Conservative Book Talk

Plot: “Ever” is a story much like that in the Bible, in the book of Judges, where a man in battle promises G-d that he will sacrifice the first person that greets him if they win. Well, in the Bible, they win the battle and when the man returns home; his daughter comes out to greet him.

In “Ever”, however, Kezi’s, our heroine, father promises their god, Admat that if he heals his wife, that whoever congratulates him within three days he will sacrifice. All goes well until Kezi’s Aunt comes over for a visit; they had thought themselves safe from her because she was away. They had set up a guard to keep visitors away, but their Aunt, being a pushy woman, discards all warning and enters to congratulate her brother on his wife’s return to health. However, before the words are out of her mouth, Kezi quickly congratulates her father to save her Aunt and faints. She wakes to everyone crying around her, remembering what occurred, she too cries. After several hours, they plead with Admat to allow her one more month to live, before they sacrifice her. Admat’s alter candle flickers, signing to them that they have one month.

Through all this, the god of wind watches all that goes on; and slowly, without realizing it, falls in love with Kezi. After meeting with her in a wedding, and saving her from a horrible admirer, the god of wind tells Kezi that she can escape her death in only one way, by becoming a goddess. Leaving her parents with a note that she is well, Kezi leaves with the god of wind to prove she is a heroine and become a goddess.

Positive: The writing style in this book is quite different from the ones I have read so far. Instead of setting it from one person’s point of view, Levine sets each chapter from either our hero or heroines point of view. It was unique to me and I enjoyed it.

I believe the authoress makes it clear, that the father’s choice in making the promise he did to his god was completely foolish.

Negative: Our hero and heroine do quite a bit of kissing prior to marriage, and live together for one month, alone. They do not sleep together, except once when the authoress writes Kezi “snuggles close” to the god of winds. There are gods and goddesses in the book, so parents might want to caution their children, if they do not know already, that these gods do not exist.

Overall: I did enjoy this book, not as much as her other fairy tale adaptations, such as Fairest (previously reviewed by Sincerelyornot) and Elle Enchanted, but it was fun. It is a small 244 pages, but enjoyable to the end.

Though I will admit I did not find our heroines ‘heroism’ very heroic, I will not spoil it for you unless you doubt you will never read it.

I recommend this book if you feel the need to break from reality, a mental junk food that has a good story line.

Tags: Ever, Fairy Tale, fantasy, Gail Carson Levine, Hannasus

While traveling recently, my wife brought along the final installment of the Harry Potter series. Having read all of the books (entirely as audio books) and watched the movies, I finally am ready to write a little bit about them. For a long time, I have heard Christians rail on the stories as being anti-God, demonic etc…. I have heard Christians proclaim that the books can be used to teach people about God (like others have done with the Lord of the Rings and Star Wars). I say they are both wrong.

Before I make comments on the series generally, I’d like to give a few observations about this specific book. For starters, Rowling did an excellent job of wrapping up the series and pulling together threads from the last few books. It would appear that the last half of the series had a much more coherent plot structure than the first couple of books. The ending was satisfying and conclusive. There were no loose ends hanging around that opened the door for a sequel.

On the flip side, there was more profanity in this book than the rest of the series combined. Rowling is no longer writing for children (her original audience is either in college or graduated now). This book has plenty of death and violence but that would fit with the nature of war. Overall, I enjoyed the conclusion to this series.

Some Christians have argued against the use of magic. I hope they also boycott the Lord of the Rings and the Chronicles of Narnia for the sake of consistency. I don’t really understand that point of view and I probably only have one objection on that front. The Harry Potter books present magic in the hands of normal real-life children unlike other fantasy that sets the magical powers in a far flung world. There is a definite blurring of the edges between reality and fantasy in these books. I have been in the rooms of children and seen the Harry Potter craze; the materials encourage the children to practice “good” magic. Whatever. If children are believing this to be real, then there are other issues.

If I were to object to these books, it is because they encourage children to disobey, use profanity, and encourage general behaviors inconsistent with Christian character (think: revenge, anger, hate, theft, lying etc…). I will probably use them as training tools some day to teach my children about handling objectionable elements. But that’s me and I’ve got time before that becomes an issue so who knows? I could change my mind by then. And those who try to use this to teach Christian values? Get your head screwed on straight. There is nothing Christian about these books. As there is nothing Christian about The Lord of the Rings.

One other negative. Rowling can’t write. Sorry. No offense meant, but she can’t. She has created excellent characters, a great plot line and an enjoyable “universe,” but that doesn’t mean she can write. Her books tend to drag along for large sections. In this book, Harry, Hermione, and Ron all sit around in a tent for months. Literally. Then occasionally, dumb luck would wander in and hand them clues to follow. After that, it was back to sitting around for weeks on end. (This goes on for chapters.) Her plots drag as if she were filling in words to make a bigger book that sells for a higher price. My wife and I were talking about Rowling and we’re not certain if she can transition to anything else. It will be interesting to see if she is successful at any new writing ventures.

Overall, I enjoyed the plot lines and would certainly recommend them to teenagers and adults. The creativeness of the stories make them worth reading. Rowling is certainly creative if she is anything. Still, there are plenty of reasons to object to the material included in these books. A parent should read them alongside their children if they choose to allow their kids to read them at all.

Your thoughts? Care to write a dissenting review?

Some earlier thoughts by Tim Taylor:
Magic and Harry Potter/
Harry Potter Continued/
Realism in Harry Potter/
Conclusion of Harry Potter Series/

Tags: Deathly Hallows, fantasy, Harry Potter, J. K. Rowling, Matt Gardenghi, Young Adult

I decided to review both books simultaneously as they are both compilations of short stories. Laumer’s books are intriguing for their styling, both fast paced and full of interesting similes. Much of his work is (apparently) focused on a lone wolf hero who must rescue the world. I can see that come out over the course of these two works. Seldom do the main characters have any support or assistance from others. When they do, those others tend to die or be maimed etc…

After reading A Plague of Demons I was a bit excited. I had stumbled upon an author who wrote light science fiction and that was reasonably clean. Further, the first short story of his that I had read, Greylorn told first-person story of a starship captain dealing with a mutinous crew. The captain used his brains and psychology to outwit the crew and save the day. Not, that there wasn’t a bit of action mind you, but that was secondary and in support of the use of his intellect to solve the problems. I learned to appreciate that approach to life some time ago: when you don’t have the money or tools of others, you use your God given talents (relying first on Him, secondarily on your talents) to out think a better equipped and better funded opponent.

I thoroughly enjoyed Greylorn and then proceeded to read the entire book. There were a few swear words in Plague but nothing that would push it passed a mild PG rating. Then I moved to the next book: Future Imperfect. This one easily pushed PG13 and had some mild adult content (i.e. not explicit but more than was needed). Arg. That is so annoying.

Would I recommend that you read Laumer? Depends on the person. Laumer does have some interesting qualities that make for good philosophical and literary discussions. For example, Laumer emphasizes the intellect over everything else. Most of his works in these two books (published 1965 and 1966) swirled around the mind and soul. Whether it was a man being slowly transformed from a human to a superman to a super tank while maintaining his individuality and personality or whether it is a discussion of cloning and eternal life. Always, the person is more than the body and more than an animal. Laumer seemed to see something special in the intellect; possibly from a modified humanistic perspective. His work seems to acknowledge evolution while maintaining the uniqueness of the human. In one story the only thread between each incarnation of the man was the brain which was transported from body to body. In another, the body was nothing, but the collection of memories and personality tapes recreated the man himself. So apparently Laumer saw man as more than flesh, but not necessarily more than the collection of his memories and personality.

Very interesting….

Laumer also leans on the use of telepathy and other mental powers in several of these works. Once again that reinforces his fascination with the mind and its power.

Plague was a set of adventure stories and you should at least read Greylorn and Thunderhead. They are great adventure stories about heroism, duty, and honor.

Laumer experimented with another genre of science fiction called dystopian. Dystopia is the opposite of utopia. Dystopia being my new vocabulary word. Typically, dystopian works like Orwell’s 1984 focus heavily on the dystopian world, while Laumer’s characters just happens to inhabit the dystopia. The dystopian world is around the character but not the point or the driving focus of the book. In The Day Before Forever contained within Future Imperfect, an evil company that controls life and death, parcels out organs at high price to those who can afford replacements wants Steve Dravek dead. Meanwhile, Dravek has a nasty hangover and a scrambled memory. His attempts to piece together his life leads him to confront the evil ETORP organization, though he approaches it rather obliquely. It isn’t his primary goal to attack ETORP, but simply survival.

Other dystopia focus on end of the world conditions, the so called catastrophe movies like Day After Tomorrow and Impact. Not that I have watched them, but they represent the usual approach to a dystopian universe.

Anyway, the point of my rambling was to observe how Laumer approaches these subjects in a manner worthy of consideration. Very different approach than the typical genre.

Another point to consider: Baen Publishers has chosen to make these and other works available for free in a multitude of formats. I like this as it allows me to read books on my PDA easily when I have 3-5 minutes where I am waiting in line or walking. Yes, I read while I walk. Make use of my time. Baen believes that by giving some books away, people will be more likely to purchase hard copies. Can’t say that I’m opposed or that I think they are wrong. Its a brilliant idea. Read about it here. Get copies of their free books here.

Audio of Greylorn
More about Dystopia found here.

Tags: fiction, Future Imperfect, Keith Laumer, Matt Gardenghi, Plauge of Demons, Science Fiction, Short Stories