cherryblossommj
Written on Feb 18, 2008
This week the Christian Science Fiction & Fantasy Blog Tour for February is The Shadow and the Night by Chris Walley. This tour will run through from Feby. 18-21. Click on any of the links below to see other participants in the tour's input.
The Shadow and the Night is speculative fiction, pure and simple, learning "to fight evil without becoming evil." This book and the following sequels are not children's fiction. For me personally, I have never read a book quite like it and I must admit, as I am not finished, it is quite difficult to put down, because of the curiosity factor of what else and what next this author has put together. I find that reading something in the words of the author does well to sum some things up, or rather to at least touch to topic.
The book is The Shadow and Night, the first part of the trilogy whose overall title is The Lamb among the Stars. The two succeeding volumes are The Dark Foundations and The Infinite Day, which will be published in June 2008. Several things need noting. The first is that the tagline "in the tradition of C. S. Lewis and J.R. R. Tolkien" was given (not by me) to the books as much to mark out that they are British fantasy not in the tradition of J. K. Rowling (and Phillip Pullman). Yet Lewis and Tolkien are important influences. In terms of material, Lewis' science-fiction trilogy is perhaps these books' closest neighbour, and in terms of their scale and scope, a debt is owed to Lord of the Rings. Another point to be noted is that these books are neither a conscious imitation of, nor a reaction to, any existing work. The idea for them goes back nearly a quarter of a century and the first few chapters were written as long ago as 1988. In other words, the predate Pullman, Potter, and the Left Behind series.
To understand the theology of the story of the book, he has put together a great webpage "Puritans in Space". Overall, what I can tell you at this point is that Chris Walley has put together a story that all persons of intellect that enjoy a mind bending adventure will be pleased. For me, it is something that I could envision on something like the sci-fi channel, but at the same time couldn't, because it is so new and so different. I really like the way one tour participant describes it...
Imagine a perfect world. A world with no sin, no war, no murder, no theft, no need for law enforcement or weapons. A world where everyone believes in and worships the one true God. A world totally at peace. Farholme is just such a place - a man made world in the distant future many light years from earth.
Chris Walley has done a superb job of creating a perfectly believable world with characters that have depth and whom you come to care about.