Roogna

Greetings from rural Freeman, South Dakota. I'm here visiting my brother after a little business meeting in Sioux Falls on Thursday. I had an opportunity to take in the local golf course, as well as finish reading "Castle Roogna."

Castle Roogna, the 3rd book in the Magic of Xanth series by Piers Anthony, is a book I started reading a number of years back. 7th grade, I believe. I had borrowed it from a friend, and not having read the first 2 books in the series, became lost, confused, disoriented, and probably a little nauseous as well.

Fast forward a few years. I read the first two books and found this story to make a profound amount of better sense now. It concerns the fantasy realms of Xanth, which coincidentally looks a lot like Florida, but also Magic, time-travel, bad puns, and an assortment of mythological creatures.

In short, I found this particular tale a not as interesting as the first two. Perhaps the formulaic quest plot - a staple of Xanth - to be just more of the same, with some new but rather familiar characters. I suppose the book makes for a good diversion for a few hours, but this wasn't my favorite of Xanth books.

Matt

Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, Vol. 2

And now, the Volume 2 you've all been waiting for...Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, vol 2.

The short stories within vol. 2 are as follows:

The Shambler From the Stars by Robert Bloch: An eccentric author locates and evil book, and has his friend translate it from Latin. Evil promulgations ensue...

The Haunter in the Dark by H.P. Lovecraft: A followup story to The Shambler From the Stars, this concerns the demise of Robert Blake, an enthusiast of the dark arts who searches an abandoned church which has many evil elements within...

The Shadow from the Steeple by Robert Bloch rounds out the trilogy concerning the previous two stories. A man from Chicago investigates the deaths of Robert Blake, and his chronicler H.P. Lovecraft, blending the lines of fantasy and reality further, making this tale one of remarkable tenability and fright...

The Notebook Found in a Deserted House by Robert Bloch - This tale concerns a 12 year old who is put up at his aunt and uncle's farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. Rumors of mythology and sacrificial altars in the woods beyond trouble him. Then one day Aunt and Uncle go off in the night, never to return. The child must face his fears with the postman during a thunderstorm...

Cold Print by J. Ramsey Campbell - a vagrant, who warms himself from the cold outside by visiting a bookstore, and becomes a reader of Lovecraftian stories. He encounters a menacing book dealer, who makes him an offer he cannot refuse...

The Sister City by Brian Lumley - A youth of mysterious deformities and talents comes to realize his true identity and troubles the authorities with his attempt to return to the land what which he might call "home."
Cement Surroundings by Brian Lumley - A professor returns to England after researching many mythical entities and two mysterious orbs. He becomes terrified of both the underground and seismic activity. Following an earthquake, the professor disappears, leaving his poor nephew to sort out the madness...

The Deep Ones by James Wade - A little bit longer story about a team of researchers working with dolphins off the Pacific coast. A strange man from Miskatonic University identifies one of the researchers as being from an old family in Innsmouth on the East Coast and foretells great misfortunes, to which the researchers are at once skeptical, for a time...

The Return of The Lloigor by Colin Wilson - a lengthy (as these short stories go) tale of an English professor who finds a text and interprets it to be the Necronomicon. Later he learns that Lovecraft mentioned this in his "fiction" but that these stories seem to match up with legends of Wales, where he finds the stories coming to life, but few belief the fantastical findings...

And there you have it, the last of the Cthulu Mythos stories in my two volume set. If you're up for weird tales, these are good and weird.

Vision of the Future

Latest on my growing list of accomplishments is finally finishing a book I purchased a few years back and meant to read but never got around to. Thus, today is has been a good day.

Vision of the Future is a Star Wars novel by Timothy Zahn which is the sequel to the book Spectre of the Past. The two books make up what is called Zahn's Hand of Thrawn Duology, taking place 10 years after A New Hope (Star Wars Episode IV).

Vision of the Future, while certainly exciting, at just under 700 pages makes for a daunting read. It takes a while to get into, but as I've found the last half goes considerably faster. I am a little disappointed that Zahn couldn't have stretched things another 6 pages to round out an even 700 pages. I'm sure there was room for Lando hanging out in some marginally related dank hideout with sketchy characters of limited consequence.

That not withstanding, the book has several plot lines running at the same time: 1) Luke & Mara 2) Han & Lando 3)Leia and the Camaasi Trustant, 4) Thrawn, Tierce, and Disra, 5) Karrde and Shada, 6) Wedge and a pet shop 7) Thrawn's cronies, awaiting his prophetic return, 8) Booster Terrik and General Garm Bel Iblis, 9) Admiral Pellaeon and the Chimera. There's a few other lines of story, including guest appearances by characters from the past, all of which converge nicely at the end of the tale.

My only complaint here is some of the writing is lacking. A worrisome revelation, indeed, having grown fond of the written word by reading these Star Wars novels, especially the Thrawn Trilogy, also written by Zahn. Sentence fragments litter the pages, yes, for dramatic effect, but still, this is not very skilled authorship. I also noted a few typos although in a tome this sized, that is to be expected. I suspect my criticism stems from reading more heady, shorter works of Camus, Hemingway, and Steinbeck of recent.

All in all, if you're a Star Wars enthusiast with time on your hands, go ahead and pickup the Hand of Thrawn Duology. Its a good time.

Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, Volume I

I was out traversing a few garage sales and I stumbled upon this gem in a free box: H.P. Lovecraft (and other): Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, vol. 1., and vol 2.

Some of you might remember a review of a collection of HP Lovecraft works a few months back. Having read that, I soon realized Lovecraft's works were in the public domain, and thus I hardly needed a hard-copy. These stories are predominantly by other authors in the tradition of H.P. Lovecraft and correlation much of Lovecraft's fantastical aberrations. Plus, for free, its hard to pass up.

The short stories within vol. 1 are as follows:

The Call of Cthulhu by HP Lovecraft: The story featuring Lovecraft's most fantastic creature.

The Return of the Sorcerer by Clark Ashton Smith: A man takes a job working for a disturbed researcher...too short for more information.

Ubbo-Sathla by Clark Ashton Smith: a mysterious crystal leads to all sorts of evil;

The Black Stone by Robert E. Howard: a black stone invokes strange visions of years and evils past...

The Hounds of Tindalos by Frank Belknap Long: a researcher invokes a drug to enable time travel, quickly goes insane fearing the Hounds of Tindalos will come at him through angles in the walls...

The Space-Eaters by Frank Belknap Long: mystery in the woods when a neighbor drops by; he's ranting about evil and there seems to be something dreadful in the wood..

The Dweller in the Darkness by August Derleth: something is out there in the woods of Northern Wisconsin, and professors from Madison search to determine what it is, possibly one of the creatures Lovecraft "factually" wrote about...

Beyond the Threshold by August Derleth: Grandfather is obsessed with finding a secret threshold in his Wisconsin home, much to the dispair of his grandsons.

The Salem Horror by Henry Kuttner: Famed author finds a secret underground room used by a former occupant in his house for witchcraft.

The Haunter of the Graveyard by J. Vernon Shea: horror film enthusiast finds a secret passageway in his house...

More to come when I read vol 2.

...in an adventure with Napoleon!

Gideon Defoe's latest book in "The Pirates!" series concerns the historical figure of Napoleon. If you haven't heard of Gideon Defoe, he's an English author who blends pirates and history in a campy, somewhat farcical and strangely historically inaccurate sort of way.

This adventure was released in England early last year (2008), but did not come out on this side of the pond until May of 2009. Thus, after pre-ordering and it arriving, I have summarily read the book.

My biggest complaint is its brevity.

This adventure involves the Pirate Captain moving to St. Helena island to become a beekeeper. There he runs into Napoleon and things go a bit odd from there.

Hard to explain too much without giving the plot away, but its a fine read. Keep 'em coming, Defoe.

Revolting Beauty

Dr. Greg Boyd preached a sermon series in 2008 called "Revolting Beauty." This sermon series outlined this followup to his book, "The Myth of the Christian Nation."

Boyd's previous book garnered a fair amount of criticism, namely from politically conservative Christians, insisting he goes too far. Growing up under that influence, I admit I have some reservations with agreeing wholeheartedly. This latest book, however, does much to reinforce his views. Boyd isn't against conservative politics nor against America or nationalism. Rather, his thesis is that we, as Christians, ought to have our focus on Christ, not our nation, comparing America (or whatever nation one belongs to) with Caesar: "So instead of working together to do what Jesus did, we often waste time fighting each other over what Caesar should do," (p. 28). Boyd's contention is that Christians are a religious people who often act nothing like Christ. If we did, on the whole, act as Christ, many of the national issues America faces would not be important.

Consider: Christ worked with the poor. If all who professed Christianity spend time each week feeding the hungry, clothing the needy, and sheltering the homeless, these issues would seem very mute in our society, since some 70-80% of Americans claim Christianity as their religion and there are significantly less needy people about.

The chapter about nationalism was a little hard to wrap my head around, having been infused with patriotic hymns, pledging allegiance to the American flag and honoring veterans whenever in church services, it only seems natural to adhere to "God and Country." Boyd makes a point to not do these things in church. While Jesus encouraged his followers to "give to Caesar what is Caesar's," he didn't make a point to honor those soliders who had killed in the name of caesar at the temple, nor pledge allegiance to Rome or sing Roman songs of patriotism. Rather, Jesus drove out the money changers from the Temple, seeing it as a misuse of God's holy place. With this in mind, it does seem outrageous to use a church as a place waxing Americana. Particularly when Jesus died not only for Americans, but also for every nation that America has ever warred against: Native Americans, French, British, British again, Mexico, both North and South during the civil war, Spain, Germany, Germany again, Italy, Japan, North Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Iraq again, and every smaller conflict in between and every war yet to happen. Jesus loves everybody, not just Americans. So why would he want us to go and kill "them"?

Which is not to say I am not patriotic. I enjoy America and its freedoms, and always will. There is a time and place to be patriotic. Just as prayer is not welcome in public schools, perhaps we should take America out of our churches - that's God's holy place, to be used accordingly.

Boyd continues this train of thought as all nations have always looked toward God or some gods and claimed that this divinity is on their side. Therefore they are right, all others are wrong and gives us right, if not necessity to war against other nations. This thinking has led to very un-Jesuslike wars across time. Perhaps it isn't practical for a "Christian Nation" to be peaceable, as others would take advantage, but that really isn' the Christian's concern. Ours is to be Christ to our neighbors. Let Caesar address foreign affairs.

While I enjoyed this challenging book, I had a few issues I found. Firstly, Boyd says "Jesus never..." a few times. One cannot logically prove a negative, especially with the incomplete history of Jesus' life we have available. Just because the Bible doesn't say something, doesn't mean it didn't happen. See John 21:25. I'm sure Boyd knows that, so it sounds like he's overemphasizing something, hoping we won't notice. Secondly, on page 147, he notes Jesus cursing the fig tree as the only destructive miracle Jesus performed. Again, so far as we know, but also, Jesus removed demons from a man and cast them into a nearby herd of pigs, about 2000 fold. They then jumped off a cliff. I would constitute this as destructive. Matthew 8:28-34.

Again, these are minor points. The main purpose of the book is to show the reader that being a sunday morning Christian is not enough. We are to be Christ's representative on earth 24/7. If we're not doing that, then we're missing the point.

Cataphatic Prayer, Part II

As mentioned a few posts back, the idea of cataphatic prayer, or imaginative prayer, is nothing new. Popularized by St. Ignatius of Loyola, some time back, Dr. Greg Boyd revisited this with his book "Seeing is Believing".

Part of the idea behind cataphatic prayer is to visualize in one's mind biblical events from a different point of view, or a richer perspective than what is presented by the Bible itself. Taking this idea, I've read a 600+ page 1930s copy of a childrens' Bible story book. From what I can discern, the stories presented are accurate retellings of Bible events (albeit sometimes glossed over for young ears, i.e. David's sin with Bathsheba isn't mentioned, just that David had done something rather bad...)

Taking these easier to follow accounts, one might further grasp what is going on in the story. By understanding these stories better one might place themself there and gain greater meaning from it. Sometimes this book helps clarify to the reader what is going on. For example, the people of Ephesus turned to Christ and burned their books of magic (this is where we get the idea of a Christian book-burning). The author side notes that this is profound because in the day books were expensive luxuries, not something impoverished people had. Think of it as smashing 50" 1080p plasma TVs on the sidewalk. This was really making a statement about how they were changing their lives.

Some commentary may affirm or upset theologians reading, as in Peter's vision of the blanket full of unclean animals, for which he is instructed to kill and eat.

I paricularly found interesting the commentary on Acts 5, where Annanias and his wife Sapphira sell land and give the profits to the church. However, they keep some money to themselves, but indicate the gift is the entire sum. In lying to the church, God smotes them, that is they die at once. Edgermeier's commentary expands on the Bible where it says "The whole church and all the others who heard of this were terrified" (Acts 5:11 Good News Translation). Edgermeier says that they were terrified and were afraid to claim to be Christians unless they were sure their sins were forgiven. This is poignant in terms of many who claim to be Christians who make appearances of the religiosity of the Church just as Annanias and Sapphira, but who are actually leading sinful, displeasing lives. It is one thing to "do church" and quite another to act as Jesus.