Devil's Hit List 1: Overview

Hands up, everyone who was expecting a bunch of death metal titles! No, this is the third of Frank Creed's novels about the Underground. Known as "DHL" by insiders (UPS and FedEx wouldn't pay up), the story follows Calamity Kid and other members of the growing cast as they attempt to stop the spread of Virtual-e, a fatally addictive virtual-reality program, in the US. Along the way, they also stumble upon the secret of the mysterious third member of the Unholy Trinity running the One State: Spirit. Also, God seems to be inspiring some of the resistance to do things that are counter-intuitive or outright insane. And all the time, their names start appearing on what they call "the Devil's Hit List," a One State most-wanted list complete with bounties in the millions.

Of course there's also a lot of the usual wire-fu and adventures in cyberspace going on, and various relationships old and new to figure out, including a fresh recruit CK gets to train as his Uncle Legacy once trained him.

Next time I'll look more closely at certain aspects of the story.

Devil's Hit List ($4.99 Kindle download) by Frank Creed

Who is this Verne person, anyway?

A bit of a depressing post this time. I recently encountered someone (yes, an adult) who didn't know who Jules Verne was. Now, when I mentioned Twenty Thousand Leagues Beneath the Sea, among others, recognition dawned. But still, given that most people in the US at least only know Verne from movies, and hardly any of the movies are faithful adaptations. A lot of people think the Nautilus was nuclear powered, for example. It wasn't, and Verne was clear about that. It was electric, run on batteries that were in turn powered by old-fashioned coal-generated electricity. In the early days especially, Verne tended to merely extend current technology; he didn't do the weird, visionary stuff until later, as in Facing the Flag, with its weapon of mass destruction--a kind of guided missile.

Also, Verne dealt more in adventure stories than in sci-fi: practically all of his stories are adventures, but many aren't sci-fi. (The only non-sci-fi work by Verne that is well-known in the US is Around the World in Eighty Days.) So we've seriously skewed his work. Even putative fans are sometimes off: The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne displayed considerable ignorance of Verne's work, portraying the modern legend more than the reality. Comparatively few of the episodes fit Verne or his work at all well; most were modeled after The X-Files instead: there was a tendency toward supernatural and occult themes generally foreign to Verne's actual work.

I've done some tinkering with Verne's work myself, and perhaps we'll get a look at Ty Addison's "I Am Called No Man" on the blog in the not-too-distant future.

The Planet Strappers: A Free Book review

The Planet Strappers (free audiobook here) by Raymond Z. Gallun is a tale of the awkward age of space exploration from the awkward age of sci-fi. We were beginning to realize that maybe it wasn't quite so simple after all, that Mars probably didn't have any canals or ancient sages, that Venus was more hellhole than paradise.

A bit of a disappointment, really. I think that's why there's so much interest in retro science-fantasy where it really is as easy to get into space as the comic strips implied.

Anyway, in The Planet Strappers, the Solar System is still being explored: men have personally visited everything within Jupiter's orbit, and probes have reached much of the rest. Mars used to have an advanced civilization, but it and a rival civilization from what is now the asteroids wiped each other out, and now only plants rule the Red Planet.

It's the tech angle that I found interesting. Space travel (beyond escaping earth's gravity well) is managed on the cheap, thanks to Archers, space suits so thoroughly self-sufficient that they double as spaceships for fairly short trips, and bubs, or space bubbles, which are essentially large, spinnable plastic bags with ion drives that can take you from planet to planet in a few months. I couldn't help thinking what a little genetic engineering and nanotechnology could do to make bubs self-maintaining. The main problem (outside of shifting orbits, which I think would take more power than Gallun allowed for) would be psychological: even in a convoy of bubs where you could visit or call others, the isolation would get to most people. Still, it's an attractive idea, if only for fiction.

As to the story itself, it concerns a group of would-be space travelers who are more diverse than the crew of the Enterprise: woman who wants to make it in a man's world? Check! Black guy? Yup. Hispanic? ¡Por supuesto! Jock? Take two; they're big. Mama's boy? Don't make me cry! Rich kid? Ka-ching! Rebel without a clue? Why, soit'n'y! We've even got a handicapped guy--two if you count the innumerate goof who needs mathematical and other nursemaiding. Against all odds--well, except for the rich kid, whose odds are pretty good--they get a shot at the Big Vacuum, though there are washouts along the way--and some surprise returns. They go their separate ways, and we get a tour of space with a few of them.

It's a good yarn on the whole--a transition from the early gee-whiz sci-fi into the more realistic kind.

The Planet Strappers
E-book
Audiobook

Let 'Em Breathe Space: A Free Book Review

Let 'Em Breathe Space (free audiobook here) is a novella by Lester del Rey. It's a space-borne murder mystery in which an expedition to Saturn finds itself plagued by potentially harmful accidents and eventually a series of murders and the destruction of plants that maintain the air supply. Who would be foolish enough to endanger the entire ship? Why would anyone be so desperate to abort the trip to Saturn?

The mystery is fairly good, though I had a general idea who had done it (but not exactly why) somewhat before the narrator. In addition to the mystery proper, there is the problem of getting enough breathable air to reach any destination but the grave--the alternative being a death lottery to cut down the number aboard ship to something the remaining plants can support. Even if the narrator, a former engineer washed up by an accident and reduced to a glorified handyman, can find the murderer, there's still the matter of the missing oxygen.

I was surprised, even given del Rey's gifts, at how well the story worked--not only as a mystery, but as a kind of engineering problem and even (in small part) as a kind of romance. Let 'Em Breathe Space is short--just under two hours--and would go quite well with chili or burritos and popcorn. (That will more or less make sense after you've read it.)

Again, that's

Let 'Em Breathe Space
E-book
Audiobook

Dark World Recap 2

The first recap is here.

The trip to Darren's old friend and mentor, Dr. FitzHugh, does not turn out well: the doctor went on a private expedition and has not returned. His daughter, Clio, goes to get some notes of his on a strange pidgin, Neo Patwa, and is attacked. In the confusion, Lassiter disappears.

Dr. Fleming believes that Dr. FitzHugh's disappearance was voluntary, and he gives Darren a clue that should lead to the doctor. Lassiter re-appears, saying he has encountered an old friend, Rick Shafer, who appears to be both remarkably well informed and patently insane.

The trio travels to Atlantis, an old haunt of Dr. FitzHugh's, where they are captured by people like the man who attacked Clio. These men seem afraid of Lassiter and connect him with various evil entities. The trio outwit their captors only to be met by Dr. FitzHugh, who is determined to go to the dark world for research. He reveals that he has discovered something extremely significant; it is related to a strange language (‘Est id deusk? Deusker quem temos.’ ‘Is it dark? Darker than darkness.’). He also says the door between the worlds has closed and Lassiter is the key to re-opening it.

They are interrupted by Nazis who want to send an expeditionary force to the dark world; the way indeed opens, and they are claimed by the mysterious Dark Lady and vanish.

Dr. FitzHugh prepares to depart, but Clio shows up at the last moment. She tries to join him, but winds up clutching air as he disappears. She says that Rick Shafer told her where her father was; she has no idea how Shafer gets around so quickly, because he arrived at Atlantis before she did.

In order to prevent Clio from rashly barging into danger, Dr. Fleming makes a bet with her that he can toss her in the lake, which he does by skill and trickery. As he, Darren, and Lassiter make good their escape, he also claims that he did it to distract her from her grief and simply because "she was annoying me."

They decide to return to the doctor's home and laboratory to figure out their next move.

I'll take a very brief break from the story. When we return, Dr. Fleming has an ambiguous and frightening experience that sets the stage for the first actual adventure with Shafer.

Next: No Place Like Home

The Frozen Pirate: A Free Book Review

The Frozen Pirate (audiobook here) by W. Clark Russell is an odd item. Written in 1887, it has a sci-fi element rather unusual for the time and even for the author, though Russell did write horror stories.

The story begins with a terrible storm and a kamikaze iceberg wiping out a ship and leaving the narrator adrift in a lifeboat in antarctic waters. He encounters a massive island of ice and goes ashore, where he eventually discovers a pirate ship run aground some distance from the water. The ship includes a generous helping of Frozen Pirate (tm)--heat 'em and serve!

Mostly by accident, our hero manages to revive one of the pirates--they've been in deep freeze for just under fifty years, so they're still good.

Sort of good.

Kind of amoral to evil, really. This is a realistic pirate, you see, and while he's willing to help the narrator get the ship back in the water, if possible, there's treasure aboard, and he finds the math of splitting it all in half a little too daunting and has an idea for avoiding the trouble.

So the narrator's early problems of loneliness and surviving the elements unassisted become the problems of obnoxious companionship and surviving its dangers. And then there's the task of getting the ship safely launched before the northward-bound island breaks up and takes the ship with it.

There are two negatives that I should mention. Writers were completists at this point, and the narrative continues well beyond the point where a modern writer would stop. I myself would simply relegate the closing chapters to a brief epilog. Also, while it is worth explaining how he gets the ship to England and disposed of the treasure, it's rather annoying that he goes from being fairly moral and ethical to wanting to dodge the standard procedures that would have left him with little of the treasure. He turns a bit pirate himself, and I'm not sure the irony is intentional.

Still, the idea is a good one, and if you're used to the period, you'll find the book worth reading. The twist in the pirate's fate is fairly ingenious, if not altogether original today.

A note about the audiobook: there are several readers, which is usually a bad thing. What's worse, there are a number of frequent mispronunciations that I at least found painful. In case you don't know it, the Thames, the river that passes through London, is pronounced "Tim's"; it rhymes with "gyms," not "James." So I don't really recommend the audiobook, though it's otherwise a good way of getting through a rather long story.

The Frozen Pirate
E-book
Audiobook

Return to Dark World

It's been a while, and since I do write ahead, I'd forgotten where I left the story here on the blog. And I've been thinking about posting synopses at the beginning or end of each major story arc. So:

The story thus far...

Henry Lassiter has sought help for his lycanthropy, turning to Dr. Victor Fleming, a typical 1930s jack-of-all-sciences-master-of-all. The interview gets too intense, and Darren Christopher, a globetrotting missionary kid, does an exorcism that appears to diminish the problem somewhat.

Lassiter contracted his condition while surveying in Europe, where he found himself unexpectedly exposed to another world or reality, complete with fierce creatures called "li lupes de asel." A group allied with the Nazis tried to harness his lycanthropy for its own ends and got massacred.

On returning to the US, Lassiter claims to have been hunted. Dr. Fleming takes him to a colleague named Dvorak, but they have an odd experience with a strange, bulletproof woman and even more wolves. Soon after, Darren encounters a priest who explains a little of what is going on: an impingement of a dark world with our own.

The visit to Dvorak is inconclusive: he is nearly killed by an unknown mastermind, and Dr. Fleming decides to try another colleague, Dr. Adam Newman of the Better Angel Foundation.

Dr. Newman isn't any help either; Lassiter thinks he's connected with the German group that kidnapped him earlier. Darren apparently triggers yet another connection between worlds, though this time of a more positive nature, perhaps, and he and his friends escape.

Dr. Fleming is out of ideas, and Darren suggests visiting an old friend in Boston to check on the peculiar languages they keep running into.

Next: Good Morning, Beantown

The Dueling Machine: a Free Book review

The Dueling Machine (free audiobook here), written by Ben Bova with Myron R. Lewis, is a classic, early virtual-reality mystery/adventure.

I encountered Bova's sci-fi in the mid seventies; as usual, the later work isn't as good—I have a general rule not to trust written sci-fi after 1960 or certainly 1970—but his was reasonably good anyway. And the dust jackets always alluded to The Dueling Machine as if it was some kind of classic.

It is. It showed up on Gutenberg recently, and the audio version arrived soon after, so I finally got a look at the story. (I'm sure the actual book differs a bit from the Analog novella, but probably not much.)

As our story opens, mankind's interest in exploration and colonization has been overcome by the expense of colonizing and the realization that it's a whole lot more comfy on the couch at home, even if the rising population results in the government's micromanaging your life. This leads to general grumpiness.

It doesn't help when Dr. Albert Robertus Leoh invents a 3D communication system that somehow reaches across hundreds of light years instantaneously, severely irking the likes of Albert Einstein. So he invents the dueling machine: a virtual reality system that lets you and a mutual enemy kill each other thoroughly without actual harm to anyone.

Except that suddenly the hatchet man for an imperialistic dictator starts challenging people to duels they don't survive, with results that destabilize several worlds. Dr. Leoh is brought in to investigate, along with a Star Watchman, math geek, and klutz named Hector. Can they solve the mystery and thwart the bad guys before getting killed? (Because posthumous revenge isn't nearly as much fun as it sounds.)

I admit that I wondered at the lack of a panic button for duelists than would bail them out before they needed a change of clothes. That would have solved the whole thing. But that point aside, this is a good story. I should also mention that one of the deaths is recorded in considerable detail, which could be a bit intense for some readers.

The Dueling Machine:
Gutenberg e-text

LibriVox audiobook),

Talents, Incorporated: A Free Book review

Talents, Incorporated (available here as a free audiobook) by Murray Leinster opens with a planet, Kandar, preparing to be conquered: burning sensitive documents, trying to get people out of the area who would be tortured to death by the conquerors, that sort of thing. The Kandarian fleet is going to meet the incoming Mekinese armada and be destroyed.

Then a space yacht pops in, run by a stout gentleman named Morgan and his daughter Gwenlyn, who own Talents, Incorporated--a company that specializes in providing information and services that anyone else would consider impossible. They are there to enable Kandar to defeat the Mekinese Empire. They'll do so largely by providing advance information and the basis for technological advances, almost always accompanied by the phrase, "That's Talents, Incorporated information. You can depend on it!"

The Talents of Talents, Incorporated are normal people with some peculiarity--lightning calculation, lie detection, and so forth. Some are psionic or divinatory, which I admit I don't care for: there is a dowser, for example. However, the story focuses more on Captain Bors, Morgan, and Gwenlyn, and the annoying bits are largely forgetable.

What does Morgan want? Not money, evidently, and while he does collect medals, that seems too small a motive for overthrowing a stellar empire. You eventually find out what his angle is, but not before Captain Bors of the Kandarian Navy discovers how bothersome it is to destroy an armada that was supposed to destroy you. Sometimes the only solution, as Bron Hoddan discovered in The Pirates of Ersatz, is piracy.

While I didn't care for this quite as much as for The Pirates of Ersatz, it has a quirky charm of its own that I found irresistible. You'll enjoy it, too.

That's Talents, Incorporated information. You can depend on it!

Talents, Incorporated:

Free Gutenberg e-text

Free audiobook

Pirates of Ersatz: a Free Book review

The Pirates of Ersatz (available here as a free audiobook) by Murray Leinster, is the story of Bron Hoddan, who intends "in order (a) to achieve splendid things as an electronic engineer, (b) to grow satisfactorily rich, (c) to marry a delightful girl, and (d) end his life a great man."

It doesn't help that his family is a bunch of space pirates. It also doesn't help that Walden, the most civilized planet in the galaxy, doesn't really want an electrical engineer with new ideas, no matter how useful. So he soon finds himself locked away for improving some local equipment (or creating a death ray, depending on who you believe). Perhaps he should try the other end of the scale--a planet like Darth, run by rival warlords with relatively primitive technology. Warlords like Don Loris ("who was prince of this and baron of that and so on"), who has a scheme to take over the planet. He also has a beautiful, willful, and...well, maybe occasionally homicidal daughter named Fani.

As Bron goes from pickle to bigger pickle to Death Dill, he begins to respect the advice and wisdom of his grandfather, and he also keeps finding that people's preconceptions lock them into failure. Will he somehow overcome his own and avoid the same fate?

This story has a number of great quotes:

"It's no use!" it was the custom of his grandfather to say. "There's not a bit o' use in having brains! All they do is get you into trouble! A lucky idiot's ten times better off than a brainy man with a jinx on him! A smart man starts thinkin', and he thinks himself into a jail cell if his luck is bad, and good luck's wasted on him because it ain't reasonable and he don't believe in it when it happens! It's taken me a lifetime to keep my brains from ruinin' me! No, sir! I hope none o' my descendants inherit my brains! I pity 'em if they do!"

"Government, in the local or planetary sense of the word, is an organization for the suppression of adventure. Taxes are, in part, the insurance premiums one pays for protection against the unpredictable." (That kind of reasoning should sound familiar these days!)

The economics presented here is nonsense--so's a lot of the story, really--but it's a good yarn and extremely fun. I'll definitely come back to it later--probably several times.

Once again, that's The Pirates of Ersatz:

Free Gutenberg e-text

Free audiobook

A Knyght Ther Was

A Knyght Ther Was (also available as an audiobook) is a novella by Robert F. Young. I was already familiar with Young from his novel Eridahn, which I liked and which has the distinction of being one of the few sci-fi novels my mother considers worthwhile.

Like Eridahn, A Knyght Ther Was is a time-travel story with all the twists and turns I at least look for in that sub-genre. After all, why bother travelling through time if you can't mess with your past self on occasion?

Anyway... A Knyght Ther Was features a time thief named Tom Mallory who is going to use another Malory's work to find a suitable point in time to rip off the Holy Grail. He's going to impersonate Sir Galahad, the last guy to deal with the Grail before it was taken up to Heaven--it seems like a reasonable point to take it forward in time instead.

Then the unforeseen problems arise.

The oddity is, I did not think I would like the story. I thought Young would get cute with the Grail, and the tone is initially quite cynical. There were also several plot wrinkles I thought I could predict, and I was right about some of them. I saw the Lancelot twist coming immediately, for example. Others were both surprising and satisfying, especially Mallory's unexpected encounter just after his moment of triumph: it works out exactly as it should. It was at that moment that I knew I would consider the story a classic if he didn't mess it up.

And he didn't! There was a remaining matter he could have completely blown--I thought he would, really; it's another place where he surprised me, because I was sure I knew what he was up to: the mystery of Rowena.

The major surprise was that despite the cynical opening, this takes place in an essentially Christian universe. The two really honest and admirable characters are Christians, and they talk about God in a way that's generally right. And that's all the more peculiar because so far as I know, Young wasn't a Christian himself. (That's not to say I would be surprised if he was.) And I have to admit that this is more Christian than some supposedly "Christian" fiction I've encountered.

It's a short piece, just over two hours as an audiobook, and I'm sure you'll keep coming back to it. Let's have that info again:

A Knyght Ther Was
E-text
Audiobook

The Enclave 3: Bad points and conclusion

Karen Hancock's The Enclave has some strong negatives, but they're a bit hard to present tidily. Some are geek issues; for example, if you really could shoot a laser or heat ray out of your eye, the power demands would be incredible, and the waste heat would blow your head off. Also, it's extremely naïve to claim that an explosion could be dismissed as an earthquake. Then there are literacy issues--putative sentences that really don't parse and transitive verbs used intransitively. But I'll stick with the theological problems. Let's start with a simple one that really ticked me off.

Surviving the Flood. Would you believe that a bunch of guys blew off Noah and his Love Boat and still survived the Flood? I wouldn't, but it supposedly happened.

Evilution. [sic] There are a number of false dichotomies and bad assumptions in Cameron's debate about Christianity. For example, while 1 Peter 3:15 tells us to be ready to give unsaved people a reason for our faith, it never mentions giving scientific proofs. A testimony will do. (I've mentioned this before.) Otherwise you just get into an argument, as Cameron does. Note that when people come up with old lines such as, "If there is a God, why is there so much evil/suffering in the world?" they are wasting your time. If they really wanted to know, they could look it up. Refutations and simple responses are easily found online. In any case, I don't believe I've ever encountered anyone asking such a question honestly.

But what's odd is that Cameron states that evolution and Christianity "are two antithetical belief systems that cannot be reconciled" (p. 282). Now, I'm not an evolutionist, but there are Christians who accept evolution. I consider them factually in error, but they aren't going to Hell as a result. So how can evolution be the Devil incarnate?

It isn't. However, atheism is incompatible with Christianity--there aren't any true Christians who deny that God exists or created all things (whether directly or by indirect, evolutionary means). So what Cameron's actually talking about is not the old "Creation/Evolution" debate, but the more important "Design/Chance" debate. Why not just say so? Because the loudest proponents of Design tend to attack Evolution instead of Chance. They are dead set against theistic evolution for the simple reason that they agree with its assumptions but disagree with its conclusions. Both Creation Science and theistic evolution twist Scripture and exalt human expectations; it's hard to say which is worse.

And there are various places where the unbiblical sensationalism of Creation Science shows up. We have the old joke about the Nephilim being the result of demonic rape, for example. They weren't: if you read Gen. 6:1-4 carefully, you should find at least one reason (if not two) to reject this idea. We also see very briefly the ideas that it never rained before the Flood (p. 448) and that there was a vapor canopy over the Earth (p. 449). The Bible implies neither, and the second implicitly contradicts Scripture: Psalm 148:4-6 tells us that the waters above the heavens (i.e., clouds) are permanent.

Speculation is fine; just keep it in line with the Bible.

Send in the clones! Clones are a theologically tricky topic. Some say that clones are the same as identical twins, so there's no theological problem. Nonsense. The mechanisms are drastically different. Identical twins occur when a fertilized egg cell splits into two fertilized egg cells, instead of simply dividing and redividing. Cloning as currently practiced involves yanking the nucleus out of a fertilized egg cell and replacing it with another nucleus and its genetic material. It takes materialism--the view that we are no more than the sum of our physical parts--to assume this makes no difference. It's a complex issue and calls for more depth than we find in the story.

An unhappy ending... I know a lot of people will disagree with this one, but they'll do so based on the surrounding culture, not the Bible: While Lacey is a widow, Cameron is merely a divorcé (note the single "e"). So based on 1 Cor 7:10-11, it's doubtful that their relationship can properly go anywhere. (Yes, I've seen a lot of attempts to get around that, but they amount to saying that Paul could and would over-rule God.) That somewhat messes up the romance.

Conclusion. This is another case where the more you know about the Bible, the more annoyed you'll get. Unfortunately, that will leave a lot of people unfazed. Yet there are certainly good points as well. In fact, there's more to be said for and against than I've had time to mention, so if you're wondering whether to bother, check the other reviews for a better idea of the story:

Brandon Barr
Jennifer Bogart
Keanan Brand
Grace Bridges
Canadianladybug
Melissa Carswell
Valerie Comer
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Janey DeMeo
Jeff Draper
Emmalyn Edwards
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Beth Goddard
Todd Michael Greene
Heather R. Hunt
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Mike Lynch
Melissa Meeks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Mirtika
Eve Nielsen
Nissa
John W. Otte
Crista Richey
James Somers
Speculative Faith
Stephanie
Rachel Starr Thomson
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Elizabeth Williams

The Enclave 2: Good points

Karen Hancock's The Enclave has various good points. Some involve the writer's craft; others derive from content.

Characterization. The characters are well-defined and credible. I suspect that a skeptic would find at least some of them stereotypical, but stereotypes usually have a factual basis--otherwise they wouldn't endure. And the stereotypes are certainly the credible sort that arise from personalities and traits we've probably all encountered. In any case, I cared about the characters more than I usually do.

Pacing. On the whole, the story is fast-moving. I bogged down a little early on, but I think that was just me: the detour into the Enclave threw me. But after I got past that, the story was a fast read.

Faith-based systems. There's a place where Cameron gives a defense of Christianity that has its good and bad points. One of the good points was that he identifies evolution as a faith-based system. This is true: given the disciplinary breadth of evolution, hardly anyone knows enough to critique the whole thing properly. A geneticist probably can't truly follow the paleontology, a paleontologist probably can't altogether understand the genetics, and so on. (Similarly, someone with a good grasp of Biblical languages and cultures may not really get the theology.) At some point you have to take things on faith, whether evolution or the Bible, though you can get a feel for the relative probabilities and explanatory powers involved.

Divine guidance. I liked the way God got involved with the characters and did a little intervention when the going got tough. That was my favorite part; it demonstrated a God-orientation that ought to be typical of Christian fiction. Yet it's not a simplistic deus ex machina gimmick: Hancock sets it up so that it's believable when it occurs.

Tomorrow I'll look at the negatives, which unfortunately are more complex, being theological, philosophical, or scientific. Try to bear with me...

Meanwhile, check out what the other CFRB bloggers have to say:
Brandon Barr
Jennifer Bogart
Keanan Brand
Grace Bridges
Canadianladybug
Melissa Carswell
Valerie Comer
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Janey DeMeo
Jeff Draper
Emmalyn Edwards
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Beth Goddard
Todd Michael Greene
Heather R. Hunt
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Mike Lynch
Melissa Meeks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Mirtika
Eve Nielsen
Nissa
John W. Otte
Crista Richey
James Somers
Speculative Faith
Stephanie
Rachel Starr Thomson
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Elizabeth Williams

The Enclave 1: Intro

Karen Hancock's The Enclave is a sci-fi epic (nearly 500 pages) about monsters, mad scientists, and the women who love them. (Or wind up carrying their babies, anyway, which is Modern Romance for you.)

The story begins with Lacey McHenry, a relatively new hire at the Kendall-Jakes Longevity Institute. She's hot and bothered. She's hot because, as a typical heroine, she's just kind of built that way. She's bothered because resident absent-minded professor Cameron Reinhardt has unwittingly unleashed a plague of frogs, and she has to put them back in their place. (Frogs seldom know their place. Ask any ancient Egyptian.)

But Lacey soon becomes even more bothered. First, it turns out her ex-husband (now ex-living as well, which was a do-it-himself project) was abusive and tried to turn her mind into a cuckoo clock. But she also discovers that she has an unannounced assistant who helps with the frog problem by eating them--or their legs, anyway. She eventually calls him Frogeater, even though (minor spoiler) he isn't French. He is kind of violent, though.

In the aftermath of Frogeater's visit, Cameron (the aforementioned absent-minded professor) tends to her wounds in a remarkably professional manner. In turns out that he used to be in Special Forces before having a Terrible Experience that did turn his mind into a cuckoo clock--and one that doesn't keep accurate time, either. It takes practically the whole book for him to get all the way through his flashbacks of the Terrible Experience to regain a Terrible Truth or two.

Meanwhile, there is a major cover up of Frogeater's visit, apparently on orders from Parker Swain, the dashing pseudo-young megalomaniac who runs the place. His hobby is rewriting personnel records to make everyone else look as psycho as he is. He's also a lady-killer. Perhaps literally. Oh, and he has zero tolerance for Christianity. He believes Lacey is in remission, but Cameron is active and possibly even contagious.

Then there's the Enclave. There about had to be one somewhere, given the title. It's a group of subterranean post-apocalyptic cultists herded around by Enforcers, who sport black clothes and a third eye. Enforcers are always grouchy because they really look funny with glasses.

So what does the Enclave have to do with the rest of it? A lot, actually. We'll go into some of that over the next couple days; tomorrow I'll focus on the good points of the story.

Meanwhile, check out what the other CFRB bloggers have to say:
Brandon Barr
Jennifer Bogart
Keanan Brand
Grace Bridges
Canadianladybug
Melissa Carswell
Valerie Comer
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Janey DeMeo
Jeff Draper
Emmalyn Edwards
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Beth Goddard
Todd Michael Greene
Heather R. Hunt
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Mike Lynch
Melissa Meeks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Mirtika
Eve Nielsen
Nissa
John W. Otte
Crista Richey
James Somers
Speculative Faith
Stephanie
Rachel Starr Thomson
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Elizabeth Williams

Take a flying Leap of Faith

This month, CFRB presents Leaps of Faith, an anthology edited by Karina and Robert Fabian. Like all anthologies, it has strengths and weaknesses, so I thought I'd single out the stories I thought particularly good.

"High Hopes for the Dead" by Alex Lobdell starts the anthology, and it manages to be neither sappy nor grim in exploring a true leap of faith in an apparently hopeless situation.

"The Smile" by Greg Beatty is the second story and the first of two by Beatty. Some will not like the assumption that the Big Bang actually occurred. It doesn't bother me, because I consider the Big Bang a fact of science rather than history. (Not nonsense, believe it or not.) Anyway, the idea is ingenious, and Beatty's mild cynicism about the result is remarkably realistic.

Beatty also wrote "God's Gift," about a very practical application of Christianity to interstellar travel. Again a novel idea, somewhat reminiscent of something that has cropped up in some secular sci-fi (including at least one short story by Asimov), but with a uniquely Christian tweak.

"Tampering with God’s Time" by Karina L. Fabian addresses the all-too-human desire to put facts ("the letter of the Law") ahead of Truth ("the Spirit who gives Life"). Though Truth generates facts and may be confirmed by facts, mere information cannot transform or save, and it is the underlying Truth we must seek.

I will note, however, that there is a detail that struck me as not quite kosher: one of the pigs from the Gadarene herd is accidentally brought to the future. Presumably, then, the scientists and techs are confronted with a Satanic Swine--a Possessed Porker! With a pope on hand, all should go well. But what happens to the creature? Does the pontiff dine on devilled ham? I'd like to know.

"Leap of Faith" was a collaboration between Karina and Robert Fabian. It's not as theological as "Tampering with God’s Time," but it is a good story nonetheless.

"The Relics of Venice" by Leslie Brown teeters on the edge of magical thinking--which, as C. S. Lewis observed, is typical of modern science, in a way. But it remains on the right side, especially if you distinguish between God's grace and our superstitious attempts to manipulate him.

"Lost Rythar" by Colleen Drippé is about the dangers of missionary work following an interstellar dark age.

Purchase Leaps of Faith at The Writer's Cafe Press.
Check out the YouTube Video.
Visit the Leaps of Faith Website.

Check out these other member blogs this week for more info.

The League of Superheroes: Opening Day

It's Opening Day for The League of Superheroes, so we're having a kind of cast party. Any comments?
Rod Davies/Titan: The cover makes me look short and fat.
Allen Peters/Tachyon: Yeah. In real life, his temper's short and his head's fat. Otherwise he's tall and skinny.
Rod: And Allen looks taller than the rest of us. I think he hacked the cover graphic.
Allen: And I still forgot to give you your donkey head. I'll correct that for the next printing.
Steve: I'd like to introduce you, but I've more or less done that elsewhere.
Rod: You introduced the series there, too. So why are we here? It's not like you got pizza or something.
Steve: I thought we could discuss larger issues, such as the earlier versions of the League in stories I wrote in the eighth and twelfth grades--
Rod: The old "Charlie was first" bit?
Charlie Taylor/Micromegas: That was a Charlie. I don't think we were the same. He wasn't noticeably Christian--
Rod: He wasn't noticeably smarter than a pet rock.
Steve: He was honest, hardworking, and not terribly bright--unlike his friends, who used equipment their engineer dads had lying around to build something like a Titan suit.
Charlie: Which I--or he--got to test-drive.
Tom Reilly/Darklight: Charlie does take point in The League of Superheroes, though: He's the one sent in to look over our new headquarters. In the later stories, that's my job. In fact, it's my job late in the first book, too.
Steve: And the second League-style story had a wannabe linguist helping his friends develop an AI breakthrough.
Rod: Your point?
Steve: There's just a developmental history, that's all.
Rod: Yeah, right. Put it in a book and get it published.
Steve: There are literary dependencies, too.
Rod: And if you get Tom's dad in here, the two of you can talk about all that while we save the world or something. Mr. Reilly has a degree in that sort of thing.
Steve: Or we could discuss what I'm sure will be everyone's favorite story arc: "Rod Loses His Voice."
Allen: I'd buy that. You could even call it "The Conehead of Silence." I probably become convinced I've entered a state of grace.
Rod: How about a state of pain instead?
Allen: Just remember, I'm the only one who's ever given you a wedgie.
Rod: Because you cheated and sped up time.
Allen: Great idea! There: I can't keep him from talking, but at least now it'll take him all day to say anything. Tom, mark me down as saving the world again.
Tom: We haven't heard from Clarice, Genie, or even Uncle so far.
Genie: Your solution is impractical, Allen. You can only slow Rod down when you're right next to him.
Allen: I'll just do it while we're talking, and I'll speed myself up when it's time to leave.
Steve: Which won't be long now. Any comments relevant to the book?
Clarice/Goodcheer: I'd like to know why Tom isn't credited as the writer. He is telling the story.
Genie: And the writing style is his, not Mr. Rice's. I've analyzed their written corpora, and while there are similarities, there are also definite differences.
Steve: I'm his editor. Trust me, he needs one. Besides, the Troika and a certain other party insisted on this arrangement.
Tom: "A certain other party"? We don't even meet the guy until LoS 5, Genie Reborn. He can't go throwing his weight around this far in advance.
Steve: He's been throwing his weight around all along; you just didn't notice. But this looks like a good time to take a break and check on Darklight's invisible fan mail.

Join the forward-thinkers who have become Friends of the League! You can get your own Darklight invisible decoder ring!

Cathi's Chatter

Broken Angel 02: The Good Points

Anyone who saw yesterday's post about Sigmund Brouwer's Broken Angel probably got the impression I'm not keen on it. That's not altogether true: most of the story works really well, and most readers will likely have no problems with it. Tomorrow I'll cover the areas that bothered me. But there are also some good points, and a few of them are unusual.

1. Fact-checking. I doubt anyone else will mention this one: "Cars don't explode when they burn... That's just a myth." (p. 170) They don't automatically catch fire and explode when they crash, either. Brouwer has all these facts right, which tells me his idea of research isn't watching a lot of videos. It always helps me to know that a writer has done some actual homework. (Anyone who has followed this blog very much knows that silliness about explosives is a pet peeve of mine.)

2. Characterization. This covers a lot of ground, but I mostly mean that the characters and their actions are believable. You can't predict their moves, but neither can you consider them random or forced. (I deplore writing where a character's only apparent reason for doing something is because the writer so decided.)

3. Setting-up. One of the signs of a true hack is pulling some gimmick out of thin air at the last moment. A half-hearted hack will set up such a gimmick in advance, but with plenty of "wink-wink, nudge-nudge" so that only the truly clueless will fail to see what's happening. A pro can set up something so subtly that you don't even realize it until he triumphantly pulls it out at the proper moment. Brouwer is very good at setting up. An apparently random detail or incidental action will eventually turn out to be critical. If you're a writer, you ought to read this book just to get an idea of how to handle one of the most challenging tasks in the fiction business.

For that matter, he can even get away with some almost ex-post-facto setting up, as when Outside lawman Carson Pierce reveals that he has outwitted villainous bounty hunter Mason Lee's attempt to conceal his location: you don't see it happen, but it matches the information from the time in question quite well and is exactly right for all the characters concerned.

4. Storytelling skill. I mentioned yesterday that Caitlyn's peculiarity is easy to figure out. That would be a fatal error for most writers and most books. Here, however, the story is compelling enough that the mystery isn't necessary. Just as fans knew full well Anakin Skywalker was going to don the helmet eventually, it's getting there that's the draw. In fact, I'll spoil my own suspense slightly by admitting that I'm going to recommend this book especially for writers who need a good example.

Tomorrow, I'll explore a few problem areas. In the meantime, see what the rest of the CSFF tour has to say:
Brandon Barr
Justin Boyer
Keanan Brand
Jackie Castle
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Janey DeMeo
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Mark Goodyear
Andrea Graham
Katie Hart
Timothy Hicks
Christopher Hopper
Joleen Howell
Jason Joyner
Carol Keen
Magma
Margaret
Shannon McNear
Melissa Meeks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Nissa
John W. Otte
Ashley Rutherford
Hanna Sandvig
Chawna Schroeder
Mirtika or Mir's Here
Sean Slagle
James Somers
Donna Swanson
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Laura Williams

MindFlights 3: Neutrality is not an option

So roughly half of the available stories for MindFlights are worthwhile, in my opinion, but only one or two are noticeably Christian. That's fairly common these days, which is a solid-gold clue that something's wrong.

Historically, we have been the counter-culture. Even Balaam figured that out concerning Israel: "From the rocky peaks I see them, from the heights I view them. I see a people who live apart and do not consider themselves one of the nations." (Num 23:9).

Compare Paul:

Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people." "Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you." "I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty." Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God. (2 Cor 6:14-7:1)

That doesn't mean abandoning the field entirely, but we should stop playing catch-up with the world. We should innovate and let them copy if they can. And one of our standards should be Php 4:8--"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things." (That would probably clear out even a Christian bookstore pretty fast.) I should mention that the Greek does not refer to thinking about such things from time to time but constantly--these are the things we are to dwell on. You are what you read.

Does that mean we should read only Christian work? No; there is worthwhile material even in pagan sources. Paul quoted pagan writers on various occasions.

Does it mean that we should only write tracts on getting saved? Again, no. Read the New Testament carefully: how many "Steps to Salvation" pieces do you find?

And the Christian nature of a spec fic story is far more important than for any other type. Why? Because even if a mystery or romance is filled with atheists and Satanists, it still takes place (more or less) in the real world, so whatever the characters' opinions, we know that God is there.

But in spec fic, we are dealing with another world, perhaps one without God. Many writers turn to spec fic precisely so they can have a godless universe. And while it was possible in Lewis' day and Tolkien's to let the writer's mindset do the work, that was a different world too. Back then people were more likely to get a biblical reference or take a hint. At this point we are so muddled with soundbites about cultures and religions we have no deep knowledge of any of them--not even our own. Indirection and subtlety no longer work.

So what's the alternative? Some publishers think that if you pursue unabashed Christianity, people will tune you out. Some will. But I think you'll find that most people are curious about what we believe, and our spin-sick world longs for someone who is candid about his beliefs. If you can mention those beliefs naturally in the course of a story--not forcing them in for no good reason, but letting them occur naturally--I doubt most people will object.

But neutrality is impossible. One of the things that bothered me about Wayfarer's Journal was a remark on the site about the desirability of writing fiction where one's faith was no more central than the color of one's eyes. In other words, it shouldn't matter at all. This is an increasingly common view: the attempt to sink to the lowest common denominator, to put the lamp under the basket. Jesus said, "So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth." (Rev 3:16)

Pick a side!

Other CSFF Blogs on the tour:
Brandon Barr
Justin Boyer
Jackie Castle
CSFF Blog Tour
Gene Curtis
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Kameron M. Franklin
Beth Goddard
Andrea Graham
Todd Michael Greene
Katie Hart
Michael Heald
Christopher Hopper
Joleen Howell
Jason Joyner
Kait
Carol Keen
Mike Lynch
Terri Main
Margaret
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Pamela Morrisson
John W. Otte
John Ottinger
Rachelle
Ashley Rutherford
Mirtika or Mir's Here
Rachelle Sperling
Stuart Stockton
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Robert Treskillard
Linda Wichman
Laura Williams
Timothy Wise

MindFlights 2: The Stories

Since MindFlights is a speculative fiction e-zine, it's fair to look over the stories. Although MindFlights is technically new, it has a seasoned staff, so I'll set the bar higher than I did for the newer Wayfarer's Journal.

The best of the stories, in my view, is "The Significance of Snowflakes," by C. L. Dyck. It's also the best story from a scientific and philosophical standpoint. For that matter, it's the only outright Christian story in the group; all the others could have been written by an atheist or Wiccan with the right kind of imagination. (If you've ever looked at Isaac Asimov's "religious" fantasy short stories you'll know what I mean.)

"The Other's Mission," by Matthew Wuertz, is also good, showing how a spec fic story can be generally "Christian" without being particularly preachy. (On other hand, the basic plot could also be transferred to a non-spec fic setting: it's basically a missionary story.)

"The Red Unicorn," by Rebecca D. Bruner, is caught in a dilemma of the author's own making. In medieval symbology, the unicorn represented Christ, and Bruner appears to accept that. But that makes the importance of virginity work in a troublesome way, as though it were a means of grace or even salvation. Is there forgiveness for someone who marries for the wrong reason? Apparently not.

"On the Edge of Eternity," by Steve Stanton, has a few issues. The opening scene should've been deleted; the story proper starts in the lounge. I found the "sprite" idea excessively cute. It could work, but not this way.

"Heart of Flesh," by Michael Bonett, Jr., was depressing enough I didn't finish it. I suspect it has a worthwhile point; I just didn't care for the overall tone or spirit of the piece.

"Takin' Notice," by Susan Plett, just annoyed me. The narrator affects a folksy tone, yet when God shows up in quasi-Bubba gear, he talks like a regular city fella. It probably wasn't God at all--just Obama makin' a stopover in flyover country. (Zeb shoulda ast to see him bowl!) And remember, flyover folks at best are well-meanin' but childlike dolts who need a city slicker to straighten 'em out. And what's on God's mind anyway? Salvation? Repentence in general? No, just avoidin' critters on the road. Good point and all, Lord; should I save the whales while I'm up?

"Potato," by Ben Payne, and "Poisoned Thorns," by Jonathan Moeller, were both good stories at the start, but in the end they inexplicably took a sharp turn right into the wall. I wanted to like "Potato" in particular--its opening is reminiscent of my novella "Virtual Messiah," though the setting there is relevant to the story as a whole. In this case we seem to be looking at a fake existence that is changed (more or less) to something more real by evil. There's a wrinkle God never thought of! (Yes, God does use our evil deeds to confront us with our selfish, godless fantasies, but perceiving reality is a gift of God, not a direct result of evil.) And the solution to mindless fantasy is something poisoned and evil. Okay...

In "Poisoned Thorns" the main character decides that the answer to bad magic is not-so-bad magic. Though warned at every turn that there will be some kind of curse on the result, she perseveres--and no curse turns up! (Okay, her hubby may throw a hissy fit. Large whoop.) I was prepared for some kind of "Monkey's Paw" resolution, and indeed the logic of the story requires one. I have no idea where it got off to.

Someone will probably take issue with my statement that "The Significance of Snowflakes" is the sole specifically Christian story in the group. What about "Wedding at the End of Time," by Russ Colson? It does use some biblical imagery and terms, but the concept is a bit of a stretch. The early Christians realized that the big deal about the afterlife was being admitted into or barred from the presence of God. Here, rather like "Waiting for Godot," there's a certain amount of chat about the curiously absent deity (okay, no, there's way more in the play than in this story), but it's unsurprising that the story ends without his actually putting in an appearance.

So we have two stories out of nine that are good, perhaps two more than aren't bad, and the rest (in my view) hit the wall for one reason or another. Not bad, I suppose.

Anyway, tomorrow I'll make a few observations about the e-zine as a whole and why it's necessary to set the bar higher for spec fic than for regular fiction.

Other CSFF Blogs on the tour:
Brandon Barr
Justin Boyer
Jackie Castle
CSFF Blog Tour
Gene Curtis
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Kameron M. Franklin
Beth Goddard
Andrea Graham
Todd Michael Greene
Katie Hart
Michael Heald
Christopher Hopper
Joleen Howell
Jason Joyner
Kait
Carol Keen
Mike Lynch
Terri Main
Margaret
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Pamela Morrisson
John W. Otte
John Ottinger
Rachelle
Ashley Rutherford
Mirtika or Mir's Here
Rachelle Sperling
Stuart Stockton
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Robert Treskillard
Linda Wichman
Laura Williams
Timothy Wise

MindFlights 1: Intro

I should begin this tour of MindFlights e-zine by mentioning that I am a proofreader for two other Double Edged Publishing e-zines, and on one of them I also serve as an editor. I don't usually bother actually reading those e-zines; I've already read them in proof.

MindFlights isn't one of them, but I admit I've steered clear of it on several grounds, as I did from its predecessors, The Sword Review and Dragons, Knights and Angels. But it's on the CSFF list, so I thought I might as well take the time for a look.

To begin with, there's a bit of an odd nuisance factor: unless a piece is unusually short, such as a poem or flash fiction, you get a teaser page with about a printed page worth of text. You can then get the whole piece in your choice of html or pdf, and the full version comes with a copy of that month's cover art.

Free advice: Just have the whole piece in html minus the cover art, and have a link at top or bottom for those who'd rather have it in pdf. If the reader decides to drop it after a few paragraphs, that's every bit as easy to do with the full story loaded. And if catering to those with a slow connection is a concern, html loads much faster than graphics, so losing the cover art will speed up the download, and you won't have to click through. (Hands up, anyone who does enjoy click-through pages!)

Anyway, tomorrow I'll look at some of the stories that are up at the moment, and in the third post make a few observations about the e-zine as a whole.

Other CSFF Blogs on the tour:
Brandon Barr
Justin Boyer
Jackie Castle
CSFF Blog Tour
Gene Curtis
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Kameron M. Franklin
Beth Goddard
Andrea Graham
Todd Michael Greene
Katie Hart
Michael Heald
Christopher Hopper
Joleen Howell
Jason Joyner
Kait
Carol Keen
Mike Lynch
Terri Main
Margaret
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Pamela Morrisson
John W. Otte
John Ottinger
Rachelle
Ashley Rutherford
Mirtika or Mir's Here
Rachelle Sperling
Stuart Stockton
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Robert Treskillard
Linda Wichman
Laura Williams
Timothy Wise