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.

CSFF Blog Tour presents: Stephen R. Lawhead's The Shadow Lamp

So releases Book 4 in the Bright Empires series, a series that reaches beyond one genre and mixes fantasy, sci-fi, and historical fiction. I'm a big fan of Lawhead and of this series, but I had a hard time writing a review of this one. I'm still thinking on it and will post one tomorrow, but for now, here are links to my reviews of the previous books in the series:

The Skin Map
The Bone House
The Spirit Well

Also, here are the tour links where you can check out/buy the book and see about the author:

Buy The Shadow Lamp on Amazon
Author Website
Author FB Page

Lastly, here are my fellow participants' links. Definitely see what they have to say:
Julie Bihn
Red Bissell
Thomas Clayton Booher
Thomas Fletcher Booher
Beckie Burnham
Jeff Chapman
Theresa Dunlap
April Erwin
Timothy Hicks
Christopher Hopper
Becky Jesse
Becca Johnson
Jason Joyner
Carol Keen
Rebekah Loper
Shannon McDermott
Meagan @ Blooming with Books
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Mirriam Neal
Writer Rani
Nathan Reimer
Chawna Schroeder
Jojo Sutis
Rachel Starr Thomson
Robert Treskillard
Steve Trower
Rachel Wyant
Phyllis Wheeler
Deborah Wilson

In conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour, I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

More Reviews to Check Out

So last year I found an author named Richard Paul Evans who writes Young Adult adventure/sci-fi. It's very clean (no language or sex) and only mildly violent. The values of friendship and doing what is right no matter the cost are exalted. I don't normally read YA, but I am enjoying these for the aforementioned reasons. My review of the latest installment, Michael Vey: Battle of the Ampere, should show up on Fiction Addict soon. Here are links to my reviews of the first two books:

Michael Vey: Prisoner of Cell 25 (Book 1)

Michael Vey: Rise of the Elgen (Book 2)

Book Reviews to Check Out!

I've been a little busy with life, but I have published a few reviews lately. Here are the links if you are interested!
Fear Has a Name, by Creston Mapes, should be up soon on The Suspense Zone, too!


Iscariot, by Tosca Lee

The Tehran Initiative, by Joel C. Rosenberg

The Fifth Assassin, by Brad Meltzer

My One Word 2013

LOVE

My pride almost got in the way while trying to choose a word for this year. I mean, love, really? Boring. A thousand people probably choose the word love every year. It sounds so generic and easy. What will people think when I tell them I need to work on “love?”

This word came up in my mind almost immediately, along with a short list of a few other words. Then, God confirmed it with a bible study my small group is doing in the book of Deuteronomy, a devotional I read, and Mike's sermon on January 27th.

When I think of the person I want to become, I envision one who responds to others kindly, who is compassionate, caring, patient, unselfish. I know that I can get very annoyed with people. Often. I know that if things don't go my way, and/or someone is IN my way, I'm not too nice about it. I know from studying the Hebrew words for love, that love is not only a choice, but a feeling, being bound to another, or having loyalty to another. And from the New Testament, I know that God equates loving Him with obedience (even more difficult), that we ought to love Him first and foremost, and then love our neighbors as ourselves. People will know we are Jesus' disciples because we love each other. Love covers a multitude of sins, it never fails.

I also know that if I can't understand (or at least increase my understanding) or accept God's love for me, that I will have a hard time truly loving others. So, this word is very complex and multifaceted for me. Love means that I rest in God's love for me and extend that love to others. It means that I respond with others' well-being in mind and not just my own. Jesus treated people like they were important. He made time for them. I need to treat people like Jesus did. There are so many areas in which I can grow in this journey toward Christ-likeness. I felt a need to go back to the basics, as it were, to start over with what Jesus said were the most important things.

In Matthew 22, Jesus says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.” Then in John 13 He says, “I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you must also love one another. By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.” And finally, John the Beloved, disciple of Jesus, writes in I John 4: “Dear friends, if God loved us that much we also should love each other. No one has ever seen God, but if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is made perfect in us.”

I look forward to seeing what God will do with me and this word. Part of me is scared that I'll fail miserably and be in a constant state of stress and anger, or just apathy. I'm not sure I really know what love looks like in my life right now. I just know I'm not loving God or others the way I should. It's not a regret-based word (Mike talks about this in his book), but it is one that looks forward to changing the heart and the behavior that springs from it.