This month’s Christian Science Fiction/Fantasy (CSFF) Blog Tour involves a number of bloggers writing about the novel Blaggard’s Moon by George Bryan Polivka. Here’s what some of them are saying:
Chawna Schroeder is concerned that the story doesn’t have a proper hero, one that the reader can bond with. Delaney is the story teller, and is off center stage for most of the book. Damrick functions as the hero, performing daring deeds, but he’s got clay feet–we can see his motivations of “self-preservation, anger, mercilessness, and vengeance-type attitudes.” Then Jenta, the heroine, is “driven by the story rather than driving it.”
(In short, it’s a story about sinners. But I agree, we readers don’t get that close to Damrick.)
On this topic, Rachel Starr Thompson says she thinks the distance gives Damrick and Jenta a mythic quality.
Chawna identifies two themes:
* reaping what you sow, and
* learning to live so as to die without regrets. (I would reword this as learning to change for the better.)
The resulting tale, balancing these two, is a dark one, she finds. (I agree that this book has many dark moments. )
Rachel Starr Thompson comments on the sadness aspect too. She finds it “a lament for a world gone wrong, for a world where good people can suffer while evil men prosper. It’s the lament of Ecclesiastes and Job and some of the Psalms, and like them it asks us to find hope in the goodness of God while never asking us to pretend that hope negates the sadness.” (Well said, I say.)
Personally, I like a book whose characters learn to lean on Jesus, so to speak. I don’t see that happening in this book overtly. But as they shift, learning to make right choices no matter what the consequence, a Christian can identify the work of the Holy Spirit.
Others have mentioned that they find this book to be in some other genre besides fantasy. It’s a sea tale set in another land. There’s no magic. It has a very historical air to it, with myriad details.
So, read this book! Tell me what you think!
Check out the other CSFF blog tour participants :
Brandon Barr
Jennifer Bogart
Keanan Brand
Melissa Carswell
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Alex Field
Marcus Goodyear
Todd Michael Greene
Ryan Heart
Timothy Hicks
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Kait
Carol Keen
Mike Lynch
Magma
Margaret
Melissa Meeks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Nissa
John W. Otte
Steve Rice
Crista Richey
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Rachel Starr Thomson
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Jason Waguespack
Fred Warren
Phyllis Wheeler
Jill Williamson
i know i had a hard time actually telling this was a “Christian” f
though I didn’t mind the story, i agree that it was hard to find a “proper” hero in it.
Great thoughts!
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Granted, no magic, but merimonkeys aren’t exactly real creatures. Nor does gold melt—in this world.
And Nearing Vast is as fanciful a place as ones you find in most epic fantasy.
I left comments at both Rachel and Chawna’s sites. I think they’ve written thought-provoking articles, but I found a lot more spiritual depth there. I didn’t think it was a lament exactly. I tried looking for the exact quote and couldn’t find it. Delaney comes to the conclusion that it’s possible, for someone who makes the right choices, to be happy whether they die or whether they live. It’s Paul saying for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. But Delaney sees it as one looking through a store window, not one who has experienced it.
Ok, more to say, but I guess I should stop.
Becky
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