Joyner doesn't enjoy it.

It seems from the quick look through the reviews and posts on the tour, that opinion is divided by whether the reviewer likes the dual-timeline narrative device. I like it, when done well. I tried to use it during NaNoWriMo a couple of years back, and it's tricky to do well (at least in 30 days!). The chunks in each time period are quite short, especially as compared to something like Stephen King's It, which used the same  childhood/adulthood split but for far bigger chunks of story, and I can see how the frequent changing could be disorienting, although it hasn't bothered me yet.

A few people on the tour have noticed some little editorial mishaps in the book; I noticed a couple of things as soon as the story started that got under my English skin (we don't call them MDs, and there's only one 'b' in Abingdon!). Good job I'm running late, or I'd have ruined the book for the rest of you, who had no idea if Abingdon was even a real place. I've only seen the place mentioned a couple of times, but it irks me that the author can spell Nidergeard properly but not Abingdon...

Anyway, do please venture on into the rest of the tour, or visit the author's website.

Gillian Adams Red Bissell Thomas Clayton Booher Keanan Brand Beckie Burnham Melissa Carswell Jeff Chapman CSFF Blog Tour Theresa Dunlap Emmalyn Edwards April Erwin Victor Gentile Tori Greene Nikole Hahn Ryan Heart Bruce Hennigan Timothy Hicks Christopher Hopper Janeen Ippolito Jason Joyner Carol Keen Krystine Kercher Rebekah Loper Margaret Marzabeth Shannon McDermott Rebecca LuElla Miller Mirriam Neal Eve Nielsen Nissa John W. Otte Donita K. Paul Joan Nienhuis Crista Richey Sarah Sawyer Chawna Schroeder Kathleen Smith Donna Swanson Rachel Starr Thomson Fred Warren Dona Watson Shane Werlinger Nicole White Rachel Wyant

CSFF Blog Tour: An Apology in Advance

In conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour, I received a free copy of The Realms Thereunder courtesy of the publisher, Thomas Nelson, for review. Unfortunately, the time at which I received it was last Wednesday, just a couple of days before receiving a delivery of a rather different type (Bryony Hope, 5.30am last Friday, 7lb 14 because somebody was bound to ask).

All of which somewhat elaborate excuse-making is to say that there may or may not be a full review of the book on this blog this week, but it will appear at some stage.

In the meantime, the blurb tells of an army of knights that will remain sleeping until the last days, a homeless man stalked by a pale, wraithlike creature with a mouthful of needle-sharp teeth, and a Scottish police officer who specializes in hunting mythical creatures.

It also tells of a mythical world bleeding into our reality, a dark spiritual evil manifesting itself in forgotten corners of the British Isles, and the ultimate threat to humanity.

It doesn't tell of spaceships, aliens or time travel, so might not be quite my usual genre, but I felt I should make the effort to give a view from the right side of the Atlantic.

However, should I fail epically in this mission, you can find more comment and reviews of the book in question at these blogs:

Gillian Adams Red Bissell Thomas Clayton Booher Keanan Brand Beckie Burnham Melissa Carswell Jeff Chapman CSFF Blog Tour Theresa Dunlap Emmalyn Edwards April Erwin Victor Gentile Tori Greene Nikole Hahn Ryan Heart Bruce Hennigan Timothy Hicks Christopher Hopper Janeen Ippolito Jason Joyner Carol Keen Krystine Kercher Rebekah Loper Margaret Marzabeth Shannon McDermott Rebecca LuElla Miller Mirriam Neal Eve Nielsen Nissa John W. Otte Donita K. Paul Joan Nienhuis Crista Richey Sarah Sawyer Chawna Schroeder Kathleen Smith Donna Swanson Rachel Starr Thomson Fred Warren Dona Watson Shane Werlinger Nicole White Rachel Wyant