Kevin Lucia posted a wonderfully concise and helpful review over at his site. Kevin is careful to compare Wayne’s work to other YA series. He is writing YA after all–and doing so quite well. If you drop by Kevin’s site, be sure to check out Wayne’s promotional video. Dude, you are fearless!
And now I’m feeling supremely jealous that I haven’t received my full set yet! (I foolishly bundled them with another book to save shipping at Amazon before I realized the second book was on back order holding up the entire set. Arrgghh!)
Still, reading so many good reviews yesterday just made me happy. I’m glad that people like Wayne’s book. I’m glad that it is good and will help show CBA publishers what good fantasy can do. But mostly I’m just glad because the book honors God. I’m not talking about the Biblical imagery or allegory, although those things can be nice when done well.
I mean the book honors God simply because it is a good book. It makes young readers happy.
As my daughter said, “It was a little scary, but I held on!”Â
So on day two of the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog tour for Wayne Batson’s trilogy, I want to remind everyone that this is a trilogy. I’ve been talking mostly about The Door Within. But the other two books are already available: Rise of the Wyrm Lord and The Final Storm. You can even read exerpts at Christianbook.com.
Finally, here’s my attempt to match Wayne’s fearlessness in promoting his book. Try this new short podcast. Even Kait can get this one to work. It is READER friendly, Kait. I promise. Just click on Good Word Editing #4 - Brief Interview with a “Righteous Fantasy” Reader! (If the podcast doesn’t start streaming automatically, click on the play button in the right hand panel.) If you missed the longer podcast interview with Wayne himself, be sure to listen to Good Word Editing #3 - Interview with a “Righteous Fantasy” Author!
4 comments ↓
Marcus, thanks for pointing out that it is a trilogy. Funny thing about the 2nd book of the series. As I’ve traveled doing signings and such, I’ve found that bookstores have more trouble getting Rise of the Wyrm Lord than the others. Some even have to special order because they don’t find it in their system. Compounding the curiosity is that The Door Within and The Final Storm have both consistently appeared on the CBA bestseller list, but Rise of the Wyrm Lord has not.
I wonder if something happened at the distributor level…hard to say. Just a little odd to be coincidence? My publisher feels that it’s just a matter of time and Wyrm Lord will be up there. Hope so.
Wayne, I wonder if that isn’t true of most trilogies. The first book has the appeal of a solid beginning. The last book has the appeal of powerful resolution.
But the middle book mights as well have no beginning and no ending.
I’m wondering about the sales on Two Towers. Or Stephen Donaldson’s The Illearth War. Or even Prince Caspian or Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets—neither of those are middle book per se, but just a cursory look on Amazon shows that they sell best when bundled with the entire series.
This is a great looking blog. Clean and organized links. Really nice.
I’m going to head on over to Kevin Lucia’s blog, as you and Todd have both directed me over there.
Good work!
chris d, your blog isn’t too shabby either! Thanks for the complement though. I hope to spend more time on your blog this evening.
(Also, I’m working on a way for people to have blogs just as customizable as this one for FREE if they want–including the hosting and connection to a specific domain name. You’ll have to buy your own domain of course. I’ll keep everyone posted as things develop and come online in the next few weeks.)