Completely unrealistic goals for 2013

It would appear that we are now ploughing inexorably forward into a new year.

It would also appear that at the beginning of a new year it is semi-traditional to take stock of what has gone before and set completely unrealistic goals for the next twelve months.

It would further appear that I have not, as yet, done this sort of thing, but as I have a couple of things I would like to achieve, it seems like a good idea to record them for posterity (and to see how badly I've done come the end of 2013).

So, here are a couple of things I want to get working on this year:

• Reinvent my online presence. This blog is overdue some housekeeping, and stevetrower.co.uk has been so woefully neglected that I'm embarrassed to hyperlink it. And then there's things like twitter that I've looked at but not actually used yet. My plan is to reinvent my homepage and move my blogging onto it in the hope of keeping both a little fresher than they have been of late. Look out for this in the next few months.
• Editing. I have several NaNoWriMo projects that I think are worthy of more work, either to shorten or lengthen them, and I would like to get at least one of them into a usable form before NaNo 2013.
• Publishing. Specifically, getting Countless as the Stars out in the world of e-books, and maybe following it with the sequel at some stage. My immediate goal is to edit the first section of Countless and make it available as a free taster e-book, probably from the aforementioned new website.
• Writing! Obviously I will want to get some new and worthwhile blog content written once the new look is all up and running, but also I want to keep the momentum from NaNoWriMo going. Not at the same breakneck pace, obviously, but maybe a short story competition every month and ongoing work on a couple of novel-length works.

All are welcome along for the ride, please feel free to keep me honest on all of these things, suggest how I should abuse the social internet for my own nefarious purposes, tell me to stop procrastinating with site-building software and write that next book...

I'll be back, er... within a week. Maybe.

CSFF Blog Tour - Angel Eyes by Shannon Dittemore

I guess angels must be popular these days. There's certainly some Disney-esque kids show with angels playing when we leave for the school run most mornings, if that's any measure. Nice that they've made a revival since the good old days when This Present Darkness was the sum total of the fiction shelves in the local Christian bookshop.

So, that being the case, it's good to see from a quick scoot around the tour that Angel Eyes takes a scripturally based view of angels - there's a pretty comprehensive look at angels in art and the Bible on Shannon McDermott's blog.

Elsewhere, Julie Bihn wonders if angels could be among us performing apparently random acts of kindness, perhaps even endangering themselves... I was once saved from being mugged at knifepoint for a handful of 12 inch singles by an unnecessarily burly black fella in Birmingham. I'm not saying that was my guardian angel... but I'm not saying it wasn't.

Other stops to make:
Meagan on being broken;
Becky and Jason review Twilight;
a nice review by Beckie Burnham;
and of course the rest of the participants (list on Monday's post)

CSFF Blog Tour vs Tuesday Tunes

Honestly, the lengths I go to in order to bring a little musical relief to the tour... at the moment I'm battling a teething baby, a snow-crazed seven year old and a dubious broadband connection to plunder the darker recesses of Spotify.... I just hope you appreciate it. Which you will; it turns out WetWetWet were a very long way from the only band to record a song called Angel Eyes (which, by a curious coincidence, is the name of the book being featured on the tour this week).

So here we go, in honour of Angel Eyes by Shannon Dittemore, the Angel Eyes Top Ten:

10. Clinark – Angel Eyes
Because it's, um, snowing, we'll start with a little reggae to get us feeling all summery and Berumdan.

9. Ella Fitzgerald – Angel Eyes
An old jazz classic that kept cropping up... and will crop up now and again in the Top Ten. I've gone for the Layo & Bushwacka Remix, but purists are welcome to hunt down an alternative.

8. Night Horse – Angel Eyes
I so wanted this to be a big-haired hard rock cover of an old jazz standard. But it isn't. 

7. Symmetry – Angel Eyes
According to his website, Symmetry is a songwriter/vocalist/producer from Earth. I don't think he wrote the chorus though.

6. Coldspell – Angel Eyes
Swedish metal Chris Martin tribute act. Possibly.

5. Psychostatus - Angel Eyes
An instrumental prog-rock number by an unsigned artist called Greg. I bet Shannon Dittemore didn't see that coming.

4. Sadistik – Angel Eyes
Sadistik is the second white rapper in this list. That Vanilla Ice has got a lot to answer for. (Contains swears.)

3. Worldwide Groove Corporation – Angel Eyes
A chilled out electronic reworking of that old jazz classic...

2. Submotion Orchestra – Angel Eyes
Kind of like Portishead, but from Leeds. Actually that doesn't really do this track justice, it needs to be heard.

1. The Czars – Angel Eyes
And we finish, predictably, with a sublime acoustic cover of.... an obscure Abba track. Trust me, it's better than the original.

Here's the Top Ten Angel Eyes in all it's glory, if you do nothing else, check out the top three. And then visit the rest of tour, following the links on yesterday's post. Then - and only then - can you go and listen to some WetWetWet, if you really must.

CSFF Blog Tour - Angel Eyes by Shannon Dittemore

Well, it would appear that another month has passed without me bothering the airwaves of blogoland, because here we are, once again, at the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog Tour, which this month will be highlighting the young adult supernatural fantasy Angel Eyes by Shannon Dittemore. So, let's take a look at the blurb shall we?

Once you've seen, you can't unsee. Everything changes when you've looked at the world through . . . Angel Eyes

Brielle's a ballerina who went to the city to chase her dreams and found tragedy instead. She's come home to shabby little Stratus, Oregon, to live with her grief and her guilt . . . and the incredible, numbing cold she can't seem to shake. Jake's the new guy at school. The boy next door with burning hands and an unbelievable gift that targets him for corruption. Something more than fate has brought them together. An evil bigger than both of them lurks in the shadows nearby, hiding in plain sight. Two angels stand guard, unsure what's going to happen. And a beauty brighter than either Brielle or Jake has ever seen is calling them to join the battle in a realm where all human choices start. A realm that only angels and demons-and Brielle-can perceive.

Ok, you lost me at ballerina. Sorry. It's a character flaw, this tendency to judge books by their covers. Maybe I should look at it through Angel Eyes, or at least through what this tour has to say about it. Which we'll come back to in a couple of days (once the tour has had a chance to say something about it), and in the meantime here's the linky goodness for the tour:

Author's website
Author Facebook page
Angel Eyes on amazon.com and amazon.co.uk
Tour Participants:
Gillian Adams Julie Bihn Beckie Burnham Theresa Dunlap Nikole Hahn Jeremy Harder Jason Joyner Carol Keen Emileigh Latham Shannon McDermott Meagan @ Blooming with Books Rebecca LuElla Miller Anna Mittower Faye Oygard Nathan Reimer Chawna Schroeder Jessica Thomas Rachel Starr Thomson Steve Trower Dona Watson Shane Werlinger Phyllis Wheeler

CSFF Blog Tour - Starflower by Anne Elisabeth Stengl

As I mentioned yesterday, I'm easing myself back into the internet by way of the CSFFBT, just in time for a Christmas break. Yes, there is a madness in my method, honest.

Anyway, Starflower. It's a fairy tale, which, if I'm not mistaken, is not a genre well known for its use of aliens and time travel. I'm not averse to an occasional episode of Grimm, but otherwise this is not something that would ordinarily show up on my reading list. Which begs the obvious question: why am I here?

Well, basically, to give yesterday's music post a context. But while I'm here, lets point you to some of the highlights of the tour, for any passing visitors with a little more interest in the featured book:

The chance to win a copy courtesy of Gillian Adams
Shannon McSomething looks at the importance of names
There's an interview with the author at Blooming with Books
A mixture of reviews, good and not quite so good, including one by a younger reader (interesting as Starflower is a young adult book)

And don't forget you can visit the author's own blog, or facebook her.

CSFF Blog Tour vs Tuesday Tunes

After all the frantic novelling of November, and the returning to real life (interrupted by all the Christmas stuff), internetting has sort of tailed off a little this month. But do not fear, for the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog Tour is back this week, featuring Starflower by Anne Elisabeth Stengl. Starflower is the fourth in the young adult fairytale series, The Tales of Goldstone Wood, which seems like a good excuse to send the Spotify elves off to choose this weeks soundtrack: The Top Ten Fairytale Songs.

10. Wob – Rapunzel
Look, I just wanted an excuse to say 'Wob'. Try it, it's oddly saisfying. Wob.

9. John Otway – Rumplestiltskin
Angry Cockney-punk version of the Grimm tale... Give us the baby!

8. Outlandish - The Emperor's New Beat
Today's obscure foreign entry: Danish hip-hop. Slightly sweary.

7. Rush – Cinderella Man
Because we love a bit of prog rock around these parts.

6. Green Jelly – Three Little Pigs
Is this so bad it's good, or is it just bad? I'm honestly not sure...

5. A-ha – Cry Wolf
There's something about listening to a-ha that takes me back to my youth, growing up in the little country town of Morten Harket...

4. Grass Widow – Goldilocks Zone
This is one of those tracks that is just better listened to than described.

3. David Bowie – Beauty and the Beast
I don't even know why I do this bit since you can just listen if you're interested...

2. Spin Doctors – Two Princes
I have no idea if there's actually a fairy tale called Two Princes, but there must at least be one about two princes.

1. Evanescence – Snow White Queen
Wob.

And you can listen to all this with the gadget below, and while you enjoy that, pay a visit to some of these bloggers, also discussing Starflower: Gillian Adams Beckie Burnham Nikole Hahn Bruce Hennigan Janeen Ippolito Carol Keen Emileigh Latham Shannon McDermott Meagan @ Blooming with Books Rebecca LuElla Miller Anna Mittower Rachel Starr Thomson Robert Treskillard Steve Trower Dona Watson Shane Werlinger Phyllis Wheeler

NaNoWriWeekFour

Time for one last progress report...

Day Twenty Two

Tired, I have cheated the word count a bit – there is no room for the apostrophe in NaNoLand. Also went back to a secondary character for a different perspective on things.

Day Twenty Three 

Managed to drag myself up to 38k by 2am. Most of it was decent story, although I am a bit concerned now that Matthew Smith, my eponymous hero, is the most completely two dimensional of all my characters.

Day Twenty Four 

The Travelling Shovel of Death turned up today, which was nice. So did Yosemite Sam, which was odd. Still, somehow managed to power through and get back on track by about 1.30am.

Day Twenty Five 

Powered through 2000 words today, getting myself ahead of the curve for the first time. Still lots of ideas coming, and still just as many things that are going to have to be taken out in the edit…

Day Twenty Six 

Another 2000 word day, creeping ahead now in the hope of finishing a bit early. The home stretch is always easiest, although I still have no idea how to get to the climax, and there’s a whole bunch of good stuff that hasn’t been used properly!

Day Twenty Seven 

Almost a day ahead at the close of today; did a good bit a Shovel of Death carnage during today’s write, and brought the heroes together in preparation for the final battle…

Day Twenty Eight 

Deliberately a short day today, because I knew if I started the final approach to the climax I would just want to finish it…. Wrote about 1100 words and left the rest for a final charge tomorrow night.

Day Twenty Nine

So far 2200 words written tonight, the big final showdown is about to commence…. Aiming to get past the 50,000 words mark tonight, whether that means ending the story or not remains to be seen…

Tuesday Tunes - The Ballad of Matthew Smith: First Draft Soundtrack

The soundtrack to the book has been slowly developing as I’ve been writing; some of the tracks are things I've listened to while writing, others tracks that just sprung into mind at particular points.

The tracklist is more or less in the order events happen in the current draft, which is to say not even close to the final order. It’s a fairly electic mix too: there’s some Blur, Blondie, the Beastie Boys and the B-52s, and a bunch of artists who don’t begin with a B, as well as several versions of the Blue Danube Waltz, Moonlight Sonata and If I Were A Rich Man.

And by this point, you’ve either got the idea, or you never will.

Either way, here's the Official Soundtrack in all its first draft glory:

NaNoWriWeekThree

Time for a progress report:

Day Fifteen
Terribly slow day today, really was not in the zone.  

Day Sixteen

Managed somehow to get back into the swing of things and almost got back up to target. Decided to adopt a character (Grandfather Adamantly Normal) from the NaNo boards because he was not doing anything else at the time, so working my way towards meeting him.  

Day Seventeen
Powered through some serious wordage today, starting to make up for lost time.  

Day Eighteen
Put some time into reordering some chapters (yes, I know that probably counts as editing, but the whole thing was such a mess before!) in order to get a proper feel for where the story had been so far, where the main characters were, and what they should do next. It obviously worked too, as I had another power day.

Day Nineteen
The introduction of Grandfather Adamantly Normal today led to a very strange – but fortuitous – occurrence: Matthew Smith turned out to be his own grandfather. How this has come about, and what philosophical meanderings the story can go on as they figure it out, I have no idea. But it was one of those things that came out of the blue, and knocked the story off onto a whole new direction.  

Day Twenty
Not quite in the mood still… got the daily words down, but not feeling most of them. Quite a bit was cheating quoting from external sources, if I am honest.  

Day Twenty One
Got to a good bit today, a bit that I have been playing with in my mind for a while, and finally reached the right point in the story to share it. Wrote 1940 words – still behind target, but gaining ground again now.

NaNoWriWeekTwo

Time for a progress report:

Day Eight

Think I'm out of the slump; some good story bits today but I did cheat a little and paste a recipe for rabbit stew into the text.

Day Nine

Hard going again, partly because I was half asleep writing.... another 1667 day, by sheer fluke.

Day Ten

Did not get the chance to make good use of Saturday (unless you count catching up on ten days of washing up). Really need to get a good amount of time to put the various scenes I have written into a sensible order, and those I've subsequently retconned out of the timline need end with 'And then he woke up to find it was all a dream and he was still back where we left him at the end of Chapter Two'.

Day Eleven

A quick visit to the adoptables thread and discovering the NaNoWriMo tradition of including a Mr Ian Woon in the story made this evening's session a breeze - I actually wrote some good stuff that probably won't be deleted in the re-writes.

Day Twelve

I have resigned myself to the fact that this story is determined to be a Jet Set Willy fanfic. I had originally planned something a little more in the way of a subtle homage, but the story has lent itself better to being more full-on. So today I embraced that, and gave Willy some more back story, because that was easy word count and I was under the weather.

Day Thirteen

After a little light plundering of the adoptables threads on the NaNo forums, I got inspired again today, and got some good writing and some solid story down. Word count still not quite as epic as it could be, but keeping in line with the curve.

Day Fourteen

Mostly continuing on from yesterday, and some notes for a good scene with a boat and lots of cookers that came out of a real life conversation... I may be writing that next :)

Red Dwarf X: The Beginning

You know the drill by now... this will be spoilerific, so go away if you haven't seen it yet.

And I'll keep it brief, because there's important novelling to be done. I think the most important thing to be said here is that if they never make another episode of Red Dwarf (although all concerned have amply proven they can still do just as good a job as the beeb ever did), at least now it will have ended on a good note.

'The Beginning' was not the non-stop gag fest that 'Trojan' was, although it had more than a few laughs, but it was a superb bit of science fiction in its own way, what with simulant Death Ships looking all 'deathy' and some nice little nods to Star Wars and to earlier Red Dwarf - the first oblique reference to the ending of series eight, and right back to episode one, 'The End'.

Anyway, while all this Death Ship malarky is going on, Rimmer finally decides to play a holographic message from his father, who (massive spoiler) turns out not to be.

And that's when everything changes. Rimmer stops feeling like he has failed his father, stops trying to impress his father by being someone he obviously wasn't meant to be. He realises his father was somebody else, somebody who had entirely different expectations of him and would have been proud of who Arnold Rimmer actually was.

Isn't that what we all need sometimes, to realise who our Father really is, and to think about what He wants and expects from us, how He feels about us even when those around us seem to think we are worthless? Once we know who our Father is, we can begin to get a sense of who we are - and once we start trying to be that person, instead of whoever we think other people want us to be, that's when we can make a difference to the world around us.

And so, armed with a new found sense of self-worth, Arnold Rimmer finally sucks it up, grows a pair and acts like the senior officer on board, managing to save the day in what I at least thought was quite a fun sci-fi way.

And since fun sci-fi is what Red Dwarf has always been about, there could hardly be a better way to end the series. A very satisfying climax to what has, overall, been a return to form for Red Dwarf.

NaNoWriWeekOne

In case anyone's interested, this is how the progress has been so far:

Day One

Had no idea where to start. I knew I had to get Matthew Smith into the world of my story, but I didn't even know whether that world was real, virtual, a dream, or something else, so how to do that? I picked a good openeing line and went from there... I'll figure the opening out one I know what the story is about. Got to exactly 1667, but straddled midnight so my tracker showed yellow.

Day Two

Struggling on, still no idea where the story is going, and really wishing I hadn't decided to wing it like this! Pantsing is not for me. Squeaked over the 1667 in the early hours again.

Day Three

A bad wordcount day, the first day I didn't make the magic number (unless you count the end of day two's writing). Horrible day all round.

Day Four

A few mini word wars helped get the word count up again, and somewhere along the line I started to figure out who my characters were, what the story was... and felt good about it again! Put some serious retcon in, but that can be fixed later.

Day Five

Wrote from the bad guy's point of view today, to give the muse something new to play with. Seemed to work, got some good back story and some funny bits, and more pieces falling into place.

Day Six

Bit of a slump, didn't do much beyond some elaborated character profile and back story. Slave to the word count at the moment.

Day Seven

Would like to be able to slow down and write some of these bits better, but if I slip behind on the word count I'll get disheartened and give up entirely. Todays wordcount was mainly describing the setting a little more, stuff I can work into a context later.

Tuesday Tunes: Red Dwarf Top Ten

As this blog has been on something of a Red Dwarf theme lately, it was kind of inevitable, wasn’t it, that we would get here: The Top Ten Red Dwarf Songs.

10. Vincent Gene – Cat Man
Who knew it was going to start off all rockabilly?

9. Psychonaut – Starbug
I couldn’t not have a tune about Starbug, even if this one is rather longer than strictly necessary. It does change a little in the second half, but you know, just skip ahead when you get the idea.

8. Marc Gunn - The Mining Ship The Red Dwarf
OK, they get the name of the ship slightly wrong, but its an Irish drinking song about the Cat. How can you not love that?

7: Born to Hula – Red Dwarf
Actually has nothing to do with Red Dwarf, but sounds very cool.

6: Disasterpeace – Kitty Cat and Spacey Man
Sounds like it should be the tune from the Mega Drive game of Red Dwarf. Heck, it might be, for all the research I did!

5: Republica – Holly
Indie dance rock tribute to Norman Lovett. Probably.

4: Altered Images – I Could Be Happy
The relevance of this song will not need explaining to Red Dwarf fans, of course.

3: Missing Andy – Dave
We haven’t had a song about Lister yet, so he can have this one. It’s kinda fun, but messes with his backstory a bit…

2: Tom Songs – A Rimmer
This one actually is about that A Rimmer. And it’s pretty good too!

1: Ccada Luge – Red Dwarf
Fun, fun, fun in the sun, sun, sun. The coolest version of the theme tune I could Spotify at short notice.

Red Dwarf X: Dear Dave

I'm briefly interrupting my NaNo writing to continue the mini-series of Red Dwarf reviews, mainly because this isn't going to take very long.

Dear Dave was not a bad episode, but it didn't have a lot of structure or depth to it. It had a few nice comedy moments, and had the feel of a much earlier episode, Lister being all melancholy about being the last human, Kryten and Cat failing epically to console him while Rimmer is just... Rimmer.

But the trouble was, all the various plot points (such as it could be called a plot) were things that had been done before in earlier episodes. To give realism its due, in 20-odd years with the same three smegheads, conversations are going to be repeated occasionally. Still, taking bits of old storyline and gluing them together with some new jokes didn't really work; the episode needed something a little more meaty than a letter from Lister's ex to hang all the other bits on.

There wasn't much Cat in the episode, but he did, once again, get all the best lines for his trouble. The random reference to the JMC on-board computer (don't they remember Holly?) was a bit odd and disrupted the sense of continuity from earlier Dwarf that the episode otherwise maintained.

Oh, and I quite like the way Red Dwarf has taken Douglas Adams' vending machine nightmares off to a completely different extreme, especially in this episode (although I'm sure nobody in the known multiverse would really try and lift up a vending machine by lying on it and jumping up and down).

On the plus side, the cast are all well in their stride now, so combine that with the (presumably) minimal budget spent on Dear Dave, and given the overall goodness of Red Dwarf X, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a decent finale next week...

It's almost upon us....

So, NaNoWriMo is just a couple of hours away now... and I still have only a vague idea what's going to start appearing on my screen tomorrow.

It was nice to see a late surge of support for the Old Testament Space Opera in my little poll the other week, but The Ballad of Matthew Smith was the more popular choice wherever I asked the question. And although I never promised to be bound by the result, I like the idea too, so I'm going to roll with it.

Which leaves me with the dilemma of what happens to Matthew Smith anyway?

I originally envisaged the story as a sort of comic cyber-fantasy, about a computer programmer who is abducted and taken to the world he created for his best-selling game, for reasons as yet unknown....

The trouble is, I don't even know those reasons yet, and I think the reasons dictate whether the world he finds himself in is real, cyberspace, or some kind of dream... or indeed another part of the DragonQuest universe from a couple of years ago.

And until I figure out what kind of world Matthew Smith finds himself in, I don't know how to get him there... which is going to make Chapter One interesting in the morning!

No, I won't be starting at midnight - I need some sleep, and if I'm not asleep by 12 I will be compelled to start! - and I'm hoping to dream up the opening to the story overnight.

Red Dwarf X: Entangled

So, if last week was the low point of Red Dwarf X so far, I think this must be the week we can safely say that yes, the boys from the Dwarf are back on form.

Basically it involves Lister losing a game of poker to some genetically engineered life forms, and relying on a decidedly stupid scientist to save the day. Admittedly, her stupidness did get a little tedious at times, but that's easy to overlook just by considering how awesome some of Cat's lines were.

We're all acutely sorry bud. Apart from me and him and him.

Yes, this was the episode where he really came into his own, partly by virtue of being quantum entangled with Kryten, meaning they delivered some of their lines in perfect synch, much to both characters' surprise.

Lister is at his slobbiest, Rimmer at his most officious (having just reinvented the ship's health and safety rulebook), and Kryten is doing a fine Hitchhikers' Guide homage. All in all, classic Dwarf, and right up there with the moose.

Not really much philosophical discussion to the episode; Kryten and Cat develop a new understanding of the nature of coincidence, and there's a whole space station set up to establish whether two wrongs do in fact make a right.

But we don't need that. Entangled is a high point of Red Dwarf X; let's just hope they can keep the momentum going for the last couple of episodes...

CSFF Blog Tour: The Spirit Well by Stephen Lawhead

This week, as I think I have mentioned for those who have been paying attention, the CSFF Blog Tour has been looking at The Spirit Well by Stephen Lawhead.

As I mentioned on Monday, the Christian elements of the story were just beginnning to show up in The Bone House, and I was wondering what would be made of them in future novels in the series. Perhaps unsurprisingly, that point has been picked up on in a number of tour posts - having not read the book yet I won't get into how the subject is dealt with in The Spirit Well, but if you're interested, pay a visit to posts by Thomas Clayton Booher, Bruce Hennigan, Timothy Hicks, Jason Joyner and Becky Miller which look at this in varying amounts of detail.

If you'd rather just read a review of The Spirit Well and make your own mind up (or not) check out the reviews by Julie Bihn, and Jim Armstrong (who likens the quest to a story from Tom Baker vintage Doctor Who but with less jelly babies).

And your final essential stop should be Robert Treskillard's interview with Archaleus Burleigh.

The full list of tour participants is at the end of yesterday's post.

Tuesday Tunes: The Spirit Well

As you may know, this week the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog Tour is featuring The Spirit Well by Stephen Lawhead.

So, naturally, today we present the Top Ten Tunes from the Spirit Well:

10. Amy Macdonald: Human Spirit
Yes, it is a bit too early for songs about Christmas, but this has only the fleetingest mention.

9. Lacuna Coil: My Spirit
Not as awesome as the gothic metal cover of REM's Losing My Religion which appears on the same album. You should totally go listen to that later.

8. Doctor & The Medics: Spirit In The Sky
Seriously, more churches should sing this on a Sunday morning.

7. Wave Machines: Punk Spirit
Nothing very punky about this track, apart from the fleetingest swear in the first verse. You wouldn't have even noticed if I hadn't warned you, but hey, it's a family show.

6. The Waterboys: Spirit
Celtic folk rockers, wannabe sailors and fans of C S Lewis, apparently.

5. Blackmill: Spirit of Life
Because every Top Ten needs six minutes of gloriously obscure chilled-out electronica that I wouldn't have experienced had I not been exploring Spotify in putting this together.

4. Brian Eno & David Byrne: The Jezebel Spirit
Completely insane, sampled exorcism and all. From the album My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, which is well worth a listen if you like this kind of weirdness.

3. Rush: The Spirit of Radio
Canadian prog rock. And why not?

2. Hawkwind: Spirit of the Age
OK, it might take a couple of minutes to get going, but it's worth it for the sci-fi lyrics worthy of Jonathon Coulton. If it weren't so long, it might have squeaked the top spot...

1. Tori Amos: Smells Like Teen Spirit
But I do love a weird cover version, and this pairing is about as odd as it gets... phenomenal result though.

Here they all are for your enjoyment:

While that's playing, let's not forget there's a blog tour going on. Follow it here:

Jim Armstrong Julie Bihn Red Bissell Jennifer Bogart Thomas Clayton Booher Thomas Fletcher Booher Beckie Burnham Brenda Castro Jeff Chapman Christine Karri Compton Theresa Dunlap Emmalyn Edwards April Erwin Victor Gentile Jeremy Harder Bruce Hennigan Timothy Hicks Janeen Ippolito Becca Johnson Jason Joyner Carol Keen Emileigh Latham Rebekah Loper Shannon McDermott Meagan @ Blooming with Books Rebecca LuElla Miller Anna Mittower Joan Nienhuis Lyn Perry Nathan Reimer Chawna Schroeder Rachel Starr Thomson Robert Treskillard Steve Trower Dona Watson Shane Werlinger Phyllis Wheeler

Monday Review: The Bone House by Stephen Lawhead

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jim Armstrong Julie Bihn Red Bissell Jennifer Bogart Thomas Clayton Booher Thomas Fletcher Booher Beckie Burnham Brenda Castro Jeff Chapman Christine Karri Compton Theresa Dunlap Emmalyn Edwards April Erwin Victor Gentile Jeremy Harder Bruce Hennigan Timothy Hicks Janeen Ippolito Becca Johnson Jason Joyner Carol Keen Emileigh Latham Rebekah Loper Shannon McDermott Meagan @ Blooming with Books Rebecca LuElla Miller Anna Mittower Joan Nienhuis Lyn Perry Nathan Reimer Chawna Schroeder Rachel Starr Thomson Robert Treskillard Steve Trower Dona Watson Shane Werlinger Phyllis Wheeler
 

Other linky goodness: 

My review of The Skin Map

The author's webiste

Red Dwarf X: Lemons

Another Friday, another spoilerific Red Dwarf review.... look away now if you don't want to know the result.

Red Dwarf does 'Life of Brian', and ends up with, well, the lemon of the series so far. Now, I'm not the sort to get offended by light-hearted digs at Christianity. I figure Jesus is man enough to take a joke, but I guess there may be those who disagree, and might find the episode in bad taste. (Actually, some of it was in quite bad taste, irrespective of the subject.)

So while I wasn't offended by it, I was disappointed by the lack of originality at times - like resorting to how many wars Christianity has caused. There were some nice one-liners, but on the whole the humour was forced, and I'm not sure setting the thing in India worked in historical terms.

As far as Red Dwarf is concerned, the whole episode had pretty much been done before, often better, in earlier seasons. It does raise some interesting questions though: how many of the ten commandments did God break, and what would Jesus have done if he had known what would later be done in his name, just off the top of my head.

There is, of course, a lot more theological discussion that could be had riffing off this episode, and if anyone cares to comment on any of them, please do. I'm not going to go into any more detail now - maybe once I have the DVD and a chance to watch it more thoughtfully!

One point it did raise, however, and that is worthy of comment, is that Jesus is obviously still fair game for comedy; presumably Doug Naylor wouldn't have risked offending the Muslim population in a similar way...

Final word goes to Lister though, as he said to Jesus:

So some stupid people did some stupid things in your name. It's not your fault. You make a lot of people happy.