Dragon Keeper, Part III

Title: DragonKnight

Series: The Dragon Keeper #3

Author: Donita K. Paul

Genre: Late mid-grade (10-14) fantasy

“Sabbatical,” Chapter 1 of Dragonknight:

“People. Always too many people.”

Only the leathery beat of Greer’s dragon wings answered Bardon’s observation. Cool air rushed against Bardon’s face, blowing away the cares of three intense years of training and study.

He squeezed his knees into the riding hooks and leaned forward across the major dragon’s neck. Brisk mountain air rose off the snow-topped mountain and blew his dark hair back from his pale face. Soon he should be able to spot the valley Sir Dar had recommended. He needed time alone. The first part of his sabbatical would be spent in isolation.

Bardon put a hand on Greer’s purple scales and communicated his desire to locate a lake shaped like a boot.

Looking down at the forested slopes, he speculated on how many of the seven high races populated the area. A smile spread across his face. It was likely that not one civilized being walked this southern part of the Morchain Mountain Range for a hundred miles in any direction.

He saw a ropma scurry across a rocky stream.

“Don’t worry, fella. I won’t bother you if you don’t bother me. I’m taking a break from everyone, both high and low races.”

Greer rumbled in his throat, and Bardon placed a hand on the amethystine scales of his dragon’s neck. “No, I’m not running away from you, my friend. And in truth, I’m not running away from civilization. I just need a sabbatical, a long sabbatical.”

Squire Bardon has his sabbatical interrupted by three women on a quest to rescue knights sleeping under an enchantment.

The Writing: As with the previous two books, Dragonspell and Dragonquest, the writing of Dragonknight is fairly good. While occasionally punctuated with minor problems (such as dialogue explaining what two characters already know), Dragonknight is engaging and fast-paced, with some delightful twists at the end.

Characters, as always, remain Ms. Paul’s greatest strength, from the wry-humored dragon Greer to the propriety-minded, mouse-sized Jue Seeno.

Plotting improves once more with this book. The climax is still the weakest link, although it lacks the easy-out of Dragonspell and the accidental nature of Dragonquest. Also, the unexpected addition of a second point of view two-thirds through this book causes the story to lose some of its drive and cohesiveness.

The Story: Many of the same themes from the previous books—servanthood, prejudice, and judgment by appearance—are fleshed out in Dragonknight, with some additional issues concerning faith, forgiveness, and absolute truth.

Magic and supernatural abilities continue to play an important role within this story.

Summary: A good read, with the many positives outweighing the negative.

Rating: 3.8 of 5

(Book 1, Book 2, and Book 4 reviews)

Philippians 4:8—“Finally, Brothers”

Building guidelines for fiction can be extremely tricky. Fiction, by its very nature, has extensive variety, much of which doesn’t fit perfectly into a box, and this creates innumerable variables that can play havoc with our structure. Therefore, a firm foundation is a must or everything could collapse upon us. What better foundation can there be than the infallible words of God?

So today we lay the first stones by studying the beginning words of Philippians 4:8. (For why Philippians 4:8, check out last week's post, "Philippians 4:8.")

Finally: Don’t start rolling your eyes yet. This is a very important word, perhaps the most important one in the verse because it’s a conjunction.

No, I’m not trying to show off my grammar prowess. Conjunctions are important: they demonstrate the relationship between two sets of words.

What then does finally show us, since it’s the first word of verse 8? That verse 8 is related to verse 7: “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (How’s that for the obvious?)

So God has promised to guard (a military word meaning to place troops around for protection) the heart and mind. What does that have to do with the instructions for verse 8? The Greek word for finally also means “from now on, henceforth, still, beyond that, in addition.” These instructions teach us how to mine treasures worth guarding: Since God’s peace places troops around our hearts and minds to protect us from enemy attacks, let us from now on fill our hearts and minds with treasure worth guarding.

Brothers: To whom do these principles apply? To Paul’s siblings? No, Paul writes to his fellow-Christians—and that includes us today.

Therefore, God’s peace guards every Christian’s heart, and so all of us should be intent on seeking the greatest treasure.

“Finally, brothers…” Two simple words packed with so much meaning—and we haven’t even hit the meat of this verse. Ever get the feeling this could take awhile?

Feet on the ground, head in the clouds,
Chawna Schroeder

Dragon Keeper, Part II

Title: DragonQuest

Series: The Dragon Keeper #2

Author: Donita K. Paul

Genre: Late mid-grade (10-14) fantasy

“Vendela Surprises,” Chapter 1 of Dragonquest:

“We’re going to get in trouble,” Kale muttered. She’d lost sight of her doneel friend Dar in a Vendela market. Amara’s capital city teemed with people from each of the seven high races. Kale found the throngs fascinating and intimidating.

She inched past two women, a marione and an o’rant, haggling over the price of a brass candlestick, then ducked as a man swung his arm out, gesturing to three men listening to his tale. She bumped into a kimen, said, “Excuse me,” and moved to the middle of the street.

I should have stayed put. I should have turned away and marched right back into The Hall. But no! Dar says let’s go explore, and I follow him.

Kale detoured around a fruit cart. As an o’rant, she was taller and slimmer than the mariones in the crowd. Much taller than the kimens. A good two feet taller than Dar. But her height hadn’t helped her keep an eye on the doneel.

The twelve-year-old former slave girl sets out to stop the betrayal of the dragon race…and to find her mother.

The Writing: Much of what I said about Dragonspell applies here. The characters are as colorful as ever, with some delightful additions to the original cast.

Plotting continues to be the main flaw, especially concerning the climax. Nonetheless, Dragonquest shows improvement over Dragonspell.

The Story: In the midst of battles, deception, and wizard lessons, Kale continues to grow as she learns about prejudice, family, and trust, not only of God, but also of the people (and dragons) around her. This is complimented by the journey of new character Bardon, a rule-oriented knight-in-training who has much to learn about compassion and flexibility.

The magical elements from the first book gain more prominence in Dragonquest. But again, the magic is clearly marked as a gift from God, with one extra clarification: wizards cannot “make” anything. They merely manipulate and combine existing elements much in the same way we combine elements to make a cake—just in more supernatural way.

Summary: Dragonquest is even better than Dragonspell and provides an enjoyable day of reading.

Rating: 3.8 of 5 stars

(Reviews for Book 1, Book 3, and Book 4)

Philippians 4:8

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” (Philippians 4:8 NIV)

Thirty simple words. Easy to read, easy for the eye to glance over. But within those thirty words is compressed the eight-quality measuring stick of fiction.

Why do I believe so firmly that this verse applies to fiction? Because what we place in our hearts we think about, and what we think about embeds itself in our hearts over and over until it comes out in word and deed. So stories, which slip past our normal defenses and lodge in our hearts, also get caught up in this cycle until they impact our lives.

So not only do I believe that Philippians 4:8 applies to fiction—I also believe it’s the clearest, most detailed verse in Scripture illuminating what kind of stories we ought to fill our hearts and minds with. Therefore, in the coming weeks, I plan to unpack this verse word by word.

Let’s just hope we can dig our way out again when we’re through.

Feet on the ground, head in the clouds,
Chawna Schroeder

CSFF: The Sword Review

This month’s Christian science-fiction and fantasy tour features The Sword Review.

The Sword Review is a webzine (a magazine completely online) featuring science-fiction and fantasy of all types. Art work, long fiction, short short stories, essays, columns, poetry—here you can find a little bit of everything, like a fantastical sampler. And like a sampler, everything may not suit your taste—some of the pieces can get down-right bizarre—but it’s likely something will, if you like science-fiction and fantasy at all.

In addition, readership participation is highly encouraged with a forum attached to each piece. This is one of the major advantages of a webzine over print—communication can go two ways!

Want to know more? Hop over to The Sword Review and read some of their pieces. Or have a look at what some of the other participants are doing:

Jim Black, Valerie Comer, D. G. D. Davidson, Chris Deanne, April Erwin, Marcus Goodyear, Holly, and John Ottinger have reviews—good and bad—of various columns.

Gene Curtis looks at how one of the stories isn’t so far from reality.

Kameron M. Franklin has an interview with the editor, while Rachel Marks gives a contributor’s perspective.

Beth Goddard looks at one of the connecting forums, while Karen and Steve Trower browsed the archives.

Amy Browning has an overview of the writers and says she’ll be doing a couple reviews also in the coming days.

Hanna Sandvig looks at the graphic designs.

Rebecca LuElla Miller has a bit of everything from reviews to the advantages of a webzine.

Cheryl Russel and Brandon Barr overview the site as a whole.

Last but not least, Jackie Castle, Karri Compton, Frank Creed, Andrea Graham, Jill Hart, Katie Hart, Sherrie Hibbs, Heather R. Hunt, Becca Johnson, Jason Joyner, Kait, Dawn King, Tina Kulesa, Lost Genre Guild, Kevin Lucia, The Bookshelf Reviews 2.0 - The Compendium, Terri Main, Eve Nielsen, John W. Otte, Mirtika Schultz, Speculative Faith, Daniel I. Weaver, Russell Griffith, and Jason Waguespac are/will be posting their various takes on the e-zine as well.

The Growing Influence of Story?

(For those looking for this month’s CSFF Tour, I invite you to return tomorrow when I’ll be posting on it.)

Post-modernity.

A long fancy word, but with really one basic meaning: how people perceive the world and determine truth is changing.

Once knowledge, science, and reason were the supreme guide to truth. But no longer. In the eyes of my generation and the ones following, these things have failed to make the world a better place, so how can they lead to truth? Besides, the amount of information is too vast to sort through; science makes more questions than it answers; and reason—how can you reason when you don’t have all the facts and the volume of information makes it impossible to find all the facts, and are those “facts” truly facts or someone’s interpretation of miscellaneous data?

No, the post-modern generation seeks an easier and less disputable path to truth—the emotions. If something deeply moves us and our gut says it’s true, then it must be.

What does this have to do with stories?

Quite a bit: The whole point of story is to create a Powerful Emotional Experience, as novelist and teacher Randy Ingermanson would put it. We don’t write to teach a lesson or influence the reader. Not primarily. We write to evoke emotions.

So if the post-modern generation seeks truth in the emotional, could it be that excellent filmmakers and novelists are the next generation of frontline “evangelists” and story our greatest weapon?

Feet on the ground, head in the clouds,
Chawna Schroeder

Dragon Keeper, Part I

Book: Dragonspell

Series: The Dragon Keeper Series #1

Author: Donita K. Paul

Genre: Late Mid-grade (10-14) Fantasy

“Almost There,” Chapter 1 of Dragonspell

“Are ye sure ye won’t ride all the way into the city?”

Kale hardly heard the farmer’s question as she stood beside his wagonload of barley grain. Her eyes looked over the crude cart she’d traveled in and then turned to the dazzling metropolis across the wide valley. The sun sparkled on Vendela, a city of sheer white walls, shining blue roofs, and golden domes. Many spires and steeples and turrets towered above the city, but in a vast variety of shapes and colors. More than a dozen castles clustered outside the capital, and more palaces were scattered over the landscape across a wide river.

Seeing Vendela reminded Kale her life had changed forever. Her hand rose to her chest and rested on the small pouch hidden under her clothes.

I have a destiny. The thought scared her and pleased her too. After being a village slave all fourteen years of her life, she’d been freed.

Well, sort of free.
***

A fourteen-year-old, untrained slave girl gains unexpected responsibility to recover a dragon egg from an evil wizard.

The Writing: The deepest flaw of this book is the plotting. The first main problem is the beginning. It’s a bit rough and jerky as Ms. Paul struggles to get you established in the storyworld without losing tension. But she throws you into the middle of things so quickly that you don’t really have a chance to gain sympathy for her protagonist, which is a shame since her greatest strength is her characters. So it took me over four chapters to get into the book

The second problem is the climax. I found it rather anticlimactic and all around disappointing. While the final confrontation is logical in the growth of the character, Kale seems to solve it too easily, especially after the dangers that had gone before.

That said, the characters are absolutely delightful, to the point that they nearly overcome all plot flaws. You just can’t help fall in love with Dragonspell’s colorful cast, from uncertain protagonist Kale to mischieveous Dar with his flair for bright clothing to the playful minor dragons and the forever-sparing Fenworth and Librettowit. No matter how bad things get, someone always says or does something to bring a smile or chuckle.

The Story: Dragonspell is a delightful tale about friendship, courage, and what it means to be a servant, with clear allegorical parallels. But never does it stray into anything preachy—even when Kale gets into some pretty heavy theological discussions—and never in a way that slows the story for long.

Being a fantasy, this story does contain wizards and magic, but it’s handled in a way that’s no more offensive than Tolkien or Lewis. The magic’s source is marked as a special talent from God, much in the way the prophets and apostles attributed supernatural gifts (healing, tongues, prophesy) to Him. Also, the characters handling the magic are non-humans in a different reality: they aren’t bound by the exact same rules we are. (Think Lewis’s Perelandra: our forbidden fruit versus their forbidden island.)

Summary: Dragonspell has some disappointing plot flaws, but the characters and content make up a long distance for those failings. And while the story does contain both wizards and magic, they are handled well. Therefore, I believe that this story is a delightful read, appropriate for all but the youngest readers (under 8).

Rating: 3.7 of 5

(See reviews for Book 2, Book 3, and Book 4)

Moderating Expectations

The greatest blessing of being a writer is having a strong imagination.

The greatest curse of being a writer is having a strong imagination.

I have always enjoyed dreaming big. You know, “Far off places, daring sword fights, magic spells, a prince in disguise…” (Belle, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast) Nothing wrong with that—except I tend to apply this to real life as well as the imaginary.

Like this past month, I entered a small, local writing competition. I had worked hard on my story and felt I’d done my very best under the restraints given.

And so throughout the past month, I plotted and dreamed what I might do with the prize money. After all, I had placed second in a similar competition a couple years back and I’d improved as a writer since then. Surely first place was within my grasp!

Then the results came in. I didn’t take first. I didn’t take second. I won third place.

As everyone congratulated me, I struggled to keep a smile in place as immediately my imagination swung in the opposite direction. I was a terrible writer. I hadn’t learned anything in the past few years. I’ll never get anything published.

But as I felt myself sinking into that dark brooding, God reminded me of what a writing friend did when everyone kept congratulating on a novel that hadn’t met expectations: my friend shook hands, said thank you, added some enthusiastic line about the novel and God’s goodness—and soon believed every word of it.

With that memory, something slowly changed in me. God controls all things and can do as He pleases, no matter how good (or bad) I am as a person—or a writer. Every success, both the magnificent and the insignificant, is a gift from Him.

And that includes third place.

Feet on the ground, head in the clouds,
Chawna Schroeder

Door Number Three

Navigation the gray areas of imagination can be tricky. Maybe you hear a book has a great message, but the storyline fails to hold your attention and you feel guilty to admit you never finished the book. Or perhaps exactly the opposite has happened: You read a book and just couldn’t put it down—only for friends to later exclaim it’s so anti-Christian, and you feel guilty that not only you read it, but loved it.

What’s a Christian supposed to do?

Two options are to avoid fiction completely or to read only Christian-labeled stories. Both are possible, as I discussed on April 30th and May 7th, but I’m not conviced either is the best route. Instead I recommend the creation of guidelines.

Note: I said “guidelines,” not rules.

In short, rules are a hard and fast way to analyze something. They create boxes and then categorizes by those boxes, everything fitting in only one box: something is in either box A or box B; it’s right or wrong. It can’t be in both.

Fiction, however, is a product of imagination and therefore defies boxes: to create is to make something unique. The unique doesn’t fit into a box because it’s one of a kind.

Of course, being created ourselves, we can’t make anything that’s truly one of a kind. Only God can do that. Hence why I could create my four “boxes” of fiction, if you want to call them that: good content/good craft, bad content/bad craft, good content/bad craft, bad content/good craft. But within those boxes are a lot of wiggle room. That’s where guidelines come in.

Guidelines adapt, capable of fluidity and flexing. More than that, they allow something to fit into multiple categories, like overlapping circles.

However, that fluidity makes this third option the hardest one to implement. What I can read, you may need to avoid. And what you can enjoy freely may come stamped for me as, “DO NOT TOUCH!”

But I don’t believe God has left us in helpless free fall, where anything goes. Rather, He has provided several important points to give us direction and to create jumping off points, which fall into three main categories: the Bible, maturity, and personal limitations. I’m convinced they’re so important, in fact, that we’ll spend the next several weeks exploring each of them in-depth.

Feet on the ground, head in the clouds,
Chawna Schroeder

Ender's Game

Author: Orson Scott Card

Genre: YA sci-fi

Chapter 1 of Ender’s Game:

The monitor gone. Ender tried to imagine the little device missing from the back of his neck. I’ll roll over on my back in bed and it won’t be pressing there. I won’t feel it tingling and taking up the heat when I shower.

And Peter won’t hate me anymore. I’ll come home and show him that the monitor’s gone and he’ll see that I didn’t make it, either. That I’ll just be a normal kid now, like him. That won’t be so bad then. He’ll forgive me that I had my monitor a whole year longer than he had his. We’ll be—

Not friends, probably. No, Peter was too dangerous. Peter got so angry. Brothers, though. Not enemies, not friends, but brothers—able to live in the same house. He won’t hate me, he’ll just leave me alone. And when he wants to play buggers and astronauts, maybe I won’t have to play, maybe I can just go read a book.

A six-year-old boy fights for survival at battle school—so he can fight for the survival of all humanity.

The Writing: The writing is excellent—vivid, precise, clear. More than that, Ender is a sympathetic character, especially if you like underdogs like I do, and it’s easy to pull for him throughout this sci-fi coming-of-age novel. Not to mention the plot, which engages you from the first page and doesn’t loosen its hold until the last—and even then, not very much. This story, whether you like or hate it, will stick with you for a very long time.

However, Ender’s Game may pose problems for the more sensitive CBA reader. Cussing and other bad language is prevalent, nudity referenced, and fighting pretty graphically portrayed.

The Story: I admit, this complex story is difficult to analyze. The overarching themes seem to ring true within the storyworld, but the ending is unsettling, leaving a touch of hopelessness and an internal plead that this can’t be all there is to life.

That’s very specific, isn’t it?

I think (though I’m not sure) that this external vexation results from the foundational thought that the end justifies the means. Evil acts look understandable at best and right at worst, despite occasional remorse. Building on this foundation, an end conclusion of the story is that humans are only as valuable as they are useful. This, combined with the theme of “It’s necessary to both love and hate your enemy so that you can destroy him in the end,” creates a dark undercurrent.

Summary: A thought-provoking story with a fast-paced plot and sympathetic characters, Ender’s Game is not without its downside, from the use of language to the dark, underlying themes. Therefore, this book is memorable reading, excellent for guys, but probably should be limited to a one-time read by those who are discerning and over the age of sixteen. A strong stomach is recommended too.

Rating: 3.1 stars of 5

Virtual Tag

Thanks to the generous consideration—ahem—of Sharon Hinck and Becca Johnson, I have been made it in a virtual game of tag. Who know such a thing existed?

First, the rules:
1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
3. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
4. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your blog.

Now for those eight things you probably never cared to know about me but are now stuck with:

1.My favorite snack is saltines and butter.

2.I can read both Biblical Hebrew and Greek.

3.My first name is spelled with a C instead of the usual S because my parents wanted my initials to match my older sister’s. I love the spelling, but what my parents forgot to consider is the pain of sorting through school projects and books marked by initials only.

4.I own all twelve The Five Little Peppers books, eleven of them first editions.

5.I’m told I sing/hum in my sleep. Of course the source might be questionable.

6.I’ve won twenty-seven blue, red, and white ribbons at county and state fairs for my handwork.

7.I’ve been kidnapped.

8.Mom taught me to read so I’d talk. Teachers taught me to write fiction so I’d shut up.

Now to tag some other bloggers. But who? Most of my blogging friends have already been tagged (sticking out my tongue at Sharon). Let’s see here, Katie Vorreiter, Jonathan Friesen, and oh yes, the gang at Scenes and Beans—that should take care of the rest, shouldn’t it?

Feet on the ground, head in the clouds,
Chawna Schroeder

Christian Only: Three Disadvantages

Imaginary realms are not clear cut. Sometimes they’re good. Sometimes they’re bad. But more often than not, they’re neither, and as Christians we have three main options in dealing with those gray areas.

The first is to avoid fiction completely, which I blogged about last Monday. The second option is the common “Christian only” route—you read only those books with clearly Christian content, usually written by known Christian authors and released by Christian publishers.

This second option is a viable option, one I employed during my teen years, and it’s perhaps the safest and easiest of the three options. Nonetheless, it has large disadvantages that Christians rarely talk about. These disadvantages fall into three main areas:

1. Limited selection and quality: With every passing year this is changing. Nonetheless, the Christian market still produces large quantities of mediocre books, and there remains gaping holes in the genres released. After all, how many Christian high seas adventures or vampire stories have you seen? (And yes, I’m beginning to believe that—if handled correctly—Christians can write about vampires. For what are vampires, except another manifestation of evil? And is that any more horrible than a story written from a demon’s point of view—like C. S. Lewis’s Screwtape Letters?)

2. Limited Perspective: Reading only Christian books creates an ideological bubble around us—turns us into imagination hermits. But we need to be in the world—though not of it—and one way we can do this is through reading in limited amounts the world’s literature. Through their books, we gain a window into the secular mind and the way it sees the world.

More than that, reading beyond the Christian realm might reveal to us areas of error, because guess what—being Christian doesn’t mean you’re never wrong. But perhaps more importantly, secular writing—or even strange Christian writing—can challenge us to think through why we believe what we do.

3. Limited Awareness: Believe it or not, Christian writers can and do err. For example, Christian author Madeleine L’Engle (A Wrinkle in Time) advocates evolution, an idea I firmly believe contradicts the Bible. But how often do we shut off our discernment simply because the book is labeled as “Christian,” allowing these errors to enter our minds unchallenged? No, reading only Christian material can lull us into false security, a far more dangerous state than reading the secular with discernment.

In short, a Christian book is not equal to perfectly safe. While Christian writers and publishers strive for Biblical accuracy, we are still fallible, and pitfalls remain.

Feet on the ground, head in the clouds,
Chawna Schroeder

To Parent Writers

This week my nieces and nephew are visiting me.

I do not have time to write.

Or time to breathe.

Or to think.

I have no idea how writers with kids ever get anything written. My hat is off to them.