Here’s some more plot summary from Karri Kompton:

“Cal Nichols, one of the original Nistarim and Gina’s father, works to keep not only Gina safe, but also Dov Amit, a young boy on the side of good. One of the orphans in Gina’s care, Pavel, shows signs of being a Concealed One. They must both escape to America in order to stay under the Collectors’ radar. Throughout the book, Gina and Cal fight Collectors and banish the blood-drinkers forever to torment.”

Jason Joyner referred us to a past discussion on his blog about whether Christian writers should write about vampires. Twilight is mentioned, as is Eric Wilson’s work.  The writers seemed to agree that vampires are evil, and should be portrayed that way.  This book by a Christian writer treats vampires very differently from Stephenie Meyer’s treatment of them in Twilight.

KM Wilsher tells us a bit about Eric Wilson’s unusual childhood:

“Eric Wilson, a family man, was born stateside but spent many years traveling abroad with his parents, missionaries. I hear they even attempted to give out bibles behind the iron curtain. Most of what I read about Mr. Wilson says that he wanted to write from a young age. We are all glad he was given the chance. “  She also tells us that he has written screenplays for the films Fireproof, Facing the Giants, and Flywheel. I am not surprised at this; his high-action style is very suited to film.

Rachel Starr Thompson didn’t find Jesus in the book. “…In this adventure, all you really need to defeat evil is the right artifacts, self-discipline, and good combat training. Cal declares at one point that “We battle not against flesh and blood,” yet his methods of battling are decidedly physical. Vampires are killed with blades, blood, and tent pegs, but never once is a demon vanquished by the power of Jesus’ name or by the power of faith in His blood.”

I am disappointed. I had hoped that the lead characters in the book would turn to Jesus to vanquish fear. I have learned that fear is the opposite of love. It’s fear that the Enemy uses against us most often.  Wilson lost an opportunity here to teach Christians how to deal with fear, not by using artifacts but by holding the hand of Jesus.

To find out more, check out other blogs on the tour. Those who had posts on this topic when I looked are checked.

+Brandon Barr
Wayne Thomas Batson
+Jennifer Bogart
Justin Boyer
+Keanan Brand
+Amy Browning
+Karri Compton
+Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
+Karina Fabian
+Beth Goddard
+Todd Michael Greene
Timothy Hicks
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
+Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Dawn King
Mirtika
+Nissa
+John W. Otte
+James Somers
Speculative Faith
+Rachel Starr Thomson
+Robert Treskillard
Steve Trower
+Fred Warren
+Phyllis Wheeler
+Jill Williamson
+KM Wilsher

Seed of Seerling, first of a series, VMI Publishers, 2008, 281 pages.

Worldview: Christian.  The One True God is in charge.

This book is a love story which will appeal especially to girls, I am thinking.  The protagonist is Astril, a daughter of the High Priestess in a matriarchal society that is slave to a religion of human sacrifice.  They are called the Seerlings. The neighboring enemy kingdom is a patriarchal society, some members of which follow the One True God. They are called the Harkonians.

As a child, Astril is by herself in the woods for a few days, as called for by her religion, when she finds a boy from the neighboring Harkonian kingdom who has fallen off his horse and is injured. She tends him and heals him. This is Toren, the heir to the Harkonian throne.

The two are thrown together later when Astril is captured and enslaved by the Harkonians. Toren recognizes her and protects her. Eventually he falls in love with her. He sends her for safekeeping to a priest of the One True God. While at his remove enclave, she becomes a believer.

However, Astril’s priestess sister, Gallian, comes to return Astril to her mother. As a priestess, Gallian has some magical powers and manages to kidnap both Astril and Toren and bring them back to the grim land of the Seerlings, intending to sacrifice both of them. The story resolves with some intervention by the One True God.  But the story is not completely told, and we are left waiting for the next book.

I enjoyed this page-turner. If you have a teenage daughter, this would be a great book for her to read, especially if she is a Twilight fan. You could discuss the similarities and differences. The similarities I see between Seed of Seerling and Twilight are that they are both fantasy love stories where the heroine keeps her purity before marriage. The differences involve the Christian foundation of the Seed of Seerling, resulting in self-controlled and self-effacing actions on the part of the heroine. In Twilight, the heroine is the opposite of self-controlled–she passively lets her feelings rule and decides to forget about what her head might be telling her.

This book does have a few rough edges in the editing, which won’t be obvious to most readers. The publisher, VMI Publishers, is not a traditional publisher, although it is able to distribute the book pretty widely. However it does not appear that VMI was able to get a review for the book in Library Journal or Publishers Weekly, and so most libraries won’t be taking this seriously. That’s a shame, in my opinion. It’s a great story with a solid foundation.–Phyllis Wheeler

If you would like to buy this book, please help me pay the expenses of this blog and buy it through this link:

This is a report, not a review!

The Twilight Saga is in the news today because the movie for the first volume is now out. The books and movie have created quite a sensation.  Some people are comparing its popularity level to Harry Potter, but actually it doesn’t come close.  It’s appealing to females only, as far as I can tell. So it might be more like the following for the movie Titanic.

Many people call Twilight a fantasy series, but it doesn’t fall within what I am looking for–books that appeal to my 16-year-old sons.  It’s not my intention to read the Twilight books, so I am just going to pass on a little info about them today.

The Twilight Saga is a fantasy series about a girl, Bella, who falls in love with a vampire. The erotic vampire Edward has super-human strength and immortality. He proves irresistible to her. He’s got great self-control and doesn’t do vampirish things to Bella, resulting in a heroic feat of self-denial for the sake of love–a tried and true chick-lit theme.

It’s my impression that the resulting story doesn’t have much depth. But then, neither did the love story in Titanic.  It doesn’t take a lot of depth to draw the bow across the heartstrings.

I asked E., a Christian, age 16, what she thought of it.  “I think it’s a great role model for love,” she said. “They don’t have premarital sex.  They are really committed to each other.”

Here’s a blog post about it from a girl who doesn’t like it:  http://anoxfordcomma.livejournal.com/2491.html

And from a woman who does like it: http://faithwebbin.net/teenz/?p=169 She compares the “star-crossed” lovers to Romeo and Juliet.

And from a Catholic Christian who doesn’t like it: http://spesunica.wordpress.com/2008/11/16/the-twilight-saga-a-critique/

–Phyllis Wheeler