Monday Review: The Bone House by Stephen Lawhead

This month's Christian Science Fiction & Fantasy Blog Tour is looking at the third volume in Stephen Lawhead's Bright Empires series, The Spirit Well - which I haven't read yet.

I have read the previous volume, The Bone House, but haven't posted a full review yet, so this seems like as good a time as any to do so.

As a prelude, I should say that the first book in the series, The Skin Map, ticked a lot of my personal boxes - mainly by virtue of travelling through time and parallel universes by means of ley-lines - and so the sequel had a lot to live up to.

It did seem to start off quite slowly, but the main plot soon kicked in and wouldn't let me go. Alongside the main storyline, which continues the adventures of Kit Livingstone as he continues his quest for the skin map, we get some unobtrusive back story, of Mina's hitherto unexplained transformation from annoying girlfriend to dimesnion-hopping Lara Croft, of Kit and Mina's nemesis Burleigh, and of Flinders-Petrie, the man who was map. While Mina's story fills the gaping hole that left her looking like a Deus ex machina at the end of The Skin Map, the others start to add a greater depth to the multiverse Lawhead has created here.

Sometimes such epic, multi-threaded stories can get a little hard to keep track of, but The Bone House manages to stay interesting and managable for most of the various plot threads. I say most, because some of the later sections with stone age Kit seemed a little longer than necessary, but it didn't stop me enjoying the story.

This volume also introduced some elements of faith and Christianity into the story; presumably there will be some kind of spiritual message in the story as it goes forward, and the steady introduction of various Christian characters is easing us into whatever this may be.

I'm liking the Bright Empires series so far, and if you like the sound of it and want to dip into The Spirit Well, follow some of these links to see what the rest of the tour has to say:

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 Bruce Hennigan Timothy Hicks Janeen Ippolito Becca Johnson Jason Joyner Carol Keen Emileigh Latham Rebekah Loper Shannon McDermott Meagan @ Blooming with Books Rebecca LuElla Miller Anna Mittower Joan Nienhuis Lyn Perry Nathan Reimer Chawna Schroeder Rachel Starr Thomson Robert Treskillard Steve Trower Dona Watson Shane Werlinger Phyllis Wheeler
 

Other linky goodness: 

My review of The Skin Map

The author's webiste

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

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

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

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.

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

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

Monday Review: Nineteen Eighty-Four

It was quite a year, 1984. It was the year that Frankie said Relax, and for Admiral Kirk and the crew of the USS Enterprise, the needs of the one outweighed the needs of the many, and they went off in search of Spock.

It was the year of Ghostbusters, the Space Shuttle Discovery, Torvill and Dean, and African famine.

Madonna was on the verge of world domination with the release of Like a Virgin, as was Clive Sinclair in his field of expertise with the Spectrum+. Both of these were to have some significance as I plunged irrevocably towards teenagerhood, as was the fact that 1984 was when my family upped and left the home of my childhood for what seemed like a far less desirable place a stones throw from Birmingham.

It’s fair to say I have mixed feelings about that year and its legacy, and maybe that’s why it has taken me so long to read its official biography by George Orwell. And, now that I have, I have mixed feelings about that too.

It was kinda hard to get into at first, took a while before the descriptive/info-dumping phase finished and Winston met his co-protagonist Julia, and their somewhat stop-start illicit affair began in whatever moments they could snatch away from the prying eyes of Big Brother. Then that gets interrupted by a big chunk of the book (The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism by Emmanual Goldstein), which although supposedly some sort of Bible for the more rebellious drones of the Party, was very dull and much harder to wade through than the actual story.

And in the last part of the book, Julia and Winston are caught, separated, tortured and finally rehabilitated into life under the Party. From a plot perspective, this is where most of the interesting stuff happens, much of it I found reminiscent of scenes from The Prisoner (good 1960s original, not crappy Hollywood remake).

On the subject of plot, it should be noted that not very much actually happens. It’s something of a fall and rise of Winston Smith (or possibly it’s a rise and fall?), precipitated by his befriending Julia. But for all the shortfalls of the plot, there is no denying that the world of Nineteen Eighty-Four speaks loud and clear into the Airstrip One Britain of 2012. We are all too familiar with the concept of Big Brother; Newspeak of a sort is taking ova thx 2 txt msgs; and even perpetual war does not take a massive leap of imagination.

In fact, with the exception of the extreme sexual repression under the Party, much about the world of 1984 is alarmingly plausible from the outset:

The pen was an archaic instrument, seldom used even for signatures... Apart from very short notes, it was usual to dictate everything into the speak-write…

And by pen, Winston is not referring to the type of ink-pencil I usually use these days, but one with a proper nib and everything. Very prescient, in the details as in the bigger picture, and for that reason a definite must-read. I would have to say, however, it’s probably not a must-read again.

Monday Review: Afterlife - The Resurrection Chronicles by Merrie DeStefano

Afterlife is a bit of a schizophrenic book. The cover is all neo-Twilight urban fantasy, but the premise is definitely more psuedo-science than traditional fantasy. To explain: Afterlife is set in New Orleans some time in the future, where science has found a way to instantly transport your dead soul into a cloned body. Up to nine times, which seems somewhat arbitrary, and the whole resurrection process was never really explained to my satisfaction (probably should have left it in the realms of urban fantasy, I think). Cue a philosophical sci-fi thriller dealing with cloning, immortality and religious faith (yes, there are nominally Christian characters in there, puzzling these things over). From the blurb:

Chaz Dominguez is a professional Babysitter in New Orleans, helping to integrate the recently deceased into their new and improved lives. Though Fresh Start has always been the only game in town, resurrection isn't all it's cracked up to be. Nine lives are all a person can get—and a powerful group of desperate, high-level Nine-Timers will stop at nothing to possess the keys to true immortality. Now the only hope for Chaz and his family—and the human race—lies in the secrets locked away in the mind of Angelique, the beautiful, mysterious Newbie he must protect . . .

Afterlife presents (insufficient science notwithstanding) an interesting premise, an undoubtedly interesting world, and what should have been an interesting and action-filled plot, but then, at times I just didn't get it. The multiple POV characters I can cope with, for instance, unless you make one of them a dog. And I'm not sure where the 'Resurrection Chronicles' thing comes from, as it was all wrapped up mighty neatly at the end of this book!

So much for the quibbles though; is it any good? Well, it's actually not bad, unless you were expecting Twilight, in which case you'll likely be baffled by all the science-fictiony stuff that sneaks in. If you ignore the cover and take my word for it that this is actually a dystopian story in which the 'ideal' world, where near immortality is available to all, has gone horribly, terribly wrong, then you might get a kick out of it.

A Christian sci-fi/fantasy reader looking for something thought-provoking but non-threatening to recommend to a friend might find the subjects of immortality, faith and science gone bad as covered in this story will provide good copnversation starters. Afterlife is definitely something different; I'm still not quite sure what it is, but it's different, and that's got to be worth something.

Monday Review: How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, by Charles Yu, is the story of a book. In fact, it is the story of some of the minds behind the book, one of whom, the aforementioned Charles Yu, is a Recreational Time Travel Device repairman who chooses to spend most of his life hiding in limbo, living in a time machine which is not bigger on the inside, with only an imaginary dog and a manically depressed artificial intelligence for company.

This would be an appropriate moment for the reviewer to interject, and explain that the book itself is not quite as derivative of hitch-hikers as this review has been so far. There are certainly shades of Adams-esque humour (for instance, physics was only 93 per cent installed when construction was halted on Minor Universe 31), but the similarities in plot are, I think limited to those mentioned so far. The concept of a science fictional universe, of course, may also put one in mind of the Thursday Next novels, but all these comparisons are not doing the book in question any favours.

In fact, How to Live Safely is one of the most mind-bendingly original books in the whole of chronogrammatical space-time. If I was to attempt to give it a sub-genre, it would probably be literary sf, with the somewhat scant (but imaginative) plot serving primarily to hold all the author’s crazy ideas together and explore the father-son axis in a completely non-linear, temporally confusing manner.

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe is good, clean, science fictional fun. Movingly funny, nicely written, weirdly conceptual, insanely brilliant and… well, frankly, one of the best time travel stories I’ve read in a long time.

Wednesday Review: Scream by Mike Dellosso

You may have noticed that this week the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog Tour has been featuring Darkness Follows by Mike Dellosso. Naturally, I will therefore be reviewing something entirely different.

Scream is the story of Mark Stone, hard working everyman who just happens to have messed up his marriage and started hearing Hell on his telephone. It’s the story of his efforts to solve the mystery of the screams, which bring him into regular contact with the local police, and with probably the least stereotypical Pastor in all of Christian fiction. The guy has tattoos, people!

It is also the story of the faceless psycho known only as Judge, whose hobby of stalking and kidnapping innocent women and keeping them in a barn leads his plot inexorably towards Mark’s.

Aside from the wailing, weeping, and gnashing of teeth that keeps interrupting Mark’s phone calls, there’s not a lot of what I would call ‘horror’ in the story, and in fact I was more on edge for the ‘real life’ issues – the traumatic childhood incident that birthed Judge, and Mark’s marital disaster. Those things were both relatable, and written in way that highlighted their relevance and drove the point home.

There was enough suspense in the story to keep me wanting more, and although the twists were not all entirely surprising, I found them satisfying.

Part of me wants to say that Scream would work perfectly well as a straight thriller without the supernatural screaming, but the screams do serve the purposes of pulling the various plot strands together, and of reminding the reader, as they reminded Mark Stone, that death – and Hell – can come calling at any moment, and what happens to us then is something we can change – have to change – before that moment arrives. The problem is that’s all they do… I realise explaining them inexplicable would be daft, but I feel a little short-changed, I wanted more from the Scream!

Despite having an obvious message, Mike Dellosso manages to avoid being ‘preachy’, or leaving the reader with nothing more than a hellfire and brimstone message. The message is delivered as a natural part of the story (and, in case you didn’t get it from the story, helpfully recapped in an afterword by the author), and along the way the reader is presented with some interesting comparisons: our hero, ostensibly a ‘good’ person, has utterly broken his wife’s heart, while the apparently ‘evil’ Judge shows moments of human kindness towards his captives; more importantly, he presents a very real and challenging comparison between empty religion and a genuine knowledge of Jesus.

So to summarise: an important gospel message, nicely presented in a cracking story.

Noah Arsenault Red Bissell Thomas Clayton Booher Beckie Burnham Melissa Carswell Karri Compton CSFF Blog Tour Chris Deane Cynthia Dyer Nikole Hahn Katie Hart Ryan Heart Bruce Hennigan Jason Joyner Julie Carol Keen Inae Kyo Shannon McDermott Allen McGraw Shannon McNear Rebecca LuElla Miller Joan Nienhuis Sarah Sawyer Kathleen Smith Jessica Thomas Fred Warren Phyllis Wheeler

Wednesday Review: A British Crash by Roger Harper

I’m taking a bit of a step outside my usual genre for this review, because… well, frankly, because a Christian novel set in England – in Birmingham, no less, somewhere I know well – deserved a look.

I will start off with a caveat though: This is a self-published novel.* This is not a bad thing; on the contrary, many outstanding novels in the field of Christian literature *cough* Countless as the Stars *cough* have been self-published. And indeed, top marks to author Roger Harper for getting the thing in front of me in the first place.

So, I hear you ask, what exactly is this thing in front of you? Well, at its heart A British Crash is a whodunit, set against predominantly a church-based background, with a Christian protagonist. A flawed Christian protagonist. Indeed, most of the Christian characters are drawn with realistic flaws – the narrator, David Jeffery, is a happily married man who unexpectedly finds himself drawn to another woman; his best friend Will has such an abrupt manner and coarse, often racist language that I found myself questioning whether he was as Christian as he made himself out to be. And, with a Muslim family at the centre of the plot – the titular crash, which is the subject of the whodunit – there is plenty of scope for this (sadly believable) racism to come to light.

The Christian elements of the story are handled interestingly – just as facts, a part of the characters routine lives just the same as work or breakfast – and that allows the author to show genuine, believable Christians interacting with Muslims, New Agers, and hot secretaries without the need for any supernatural nonsense or preachy messages getting in the way.

As an aside, I think the journal format the story is presented in is a little unnecessary. There are whole conversations and daily trivia that I don’t think likely to appear in a real journal; having said that, it didn’t really get in the way, except when it forced the chapters to be a bit too long.

So far so good, but… there’s no escaping the fact that this book didn’t have a professional editor. Calling two characters Jane may be realistic, but in fiction is surely a schoolboy error unless it’s for comic effect. While anyone not from Birmingham might accept that the shopping centre was called The Palisades, there were many typos that I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t take a writer to spot, and I’m convinced the year changes half way through the week.

Now, I probably know better than most how hard it is to get that editing process right. However many times you and your beta-testers read the draft, something will slip through the net. And, to be fair, they weren’t the most hilarious/embarrassing bloopers I’ve seen in a self-pubbed book, but the editing, or lack thereof, does let down what is otherwise a good concept, a decent story, and some nice, authentically broken Christian (and non-Christian) characters.

http://www.abritishcrash.co.uk 

*OK, technically, it’s published by a Christian Equitable Company, which may or may not amount to the same thing. As a self-published author myself, I believe there is a place for self-publishing (or indie publishing, or whatever you wish to call it) in niches like British Christian fiction, and for getting those labours of love out into the world. But all of that is another conversation, which maybe I’ll return to another day.

CSFF Blog Tour: The Resurrection by Mike Duran

Well, at the risk of this becoming a habit, may I now present you with… a review of this month’s featured title, The Resurrection by Mike Duran. OK, I haven’t actually read the whole thing, but close enough to give a decent review, and I can absolutely guarantee not to spoil the ending for you.

Plus, there are plenty of very in-depth reviews elsewhere on the tour, so feel free to indulge in those too, but for now, here are my thoughts…

First page, and there’s a ghost called Mr Cellophane. Call me shallow, but I liked that. I think he should come back with a bigger role in the spin-off, like Slimer in The Real Ghostbusters. But I digress; there are more important things about this book to be discussed. Like: spiritual warfare – indeed, the existence (or otherwise) and nature of spiritual interference in our daily lives; miraculous healings – indeed, resurrections – and their effects on those involved, those involved who didn’t wish to be involved, and those not involved who wanted to be; and broken people, broken pastors and the inevitably dysfunctional churches they end up forming.

I liked the dysfunctional nature of the characters. Nothing is more tedious in a story than a Christian character who is either too perfect to be realistic, or a deliberate corruption intended to show up all that is bad about ‘religion’. These guys… well, I guess the pastor who’s lost his faith is a little bit of a stock character, but he’s got a decent back story to him, he’s plausible enough for the story. Ruby Case, the unwilling miracle worker, and her jealous prayer partner Vinyette are perhaps more rounded characters, each with her own flaws but, as the praying heart of a failing church, plenty to make you root for them and they march, utterly unprepared, onto the spiritual battlefield that their home town of Stonetree has become.

The resurrection of the title, and the other miraculous healings that Ruby finds herself called upon to perform, give an interesting idea of how such a miracle might be seen in this cynical world of ours, but in the wider story they kind of fade behind what I saw as the real story – the spiritual war being raged in a pretty ordinary town. My town has closed down churches and hippy shops… the place is relatable, and in this place the battle is fought not by angels, but by a limping housewife and a doubting vicar. It doesn’t get much more real than that, and I think sometimes we need to be reminded that, although the existence of spirits in the Mr Cellophane sense may be debatable, there is a spiritual realm to our world, and for my money this story does a pretty decent job of that.

In fact I’d say this book does a decent job all round. A good story, well written, plenty of twisty bits to get your mind round, and lots of thought-provoking subjects covered. Definitely a good one, even if it didn’t have any spaceships in it.

So all that remains is to remind that author Mike Duran blogs here, and the blog tour continues this way:

Noah Arsenault Brandon Barr Red Bissell Book Reviews By Molly Keanan Brand Kathy Brasby Grace Bridges Beckie Burnham Melissa Carswell Jeff Chapman Christian Fiction Book Reviews Carol Bruce Collett Valerie Comer Karri Compton Wanda Costinak Amy Cruson CSFF Blog Tour Janey DeMeo Cynthia Dyer Tori Greene Nikole Hahn Katie Hart Joleen Howell Bruce Hennigan Becky Jesse Cris Jesse Jason Joyner Carol Keen Emily LaVigne Shannon McNear Matt Mikalatos Rebecca LuElla Miller Mirtika Joan Nienhuis Nissa John W. Otte Gavin Patchett Sarah Sawyer Andrea Schultz Tammy Shelnut Kathleen Smith Donna Swanson Jessica Thomas Fred Warren Dona Watson Phyllis Wheeler Nicole White Dave Wilson

Friday Review: Offworld by Robin Parrish

I'm going to make this review really easy now: This story would make a great Doctor Who episode. That should be all you need to know in order to decide whether to read it or not.

The Earth is mysteriously deserted, apart from a handful of good guys, a handful of bad guys, and the mysterious Mae, who has somehow survived whatever cataclysm occurred and may therefore in some way hold the key to all the madness. The good guys and bad guys play cat and mouse across the deserted landscape heading towards a mysterious beacon which, through a heady mix of technobabble and handwavium, has caused every living creature on the planet to take lunch in a parallel universe, or something. Along the way there are comic-book style battle sequences, mind-boggling car crashes, all the suspense you could wish for on a Saturday teatime, and an utterly implausible Big Bad hidden under a sports stadium. See, it's just like Doctor Who, but without the bow tie.

OK, if we're honest, the whole concept is never going to wash with hard sf fans, definitely leaning towards the science-fantasy end of the genre, not too far from Parrish's Dominion Trilogy of superhero novels.

It must also be said that, having plot-holed my way through Fearless and been left bemused by some of the editorial bloopers in Merciless, I was sort of on the lookout for more of the same here. And there were one or two odd sentences that just didn't seem quite right, the odd mixed metaphor here and there, but it didn't bother me as much this time round. It's even possible that if I hadn't been looking for them I would have missed them, but I was. And I didn't.

The other thing I was looking for was the low-key approach to any kind of Christian theme, which was all but non-existent in the Dominion Trilogy. And a similarly low-key approach was taken here too, with, by my reckoning, precisely zero Christians appearing in the entire book. Having said that, there was a message, and when, towards the end, I finally saw it, I have to say I liked it - both the message and the subtle delivery.

So, don't look for the bloopers, just sit down and get ready for a wild and crazy ride. This story would make a great Doctor Who episode.

Linky goodness:
CSFF Blog Tour for Offworld
My review of Relentless by Robin Parrish
My review of Fearless
My review of Merciless

Friday Review: Vanish by Tom Pawlik

It looks like we’re settling on two posts a week for the time being, at least until somebody teaches me time management.

And (on the subject of time management) I’m reviewing Vanish by Tom Pawlik, which I failed to feature in the, let’s see…. June 2009 CSFF Blog Tour. I guess I don’t need to worry too much about spoilers then.

I thought this was a great story. It’s one of a bunch of ‘where’d everybody go?’ novels that seemed fleetingly popular in Christian fiction a couple of years ago; the most obvious comparison being Kathryn Mackel’s Vanished (which I reviewed here). In Vanish you will find traditional gray aliens, Lost-y flashbacks, and plenty of suspense, action and general weirdness. It may sound like Pawlik just threw in a bit of everything from the spec-fic parts bin, but the result is an enjoyable and coherent story.

The writing style is uncomplicated but largely inoffensive, and it does the job well enough. The middle section does seem needlessly repetitive; I’m sure there was enough going on that we didn’t need to be told the same facts over and over again. I also noticed lots of jaws stiffening and teeth clenching from various different characters; arguably a minor flaw, but drawing attention to this apparently universal reaction did detract from what characterisation there was.

The main characters were a nicely mixed bunch, as is required in this kind of story; interestingly, there were no Christians among them, and the worldview was left to filter in via the people the characters know and love. However, when the third act starts and the pieces start to fit together (spoiler alert: think Life on Mars) it leads to a brilliant and satisfying conclusion (even if the final chapter is somewhat superfluous).

And I’ve just remembered there’s a sequel. The week after my birthday. Sigh.

For more linky goodness, why not time travel back to the CSFF Blog Tour for Vanish.

Book Review: The God Hater by Bill Myers

In conjunction with the Christian SciFi and Fantasy Blog Tour, I received a free copy of this book from the publisher. And since they bothered to send it half way across the world, it seems only fair that I hold up my end of the bargain, which is to review the thing.

OK, I have to start with this: I wouldn’t have bought The God Hater. Not because it’s bad, but because if I had seen it in a bookshop (I know, but we’re reviewing sci-fi here, suspend your disbelief) there is nothing to tell me I would like it. The vague title and the bloke wandering along a cobbled street give no clues to the sub-cyberpunk action, and there’s no blurb to hint at it, just a bunch of writers saying how great it is. And, assuming I did, for a dare or something, pick the book up, I’d have to get about five chapters in before I figured out it was going to have the whole AI thing going on.

Luckily, however, we have a blog tour, which means that somebody told me what the book was about. Which is, to recap: the story of grouchy atheist Professor Nicholas Mackenzie, who is seconded by his techno-guru brother to provide the philosophical grounding for his huge AI computer program. Against all his better judgement, he does this by getting uploaded in virtual form into the AI computer world to tell its inhabitants about ‘Programmer’.

I’m trying really hard here not to go ‘well I would have done this differently….’ But in fact there were a few things I liked about Myers’ treatment of the whole AI Gospel idea – giving Nicholas a reason to genuinely care about the little computer people, the way strict legalism can distract from the spirit of the law, and Programmer’s virtual disciples, a miscellaneous bunch of prostitutes, thieves and other outcasts I could have lived with getting to know a little more. The crucifixion analogue (oops, was that a spoiler?) was set up nicely from the beginning, although some of its side-effects didn’t make that much sense to me in terms of either the story or the logic of the virtual world. Now, Myers admits that the science (and indeed the theology) of the story may not be 100% accurate, but for me, a few more clues about the internal workings of this world might have made for a more satisfying read.

I seem to say this about a lot of Christian novels, but the story keeps you going at a pretty quick pace, and certainly in this case the action in either the real world or cyberspace doesn’t let up for long. Unfortunately I think characterisation suffers a bit as a result of this, but maybe that’s ok. The God Hater is an ‘idea’ story, and I know from reinventing the Old Testament that a story like this has to get to certain points, so you can’t let characters run away with themselves as much as in a character-led story. Nicholas, in particular, starts out looking like he was just pulled out of a family size bag of Richard Dawkins, but as he gets pulled into his brother’s schemes he gets fleshed out and is real enough to help the idea reach a satisfying conclusion.

There was some good stuff going on in the real world too - a lot of it was fairly unbelievable, but maybe that made the few moments of realistic human interaction on Nicholas’ real life journey more satisfying. His story is, ultimately, a nice parallel to what virtual Nick (who for some reason managed to bypass the bitterness subroutine) is doing in the computer world. Making the protagonist a militant atheist was a good move, not least because not many Christian stories would have done so, but his job as a philosophy professor would have given him enough familiarity with the Bible to go about re-enacting it inside a giant computer game. Even given that assumption, some of the almost verbatim re-enactments of Biblical events stretched credibility a little, especially where they were instigated by the computer people.

In terms of theme and Christian content, well, most of us are at least vaguely familiar with computer games like The Sims these days, and in light of that the story does manage to humanise God's perspective on the Incarnation, as far as that is remotely possible. The Biblical parallel is pretty obvious once the cyber-story kicks in, but the predictable nature of that thread is off-set by some nice twists in the real world.

So is it any good? Well, if, like me, you’ve been reading the latest Iain M Banks or some similarly weighty sci-fi tome, the writing and depth of story is going to fall somewhat short of what you’ve been used to. On the other hand, you won’t be reading it for anything like as long, so it doesn’t really matter. If you like a quick, accessible read, that sheds a little light on the nature of God, then this one might be just what you’re after.

Find out more at thegodhater.com, facebook the author, or visit these blogs:

Red Bissell Thomas Clayton Booher Keanan Brand Kathy Brasby Rachel Briard Beckie Burnham Morgan L. Busse Melissa Carswell Carol Bruce Collett Valerie Comer Karri Compton CSFF Blog Tour Janey DeMeo April Erwin Amber French Andrea Graham Tori Greene Katie Hart Ryan Heart Joleen Howell Bruce Hennigan Becky Jesse Cris Jesse Becca Johnson Jason Joyner Carol Keen Emily LaVigne Shannon McDermott Matt Mikalatos Rebecca LuElla Miller Mirtika MollyBuuklvr81 John W. Otte Sarah Sawyer Chawna Schroeder Andrea Schultz Tammy Shelnut Kathleen Smith Donna Swanson Jessica Thomas Fred Warren Dona Watson Nicole White Dave Wilson

The Skin Map by Stephen Lawhead

As I mentioned in passing the other day, as part of the CSFF Blog Tour I was lucky enough to receive a free review copy of this book from the publisher, Thomas Nelson.

Which of course means that rarest of events: I will be reviewing the book during the tour!

I already mentioned that some of the plot devices and settings were (almost literally) right up my street, and if you throw in the opening line:

Had he but known that before the day was over he would discover the hidden dimensions of the universe, Kit might have been better prepared. At least, he would have brought an umbrella.

A great opening line for sure, but did it continue in a similar vein? Well, for the most part, yes. The story is a cocktail of historical, adventure, science fiction and fantasy. It tells the story of Kit Livingstone, who finds himself suddenly thrust into the family business of travelling across time and between parallel Earths by way of the extensive ley-line network, the only map of which known to exist was tattooed on the back of an earlier ley-traveller.

It also tells the story of Kit’s girlfriend, Mina, who follows him only to end up in Prague and invent Starbucks; I found these bits a little tedious at times, but Kit’s efforts to track her down (which soon got sidetracked by the efforts to track the Skin Map down) were fun enough to make up for it.

I have to admit that when Cosimo first appeared, I was reminded of something from a Thursday Next novel but without the jokes; and as for the whole ley-travelling thing, I wonder if Mr Lawhead has seen Jumper? They even have the same secret hideout near the Egyptian pyramids.

None of which detracts from what is, overall, a great story told well, with the possible exception of the slightly out of place ending. Neat twist, or deus ex machina? I’m not sure, but I’m willing to wait for volume two to get it explained to my satisfaction.

On the plus side, the info-dumps, such as they are, fit nicely into the story thanks to Kit’s utter ignorance of what is going on; and for all the time and dimension hopping and multiple viewpoint characters, the story was not hard to keep track of.

Definitely worth a read if you like historical fiction, adventure stories, time travel, or just Stephen Lawhead.

More blogging about The Skin Map here:
Red Bissell Thomas Clayton Booher Keanan Brand Grace Bridges Beckie Burnham Morgan L. Busse Jeff Chapman Christian Fiction Book Reviews Valerie Comer Karri Compton Amy Cruson CSFF Blog Tour Stacey Dale D. G. D. Davidson George Duncan April Erwin Tori Greene Ryan Heart Bruce Hennigan Timothy Hicks Christopher Hopper Becky Jesse Cris Jesse Becca Johnson Jason Joyner Julie Carol Keen Krystine Kercher Shannon McDermott Allen McGraw Matt Mikalatos Rebecca LuElla Miller Nissa John W. Otte Gavin Patchett Sarah Sawyer Chawna Schroeder Kathleen Smith Rachel Starr Thomson Donna Swanson Robert Treskillard Steve Trower Fred Warren Dona Watson Phyllis Wheeler Nicole White Elizabeth Williams Dave Wilson

Friday Review: The Enclave by Karen Hancock

Before I start my way through the slight backlog of reviews here, I will let you know that voting for the Clive Staples Award for Christian Speculative Fiction is open for a couple more days. If you’ve read at least two of the nominations, hop over and use your vote...

I will, of course, be supporting those in the science fiction corner, starting with this, Karen Hancock's second sci-fi tale.

The story opens with Lacey McHenry, latest recruit at the Kendall-Jakes Longevity Institute, butting heads with the Institute's rising star, Cameron Reinhardt. After Lacey is attacked late one night, the two of them form an uneasy alliance, and go on to uncover the shady side of the Institute's work.

This story is interwoven with a second, entirely seperate story, set in New Eden, the Enclave of the title, where a few lucky survivors shelter underground from the poisoned world above. As the novel progresses, puzzling links between the two threads become apparent.

There is a lot to like about this novel. Reinhardt is a possibly odd combination of soldier and genetic scientist, but as a Christian character he is nicely flawed. Lacey too is a lapsed Christian, and both of them have a believable and not overdone faith experience during the course of their adventures.

And the theme of genetic manipulation allows the Christian characters to think about that most useful Biblical word (to spec-fic writers anyway): Nephilim. The mysterious nature of these creatures makes them an easy subject for Christian sci-fi, but here they are nicely understated.

So this is my pick for the Clive Staples; a well-told science fiction adventure with believably flawed Christians. What more can a person ask for?

Friday Review: Vanished by Kathryn Mackel

A terrorist's bomb. A rogue experiment. An impenetrable mist. And no one is coming to help...

Sounds good, right? Like I said way back in the CSFF Blog Tour for the book, it sounds like a Christian version of Lost, something I started work on waaaay before Vanished, or even Lost, were around.

So, 12 months after the tour, having finally read the thing, is it any good?

Well, er, yes and no. First, I have to say that as something marketed as a Christian Chiller, it didn't chill me very much. Maybe that's just the hardened Stephen King reader in me; most Christian readers may well have been scared to death by it. But that, it must be said, is about the smallest problem in this book's marketing.

Anyway, the story: comparisons to Lost are unavoidable I'm afraid, but that's no bad thing. The means by which the characters vanish does seem a little more contrived than a simple plane crash, but lets assume we can all suspend our disbelief that long and get into the thing. After the explosion, the whole story cracks along at a nice pace, showing the aftermath from the viewpoints of a variety of innocent (and not-so-innocent) bystanders, plenty of suspense, weird supernatural mysteries, Lost-y flashbacks, the whole bit. And an underlying thread of hope and faith from a Christian worldview. So far so good.

There did seem, to me, to be something a little wrong with the Christian characters here. It might just be that they're American - that's not me being racist, but the shortage of Christian fiction (especially of the speculative kind) from anywhere else in the known universe gets a little tedious at times - or it might be that writing believable Christians is a difficult thing to do. Maybe I need to revisit the book, not get so caught up in the story, and look specifically at how God interacts with the characters.

And then it ends.

It is literally half a book. It's about 300 pages, which is probably about right for a Christian market novel, but 5-600 pages wouldn't be overly long for a story like this to be done properly. And the end of Vanished couldn't have been more abrupt without actually being mid-sentence. Which is more than a little disappointing.

It's not the author's fault, of course; it seems the publishers pulled the plug mid-project (no mention of a series is even mentioned anywhere on the cover), and book two is still drifting in limbo somewhere until a new publisher decides to put it out. (Didn't the same thing happen to Mackel's Birthright Project? And The Personifid Project would have been the same but for Marcher Lord Press stepping up. I guess the message to Christian spec-fic authors is don't start a series...)

In summary: Vanished is like a Christian take on Lost, but with a less satisfying conclusion.

CSFF Blog Tour: Imaginary Jesus - Real Review!

Fellow CSFF Tourists, ladies and gentlemen of the blogosphere, you may wish to sit down. You are about to experience a rare and, some might say, life-changing event. Something that has happened precisely once in the history of the universe to date.

Yes, it’s true. I am about to review the featured book. During the tour.

Unfortunately the little backwater in which I live was outside the reach of review copies, but the publishers very kindly made a pdf available, which means that (a) I can review the book; and (b) I get to ask my mother-in-law for a book for Christmas whose nicely irreverent title will probably offend her. Bonus!

That nicely irreverent title – Imaginary Jesus – and the ‘not-quite-true story’ tagline were pretty much enough to sell the book to me.

And, I’m happy to say, I was not disappointed. No, hang on, scrap that. I was more than not disappointed, I was, um… well, ok, like many of my fellow bloggers this week, I had no idea what to expect. What I didn’t expect was time travel, fake Jesuses by the dozen, a theologian who was an ass (how many times do you get to say that in a serious book review?) and to laugh out loud at practically every page. I seriously cannot remember the last time I did that at a book. Especially a Christian book, but that’s beside the point.

There are too many good things about this book to mention. The flagrant disregard for the fourth wall:

That reminded me of the Frog of Hate, and I reached into my pocket and was pleased to find him still there, eight chapters later.

The aforementioned irreverence:

Maybe you have forgotten the story where Jesus was walking with his brother James to the synagogue and they were about to cross the street and Jesus grabbed James and said, “Look out for that dog poop.”

And the fact that Matt Mikalatos seems to have got hold of my sense of humour and distilled it into a novel about Jesus.

On the slight downside, some of the Imaginary Jesuses (Televangelist Jesus, Magic 8 Ball Jesus) come straight out of American culture and perhaps don’t have quite the resonance here that they do out there in the colonies, but the point is clear nonetheless.

In between the laughs and the irreverence, there is, it should be said, a serious point. I imagine that, given the ‘not-quite-true’ nature of the story, some of story Matt’s backstory must be based on author Matt’s real life experiences. And so the story takes a (slightly) more serious turn when Matt decides to ask the Secret Society of Imaginary Jesuses why his unborn child died.

Free Will Jesus snorted. “True, I allowed your baby to die. Meticulous Jesus chose for your baby to die.”

And this sort of thing – bickering between Jesuses – goes on throughout the book, all the while Matt is trying to track down the real Jesus, aided by his new friends Pete (yes, the guy from the Pearly Gates) and Daisy (a talking donkey). It’s how I imagine Robert Rankin would have written The Shack. It is totally insane, and yet… and yet… it does show us something about Jesus. The real one and all those we may have imagined as we looked for him.

I love this book. I have been touting this book in web forums for a few days. I’m stopping passers-by in the street and asking if they’ve seen Imaginary Jesus. Now I’m telling you: read this book!  

Imaginary Jesus now has the official title ‘The Book I Wish I Had Written’. There’s a trophy for that, but my publishers won’t mail it overseas.

Brandon Barr Keanan Brand Grace Bridges Beckie Burnham Valerie Comer R. L. Copple Amy Cruson CSFF Blog Tour Stacey Dale D. G. D. Davidson Jeff Draper April Erwin Andrea Graham Tori Greene Becky Jesse Cris Jesse Jason Joyner Julie Carol Keen Krystine Kercher Dawn King Leighton Rebecca LuElla Miller John W. Otte Donita K. Paul Crista Richey Chawna Schroeder Rachel Starr Thomson Fred Warren Phyllis Wheeler KM Wilsher