CSFF Blog tour - The Legend of the Firefish

I suppose I owe it to those less accustomed to my off-the-wall Brit humour blogging style (known colloquially as 'wibble', or, more often, 'rubbish') to explain where these pirates came from.

Well, as luck would have it, it turns out they evolved from aliens, so it's ok that they're here.

On further examination, it seems they're here to promote the swashbuckling pirate fantasy stylings of George Bryan Polivka - the Trophy Chase Trilogy, which consists of the aforementioned Legend, The Hand that Bears the Sword, and the impending Battle for Vast Dominion.

On their travels they have roped in the nice people at Harvest House to help, with their 'Reach out to a pirate' contest. And all these people, some of whom have even read the book. Odd concept, that.

Trish Anderson Brandon Barr Wayne Thomas Batson Jim Black Justin Boyer Grace Bridges Amy Browning Jackie Castle Valerie Comer Karri Compton Frank Creed Lisa Cromwell CSFF Blog Tour Gene Curtis D. G. D. Davidson Janey DeMeo Merrie Destefano Jeff Draper April Erwin Beth Goddard Marcus Goodyear Russell Griffith Jill Hart Katie Hart Sherrie Hibbs Christopher Hopper Jason Joyner Kait Karen Dawn King Tina Kulesa Lost Genre Guild Terri Main Rachel Marks Karen McSpadden Rebecca LuElla Miller Eve Nielsen John W. Otte John Ottinger Lyn Perry Deena Peterson Rachelle Cheryl Russel Chawna Schroeder Mirtika Schultz James Somers Speculative Faith Jason Waguespac Daniel I. Weaver

Captain Jack - he's in Torchwood, right?

Look at that, I take a week out, and my blog about Christianity and sci-fi has been hijacked by pirates. Pirates I tell ya! Space Pirates I could deal with - like the combination of Douglas Adams and Tom Baker's loopy Doctor. Or Time Pirates - there's an idea to play with. But no, these are genuine, eye-patch and parrot, salty sea-dog type pirates. What do I know about pirates, beyond Captain Pugwash and his band of Urban Myths?

Oh well, might as well splice the mainbrace, for the good ship CSFF Blog Tour has buckled its swashes and sailed us out into stormy seas, in search of The Legend of the Firefish.

Which was silly, because you can find it on amazon.

Sheesh, those wacky CSFF blog tour guys, eh?

Trish Anderson Brandon Barr Wayne Thomas Batson Jim Black Justin Boyer Grace Bridges Amy Browning Jackie Castle Valerie Comer Karri Compton Frank Creed Lisa Cromwell CSFF Blog Tour Gene Curtis D. G. D. Davidson Janey DeMeo Merrie Destefano Jeff Draper April Erwin Beth Goddard Marcus Goodyear Russell Griffith Jill Hart Katie Hart Sherrie Hibbs Christopher Hopper Jason Joyner Kait Karen Dawn King Tina Kulesa Lost Genre Guild Terri Main Rachel Marks Karen McSpadden Rebecca LuElla Miller Eve Nielsen John W. Otte John Ottinger Lyn Perry Deena Peterson Rachelle Cheryl Russel Chawna Schroeder Mirtika Schultz James Somers Speculative Faith Jason Waguespac Daniel I. Weaver

More family stuff

Her Babyship gets out of plaster tomorrow. What happens then we have yet to find out, so it will be an emotionally tiring day for us, followed by, well, who knows what.

I will, no doubt, be back once she has settled into whatever her new situation is.

Friday Review - The Clone Wars

I'm still not sure I followed the plot of Star Wars Episodes II & III. I'm sure I didn't follow the plot of Star Wars: Clone Wars, the animated series set in the years between the two films.

That, I am sure, is because the original format - 20 short animations - translated onto DVD gives the impression that it should form some kind of consistent whole, which it didn't, at least not on first viewing. (The Volume 2 DVD, being five longer animations, is less disjointed.)

The Volume 1 DVD is essentially 20 individual battles between the Jedi Knights under Chancellor Palpatine, and Count Dooku's Confederacy forces, acted out in glorious anime-style. (There was a story arc too, but I found it more satisfying to enjoy the battles - like Mace Windu single-handedly wiping out a small army of droids, where the anime influence is most obvious.)

There is a little more plot development in Volume 2; with more of Anakin's story, including his becoming a Jedi knight, and the introduction of General Grievous and his asthmatic wheeze. There are also a couple of lines from the original trilogy that sneak into the dialogue ("What an incredible smell you've discovered.") and various other snippets which serve to link the various movies.

So, is it any good? Well, yes it is, actually. The Clone Wars have been part of Star Wars mythology since 1977, when Old Ben is remeniscing to Luke Skywalker, and it's good to finally see them in a bit more detail. The plot is pretty thin to say the least, but the action more than makes up for it. It is less disappointing than the prequel trilogy, overall. The animation style may not be what some Star Wars fans expected (hey, it's no Ewoks!) but that's probably a good thing. Besides, who doesn't love the stylised Yoda?

Oh, and next year we should get more: Star Wars: The Clone Wars, in glorious CGI.

Pop Quiz, Hotshot

OK, so who knows where I went last week?

And what significance it has in the world of sci-fi/fantasy?

I'll even give you a few picture clues...

Have a Cuppa Tea

So a certain blogger, well respected in these parts, has confessed to not really knowing who the Kinks were. Which seems as good an excuse as any to broaden the subject matter of this blog.

The Kinks are the most under-rated band of the 60s. You just have to listen to the debut Kinks to get some idea how far from the norm You Really Got Me was - against some more 'conventional' Ray Davies-penned songs and a couple of Chuck Berry covers, its originality - and Dave Davies' awesome guitar solo - shine like nothing else on the album, and is often credited with creating the guitar driven sound of more recent heavy metal/rock music.

The Kinks are, however, best known for Ray Davies' brilliant lyrics on 60s hits like Sunny Afternoon and Waterloo Sunset. Every home should have at least those two songs somewhere.

The Kinks first came to my notice via The Stranglers' version of All Day and All of the Night, and The Jam's cover of David Watts - both of which sound perfectly at home alongside those bands own compositions. Since then I have been building up a collection of the band's back catalogue, over the last 15 years or so, and although much of the 60s and 70s albums have been released on CD, quite a lot of gaps remain.

My nomination for their best album would come from just after their 60s heyday, when Ray was starting to play with ideas like rock opera and 'concept' albums. The Village Green Preservation Society, with its quintessentially English themes, has long been my favourite, although Muswell Hillbillies is running a close second, largely due to Have a Cuppa Tea, which should be an anthem for English people everywhere.

I also recommend Other People's Lives, the debut solo album by Ray Davies, which does sound a bit Kinksy, but you'd expect that, and probably be a bit disappointed if it didn't. Davies does take the opportunity to swear a bit, and inject a little more humour into some tracks (Stand Up Comic is particularly funny, imho). It does sound a bit wierd to hear the quintessentially English RD singing about Thanksgiving Day (thrown in as a bonus track) though.

Leaving the country...

Yep, I'm running for the border: a week in Wales beckons.

Be seeing you.

Fearless Blog tour highlights

I have to admit that I have been ignoring the many reviews posted over the last couple of days, because, having recently finished Relentless, I know what to expect from Fearless, and don't want to spoil what is yet to come.

So here, instead, are a few of the non-review posts that, if you haven't read so far, you might like to:

Christopher Hopper describes almost meeting Robin;

Gene Curtis discusses book trailers, a promotional device used in the marketing of Fearless;

Hanna Sandvig asks What makes Christian fiction Christian? and promises to critique the cover art today;

Jason Joyner talks superheroes;

Jackie Castle looks at Infuze Magazine;

and Beth Goddard has a big interview with the author.

A full list of participating blogs can be found in yesterdays post.

Finally, don't forget Robin's own blog, website and of course to buy Fearless!

CSFF blog tour - Relentless

You probably know by know that the CSFF Blog tour is supporting the release of Fearless by Robin Parrish. You probably also know that I haven't read it, because not reading the books is my adopted role in the tour :P .

But Fearless, as you also know, is A Sequel, and I have recently finished the first volume of the Dominion Trilogy, Relentless.

The story begins like this:

Collin Boyd stepped off the Metro bus on his way to work, and across the street he saw himself strolling down the sidewalk.

Collin, it seems, has been 'shifted', and in addition to losing his own body, it transpires that he now inhabits the body of a total stranger. All of which seems faintly ridiculous, as does the apparent ease with which Collin Boyd accepts his new identity, even insisting that his sister calls him by his assumed name, Grant Borrows.

Perhaps I'm being a bit unfair. The body-swap thing is a bit comic-book for my taste, and is never adequately explained, but since SFF fans are accustomed to a degree of suspension of disbelief.

As for how easily Collin settles into Grant's identity, well, so much is going on in this guy's life that he probably hasn't got a minute to worry about who's face he is wearing. From the first assassination attempt, the pace is indeed relentless, helped along by the rapid passing of chapters - Parrish packs no fewer than 64 chapters into 442 pages (presumably that stems from its beginnings as a serial?). Which, in theory, I like because that makes it easy to pick up and read in odd minutes here and there. In practice, I could always find time to squeeze in another chapter before going on to whatever else I had to do.

The story follows the new Grant Borrows as he tries to figure out what has happened to him, and why so many people are so intent to destroy his new body. Along the way he discovers that he has the power of telekenesis - the ability to move, and frequently destroy, stuff by the power of his mind. He comes across a group of Shifted individuals - the Loci - who have also inherited various super-human abilities (as well as, presumably, new bodies, which none of them seem to talk about). He even does a spot of amateur genealogy. And then, towards the end of the book, the action steps up a gear as it builds to the climax, which was not exactly where I thought it might be (although I was clipping through the story so quickly I didn't have much chance to worry about what might be coming).

Relentless fills an odd niche in the world of Christian SF & Fantasy, somewhere between superhero sf and Whedon-esque urban fantasy. There was at least one scene straight out of Buffy, some very Star Wars moments, and the superhero premise somewhere between X-Men, The Fantastic Four and Heroes (which admittedly I know by reputation only, as it arrives on the BBC tomorrow). And, oddly, only a single passing mention of God, about 400 pages in, although the characters all seem to swear like Christians, leading to one slightly jarring occurrence of the word 'frightfully'.

I usually like my Christian fiction a bit more obvious than Relentless, but I can honestly say that I found this book to be a page-turner, and I will be reading Fearless soon.

Now why not visit robinparrish.com, Robin's blog at infuze or some of the other bloggers on the tour:

Trish Anderson Brandon Barr Wayne Thomas Batson Jim Black Justin Boyer Grace Bridges Amy Browning Jackie Castle Valerie Comer Karri Compton Frank Creed Lisa Cromwell CSFF Blog Tour Gene Curtis D. G. D. Davidson Merrie Destefano Jeff Draper April Erwin Beth Goddard Marcus Goodyear Andrea Graham Russell Griffith Jill Hart Katie Hart Sherrie Hibbs Christopher Hopper Jason Joyner Karen Dawn King Tina Kulesa Lost Genre Guild Rachel Marks Rebecca LuElla Miller Eve Nielsen John W. Otte John Ottinger Lyn Perry Rachelle Cheryl Russel Hanna Sandvig Chawna Schroeder Mirtika Schultz James Somers Speculative Faith Jason Waguespac Daniel I. Weaver

July CSFF Blog tour: Robin Parrish

This month's CSFF blog tour is to mark the release of Fearless by Robin Parrish, the second book in his Dominion Trilogy.

Robin Parrish is the man responsible for the INFUZE ezine, where the first volume of the trilogy, Relentless, first appeared as a serial, and where you can now find his blog. You can also find him at http://www.robinparrish.com/.

I will post a review of the first book of the trilogy, Relentless, later in the tour. Because I haven't read the latest book.

For now, here are your further stops on the tour...
Trish Anderson Brandon Barr Wayne Thomas Batson Jim Black Justin Boyer Grace Bridges Amy Browning Jackie Castle Valerie Comer Karri Compton Frank Creed Lisa Cromwell CSFF Blog Tour Gene Curtis D. G. D. Davidson Merrie Destefano Jeff Draper April Erwin Beth Goddard Marcus Goodyear Andrea Graham Russell Griffith Jill Hart Katie Hart Sherrie Hibbs Christopher Hopper Jason Joyner Karen Dawn King Tina Kulesa Lost Genre Guild Rachel Marks Rebecca LuElla Miller Eve Nielsen John W. Otte John Ottinger Lyn Perry Rachelle Cheryl Russel Hanna Sandvig Chawna Schroeder Mirtika Schultz James Somers Steve Trower Speculative Faith Jason Waguespac Daniel I. Weaver

Dangerously off-topic

I have, again, postponed the further posts in the 'Who is this God person anyway' series because, well, I've been doing this.

Which probably interests precisely none of my regular readers. But if I'm wrong, do drop by.

I'm also trying to tidy up a bit here, and add a few more blog buddies, but then I find myself going off topic with links too... Oh well, maybe it doesn't matter. Maybe I'm just filling space.

I'll have a sf-related Friday review. Promise.

Galaxiki

Right, I'm busy today, so just a quick link to be going on with.

Well, I say a quick link, but it looks like you could spend hours at galaxiki.org, playing God with fictional solar systems.

I had a little nose around at the weekend, but I didn't play with any of the planet customising features or anything.

Unfortuantely the rules prohibit the use of 'names, characters or stories from exisiting science fiction stories on Galaxiki solar system pages' otherwise I would have been happily creating the planets from Countless as the Stars. It is quite possible, of course, that that rule applies to naming a planet Vulcan or Viltvodle VI, and that the planets I created myself might be allowable. But I don't suppose they want me imposing my Creed on their nice shiny galaxy.

Anyway, if you've got too much time, and want a new kind of world-building tool, go have a look.

In the words of the good Doctor....

What?
What!?
WHAT??!

We want Sally Sparrow!

CSFF Blog Tour Bonus: Fantastic Four Tour

The Fantastic Four is not a team of comic-book superheroes. They were not created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. They are writers of Christian fantasy fiction, soon to embark upon a mission across 12 cities in the Eastern USA, where they hopefully won't be exposed to any cosmic rays.

They are:

• Mr. Fantastic (Wayne Thomas Batson), the leader of the group by virtue of having been a teacher in a parallel world, and author of the best-selling young adult fantasy series The Door Within.
• The Invisible Woman (Sharon Hinck), probably not Mr Fantastic's wife, and probably not even invisible. I am reliably informed that she is a wife, home school mother of four and writes Women's Fiction Alternate Reality Fantasy. I'm guessing that at least qualifies her as a woman.
• The Human Torch (Bryan Davis), author of the Oracles of Fire and Dragons in our Midst series of young adult fantasy novels.
• And finally, everybody's favourite, ever-lovin' blue-eyed Thing, Christopher Hopper. Known for his great courage, strength and endurance; his skin is monstrous, craggy, orange, and looks as if made of rocks. Despite (or perhaps because of) this, he manages to be an international speaker, recording artist, youth pastor and author of The White Lion Chronicles. And if he ever finds out where I live, it will be clobberin' time.

For slightly more reliable author biogs, and more information about the tour, visit www.fantasyfictiontour.com.

If you surfed in here looking for Rise of the Silver Surfer, you want www.fantasticfourmovie.com.

Doctor Who - Season 29

It hardly seems like 13 weeks since I was saying how slightly disappointing the season opener was, but I was expecting the series to get better. And to say 'it got better' would be a huge understatement.

Since I know there are going to be those visiting who won't have seen the latest Doctor Who yet, I will try to whet your appetite without spoiling it.

But first let's just say it wasn't all good. As I said, the opener, 'Smith and Jones', was a bit silly; the Dalek episodes completely lost the plot, and even the largely excellent finale went a bit wierd at one point.

The second half of the series, however, was as good as Doctor Who has ever been. The episode '42' turned out not to be about the ultimate answer, but rather a play on '24'. An interesting twist on the format, rather than the best Who ever.

Following that the double-header from 1913, considered by many pundits one of the series' all time high points. 'Blink' was, well, blinkin' scary. And after that, the three-part story arc leading to the climax.

Actually, the story arc is woven right through the series, quite subtly to begin with, until the (otherwise fairly unremarkable) episode 'Utopia' brings them all together and kickstarts the finale.

The final episode even brings in big spiritual themes of forgiveness, and the power of prayer, albeit briefly. If you've seen it, and fancy getting a lesson on evangelism from it, check this out. (Unfortunately it will spoil the ending if you haven't seen it.)

Captain Jack comes back too, to share a few unexpected lines with the new Doc and his new companion, and we get to find out how he got the immortal gig before joining Torchwood.

And John 'DI Tyler' Simm (did I ever mention I've met him?) was an inspired piece of casting.

All in all, Season 29 (or series three, if you prefer) contained some of the best individual Who episodes yet, the most coherent (if subtle) story arc so far, some nice nods back to the Baker years (for those that remember), and a brilliant climax with plenty of neat twists and little surprises.

Christmas special should be interesting, too!

Friday Review - The Day After Tomorrow

It seems that the freak weather we've had in these parts (and in Europe) is set to continue, so I'm using that as a gratuitous (and possibly inappropriate) reason to revisit this movie.

The Day After Tomorrow is a fairly typical disaster movie, taking global warming and turning it on its head, to create a sudden super cooling effect on huge swathes of the northern hemisphere. Yes, I know, but there is an explanation given which sounds plausible enough if you try not to think about it. I guess any film that opens by plagiarising a Road Runner cartoon can't really be taken that seriously.

From there on, it really is just a typical disaster movie: the kids (led by Donnie Darko) trapped in New York, while Donnie's father treks through miles of snow to rescue them, accompanied by a couple of hardened adventurers, one of whom sacrifices himself for the sake of the mission. There's a shedload of effects, from hail-boulders to frozen helicopters crashing out of the sky. And, of course, there's all that snow - enough, apparently, to make the Statue of Liberty go all Planet of the Apes. And, of course, an incredibly cheesy finale in which the President of the USA humbly thanks the Third World nations for welcoming (presumably at gunpoint) all the refugees from the frozen Northern hemisphere.

For all that though, it's quite an enjoyable waste of a couple of hours, more so if you like effects heavy disaster movies, and despite its best efforts, it probably won't make you think too seriously about climate change (at least, not in the way five feet of river flowing through your house will).

Whether the conditions here at the moment are related to the real, actual effects of climate change, or just plain old freak weather, is not quite clear at the moment. What seems to be clear, though, is that it's not over yet.

Truth, they say, is stranger than fiction. Just, not quite as spectacular.

Writing, Bible study and discussion questions

There's been a bit of discussion over at Becky Miller's place lately about discussion questions for novels (I know, that's two 'discussions' in one sentence - bad writer!). I suspect that if I were to pay them any attention they would make me wonder if I had missed a page (or, perhaps, whether the author had missed a page). But then, I tend to read novels for entertainment above all; any thought I may give to a given 'theme' as a result is pretty much a bonus and won't necessarily have any bearing on the author's intentions.

The reason I mention this is that lately I have noticed that, when reading the Bible, I can sometimes relate aspects of it to the actions of my own characters, either the events recorded in Countless as the Stars, parts of their back story known only to me, or anticipated events for potential sequels. And I find that looking at it through the eyes of these characters, and trying to relate the Bible to my own imagined Creed, sheds some new light on things.

It is of course possible that this only works for me, because I know these characters' past and future lives, I know how the Creed relates to the Bible, and I know my intentions in creating all of this. Also, because I based my story so closely on Biblical events, I put a lot of Bible study in during the writing process, some of which it seems I retained.

I still live in the hope that some of what I have written may help others, casual sci-fi readers maybe, to make some sense of the Bible - specifically, the Old Testament. With that in mind, I may write a few short pieces for the website - why various events have been included, how and why they differ from the Bible accounts, what I learned while writing it... I should probably also explain that all the sex and drugs was included with the intention of exploring the consequences later (that way they don't look quite so gratuitous...)

I hadn't really thought about discussion questions until I read Becky's piece on the subject. I suppose it is possible that some readers might benefit from that approach, but it's not really my style. Besides, I don't want my readers thinking I missed the point.

The CSFF Blog Tour continues...

Well, it seems like there's been a bit of a battle of the sexes going on in CSFF world this week. The girls mostly love The Restorer, while some of the guys are, well, less enthusiastic.

Why should that be? It can't just be the female lead. It certainly hasn't bother me in previous tours (notably Firebird), and hey, who doesn't love Buffy? Second thoughts, don't answer that. Maybe it's that she's a whiny soccer-mom - although, I'd probably relate to that myself, the number of times I feel like the hard done by housewife of the family and want to escape to some fantasy world... but that's another story. I'd probably be really whiny in Susan Mitchell's place: 'No, I can't be your Restorer. I don't even like fantasy novels...'

Hopefully, all this male/female divide means is that Sharon Hinck has gone for mom-lit* market and successfully grabbed it. And, for the sake of CSFF writers of all flavours, I hope she does attract a few readers back to the spec-fic section.

Also trying to lure readers towards the spec-fic shelves:

Trish Anderson Brandon Barr Jim Black Justin Boyer Grace Bridges Amy Browning Jackie Castle Valerie Comer Karri Compton Frank Creed Lisa Cromwell CSFF Blog Tour Gene Curtis D. G. D. Davidson Chris Deanne Jeff Draper April Erwin Beth Goddard Marcus Goodyear Andrea Graham Russell Griffith Jill Hart Katie Hart Sherrie Hibbs Heather R. Hunt Becca Johnson Jason Joyner Kait Karen Dawn King Tina Kulesa Lost Genre Guild Rachel Marks Rebecca LuElla Miller Eve Nielsen John W. Otte John Ottinger Rachelle Cheryl Russel Hanna Sandvig Chawna Schroeder Mirtika Schultz Speculative Faith Jason Waguespac Daniel I. Weaver

*just to annoy Mir! :p

Christian Science Fiction & Fantasy - June Blog Tour

This month's CSFF blog tour extravaganza is all about Sharon Hinck’s The Restorer, first book in the Sword of Lyric sequence, a sort of Christian mom-lit sword and sourcery epic adventure tale. I guess I'm not exactly the target demographic then? Well, in the hope that her publishers will one day realise that what the world wants is a Christian dad-lit space opera and give me a call... (Is dad-lit even a thing? Or am I creating genres again? Or maybe the new blog title I was thinking about?)

Anyway, you know what I like about Sharon Hinck? She's got the CSFF blog tourists listed on a sidebar on her blog in reverse alphabetical order. So I'm about third in the list, instead of waaaaaay down the bottom. I don't know why I didn't think of that, really.

Oh, wait, yes I do. It's because the tour's master list is alphabetical, and it's too much like hard work to fiddle with it myself. So here it is in conventional order (though I suggest you start somewhere in the J's, because they get neglected whichever way up you look at it!)

Trish Anderson Brandon Barr Jim Black Justin Boyer Grace Bridges Amy Browning Jackie Castle Valerie Comer Karri Compton Frank Creed Lisa Cromwell CSFF Blog Tour Gene Curtis D. G. D. Davidson Chris Deanne Jeff Draper April Erwin Beth Goddard Marcus Goodyear Andrea Graham Russell Griffith Jill Hart Katie Hart Sherrie Hibbs Heather R. Hunt Becca Johnson Jason Joyner Kait Karen Dawn King Tina Kulesa Lost Genre Guild Rachel Marks Rebecca LuElla Miller Eve Nielsen John W. Otte John Ottinger Rachelle Cheryl Russel Hanna Sandvig Chawna Schroeder Mirtika Schultz Speculative Faith Jason Waguespac Daniel I. Weaver

Regrouping

Change is afoot behind the scenes of my vast online empire.

Currently the empire consists of this blog, my largely ignored musings blog, the rambling fanficblog of Miner Willy, and of course my website, which has remained in a state of almost-done-ness since all the hip dislocation stuff distracted me from completing the job.

So, I will be rationalising, mainly by shutting down the musing department and merging its output with the sci-fi related musings you get here, and possibly Willy's Weblog.

Which means, as a bonus goodie for the regulars here (all three of you), you will get the benefit of my musings on life, the universe and everything, as well as my theological expositions based on the works of Douglas Adams.

Which probably means I need a new blog address, title and/or strapline. Oh dear.

Project Seven musings

So I've been thinking a bit about my current writing project. My protag's life story is starting to come together quite nicely, but I'm still not sure how it will ultimately be presented. Not being a big reader of books without some speculative element, I'm probably not well placed to start writing one. So the question remains: how to include a speculative element so that I can write the story in my preferred genre?

Some vague possibilities have occurred:

The futuristic sci-fi version

In Star Trek: Nemesis, Picard meets a younger, more evil Picard, a clone created some time in the past. Watching this recently made me wonder - what if you found you had been cloned, there was another you wandering around? What if the clone had the same character flaws and weaknesses as you, but instead of choosing to resist whatever temptation this led to, chose the easy route and embraced his dark side? What happens when the two meet?

It doesn't have to be a clone, of course; the evil twin could be from a parallel universe, or the result of a time-travel experiment gone wrong. Or a 'transporter malfunction' as happened to Kirk in Star Trek. Or some mystic force such as might be found in the Buffyverse.

We could also copnsider the possibility that it isn't a physical twin, but some kind of Jekyll & Hyde complex.

The Urban Fantasy version

One potential telling of this tale always had a hint of Angel to it. I may have struck upon an idea that adds a twist to that; although, I suspect it's probably been done before, though possibly less often than the evil twin story.

If you could wish your problems away, would you? Maybe one mistake, one bad decision, that you could have excised from your life, along with all the baggage that followed it. An addiction, or a period of illness, completely removed from your personal timeline. Sounds tempting, on the surface. But in losing the bad stuff, you lose the good that inevitably comes from it: all that you learn, the ways you become a stronger person. The people you could help when they find themselves in the same situation.

That is the central dilemma in this telling of the story. Our protag meets some kind of entity with the ability to remove the darkness of his past. Presumably this entity would, effectively, have lived through the darkest chapters of our hero's life, and be left with the emotional baggage that followed.

In taking on the ills of the world, this entity becomes a sort of Christ-figure, albeit probably a very dark one. I think he has potential for exploration - is he really a Christ-figure, or is he just removing the negative so that the positive results also disappear?

Or have I just stumbled across my next project?

The Last Temptation of Who

There seems to have been rather a lot of internet chatter about the cancellation of Doctor Who over the last few days. Pure speculation of course, and ironically turning up in the middle of probably the best two-parter of the series so far.

Spoilers follow, so if you don't want to know the score, come back on Wednesday.

At the opening of Human Nature, The Doctor is, unusually, on the run. On the run from some petty intergalactic crooks, after the life-force of a Time Lord in order gain eternal life and wreak havoc on a far larger scale. As they are, the Family of Blood have a limited time remaining, so the Doctor hides in England, in 1913, by becoming human.

And therein lies the genius of the piece. We get to see a different side to the Doctor (and David Tennant being more Hugh Grant than Tom Baker), and to Martha, who, as a young woman who is 'not exactly white', is forced to act as a servant, while actually being the one in control.

Oh yes, there are scary monsters (and one very disturbing public schoolboy), ray guns and explosions, but there is also the equally scary fact that 1914 looms just the other side of Christmas.

But against all this, and despite the fact that Martha and everyone around him need the Doctor back, having given up his life as a Time Lord, he likes being plain old John Smith and is unwilling to lay down that life. But if he settles for being an ordinary man, living a normal human lifespan, and living it happily married with a family around him, millions will ultimately die at the hands of his enemies. I imagine that is the sort of dilemma Jesus may have faced, just before stepping out of his ordinary existence and beginning his real work.

Ultimately, John Smith, like Jesus, sees what is right, and becomes more than human. And, in becoming the Doctor, he also takes responsibility for punishing his foes. The Family get the eternal life they craved - to spend alone, and suffering.

Towel Day '07

I pondered a few ways to mark this occasion in my little corner of the blogosphere. I could watch and review the Hitch-hikers movie, but it still won't be that good a review, so I'll try something more positive. I could review the TV series, only I haven't watched that for a while. I could lament the fact that I ditched my old VHS copies of the TV series when I got it on DVD, before I realised that not all the VHS content was on the new version. Ah, little animated Babel Fish, you will be missed. A bit.

I should really review the CDs of the last 3 radio series, because they were actually good, but that would entail sitting through them again. Which would take longer than remains of Towel Day in this time zone.

Instead I'm going to cop out royally and post a slightly edited review I wrote when the Quandary Phase aired a couple of years ago.

Even though I was introduced to Hitchhikers through the TV series, the first time I heard the original radio series (on a mid-90s repeat airing) I knew I was experiencing something special. This was, after all, the medium Hitchhikers was created for, and it shows. The Secondary Phase, with a plot wildly different from any other Hitchhiker variant, remains my favourite part of the canon, perhaps because it remains the least well-known.

There are those who think the current crop of radio shows don't compare to the original late 70s episodes; the Tertiary Phase suffered mainly from poor source material - Life, the Universe and Everything, itself recycled from a rejected Doctor Who story, is the weakest of the five novels for my money. But So Long and Thanks for all the Fish was a love story, a change of pace from the all out action of it's predecessor. Hearing some of the same characters with different voices (Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz, Slartibartfast, and of course the Book) took a bit of getting used to, but the main characters sounded just the way I remembered them.

Overall Dirk Maggs made an excellent job with the new adaptations, modernising the source material much more successfully than the movie (mankind's early 80s fascination with digital watches being replaced with a 2005 fascination with cellphones, for instance), and it still sounds like Douglas could have written it.

The Tertiary, Quandary and Quintesential Phases are a far better reflection of the true genius of Adams' original than the movie, and for my money should be this generation's tribute to him.

Long live Douglas Adams.

CSFF Blog Tour: Speculative fiction

Given the option, I would have just brought up a list of all the science fiction at The Sword Review, and pointed out a few stories that appealed to me. That way, though, I would have missed the fact that, as well as Fantasy and Science fiction, there is a third sub-genre at TSR: the slightly woolly-sounding 'Speculative' fiction.

Instead, I opted for the 'pick a back issue at random and see what it gives me' approach. Not that it was that random; Issue 14 just seemed to be nicely in the middle of the run. Not much science fiction in that ish, mind; although that should make it a bit easier for even a slacker like me to read it and post a brief comment on the stories. There was, though, that other word: Speculative, attached to a story called The Short Bus. Which I read first, intrigued by the Speculative tag.

And true enough, it's not really fantasy. It's certainly not science fiction. It is... well, it's a slice of life - the life of a schoolboy with Downs Syndrome - straight out of the Twilight Zone.

There are two sci-fi stories in Issue 14: Of Protectors by C Michale, and The Ponce de Leon Project by George Duncan. Judged purely on the opening few paras provided by TSR before opening the whole story, I thought Of Protectors seemed a bit serious for my current mood, and read the George Duncan story, which started off with a car called Agnes kidnapping the protag and taking him to some automatic punching machines. Well, that ticks enough boxes for me.

In The Ponce de Leon Project, Clint Devlin, along with Agnes, is looking for a missing person, and leads us through an action filled tale that ends up finding the latest quest for eternal life, and the quite disturbing experiments that are being carried out to find it. An engaging and thought-provoking story, bundling cloning and genetic engineering with plenty of guns and gadgets. Maybe not the most original combination, but the Christian faith is a thread that runs through the story, adding a refreshing twist to the many Hollywood variations on the theme.

Oh dear, I think I may need to visit TSR regularly to make sure I don't miss anything else like that...

Incidentally, before you all jump in and try to educate me, I have since figured out how to bring up all the science fiction!

Don't forget to visit some of the other blogs on the tour, listed in yesterdays post.

CSFF Blog Tour: Intro

Well, since something vaguely resembling normality has returned here, I will make the effort and join in with me blog tour buddies again. This month we will be sampling the goodies on offer at The Sword Review, a webzine which aims 'to provide quality fiction, poertry[sic], valuable reviews, and meaningful exposition, all in a means that respects traditional values and Christian principles'. Obviously, their fiction focus is primarily on fantasy and science fiction.

So I'm off now to root around for some quality sci-fi, and maybe some meaningful exposition. I will report back tomorrow with what I find.

And, this being a tour and all, please drop by some of my fellow tourists over the next three days and see what they thought...

Brandon Barr
Jim Black
Amy Browning
Jackie Castle
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
Frank Creed
CSFF Blog Tour
Gene Curtis
D. G. D. Davidson
Chris Deanne
April Erwin
Kameron M. Franklin
Beth Goddard
Marcus Goodyear
Andrea Graham
Russell Griffith
Jill Hart
Katie Hart
Sherrie Hibbs
Holly
Heather R. Hunt
Becca Johnson
Jason Joyner
Kait
Karen
Dawn King
Tina Kulesa
Lost Genre Guild
Kevin Lucia and The Bookshelf Reviews 2.0 - The Compendium
Terri Main
Rachel Marks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Eve Nielsen
John W. Otte
John Ottinger
Cheryl Russel
Hanna Sandvig
Chawna Schroeder
Mirtika Schultz
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Jason Waguespac
Daniel I. Weaver

Is it me, or does that list get longer every month?

Normal service will resume shortly...

...in the meantime, here's a few things I've missed, just in case you have too.

Jesus loves Sci-fi. Well, we knew that, but it's always good to find someone else who knows it.

And from there I followed the linky goodness to The Gospel According to Buffy. Well, who could resist that, eh?

And for those with time to listen to podcasts, The Sci Phi Show has a little series on Science and Religion that may be of interest. I haven't got round to listening myself. (I've been pre-occupied, remember?)

Oh yes, and the Lost Genre Guild have meandered off in a podcastwardly direction too. (I haven't listened to that either!)

Um, anyway, we now return you to your regular scheduled blogging.

Family stuff break

Her Babyship has to visit the hospital tomorrow, on account of a dislocated hip and resultant wonky legs.

So I'm too distracted to post any of the various things I have swimming around in my head.

I'll be back when it's all over.

Friday Review - Perelandra by C.S. Lewis

Perelandra is a triple fried egg chilli chutney sandwich of a book. All the ingredients are wrong. The title: wrong. The science: wrong. The blatant Christian allegory: all wrong. But put them together and somehow it works. It becomes right.

Now, Out of the Silent Planet - that's a title to conjure with. Good story too, as it turns out - I reviewed it a while back. But Perelandra? A bit nondescript in comparison, IMHO. Although, admittedly better than Voyage to Venus, as which it was briefly published.

The science - now we've actually managed to get to Venus - is even more wrong than it was in Silent Planet. But, since no-one knew that 60 years ago, we'll let that go. Lewis has the planet permanently shrouded in cloud, and since that much is accurate, I'm willing to suspend my disbelief for the duration of the story.

A story which is (although the author points out that none of the human characters are allegorical) a thinly veiled allegory for the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, with the result that there is less depth to the story than there was to Silent Planet.

None of which, thankfully, prevents it being a good story - if only a good re-telling of the Eden story.

Here, the voice of evil is not represented by anything as innocent as a snake. Oh no, it's Professor Weston - the bad guy from the first volume of the trilogy, gone badder. At times he is just a human with some very bad thoughts, but for most of the story he is seen as the subject of a demonic possession. Indeed, the existence of 'demons' and their interest in the outcome of the story is present in the introductory chapters, in which Lewis, as narrator, goes to meet Ransom.

It is Ransom's task to provide a counter argument to Weston's attempts to subvert the paradise of Venus. In his attempts to do so, we not only encounter the varied landscapes of Perelandra, but also witness some fairly bloody scraps between the two men.

The whole adventure is almost like Narnia with all the nasty bits left in: the evil Weston is utterly evil, but not in the exaggerated way some fantasy can portray evil; he retains just enough humanity to make him all the more disturbing. Likewise Ransom, the good guy, is flawed, doubting his own ability to fulfil his mission, and so the initially simple premise is developed into something much more.

On the downside, at times the story is hijacked by the main characters philosophising - which is OK for fans of C.S. Lewis, because he does it so well, but kind of messes up the action if you're not interested in the reason behind the action (in which case you probably picked up the wrong book to start with anyway).

Ultimately, good wins out, as it is obliged to do, and this version of the Eden story ends without the fall of Perelandrian man. So apparently, one man can make a difference.

Yoda on Mars: epilogue

I've just got a new scanner to play with, so here's a little epilogue to my Life on Mars related posts...

I was lucky enough to be the first person to show this pic to John Simm. It was obviously inoffensive enough for him to sign - the rest of the cast had gone for a pint. :(

And a few bonus Christian sf related links:
In the open space on The Chronicles of Riddick
The Lost Genre Guild on Kathy Tyers' Shivering World
and NewsBiscuit on the Second Coming (don't click if easily offended!)

Who is This God Person Anyway? (Fit the Fifth - Biscuits)

Readers familiar with the Hitchhiker trilogy will probably remember the story of Arthur Dent's biscuits. It's a story he tells Fenchurch, about an encounter with a stranger and a packet of Rich Tea at a railway station. You can find it in Chapter 20 of So Long and Thanks for All the Fish, but to summarise:

Arthur was waiting for a train, sitting at the table with the Guardian on one side, a coffee on the other, and a packet of Rich Tea in the middle of the table. Sitting opposite him was a perfectly ordinary businessman. He didn't look as if he was about to do anything weird.
But he leaned across the table, picked up the packet of biscuits, tore it open, took one out, and... ate it. Arthur ignores this in his usual English manner, right up to the point of trying very hard not to notice that the packet was already mysteriously open when he came to take a biscuit himself.
The two of them went through a packet of eight biscuits, each taking one in turn, until only an empty packet was left between them and the stranger left to catch his train. And when Arthur's train was announced, he finished his coffee, stood up, picked up the newspaper, and, of course, sees his own packet of Rich Tea, unopened.

Douglas Adams always claimed that this was based on something that actually happened to him, although that claim may well be apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate.

Wherever the story started, it seems to have developed a life of its own. Being overfamiliar with Douglas Adams' version of the story, I had to have an ironic chuckle when I heard evangelist J John give his version of the story - the crux of which is that God owns all the Rich Teas. We may think he's mean, expecting us to share our Rich Teas with the church, with this or that charity, or with Joe next door who is running a bit short on snacks this month, but if the time comes that we really need more Rich Teas, he will provide them. Like the stranger in the station, we are called to share, and not necessarily receive any thanks.

It's not quite as good as seeing it in person, but there's a transcript of a J John sermon including his take on the biscuit story here. (The biscuit part is about two thirds of the way down, and has a man eating doughnuts in the airport.)

More Deep Thoughts from the Hitchhiker trilogy next week.

miscellaneous bloggery 8

The latest in an occasional series in which I can't be bothered to come up with anything original to write about.

Regular visitors here will probably already have read about why the sci-fi catholic dislikes christian sf, and from there found out why Keith Strohm hates it.

Speaking personally, there's a place for 'evangelical' sf in my life. Although, having jumped on, and promptly fallen off, the Left Behind bandwagon of badly written evangelical sf, I'm duty bound to say that. :)

I guess any hopes I may have had that CBA fiction (to use the US term) might catch on in the UK following LB have yet to be fulfilled in any significant way. Even UK based writers of Christian fiction seem to be publishing in the US (the Nemesis, for a genre example, and Penny Culliford, just to prove that I know books do exist outside of the sff shelves, at least in theory).

I am increasingly of the opinion that maybe the place for Christian sf in my life is just for me to write it, as a means of making sense of my life in general and this Christianity lark, and doesn't need to be shared with the rest of the world for God to appreciate that I'm using the medium to communicate with Him. Besides, I've got a blog and a website. I can still inflict it on the wider world. ;)

Anyway, back to the bloggery. I came across this the other day too: The Christianity in Star Wars. I've always seen the Force as more a kind of eastern mystical kind of thing personally, though I suppose the arguments may be interesting. (Says me, in the midst of searching for Christianity in the works of Douglas Adams!)

And then, of course, there was this. The lovely Elliot has me tagged...

Name up to three characters (from books)...

1). You wish were real so you could meet them.
Rincewind, from out of the Discworld series (a rare exception to my 'not doing fantasy'!)
Obviously, The Doctor. Either the fourth or the current one. He's in books too!
Buffy Summers. Stretching the books concept again, but if you don't let her in, she'll come round with Mr Pointy.

2). You would like to be.
Ford Prefect. I have to pick somebody from Hitch-hikers, and he always seems to be having so much fun. Great name, too.
Dirk Gently. The idea of being a private detective has some kind of romantic appeal, and he just takes it to a whole 'nother place...
Thursday Next. Not only does she live in Swindon, but she has simply the best job in the known universe.

3). Who scare you.
This was kind of a tricky one, as I haven't read any especially 'scary' books lately. But:
Professor Weston in C S Lewis's Perelandra was very disturbing at points.
And I do like a bit of Stephen King - I could pluck any number of his 'better' bad guys but I'll settle for Mordred Deschain from the Dark Tower series (although his father, Roland, was scarier in his own way) and Annie Wilkes from Misery. One good reason to continue writing mediocre evangelical novels that nobody wants to read!

Just as a kind of self-indulgent experiment, and because my fellow CSFF blog-tourers have been mass-tagged already, I tag Alf, who claims to follow my blogging, and Matthew, who does occasionally drop by. And anyone from Swindon who wants to play.

CSFF April Blog Tour, part two.

Here's a few random stops on the CSFF highway, for those who haven't been following the whole tour:

Some reviews of the series on the least read blog and the view from stonewater;

Interviews of Karen Hancock with Shannon and Chris D;

Giveaways courtesy of the Mir, Beth Goddard, Tina Kulesa and the author.

Or you could just click randomly on the list of blog-tourists in the previous post and see what you get.

Oh, and, just because my inner twelve-year-old can't resist adding this sentence: Rebecca Grabill talks about breasts. Something she may yet live to regret.

And once you've done that, pop over to amazon and buy Return of the Guardian-King. Unless you don't get fantasy, of course. In which case, maybe try Arena instead.

Back in time

Back in time may or may not have been where Sam Tyler was. I know people visit here who haven't seen Series 2 yet, so I won't spoil the ending. I'm not even sure what I make of it myself at the moment - not really sure I liked it much. I don't much like the idea of a spin-off though - it's kind of like the Matrix sequels: once the premise had been explored, and you had come to your own conclusions about the nature of reality, however entertaining the rest of the story was, it never had the same edge.

Back in time was where the Doctor went to get his mojo back. Yep, The Shakespeare Code was proper old skool Doctor, mucking about in the past with a flagrant disregard the causal nature of the universe. Or something. Forward in time was where he went in the last episode, which was even better, and deserves a post of its own. Later.

Back in time is what I am - back in time for...

This month it's all about Karen Hancock, and her rather splendid new fantasy novel, Return of the Guardian-King. I wonder if he was back in time?

Now, I have come to the conclusion that I don't get fantasy. I tried to read Lord Foul's Bane (The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Book 1) recently, and I was enjoying it while he was stomping round moaning about leprosy, but as soon as he got hit by a car and ended up in fantasy land, I lost the plot. He should've gone to 1973, as far as I'm concerned.

All of which digression is to explain why I won't be reviewing the book myself. I'll leave that to my fellow bloggers, at least some of whom I'm sure get fantasy....

Nissa Annakindt
Wayne Thomas Batson
Jim Black
Jackie Castle
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
Frank Creed
CSFF Blog Tour
Gene Curtis
D. G. D. Davidson
Chris Deanne
Janey DeMeo
April Erwin
Kameron M. Franklin
Beth Goddard
Marcus Goodyear
Andrea Graham
Katie Hart
Sherrie Hibbs
Sharon Hinck
Christopher Hopper
Heather R. Hunt
Becca Johnson
Jason Joyner
Karen
Tina Kulesa
Lost Genre Guild
Kevin Lucia and The Bookshelf Reviews 2.0 - The Compendium
Rachel Marks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Shannon McNear
Caleb Newell
Eve Nielsen
John W. Otte
Robin Parrish
Rachelle
Cheryl Russel
Hanna Sandvig
Chawna Schroeder
Mirtika Schultz
James Somers
Tsaba House Authors
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Daniel I. Weaver
Dawn King
Rebecca Grabill
Jill Hart
and, of course, Karen Hancock

Chocolate break!

Yes, it's Easter, I'm off work for a week and I'll probably be doing something really exciting and not writing nonsesne here. I might even go out. Or I might stay in and watch sf movies for a week.

What I probably will do is a bit of writing - Project Seven has so far refused to settle into any of the sci-fi/fantasy settings I wanted for it, so I'm going to have a stab at just writing my protag's story instead (what I had originally planned as a dark past revealed in flashback) and see where that goes. It will probably end up with him being abducted by aliens or something anyway, knowing my imagination.

And if I do get to the PC, I should get the remaining pages up and running on my website.

Plus Yoda has his first car show of the season, the last ever Life on Mars is on telly (no spoilers, I promise!) and in between all that, there's chocolate to eat...

It's bigger on the inside...

Your average 900-year-old renegade Time Lord probably hears that a lot on his travels. Those of us who have been vicariously travelling with him have heard it a few times too, so it's good to see that obligatory line served up with a healthy dollop of humour, as it was when Martha Jones first ventured into the ubiquitous blue box.

Yes, the hype started a few weeks ago, and the third series of the All-New Doctor Who Show finally landed, sans Billie, on Saturday. It wasn't the best ever episode (not a bad thing, I'm happy to wait a week or two for the show to get into it's new dynamic and deliver some top notch episodes), in fact, it was probably one of the more far-fetched moments in the Whoniverse, but Martha, having witnessed the destruction of Big Ben, survived the Christmas Invasion and lost her cousin to the Cybermen last year, takes all the bizarreness in her stride.

I couldn't help noticing though...

Separated at birth?

A Judoon from out of Doctor Who (2007 version)

Rocksteady from out of Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles (1987 version)

Actually there was more than a hint of Vogon in the Judoon, among other Hitchhiker-esque bits like the transplanting of a whole building from one planet to another, and the whole thing being put down to mass halucinations after the event. I commented a while back that the Tenth Doctor is in fact Arthur Dent, and as if any further proof were needed, there's even an episode this series called: 42.

Are we sure Douglas Adams didn't just regenerate?