CSFF Blog Tour: Countless as the Stars

It was inevitable really, and the tour has finally made it's way round to the next big thing in Christian sci-fi waiting eagerly to leave these shores: Countless as the Stars, by some English bloke you've never heard of.

I'm kidding, of course; that was completely evitable, and what has actually happened is that for August the tourists have been let off the leash to do their own thing. It's like that day in Junior school when the teacher announced that you could pick your own topic to study for the next term. I did aeroplanes, because I hadn't heard of Christian Sci-fi when I was ten. It was quite good as I recall, helped along no doubt by a teacher who knew less about the subject than me and was unable to correct any factual inaccuracies.

On the wild assumption that nobody is here to read a brief history of civil aviation in the British Isles, I've decided to take the opportunity for a little uncharacteristic self-promotion. This is somewhat new territory for me, so please be kind and visit www.stevetrower.co.uk and find out all about Old Testament Space Opera and what it means for you.

I'll be back over the next couple of days with more blatant self-promotion, and as there is nobody that knows more about Old Testament Space Opera than me, there will be no factual inaccuracies to pick up on.

In the meantime, pick a few links at random from the list below, for what will truly be a magical mystery tour...

Brandon Barr
Thomas Clayton Booher
Keanan Brand
Grace Bridges
Beckie Burnham
Morgan L. Busse
Jeff Chapman
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
George Duncan
April Erwin
Andrea Graham
Tori Greene
Ryan Heart
Timothy Hicks
Becky Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Mike Lynch
Rebecca LuElla Miller
New Authors Fellowship
John W. Otte
Donita K. Paul
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Speculative Faith
Rachel Starr Thomson
Steve Trower
Jason Waguespac
Fred Warren
Dona Watson
Phyllis Wheeler
KM Wilsher

Phursday Photos: Wheels

SpiritBlade Underground

Allow me to take this post to apologise for a terrible oversight on my part. I don't think I have made enough mentions of the work of SpiritBlade Productions here, which is really quite poor when you think that the purpose of this blog is to discuss Christian Sci-Fi and Fantasy.

So I guess I'll mention them here: SpiritBlade Productions specialise in full cast audio dramas on CD and download. I've been a bit slack I must admit, and only listened to the first SpiritBlade so far, although I think I'm going to have to dip into Pilgrim's Progress soon...

Anyway, the reason I mention it now is that there is now a SpiritBlade forum... a cool place for Christian geeks to hang out! Yay! Oh yes, and you'll probably have noticed the podcast in the sidebar here, if you're in the habit of scrolling that far.

Was that enough of a plug? Go check it out anyway, and if you like what you see, maybe I'll see you on the forum. You'll recognise me, I'm sure.

Tuesday Tunes: The Kinks Choral Collection

Regular readers of Tuesday Tunes may recall that I'm a fan of the obscure cover version, and of the Kinks. So how could I resist this, Ray Davies performing some of his best tunes with the Crouch End Festival Chorus?

It has to be said that the concept works best on the mellower tunes, and tracks like You Really Got Me and All Day And All Of The Night, while making for interesting arrangements, don't work quite as well as, for instance, Days. On the other hand, Waterloo Sunset, one of the best pop songs of all time, transcends pop songdom by the addition of a choral backing, and Village Green, similarly, highlights just how good Ray Davies' tunes actually are.

And as an added bonus, the Village Green Medley is actually six full songs, rather than snippets as the title might suggest, so rather than the ten (or 11 on the special edition, which starts with Postcards From London with Chrissie Hynde) tracks listed on the sleeve, you get 15.

Basically, I totally love this CD. If you like Ray Davies and the Kinks, or bizarre cover versions, or (it could happen!) the Crouch End Festival Chorus, this is essential listening!

CSFF Blog Tour: Starlighter by Bryan Davis

It is an important and popular fact that I once scored a B in English class for a report on a book I never read. I won't divulge what that book was, in case I am chased down by an angry mob and forcibly removed from the blog tour for my flagrant disrespect for literature, but in order to redress the balance somewhat I am deliberately not reviewing Starlighter by Bryan Davis, which I also haven't read.

What I have read, however, is one or two of the other posts on the tour. See, I'm not a total slacker! And to prove it, here are my personal tour highlights:

Leighton's review in two parts;
Snuffles the Dragon's completely unbiased review;
John W. Otte's geek dad post;
Krystine Kercher enthusing about black dragon's eggs;
an interview by Rachel Starr Thomson;
not to mention the handy list of other links gathered in one place, namely the Galactic Overlord's Blog.
You could also stop by the author's blog, just to see what else is on his mind.

And when you're done, Starlighter will no doubt be available at your favourite purveyor of young adult fantasy fiction.



Those of you still wishing to follow the extended tour, please form an orderly queue and step this way:
Brandon Barr Beckie Burnham Jeff Chapman R. L. Copple CSFF Blog Tour Stacey Dale D. G. D. Davidson Jeff Draper April Erwin Andrea Graham Tori Greene Nikole Hahn Ryan Heart Becky Jesse Cris Jesse Jason Joyner Julie Carol Keen Krystine Kercher Dawn King Leighton Jane Maritz Rebecca LuElla Miller John W. Otte Donita K. Paul Crista Richey SarahFlan Chawna Schroeder Rachel Starr Thomson Fred Warren Dona Watson Phyllis Wheeler Jill Williamson KM Wilsher

CSFF Blog Tour vs Tuesday Tunes

This week your CSFF Blog Tour is looking at Starlighter by Bryan Davis, the first volume in the Dragons of Starlight series. And since we've already covered the Top Ten Dragon Songs, so...
It's the Top Ten Starlight Songs!

10. Savatage: Starlight
Proper 80s rock... these guys sound as scary as their name!

9. Minus 8: Starlight
That's better, this weeks first piece of electronica... not at all scary!

8. Snowgoons: Starlight
Possibly the first German hip-hop outfit to feature in a Top Ten...

7. The Supermen Lovers: Starlight
Possibly the first French act to feature in a Top Ten, with this one-hit wonder from 2001.

6. Indochine: Starlight
Possibly the second French act to feature in a Top Ten, with this combination of catchy chorus and incomprehensible verses.

5. Lou Reed & John Cale: Starlight
Is anyone spotting a theme yet?

4. Electric Light Orchestra: Starlight
I love these guys!

3. Slash featuring Myles Kennedy: Starlight
Nice little slice of guitar tunage here by that bloke from out of Guns n Roses.

2. Dead Composers: Starlight
Nicely chilled out electronica with weird foreign lyrics.

1. Muse: Starlight
And what better way to finish than with some Devon style indie rock.

Here's your Spotify playlist: Starlight Top Ten. As ever, the unSpotified among you will need to skip to rest of the tour:
Brandon Barr Beckie Burnham Jeff Chapman R. L. Copple CSFF Blog Tour Stacey Dale D. G. D. Davidson Jeff Draper April Erwin Andrea Graham Tori Greene Nikole Hahn Ryan Heart Becky Jesse Cris Jesse Jason Joyner Julie Carol Keen Krystine Kercher Dawn King Leighton Jane Maritz Rebecca LuElla Miller John W. Otte Donita K. Paul Crista Richey SarahFlan Chawna Schroeder Rachel Starr Thomson Fred Warren Dona Watson Phyllis Wheeler Jill Williamson KM Wilsher

CSFF Blog Tour: Starlighter by Bryan Davis

A new car, a restless child on a hot summer night, and an impending road trip into wild boar country...

Don't worry, that's not the intro to the blurb for Starlighter, it's my excuses for having a rubbish post today.

By way of an introduction, this week the Christian Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog Tour is giving you, the reader, good reasons to part with your hard-earned cash for Starlighter, the first in a four-book Young Adult fantasy series by Bryan Davis.

So, while I carry on dealing with the mundane realities of life (and the wild boar road trip), why not take a look at the author's website, or his blog, and if he seems nice enough, why not even buy Starlighter from a well-known internet bookseller.

What? You want an unbiased opinion of the book? Well, you might try one or more of these links:
Brandon Barr
Beckie Burnham
Jeff Chapman
R. L. Copple
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Andrea Graham
Tori Greene
Nikole Hahn
Ryan Heart
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Leighton
Jane Maritz
Rebecca LuElla Miller
John W. Otte
Donita K. Paul
Crista Richey
SarahFlan
Chawna Schroeder
Rachel Starr Thomson
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Dona Watson
Phyllis Wheeler
Jill Williamson
KM Wilsher

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.

Why I Don't Write

• Real life gets in the way. Holding down a full time job, being a parent and writing do not naturally work well together. Time management is not a strong point of mine, sadly.
• I'm not very good. This is, of course, a matter of opinion, and subject to the truism that practice makes perfect. It is also, perhaps, something I have led myself to believe following countless rejections and should probably get over. But that's for another post entirely...
• It's a silly act of worship. Surely if it was a valid act of worship it would have been blessed with a multi-pound publishing contract, right? Well no, obviously, but that doesn't stop me having a crisis of confidence over whether to carry on, or what the point in it all is.
• It's what God made me to do. And that, I guess is the bottom line. The work of God's people is opposed, and since completing Countless as the Stars I've been pretty well derailed by all that insecurity, bad time management, and the flat refusal to accept that God wants me to write stories. Which, it could be argued, must mean there's still at least one pretty awesome book inside me. So I guess I should be writing...

Why I Write

• I think better that way. Maybe that means I have a short-term memory problem, but I can type antidisestablishmentarianism with barely a second thought, but stand me up in a spelling bee (not that we have those here) and I'll just forget which 's' I'm on and stand there looking bemused. On the other other hand, I could just have a rubbish short-term memory.
• I learn more that way. Yes, I know learning is related to thinking. But what I'm thinking of here is what I learnt about God while writing Countless as the Stars. I hope that means that the finished product was able to convey something of the nature of God... but I guess that is up to Him. The point here is that I learnt a lot about the nature and person of God in the writing process.
• It's an act of worship. I make no apologies if that sounds weird. For a while I forgot this aspect of the writing process (that short-term memory problem I expect) and got confused about how I, with the musical ability of a demented bee, should worship God. As a Christian my whole life should be an act of worship; musical types use their creativity as a visible outlet, and so should I.
• It's what God made me to do. It's weird, while I was working on Countless as the Stars, I was convinced that God wanted me to write a whole Bible's worth of Old Testament Space Operas. Then of course nobody took any interest in it, and even after getting a short print run made up (mainly so I would stop fiddling with the thing!) I sort of lost heart in the whole project. I've got my heart back now, maybe not for Old Testament Space Operas (at least, not yet) but for writing stories. I have a fresh sense of what it is God wants me to tell the world. So I guess I should be writing...

Fezzes are cool

Bow ties are cool.
Cliffhangers are cool.
Time travel is cool.
Stone daleks - very cool.
River Song is an enigma, and they're quite cool.
Feisty redheads are cool.
Plastic centurion Rory is cool.
Marrying a plastic centurion may not be so cool.
Giving your life to save the universe is way cool.
Being brought back to life by one person's belief is even cooler.
Coming back just in time for a party is practically sub-zero.
The finale of Doctor Who season five was, therefore, very cool.
The whole season, in fact, was pretty cool.
Matt Smith's Doctor is cool. Funny in a geeky Patrick Troughtony way. And that's way cool.

Having time to rewrite this post to fit King Missile's 'Jesus Was Way Cool' is too cool for me. So you can have it as it comes.

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

CSFF Blog Tour vs Tuesday Tunes

Now I have to say, as is fitting for the tone of this month's featured book, this Top Ten was quite fun to put together. In case you had forgotten, this week the CSFF Blog Tour is looking at Imaginary Jesus by Matt Mikalatos, so of course, I am happy to present for your, um, entertainment... the Top Ten Imaginary Jesuses:

10. Martin Harley: Chocolate Jesus
A Tom Waites song covered by a Welsh slide guitarist. You didn't even know they had those in Wales did you?

9. Scatterbrain: Mexican Jesus
All together now: Every Top Ten needs at least seven minutes of psychadelic hallucinatory electronica...

8. Green Day: Jesus Of Suburbia
Is it me, or do all Green Day's songs sound the same? Oh yes, there are some very naughty words in some versions of this song. Green Day, wash your moths out with soap and water!

7. Ben Mono feat Jemeni: Jesus Was A B-Boy
I'm not sure I remember B-Boy Jesus in the book, but he sounds pretty cool!

6. Ugly Kid Joe: Jesus Rode A Harley
Harley Jesus, on the other hand, was definitely in there!

5. Hawksley Workman: Google Jesus
Which is not only a cool and slightly surreal name for a song, but also, by a curious coincidence, how I came across most of these songs...

4. The Levellers: Plastic Jeezus
English folk-punk cover of an American folk song about a dashboard Jesus.

3. Johnny Cash: Personal Jesus
This Depeche Mode song was pretty much the first thing to come to mind when I started this, but then I found this great cover....

2. Ministry: Jesus Built My Hotrod
Because nobody with a good car needs to be justified.

1. King Missile: Jesus was Way cool
This is a fun little song, some of the lyrics are great, but it's here because it sums up the same sort of distorted image of Jesus that Imaginary Jesus is all about.

NB: All songs in this Top Ten are about imaginary Jesuses, and their lyrics do not reflect the theological position of this blog, the CSFF Blog Tour, or indeed anyone else.

Here's your Spotify playlist: Imaginary Jesus Top Ten. If you're not Spotified, have a look through these blogs as you wonder what musical gems you may be missing:

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

CSFF Blog Tour: Imaginary Jesus

It is an important and popular fact that there is a thin line between genius and insanity. Based on the evidence of this month's featured book, Matt Mikalatos is a man perched rather uncomfortably atop the fence that follows that line.

The book in question is Imaginary Jesus, a 'not-quite-true story', according to the cover, and 'a sort of semi-autobiographical novel comedy thing' according to the story itself. It's got time travel in it, and laughs aplenty, which goes right up my flagpole. I'm saluting this book.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves here, there's three days of the tour, and given that I've actually read this month's book (oh yes, Mr Mikalatos, you are in very select company there!) I figured I should really manage three posts. So no full review yet.

First, we shall return to the much-loved Fantasy Spectrum. Imaginary Jesus definitely lurks towards the infra-red, not-quite-fantasy end, but slightly off to one side, slightly Octarine shifted onto the parallel spectrum of comic fantasy.

In fact, and it occurs to me that many CSFF readers will have no frame of reference for the following concept, but in the hope of dragging in some out-of-towners Googling unrelated stuff, I'm going to make the comment:

If Robert Rankin had been a theologian, he would have been Matt Mikalatos.

I highly recommend visiting the book's imaginary website and downloading the first chapter. I guess you'll love it or hate it from that point! And if you still need any convincing, the following bloggers will be sharing their bemusement at the bizarre concept of this book over the following three days:

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

CSFF Blog Tour vs Tuesday Tunes

Yes, two in a row, that makes me look a total slacker doesn't it! But it's not as bad as it looks, this is kind of a bonus tour as the tour timescale went a bit off earlier in the year.

Anyway, enough excuses: This week the CSFF Blog Tour is looking at Raven's Ladder by Jeffrey Overstreet, so without any further time wasting, put on your best DJ voice and dive into the Top Ten Raven songs...

10. DJ Pavo: Raven
It's the track the spotty oik down the road always plays too loud as he drives home at 3 in the morning.
9. Lou Reed: The Raven
Normally Mr Reed would rank higher, but this barely qualifies as a song, being more a recitation of Edgar Allen Poe with a little Lou Reed magic. And be warned, it goes on for about 10 minutes...
8. The Stranglers: The Raven
Nordic-inspired post-punk goodness.
7. Dan Fogelberg: As The Raven Flies
Sounds a bit Jefferson Airplane-esque to these ears...
6. The Alan Parsons Project: The Raven
Edgar Allen gets the full mid-70s prog-rock treatment here!
5. Runestone: The Raven And The Moon
Because every top ten needs at least eight minutes of weird New Age Celtic instrumental. Doesn't it?
4. Marion Raven: Here I Am
Norwegian pop-rock with a girl vocal, it's always good...
3. The Orb: Raven's Reprise
At least this week's obligatory (should that be Orbligatory?) piece of electronica comes from someone you've heard of.
2. The Tunnel Singer: Corvus
Ok, so maybe I'm being unusually clever with the title, but seriously, I love this music! This may be writing music, possibly even a soundtrack number for a future story...
1. The Alarm: The Day The Ravens Left The Tower
Should I be concerned about a Welsh alt rock band singing about the collapse of the kingdom? (This will be English mythology then! Hurrah!)

I'll linkify it later (maybe), in the meantime Spotify users can listen here: Raven Top Ten.
Everyone else will have to track them down elsewhere for your listening pleasure while browsing these blogs:

Brandon Barr
Rachel Briard (BooksForLife)
Keanan Brand
Beckie Burnham
Melissa Carswell
Valerie Comer
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Shane Deal
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Ryan Heart
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Nissa
John W. Otte
Donita K. Paul
Crista Richey
Chawna Schroeder
Andrea Schultz
James Somers
Robert Treskillard
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Phyllis Wheeler
KM Wilsher

CSFF Blog Tour vs Tuesday Tunes

This month the CSFF Blog Tour is looking at Lost Mission by Athol Dickson, so your Tuesday mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find ten songs vaguely related to the title, and form them into an entertaining blog post tenuously related to the Tour...

10. Gabriella Cilmi: On A Mission
I know, it came out like a month ago.... far too up to date and modern for a Top Nine place.
9. Lost at Last: Mission
That's better. Obscure electronica, this I understand.
8. Adem: Last Transmission From The Lost Mission
This I absolutely don't understand. But then, Adem is the bass guitarist in a band called Fridge, so maybe it doesn't matter.
7. Tricky: Mission Accomplished
Tricky was part of the alternative music scene in Bristol back in the day. This track is no Aftermath, but has a fitting title.
6. Queensryche: The Mission
Big-haired (probably) rock music from the 80s. Gotta love it!
5. Enigma: Endless Quest
Well basically I was running short, and a Quest is sort of like a Mission. What do you mean it wasn't that sort of a mission? It's got the panpipes from Sadeness and everything! Enjoy.
4. Farace: Mission Impossible
Nothing to do with Ethan Hunt, but eight (count 'em!) more minutes of obscure electronica for you to enjoy here.
3. The Sounds: Song With A Mission
Swedish retro-new wave! You couldn't make this stuff up could you?
2. Adam Clayton & Larry Mullen: Mission: Impossible
Mission: Inevitable more like, as this is in fact the theme from the 1996 Tom Cruise movie, by the other two out of U2.
1. The Mission: Mr. Pleasant
We had to include at least one track by The Mission (or The Mission UK if you're of the American persuasion), and by pointing you to this one I can introduce you to a lesser known Kinks song too.

Spotify users can listen here: Lost Mission Top Ten. Everyone else will have to track them down elsewhere for your listening pleasure while browsing these blogs:

Brandon Barr
Keanan Brand
Amy Browning
Valerie Comer
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Timothy Hicks
Jason Isbell
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Rebecca LuElla Miller
New Authors Fellowship
John W. Otte
Donita K. Paul
Crista Richey
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Phyllis Wheeler
KM Wilsher

CSFF Blog Tour: Lost Mission by Athol Dickson

Wow, are we here again already? It seems like only a couple of posts since the last tour.... Oh, right.

Anyway, this month my fellow bloggers and I have been reading, or at least thinking about reading, Lost Mission by Athol Dickson. Which isn't science fiction. Or fantasy. At least, not in the strictest, where-to-look-in-Waterstones sense.

Apparently, it's 'magical realism'. Which is towards the infra-red end of the fantasy spectrum. Is that a thing? It should be. High fantasy, sword and sorcery stuff way out in the UV end waiting to give you cancer if you're over exposed, and things like magical realism - the 'real' world with just one or two elements slightly askew - hidden in the infra-red, where you need a special camera to actually see that they are even fantasy.

That analogy needs a little work doesn't it? Anyway, my point, and I vaguely recall that I had one when I set out on this post, is that this 'almost, but not quite, entirely unlike fantasy' kind of sub-genre is actually the sort of thing I might read. Which is possibly why some of my tour mates didn't really get it.

To find out what they did think, you will need to get clicking:
Brandon Barr
Keanan Brand
Amy Browning
Valerie Comer
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Timothy Hicks
Jason Isbell
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Rebecca LuElla Miller
New Authors Fellowship
John W. Otte
Donita K. Paul
Crista Richey
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Phyllis Wheeler
KM Wilsher

Fish Custard

Somewhere on teh intarwebs, someone must have drawn a comparison between the Eleventh Doctor and his first post-regeneration meal. Something like how all the ingredients are great, but please, not all together! Only that doesn't work, because Eleven and Amy Pond seem to work well together. It's a little early to tell, of course, what with the Doctor still cooking and everything, but, well, the first episode with the new Doctor didn't suck.

And that is as far as I'm going to go on the subject at this point; I mean, I can't criticize too much a show with a Hitch-hikers homage and a real Mini in it, and I've read/heard too much of 'the assistant is too sexy' or 'the Doctor isn't sexy enough' to be bothered joining in, even on a more intelligent level. Oh OK, I'll join in a bit: she's alright for a redhead, but seriously, have you people not seen Billie?

Um, anyway..... I'm not too keen on the new opening credits, but that's incidental. If the opening episode is any indication, it seems the new team have got a good balance between scary and funny, and between fish and custard for that matter, and as long as Eleven turns out to be a half decent incarnation and the whole thing doesn't descend into a horrible teen drama in spacetime as the younger cast might suggest (oh dear, I came across prematurely middle-aged there, I do apologise. You know you're getting old when the Doctors are getting younger, etc. etc.)

I'll cast judgement on the new Doctor properly next week, once he's properly cooked. For now there's not much else to say, I'll just hit publish before I have that crisis of confidence that I miscounted and we're on Twelve now, or Ten....

Tuesday Tunes: Eowyn

Big hat-tip this week to Paeter Frandsen, a Christian sci-fi and fantasy geek whose blogs and podcast you really should check out if you don't already.

Anyway, the other day he pointed his blog toward some new music he was searching for, and found, well, a Christian rock chick, for want of a better description. Now, Paeter is musical, and says she's good. I'm not even slightly musical, but I know what I like, and I like loud guitars with a girly vocal, so we're all happy. :-)

I'm getting kind of an Evanescence vibe from Silent Screams, but with a much more overtly Christian lyric (and you know I like my Christian media to be overt!). I'm especially liking To My Surprise right now, for pretty much that reason.

I don't think I need say any more, as Eowyn has a perfectly serviceable website and myspace page where you can sample her wares for yourselves. Which you should do now. She's also on Spotify, which is a bonus for me until I can get my hands on some CDs, which I'm sure to be doing soon.

Sci-fi song of the week? Well, stretch a point and pick anything by Eowyn, since she was, apparently, named after a dwarf from Lord of the Rings or something. I don't know, it's fantasy, means nothing to me.

The Friday Review: And Another Thing...

This is something I should have posted about months ago, when I first heard that Eoin Colfer was writing an official Volume Six in the Hitch-Hiker Trilogy. Obviously I didn't get around to it, and the reason for this is that, having listened to it in audiobook format, I am distinctly underwhelmed.

It is, to paraphrase Douglas Adams, almost, but not quite, entirely unlike a Hitch-hiker novel. In Mr Colfer's defence, he doesn't go out of his way to copy DNA's style, which would quite possibly have made a bad book worse. I also laughed once.

But my main problem with this book is that it just misses the point by a country light year. I can't even remember what Arthur Dent did in this book. I'm pretty sure he was there, but far from being the continuing misadventure of an everyday bloke from Earth, And Another Thing seemed to be more interested in the (now single-headed) Zaphod having a little jolly around the afterlife.

I got the impression (as I did with the film) that this was a bunch of DNA's previously discarded ideas retrieved from under his desk and thrown together by someone who probably didn't know exactly where his towel was at the time. There's even a recycling of some of DNA's good ideas, like naming a character Hillman Hunter.

Nope, for me, the Hitch-hiker story ended with the Quintessential Phase. And Another Thing... is, to paraphrase Ford Prefect, mostly pointless.

CSFF Blog Tour vs Tuesday Tunes

Come on, admit it, you all missed this!

This month the CSFF Blog Tour is looking at Knife by R J Anderson, and, as it's Tuesday, it's time to revive a time-honoured tour tradition - the Top Ten Songs, picked at random by a couple of suitably rebellious faery folk.

Now as it turns out, there are less knife-related songs than you might expect. Even after throwing in my favourite tracks by The Young Knives and Cutting Crew, I was struggling to find more than, well, two decent ones, really. So it seems I will have to rebel instead by presenting the Top Ten Rebel Songs....

10. Ozzy Osbourne: Rock 'n' Roll Rebel
Obviously Mr Osbourne needs no introduction. This is the token not-actually-that-good song that sneaks in because Top Nines sound a bit naff.
9. Bonnie Tyler: Rebel Without A Clue
It's a Bonnie Tyler song. That's really all you need to know....
8. The Corrs: Rebel Heart
You know, I don't think we've had any Celtic instrumentals in a top ten before. I guess we have now. Tin whistle and all. I must still have some Guiness in my system from St Patrick's Day.
7. Asian Dub Foundation: Rebel Warrior
Now we're back in familiar territory, with a bit of electronica of the shouty anti-colonialist rap variety. OK, so maybe not that familiar....
6.Public Enemy: Rebel Without A Pause
More shouty rappers... I can't tell you what I like about these guys, but I like something. Yeeeeaahhh Boyyyyy! OK, white guys shouldn't do that, even in text.
5. Wyclef Jean featuring Prodigy: Rebel Music
Rappers are a rebellious bunch aren't they?
4. Dropkick Murphys: You're A Rebel
Carrying on the Irish vibe here... Celtic punk rock all the way from, er, Quincy, Massachusetts.
3. Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel: Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me)
According to Professor Wikipedia, there are more than 120 cover versions of this song. You know I love an obscure cover version, but, well, that wouldn't fit the theme would it? Plus, I love the original.
2. Billy Idol: Rebel Yell
The English new wave rocker who based his look on Spike from out of Buffy.
1. David Bowie: Rebel Rebel
We have to finish with a classic, and there is no better rebel song than this.

I don't believe Spotify works in the US, but for those in more civilised places who have access to Spotify, you can play the Rebel Top Ten there.

Now while you're listening to that little lot, it's time to continue the tour:
Sally Apokedak
Brandon Barr
Amy Browning
Melissa Carswell
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Timothy Hicks
Jason Isbell
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Rebecca LuElla Miller
New Authors Fellowship
Nissa
John W. Otte
Donita K. Paul
Crista Richey
Chawna Schroeder
Andrea Schultz
James Somers
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Phyllis Wheeler
KM Wilsher

CSFF Blog Tour - Knife

I'm rebelling.

I come back to the CSFF blog tour after a few months away, only to find that, not only are they still droning on a fantasy (yawn) but now they've started on general market fantasy to boot. (R. J. Anderson’s Faery Rebels: Spell Hunter, if you must know.) They really have lost the plot in my absence haven't they? So, until they return to good old-fashioned space-faring fundamentalists, I'm rebelling.

For this month's tour I will be featuring Knife, by R. J. Anderson. It's sort of a fairies at the bottom of the garden type story, with a rebellious teenage protagonist, and an underlying thread of self-sacrifice and being excellent to one another, which may or may not be conceived as a Christian theme.

And if that all seems a bit familiar, well, it's because I'm rebelling by featuring the British version of whatever everyone else has been calling it. Confused? Yes, that's the problem with having two completely different names for the exact same book, and I mention it mainly for the benefit of any UK based readers who happen through the tour... both versions are on sale at amazon UK, with no clear indication that they are one and the same (unless you read the reviews of the people who bought Spell Hunter having enjoyed Knife so much).

Given that these books are marketed at kids, and presumably parents who want to encourage them to read, is this an innocent mistake, a foolish error of judgment, or an evil marketing ploy? Discuss....

Discussing either Knife or Faery Rebels: Spell Hunter elsewhere are my tourmates:

Sally Apokedak
Brandon Barr
Amy Browning
Melissa Carswell
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Timothy Hicks
Jason Isbell
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Rebecca LuElla Miller
New Authors Fellowship
Nissa
John W. Otte
Donita K. Paul
Crista Richey
Chawna Schroeder
Andrea Schultz
James Somers
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Phyllis Wheeler
KM Wilsher

Reading, writing, etc for 2010

So, assuming this here blog takes off again, we are at least going to have a few reviews in due course; currently in the holding pattern are most of the sci-fi books featured in the CSFF Blog Tour over the last year or so, among others - these might take a while to filter through the system though, as at my current pace I have enough of Neal Stephenson's Anathem to keep me going until some time in May. Thereafter, in no particular order, my reading list consists of:

Also, when my Sky+ box stops being full of Lost, Fringe, Heroes, Sanctuary, Stargate Universe, Caprica and (soon) Doctor Who, the Red Dwarf Bodysnatcher collection is waiting for a few nights when the DVD player is feeling co-operative.

As far as writing goes, well, I have a few interesting short story ideas to play with, and then I think I'm going to adopt the NaNoWriMo approach for my next big project, as that at least seems to get things finished for me. No time limit, no wordage goals, but the same gung-ho approach to writing, just dive in, and keep going forwards, no looking back, and absolutely no editing until a climax of sorts is on the page. Again, no particular order, but I'll probably start on one of my existing works in progress:

1. A cyberspace allegory, shelved because it seemed a bit cheesy, and extremely derivative as soon as The Matrix arrived;
2. An epic time travel story reaching back to Christ's life on Earth. If I have an 'opus magnum', I guess this would be it;
3. An alternate history of WW2, currently waiting until either (a) I come up with an unusual enough angle, or (b) I become famous enough ;) for this to stand out among the countless books already written in this genre/time period;
4. I have always wondered what happened after the end of The Italian Job (the real one, you know, the one in Italy) and have toyed with a novelisation of the movie and/or a sequel (not a remake, or an homage, or the flippin' Brazilian Job);
5. The repeatedly delayed non-sf 'Project Seven'
   

And alongside these I might find time to cut the excess wordage from my two completed Nanos, Children of the Stars (2008), the sequel to Countless as the Stars; and DragonQuest (2009), one of several comic fantasies that have at least been started.

Um, do I actually have time to blog?

Slight return

Yes, it's been a while.

And at the moment I'm trying to figure out whether I have the time, inclination and subject matter to start posting here properly.

But, before I do, this is just a quick postlet to make sure everyone knows the NaNoWriMo spectacular at stevetrower.co.uk must end this weekend. No, you can't buy a sofa on interest free credit, but you can get a copy of Countless as the Stars for £4.50 including UK p&p, or read the unedited NaNoWriMo original draft of the sequel, Children of the Stars. Seriously, if you think Left Behind was bad, you should read Children of the Stars. It makes those guys look like professionals.

So please feel welcome to stop by there, something new will (possibly) go up there during March if you happen to be late; and in the meantime, if you happen to have enjoyed this blog back in its glory days (?) go ahead and leave a comment on what you would like to see more of. By which I mean any of at all.