The Vanishing Sculptor, by Donita K. Paul

With The Vanishing Sculptor, Donita K. Paul begins a new series set in the same universe as her DragonKeeper Chronicles, with the exception that this newest novel is set in an earlier time period.

The book centers around Tipper, a young emerlindian woman who has been trying to manage her family’s estate in her father’s absence. Unfortunately, she has no idea where her father went when he disappeared years earlier. In addition, her mother has become confused and befuddled as she has gotten older, thus leaving Tipper even more alone. Fortunately, she has Beccaroon to rely on, a giant parrot her father asked to watch over her if something should happen to him.

To make ends meet in her father’s absence, Tipper has been selling off her father’s artwork without realizing her actions have placed the world at risk of collapse. The only way disaster can be averted is to reunite some of the statues. But Tipper cannot brave the trip alone and a group of companions is formed to undertake the quest.

As this is Day 1 of the three-day Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog Tour, I will continue my review of The Vanishing Sculptor tomorrow. Let’s see what the others have to say:

Brandon Barr
Jim Black
Justin Boyer
Rachel Briard
Karri Compton
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Linda Gilmore
Todd Michael Greene
Katie Hart
Ryan Heart
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Mirtika
Eve Nielsen (posting later in the week)
Nissa
John W. Otte
Lyn Perry
Crista Richey
Cheryl Russell
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Speculative Faith
Rachel Starr Thomson
Robert Treskillard
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Phyllis Wheeler
Elizabeth Williams
KM Wilsher

For more info on The Vanishing Sculptor, see: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1400073391

Information on the author:
Donita Paul’s Web site – http://www.donitakpaul.com/
Donita Paul’s blog – http://dragonbloggin.blogspot.com/

Free McCaffrey/Scarborough, Keri Arthur, China Mieville Novels

Suvudu does it again. I could have swore Suvudu just added their August freebie novels to their list of free ebooks and now I find out they have added three more for September. One or two of them are not my style, but since I just posted the other books on the Suvudu list, I thought I go ahead and post these too. At the bottom of this post you’ll find the link to Suvudu. Here are the official summaries:

- The Changelings: Book One of the Twins of Petaybee, By Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough

They are Ronan Born for Water Shongili and Murel Monster Slayer Shongili. Twin brother and sister. Children of Yana and Sean. Children of Petaybee. As such, theirs is a destiny deeply intertwined with the sentient planet that is their home. For Ronan and Murel are more than human. Like their father, each can transform into a seal and converse telepathically with the planet’s creatures–such as the friendly otter whose life they save one day from a pack of ravenous wolves.

But the twins’ bravery has unforeseen results when a visiting scientist witnesses their startling metamorphosis and becomes obsessed with their capture. To protect their children, Sean and Yana send them to stay with a powerful family friend on an orbiting space station. But no one realizes that Ronan and Murel hunger to discover the origins of their shape-shifting talent-and that their search for knowledge will place them squarely in the path of peril.

Meanwhile, Petaybee is changing–and much faster than an ordinary planet’s natural evolution. It appears that portions of the sea are heating up and a landmass is suddenly rising from the depths. To investigate the startling occurrence, Sean heads out to the open water in his seal form. But the newly unstable region holds untold mysteries–and the potential for disaster.

- Full Moon Rising: A Riley Jensen Guardian Novel, By Keri Arthur

A rare hybrid of vampire and werewolf, Riley Jenson and her twin brother, Rhoan, work for Melbourne’s Directorate of Other Races, an organization created to police the supernatural races-and protect humans from their depredations. While Rhoan is an exalted guardian, a.k.a. assassin, Riley is merely an office worker–until her brother goes missing on one of his missions. The timing couldn’t be worse. More werewolf than vampire, Riley is vulnerable to the moon heat, the weeklong period before the full moon, when her need to mate becomes all-consuming…

Luckily Riley has two willing partners to satisfy her every need. But she will have to control her urges if she’s going to find her brother…Easier said than done as the city pulses with frenzied desire, and Riley is confronted with a very powerful–and delectably naked–vamp who raises her temperature like never before.

In matters carnal, Riley has met her match. But in matters criminal, she must follow her instincts not only to find her brother but to stop an unholy harvest. For someone is doing some shifty cloning in an attempt to produce the ultimate warrior–by tapping into the genome of nonhumans like Rhoan. Now Riley knows just how dangerous the world is for her kind–and just how much it needs her.

- Perdido Street Station, By China Mieville

Beneath the towering bleached ribs of a dead, ancient beast lies New Crobuzon, a squalid city where humans, Re-mades, and arcane races live in perpetual fear of Parliament and its brutal militia. The air and rivers are thick with factory pollutants and the strange effluents of alchemy, and the ghettos contain a vast mix of workers, artists, spies, junkies, and whores. In New Crobuzon, the unsavory deal is stranger to none–not even to Isaac, a brilliant scientist with a penchant for Crisis Theory.

Isaac has spent a lifetime quietly carrying out his unique research. But when a half-bird, half-human creature known as the Garuda comes to him from afar, Isaac is faced with challenges he has never before fathomed. Though the Garuda’s request is scientifically daunting, Isaac is sparked by his own curiosity and an uncanny reverence for this curious stranger.

While Isaac’s experiments for the Garuda turn into an obsession, one of his lab specimens demands attention: a brilliantly colored caterpillar that feeds on nothing but a hallucinatory drug and grows larger–and more consuming–by the day. What finally emerges from the silken cocoon will permeate every fiber of New Crobuzon–and not even the Ambassador of Hell will challenge the malignant terror it invokes…

Here’s the link: Suvudu Free Library

DragonLight, by Donita K. Paul

It’s taken me a while to get to DragonLight, which was published in 2008, not for lack of interest but because I was reading it with my daughter and we were having a hard time finishing it together. You know how it is, life happens. When I found out the next book on the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog Tour was Mrs. Paul’s recently published new book, Vanishing Sculptor, I figured I’d better get with it and finish DragonLight. From the preliminary information, the two books are set in the same universe but different timelines. As such, I suppose I didn’t have to finish DragonLight, but the perfectionist in me protested. My kids and I had already read the other four books in the series and it just didn’t seem right not to finish.

Here is the summary that appears on the back of the book:

The fantastic land of Amara is recovering from years of war as well as from the spiritual apathy corroding the Amarans’ hearts. With Kale and her father serving as dragon keepers for Paladin, the dragon populace has exploded. It’s a peaceful, exciting time of rebuilding. And yet, an insidious, unseen evil lurks just beneath the surface of the idyllic countryside.

As Kale and her father are busy hatching, bonding, and releasing the younger generation of dragons, the light wizard has little time to develop her skills. Her husband, Sir Bardon – despite physical limitations – has become a leader, serving under Paladin. When Kale and Bardon join the dragons on a quest to find a hidden colony, they encounter sinister forces. Their world is under attack by a secret enemy…can they overcome the ominous peril they can’t even see?

DragonLight, the final book in Mrs. Paul’s DragonKeeper series, did answer several questions posed in the previous books, which was good for me because I really don’t like loose ends not resolved at the end of a book/series. In fact, I think that if you are interested in reading the series, you definitely should start at the beginning or you will miss quite a bit.

Overall, DragonLight is an excellent YA book and I would definitely recommend the entire DragonKeeper series to any young lover of fantasy, particularly those ages 9–12. Meanwhile, I’m looking forward to revisiting Amara in Vanishing Sculptor. Stay tuned for that review in a few weeks.

The DragonKeeper series was published by Waterbrook Press. The previous books are (in order): DragonSpell, DragonQuest, DragonKnight, DragonFire

Donita K. Paul’s website: http://www.donitakpaul.com

Offworld, By Robin Parrish (Part 3)

Robin Parrish

(Note: For a chance to win a copy of this intriguing science fiction novel, leave a comment at the bottom of this blog. I’ll draw a winner on Weds., Aug. 26.)

Although I really liked this book, I did find a few minor inconsistencies, such as people not being where they were supposed to be at the end of the book.

(SPOILER ALERT. If you don’t want to read the spoiler, skip this paragraph. If the people were returned to the place they disappeared from, there’s no way Owens’ family would have been at Rice University to greet him. Also, in retrospect, I think the ending was in some ways predictable. The story ended in the only place it could have in order to be tied up in a nice neat bow. But at least I didn’t have to worry about any loose ends that way. For some readers I know this is a critical ingredient to a good book, so they would be quite happy with the ending.)

Other themes in Offworld: There is definitely a theme in Offworld that focuses on the light–a blindingly bright beacon that beckons our heroes forward. They know somehow that it is only at the source of this light that the truth will be discovered. And so they struggle on toward the light in order to find the truth. The link was not made overtly, but it reminds me of our world where Christ is the Light. If we will race toward the Light, we will certainly find the truth there.

One other theme that I found particularly heartening centered on a reassurance that we are never alone. Throughout the book the characters find strength in each other again and again.

(BIG SPOILER HERE. If you don’t want to read the spoiler, skip this paragraph. In the end, Mae, the girl who never had a family, chooses to sacrifice herself for her friends, and finds as she crosses the border into eternity that she truly is not alone either.)

Overall, I found Offworld to be a mostly enjoyable read and I would not hesitate to read other books by Parrish. I like the pacing and easy flow of his writing style and his ability to keep the story moving forward rapidly without leaving me behind.

Who is Robin Parrish?

As a journalist, Robin Parrish covered pop culture and entertainment for 14 years. In addition, he has previously authored the recently published Dominion Trilogy (Relentless in 2006, Fearless in 2007, and Merciless in 2008). Parrish is a full-time writer residing in North Carolina with his wife and son. He reportedly is no stranger to pain–both emotional and chronic physical pain–experiences which bleed over into his writing in themes of the transitory nature of human existence. He professes to have been influenced by various speculative and SciFi television shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Babylon 5, Lost, Battlestar Galactica, The X-Files, comic books like Spider-Man, Avengers, and Runaways, and movies and movie makers like Star Wars, Pixar Animation Studios, M. Night Shyamalan, Christopher Nolan, Bond, Bourne and others. Parrish is now working on two additional novels, scheduled to be published in the summers of 2010 and 2011.

(To see Part 1 of my review, click here. Part 2 is here.)

ADDENDUM: I would like to correct an error I made above in the first spoiler alert paragraph regarding Owens’ family. Please see Robin’s note in the comments below. I apologize for the misstatement.

To see what others have to say here are links to their blogs:
Brandon Barr, Jim Black, Justin Boyer, Keanan Brand, Gina Burgess, Canadianladybug, Melissa Carswell, Valerie Comer, Karri Compton, Amy Cruson, CSFF Blog Tour, Stacey Dale, D. G. D. Davidson, Jeff Draper, April Erwin, Karina Fabian, Linda Gilmore, Beth Goddard, Todd Michael Greene, Katie Hart, Ryan Heart, Becky Jesse, Cris Jesse, Jason Joyner, Julie, Carol Keen, Krystine Kercher, Dawn King, Melissa Meeks, Rebecca LuElla Miller, Mirtika, Eve Nielsen (posting later in the week), Nissa, John W. Otte, Lyn Perry, Steve Rice, Chawna Schroeder, James Somers, Speculative Faith, Stephanie, Rachel Starr Thomson, Steve Trower, Fred Warren, Elizabeth Williams

For more information on Offworld, see: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0764206060

Robin Parrish’s Web site - http://www.robinparrish.com/

Robin Parrish’s Twitter blog - http://twitter.com/robinparrish

Offworld, By Robin Parrish (Part 2)

Book artwork courtesy of Bethany House Publishers. Photo Credit: Ashley Morgan.

After a steroid-charged Chapter One, the story slows down just a tad as we get to know the characters a bit more and as they try to figure out what is going on and where everyone has gone.

In Chapter Two to the end of the book, the Offworld story line extends over a seven-day period and is filled with enough crashes, collapsing buildings, near misses and explosions to keep most people turning one page after another. In spite of the short time frame, the story moves along at a rapid pace as the reader is taken from one disaster to another.

But the story involves more than just action. It would have been easy for the author to reveal the characters’ flaws and secrets early on, but he does not, preferring to keep the reader guessing, in some instances, clear to the end of the book. On one hand, I found this almost infuriating, but on the other hand, the mystery was intriguing.The author takes us into the minds of the characters and shows us their hurts, which (being good astronauts with phenomenal abilities to compartmentalize their emotions) they mostly try to hide from each other, sometimes successfully and sometimes not. As the reader, we get to see inside their heads, a point of view that allowed Parrish the opportunity to explore themes of strength in spite of physical disability, disappointment, grief, and uncertainty.

Published by the mostly evangelical Bethany House, I found it a bit surprising that Offworld did not contain more overt references to the Christian faith. Granted the book did not espouse views contrary to Christian faith, but I think some readers might be disappointed, thinking they have purchased a suspense novel with strong Christian themes, only to find out the book is more like what one would find in the general market.

Let me go on the record as saying that I don’t have any objections to that, but I do find it interesting in that it reflects a trend among some faith-based publishers to include more books into their book lists that are not written solely for a Christian audience.

(Side note: If the publishers are interested in changing gears a bit, maybe we could talk them into including more science fiction and fantasy in their book lists? How cool would that be! I think Offworld is definitely a step in the right direction.)

As a writer myself, the topic comes up in my circles how writers need to assume their readers are intelligent and to write accordingly. I thought Parrish accomplished this goal well, as best evidenced by his willingness to tease the reader and not spell everything out in the beginning. This definitely made the book more enjoyable for me.

Tomorrow I’ll talk a bit about a couple of issues I had with the book as well as a couple of themes running through the book.

(To see Part 1 of my review, click here.)

To see what others have to say here are links to their blogs:
Brandon Barr, Jim Black, Justin Boyer, Keanan Brand, Gina Burgess, Canadianladybug, Melissa Carswell, Valerie Comer, Karri Compton, Amy Cruson, CSFF Blog Tour, Stacey Dale, D. G. D. Davidson, Jeff Draper, April Erwin, Karina Fabian, Linda Gilmore, Beth Goddard, Todd Michael Greene, Katie Hart, Ryan Heart, Becky Jesse, Cris Jesse, Jason Joyner, Julie, Carol Keen, Krystine Kercher, Dawn King, Melissa Meeks, Rebecca LuElla Miller, Mirtika, Eve Nielsen (posting later in the week), Nissa, John W. Otte, Lyn Perry, Steve Rice, Chawna Schroeder, James Somers, Speculative Faith, Stephanie, Rachel Starr Thomson, Steve Trower, Fred Warren, Elizabeth Williams

Offworld, By Robin Parrish

Bethany House published Offworld as “Suspense Fiction” and I suppose that is perhaps the best commercial classification for the book, but to me, it had a certain wonderful quality that went beyond suspense. If any book could be called speculative fiction, Offworld certainly qualifies.

The novel opens in 2032 with U.S. astronaut Christopher Burke lost in a Mars sandstorm. With oxygen running low and consciousness fading, Burke’s immediate future holds little promise. However, he mysteriously makes it back to base and his three companions long after his oxygen should have run out. Unfortunately, he doesn’t remember how he got there. This puzzle continues to haunt Burke throughout the course of the book as flashbacks frequently catch him unaware (usually at the worst possible times). However, with each flashback, he remembers a bit more of what happened that day.

Speeding forward to eight months later, the four-person team of astronauts are en route back to Earth when all connection with NASA is severed. The astronauts nervously assume the problem is a communications glitch and continue with their flight as planned. Then, in their approach to Earth, all the ship’s systems shut down. Somehow their fiery ball of a ship makes it back to Kennedy Space Center, where it plows a nasty furrow in the runway. The astronauts stumble out of the ruined ship only to find no one is there to greet them. Thus ends Chapter One.

Come back tomorrow for Part 2 of my review of Offworld.

Here’s the official book trailer:

To see what others have to say here are links to their blogs:
Brandon Barr, Jim Black, Justin Boyer, Keanan Brand, Gina Burgess, Canadianladybug, Melissa Carswell, Valerie Comer, Karri Compton, Amy Cruson, CSFF Blog Tour, Stacey Dale, D. G. D. Davidson, Jeff Draper, April Erwin, Karina Fabian, Linda Gilmore, Beth Goddard, Todd Michael Greene, Katie Hart, Ryan Heart, Becky Jesse, Cris Jesse, Jason Joyner, Julie, Carol Keen, Krystine Kercher, Dawn King, Melissa Meeks, Rebecca LuElla Miller, Mirtika, Eve Nielsen (posting later in the week), Nissa, John W. Otte, Lyn Perry, Steve Rice, Chawna Schroeder, James Somers, Speculative Faith, Stephanie, Rachel Starr Thomson, Steve Trower, Fred Warren, Elizabeth Williams