Entries Tagged 'fantasy' ↓

Several months ago, I began book critiques that I call Page One Reviews.

Here’s the premise: I look at a book as if I’m an acquisitions editor and ask, “What if I got this first page as an unsolicited manuscript? What works? What questions does it raise?”

Today, as part of the CSFF blog tour, I’ll be looking at Jeffrey Overstreet’s fantasy Auralia’s Colors. You may already know Jeffrey from his nonfiction work, Through a Screen Darkly. He also blogs at The Looking Closer Journal, which has the wonderful tagline “the truth must dazzle gradually” from one of my favorite Emily Dickinson poems: Tell All the Truth but Tell It Slant.

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There’s been a lot of talk and some fear in Christian circles about the new atheist fantasy for kids. As usual, the critics agree we’ve made much ado about nothing.

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Stephen Lawhead may just have the perfect author’s name, and the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog Tour is featuring his new book, Scarlet, this week.

Since I was at an N. T. Wright retreat at Laity Lodge, I couldn’t post until today. (”Bishop Tom” is one of my heroes, and this weekend was about as wonderful as I could have dreamed. We talked about everything from theology to poetry to fantasy. After I dropped him and Mrs. Wright at the airport, I cried.)

Speaking of fantasy, I’m supposed to be reviewing page one of Lawhead’s fantasy of King Raven.

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Yesterday, I met Bob the Tomato. And Mr. Lundt. And Pa Grape. Any American Christian with kids my age, probably knows those names. They may even know the name Phil Vischer, the founder of Big Idea.

At the Religion Newswriter’s Association Conference last night, Big Idea and Lovell-Fairchild previewed The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything. There’s an embargo on reviews, so I’m not going to review the movie or share spoilers.

But I can say there are…

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Here it is Wednesday, and I’m just now getting to the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy blog tour! My apologies to everyone for the weak showing this round. All that to say George Bryan Polivka’s The Legend of the Firefish looks awesome. He’s got a new blog, too.

I thought it would be fun to play acquisitions editor based on the first page. What if I got this first page as an unsolicited manuscript? What works? What questions does it raise?

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Spaghettipie tagged me for this meme. It’s a little bit like an interview with myself. I have some questions for all of you readers at the end, so skip down if you don’t care about my answers.

1. What’s the one book or writing project you haven’t yet written but still hope to?

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It’s time again for the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy blog tour! This month, we’re talking about The Sword Review, an online magazine project of Double-Edged Publishing, Inc.

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Some of my blogging friends are still talking about Karen Hancock’s Christian fantasy novel, Return of the Guardian-King. I thought I would highlight some of my favorite bits of wisdom they’ve shared over the past two days:

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Note to all of my virtual friends: I’ve been completely overwhelmed by the generosity and authenticity of your comments lately! Thank you so much. I look forward to interacting more intently as soon as our new and improved TheHighCalling.org is almost under wraps—later this week!

Over the next few days, the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog tour is featuring Karen Hancock. 

Return of the Guardian-King, the fourth book in a series, is a fine example of high fantasy. That is to say, Karen Hancock creates a self-contained world, a sweeping Tolkein-esque epic of politics and war and love and the followers of “Eidon, Lord of Light, Creator of All, Defender of Man. Soon may he come, and swift be his judgment.”

Hancock follows a story-telling pattern laid out by C. S. Lewis in his science fiction series and later in Narnia. God appears and redeems other worlds under other names.

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It seems things got pretty serious around here last week. And that’s a good reminder for writers. The business of writing can be a serious business at times.

But all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. And Jill’s not much fun either. Pretty soon all they do is fetch water and break their crowns and make unscheduled and expensive visits to the dentist. Anyone up for a little game this week?

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