Welcome, Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy fans! Once again, it’s time for another One Page Review, my audacious attempt to judge an entire book based on just one page.
First, I want to thank Becky at a Christian World View of Fiction for tirelessly organizing this community every month to help raise awareness of Christian science fiction and fantasy. In addition to proving her meddle in the realm of social media marketing, she’s shepherding a real community here. Becky, sincerely, thanks.
Second, in this tour’s email, Becky mentioned some a social media study I did a few weeks ago. You can read about it here. Lessons from CSFF figure prominently in the true/false quiz.
Third, here’s a page one review of Jonathan Rogers’ Bark of the Barn Owl. Jonathan also has a pretty splashy website for the Wilderking Trilogy at www.wilderking.com.
What is a page one review? It’s simple. As an editor, I evaluate the potential of the entire book based on the first page. Seem unfair? Agents and Acquisitions editors do this all the time. So do people browsing for what to buy in the bookstores. I talk more about this at the end of my post on Firefish. If you trust Malcolm Gladwell, it’s literary criticism in a Blink.
Enough blabber. Here’s the first page from ChristianBook.com:
His Majesty, King Darrow of Corenwald,
Protector of the People,
Defender of the Faith,
Keeper of the Island,
Tambluff Castle
West Bank of the River Tam
Tambluff, CorenwaldMy Dearest King—
You will be glad to learn that I am still available for any quest, adventure, or dangerous mission for which you might need a champion or knight-errant. I specialize in dragon-slaying, but would be happy to fight pirates or invading barbarians if circumstances require. I would even be willing to rescue a fair maiden imprisoned by evil relatives. That would not be my first choice, since I am not of marrying age. Still, in peaceful and prosperous times like these, an adventurer takes whatever work he can find.
Now, I was pretty excited about the Mars Hill Classified series last month. I had never read such well researched Christian science fiction. But this Jonathan Rogers can write. Three things that are going to make me turn the page, whether I’m looking at a manuscript proposal or previewing a book in the store:
Conversational Style
More than any plot trick or twist of humor, the style here gets my attention. This is a voice I wouldn’t mind talking to me for several hundred pages. (240 to be exact.) In fact, the style on this one page makes me think I may be holding one of the 170,000 new titles from last year that is actually worth reading.
There’s a catch, though. This conversational style comes in part because the opening page is written in first person, presumedly from the perspective of the main character. (Remember I’m judging the first page as if it is all I have here.) First person is notoriously hard to sustain, and it is also notoriously literary. (I’ve heard that nothing kills booksales like getting labeled “literary.”) For a science fiction and fantasy novel, first person could very well make the work a commercial failure.
But Rogers isn’t playing for keeps. The italics let me know I’m reading a special section. Something different from the majority of the text. This isn’t going to be some Mary Shelley-esque novel in letters. It just has a conversational letter up front.
Comic Tone
School Library Journal called the humor in this book “first rate.” You get a taste of it from the very first page. Kids are familiar with the humble tone of supplication. At least, any kids who have begged their parents, “Please? Please? Can we go to swim in the river today?” And parents (who should be reading books like this aloud to their grade schoolers) will recognize the specific form Rogers is spoofing: the application cover letter.
Aidan is applying for a job.
And the dissonance makes us laugh. We hear about grandiose heroic intentions through the tone of a humble job application.
Tip of the Iceberg
Hemingway, I think applied Freud’s iceberg theory of the subconsious to literature. The idea is that a book or a character or an exchange of dialogue only reveal the tip of the iceberg. What is said is important, in part because it needs to make us feel that much more exists beneath the surface unsaid. (Hemingway demonstrates this in his masterful, literary short story “Hills Like White Elephants.”)
With his emphasis on language, Tolkein practically made this concept essential to fantasy. Fantasy readers are interested in new worlds. We want maps. We want language. We want catalogues of new creatures and customs and culture. We want to imagine six days of creation and say at the end, “It was good.” This is fantasy.
Aidan’s salutation raises exactly these kinds of questions. It’s specificity creates credibility. King Darrow has a list of titles, including “Defender of the Faith.” The place names are sufficiently fantasy (Tam, Tambluff, Corenwald), without sounding goofy. The fancy English teacher word for this is verisimilitude. It has “truth seeming.” Let me be blunt. Too much fantasy doesn’t.
How About You?
What do you think about the first page? What works here? (If you’ve read the entire book, try to pretend you haven’t.)
Other folks on the tour:
Brandon Barr
Jim Black
Justin Boyer
Grace Bridges
Amy Browning
Jackie Castle
Valerie Comer
CSFF Blog Tour
D. G. D. Davidson
Chris Deanne
Janey DeMeo
Merrie Destefano or Alien Dream
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Linda Gilmore
Marcus Goodyear
Andrea Graham
Jill Hart
Katie Hart
Sherrie Hibbs
Christopher Hopper
Becca Johnson
Jason Joyner
Karen
Dawn King
Mike Lynch
Rachel Marks
Karen McSpadden
Melissa Meeks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Eve Nielsen
John W. Otte
Lyn Perry
Deena Peterson
Rachelle
Cheryl Russel
Ashley Rutherford
Hanna Sandvig
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Donna Swanson
Daniel I. Weaver
Laura Williams
Timothy Wise
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