Thomas has the city of Magnus, and other things his enemies want even more. He is not entirely sure who his enemies are, much less where they are, but they keep leaving him signs. The slaughtered bulls were a pretty clear hint. He has other hints – hints of help from the people who would…
Category: Book Reviews
CSFF Blog Tour: The Orphan King
We have all heard that knowledge is power. But few have ever known it, or demonstrated it, as well as Thomas. An orphan, and in effect little better than a slave, yet he has power. He has a rare ability, the ability to read. Rarer yet, he has books to read. Rarest of all is…
CSFF Blog Tour: Angel Eyes
When Brielle Matthews returned to Stratus at the beginning of winter, the cold inside her was greater than the cold without. She left a tragedy behind her in the city; she did not guess its players would follow her out of it. Far less could she imagine how the world changes when you see it…
CSFF Blog Tour: Starflower
Eanrin has always known to never get involved in the affairs of mortals. If all Faeries had that policy, the Hidden Land would have lived out a happier story. But as the lost daughter of the Eldest walked a road darkened by Faerie, so her path will fatefully cross a Faerie’s again. And again. In…
Review: The Whipping Boy
Here’s a question: Which would you rather be – a rat-catcher or a whipping boy? On the one hand, rat-catchers catch rats. On the other, whipping boys get whipped. A lot. At least they do when the prince is known throughout the kingdom as Prince Brat. And Jemmy, an orphan plucked from the streets to…
Review: Tuck
Blood is thicker than water. That’s why you can’t get rid of your relatives. It’s also why you can generally expect certain things from them – like a place to spend the holidays, or rent when you absolutely need it. Or, maybe, troops to fight your guerrilla insurgency. Maybe. In Tuck, the long war has…
CSFF Blog Tour: Proceeding by Inquiry
When the Bright Empires series began with The Skin Map, I found the religious element to be scant. It grew stronger in The Bone House, a quiet but steady undercurrent throughout the novel. In The Spirit Well, religion has a stronger presence yet. This comes mainly from the Zetetic Society, a group devoted to exploring…
CSFF Blog Tour: The Spirit Well
There are certain things you know. The ground is solid, death is death, yesterday is past, and tomorrow is coming. But if ever you cross the ley lines and slip into the muliverse, you may end up deciding that you never really knew anything. In The Spirit Well, Stephen Lawhead continues the grand adventure of…
Hold That Thought
In my reading at Speculative Faith and Becky Miller’s blog, I have recently come across musings over whether or not Christian speculative fiction is “weird”. This has left me pondering a slightly different question: Why is it called weird? It occurred to me that the answer to that question can be found, in some degree,…
Review: Truckers
It’s hard to live in somebody else’s world. Just ask Masklin. Forced to fend for a tattered remnant of nomes, nothing came easy. The whole world was too big, and the nomes were prey for everything – including rats. Sometimes Masklin got the better of a rat, and then they had meat for dinner. Other…