CSFF Blog Tour Day 3 (post #2 for me): The Shadow Lamp

I said I would give a review, and give one I will, although it will be a bit different than the ones I usually write. I have a lot of random thoughts/feelings about this book, some positive, some not, and I'll try to go over the more important ones here. However, I will have to give a SPOILER WARNING FOR ALL THAT FOLLOWS THIS SENTENCE. I can't discuss the book in detail without spoilers, so please do not read what follows if you haven't read the book yourself.


Pros:

I love that Kit, Mina, Cass, Dr. Clarke, the Zetetic Society, and Gianni, all find themselves together talking about what has caused the deceleration of the expansion of the universe and what may have caused it. When Kit tells Gianni about Arthur bringing his beloved wife back to life in the Spirit Well, we realize that this event is what has changed the course of the future and brought the multiverse into the threat of complete annihilation. I can make a wild guess and say that perhaps Kit will travel back to the Spirit Well in the past and try to prevent Arthur from doing this, therefore saving the world. But I don't know.

I'm not a scientist or physicist, and, even after reading all of these books I hardly understand either time or ley travel, but I loved all the discussions of science and space/time.

This isn't a pro about the book, but one about one of the tour participants who writes some good thoughts HERE about Gianni not really being a Deist and Etzel acting in a Christlike manner towards the incarcerated Burleigh and his men. I never thought of Etzel as that important to the story, but evidently he is.

The book, as the others, was written in a way that made me invest and engage in it, and left me wanting more. That's a good thing. I heartily anticipate the conclusion to the series. No doubt Lawhead will hit it out of the park, bringing the answers we've all been so desperate for in regards to what will happen.

Cons:

I had a slight problem with the fact that the book is called "The Shadow Lamp," though yes, they do try to find out what makes the thing work, but they never do. And if/when they do, is that going to help them go to the Spirit Well and stop the EOE?

I don't like the way all of the characters assume an old earth. I'm letting it go, but being a young earth girl, it peeves me.

I also don't like that it seems somewhat inevitable that the universe/multiverse/world (whatever you want to call it) will collapse into itself and annihilation. That doesn't fit in with the "Omega Point" or with God's bringing forth a New Heaven and New Earth at the end of time as we know it. IMHO, nothing near that would ever have a chance of happening. Anything that happens catastrophically to the earth will be only what happens in Revelation. Whether or not those events change anything but the earth and our galaxy I don't know, but I know we will not all be annihilated. But it is fiction, after all, and for the characters, it's a distinct and scary possibility, even if it isn't for us in real life.


I guess that's it for me. I've enjoyed what others are saying about this book/series. Please go read our other participants' thoughts as I have been doing. I appreciate the way they enlighten me further.