Showing posts with label theology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label theology. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 17, 2023

Cat Magic ★★☆☆☆

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Cat Magic
Series: ----------
Author: Whitley Strieber & Jonathan Barry
Rating: 2 of 5 Stars
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 353
Words: 134K



Ooooooh boy. * puffs out cheeks *


I’ve never read anything by Strieber before and wanted to give his writings a go. I knew he was horror’ish or real life aliens or something weird, so I thought I was prepared. I had no idea.


I saw the subtitle for this book on a later edition and it was “A Tale of Modern Witchcraft”. I really wish I had seen that before deciding to start with this book. I guess if I could sum up this book I’d go with “sexual orgies while children watch and the only sin is Guilt itself”. Ughhh. There was a lot of theological ideas put forth that I really had to disagree with. Not in an angry way but more in a “are you serious?” way.


While I have a bunch of Strieber’s books on tap, I think I’m going to try his Omega Point duology next. It’s about aliens somehow. If he puts forth more bad theology though, I’ll be done with him. I have no idea who this Barry fellow is or what part he played in writing the story. I wonder if he did the heavy lifting though.


Overall, this was not a good first impression and I certainly won’t be recommending Strieber even if his later books improve.

★★☆☆☆


Friday, September 02, 2022

Feast and Famine ★★✬☆☆

 


This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Feast and Famine
Series: ----------
Authors: Adrian Tchaikovsky
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF
Pages: 157
Words: 60.5K





Synopsis:


From the Inside Cover and TOC


In Feast and Famine Adrian Tchaikovsky delivers an ambitious and varied collections of stories. Ranging from the deep space hard SF of the title story (originally in Solaris Rising 2) to the high fantasy of “The Sun in the Morning” (a Shadows of the Apt tale originally featured in Deathray magazine), from the Peter S Beagle influenced “The Roar of the Crowd” to the supernatural Holmes-esque intrigue of “The Dissipation Club” the author delivers a dazzling array of quality short stories that traverse genre. Ten stories in all, five of which appear here for the very first time.

Contents:

1. Introduction

2. Feast & Famine

3. The Artificial Man

4. The Roar of the Crowd

5. Good Taste

6. The Dissipation Club

7. Rapture

8. Care

9. 2144 and All That

10. The God Shark

11. The Sun of the Morning

12. About the Author



My Thoughts:


That's right, there's a reason I've been avoiding Tchaikovsky for the last year or two. While he can tell some good stories, he also really digs the knife into Christianity. Not organized religion, or Buddhism, or Islam, or any other religion, just Christianity. I “think” I could handle it if he were an equal opportunity mocker, but he's not. He really lets fly with the story “Rapture” and I realized that while the other stories might be interesting that my time with him is done for good now.

If I need any more fixes of Tchaikovsky, I'll just go and re-read the Shadows of the Apt decology.

★★✬☆☆




Friday, February 04, 2022

The Awakening ★★★☆☆

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: The Awakening
Series: (The Russians)
Author: Leo Tolstoy
Translater: Unknown
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Classic
Pages: 641
Words: 174K





Synopsis:


From Wikipedia


The story is about a nobleman named Dmitri Ivanovich Nekhlyudov, who seeks redemption for a sin committed years earlier. When he was a younger man, at his Aunts' estate, he fell in love with their ward, Katyusha (Katerina Mikhailovna Maslova), who is goddaughter to one Aunt and treated badly by the other. However, after going to the city and becoming corrupted by drink and gambling, he returns two years later to his Aunts' estate and rapes Katyusha, leaving her pregnant. She is then thrown out by his Aunt, and proceeds to face a series of unfortunate and unpleasant events, before she ends up working as a prostitute, going by her surname, Maslova.


Ten years later, Nekhlyudov sits on a jury which sentences the girl, Maslova, to prison in Siberia for murder (poisoning a client who beat her, a crime of which she is innocent). The book narrates his attempts to help her practically, but focuses on his personal mental and moral struggle. He goes to visit her in prison, meets other prisoners, hears their stories, and slowly comes to realize that below his gilded aristocratic world, yet invisible to it, is a much larger world of cruelty, injustice and suffering. Story after story he hears and even sees people chained without cause, beaten without cause, immured in dungeons for life without cause, and a twelve-year-old boy sleeping in a lake of human dung from an overflowing latrine because there is no other place on the prison floor, but clinging in a vain search for love to the leg of the man next to him, until the book achieves the bizarre intensity of a horrific fever dream. He decides to give up his property and pass ownership on to his peasants, leaving them to argue over the different ways in which they can organise the estate, and he follows Katyusha into exile, planning on marrying her. On their long journey into Siberia, she falls in love with another man, and Nekhludov gives his blessing and still chooses to live as part of the penal community, seeking redemption.





My Thoughts:


While I have not committed the same particular sin as the main character, his reaction to it, albeit a decade later, felt like looking in a mirror of my younger days. It was scary because while I wouldn't react like that now, I remember reacting/thinking EXACTLY like that in my 20's. It was eye opening and made me much more charitable towards Nekhlyudov and as such, towards young idiots of today ;-)


This was pretty heavy-handed in terms of philosophy. Tolstoy uses Nekhlyudov to talk about property ownership and pre-supposes the audience is familiar with some long forgotten european who seemed to be against property ownership. The little bit I was able to figure out was pretty ridiculous at best, and woke guilt at worst. Who knew, you woke folks are just old news recycled ;-)


I've got so many reviews coming up this month that I'm keeping everything super short. The dangers of being out of work for 10 days. Lots of books get read :-/


★★★☆☆




Friday, December 24, 2021

The Secret of Father Brown (Father Brown #4) ★★★★☆

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: The Secret of Father Brown
Series: Father Brown #4
Author: G.K. Chesterton
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 218
Words: 63K





Synopsis:


Table of Contents



  • "The Secret of Father Brown" (framing story)

  • "The Mirror of the Magistrate"

  • "The Man with Two Beards"

  • "The Song of the Flying Fish"

  • "The Actor and the Alibi"

  • "The Vanishing of Vaudrey"

  • "The Worst Crime in the World"

  • "The Red Moon of Meru"

  • "The Chief Mourner of Marne"

  • "The Secret of Flambeau" (framing story)




My Thoughts:


Wikipedia totally let me down for this book. While it has had synopses for the previous book collections of short stories, there was no entry for this compilation. Makes me wonder how the people there can sleep easy at night, knowing they abandoned me in my hour of need. Not only that, they also let down every single one of you who is reading this. You expected a snapshot of the stories contained in this book and what do you get? Just a lousy TOC. My goodness, I hope you are properly outraged at this disturbing display of laziness and lack of hard work. I know I am!


Shame, shame, shame.


As I noted in my “CR&Q: The Secret of Father Brown” post, this book felt like it encapsulated the essence of Father Brown and what Chesterton was trying to convey through him. While Chesterton and I disagree on some things, maybe even big things (he was a staunch Roman Catholic and I'm a 7th Day Adventist), our views on God certainly do align. And not just on God the Father but the entire Trinity, which is how it should be.


Therefore as I was reading these stories, instead of viewing them as a mystery story, or a story about Justice Here and Now (which is one of the issues Chesterton and I differ on), I viewed them through the lense of knowing people as individuals and not as a class or type. As is written in Romans 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”


Once someone realizes their proper place before God and what Christ's sacrifice has truly done, how they interact and view the rest of humanity is going to change. But the significance of Christ's sacrifice is absolutely essential. If I just take the first part, that we are all sinners and cannot live up to the perfect standard that God has requires (it's not an arbitrary line He drew in the sand, it is part of His very character), then chances are that I'll either start enslaving other humans, because why not, they're scum destined for hell so why not start hell a little early for them, OR I'll become an arrogant asshat thinking how much better I am than them (ie, the Pharisee who prayed and thanked God that he wasn't like “that” tax collector next to him). But once I realize the universe shattering revelation of Christ's sacrifice, every person I meet has to be treated like the object of God's love and sacrifice, because they are.


Christians can spend their entire lives learning this lesson and letting the Holy Spirit (the third person of the Trinity) imprint it on their hearts and minds. Some of us do better than others. But this collection of stories reminded me, again, that Christ didn't die just for me, but for every single individual person in the entire world, past, present and future. It is humbling and encouraging all at the same time.


The fact that this book got me thinking along these lines is why it got 4stars. It was better than some of the so-called devotionals I've read in the past.


★★★★☆



Friday, September 24, 2021

New Evidence That Demands A Verdict ★★★★★

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: New Evidence That Demands A Verdict
Authors: Josh McDowell
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Non-fiction, Christian Apologetics
Pages: 800
Words: 400K






Synopsis:


Table of Contents


Table of Contents


Forward

Preface

User's Guide

Explanation of General Format

Acknowledgments

He Changed My Life

Introduction


PART ONE: THE CASE FOR THE BIBLE


1. The Uniqueness of the Bible


An intelligent person seeking truth would certainly read and consider a book that has the historical qualifications of the Bible. Unique qualifications that set the Scriptures apart from every other book ever written.


2. How We Got the Bible


Materials used. Bible divisions. Why just thirty-nine Old Testament books and twenty-seven New Testament books? What about the Apocrypha? Why not other books?


3. Is the New Testament Historically Reliable?


The tests applied to all ancient literature to determine reliability. How does the New Testament compare? Archaeological finds confirming the New Testament.


4. Is the Old Testament Historically Reliable?


Bibliographical test. Internal evidence test. Archaeological evidence demonstrating the trustworthiness of the Old Testament.


PART TWO: THE CASE FOR JESUS


5. Jesus, A Man of History


Documented sources of extrabiblical historical references to Jesus of Nazareth.


6. If Jesus Wasn't God, He Deserves an Oscar


The character of Christ and His claims to deity, with emphasis on secular and Jewish sources.


7. Significance of Deity: The Trilemma--Lord, Liar, or Lunatic?


If the New Testament records about Jesus are historically accurate, there remain only three logical choices concerning His identity.


8. Support of Deity: Old Testament Prophecies Fulfilled in Jesus Christ


Illustrations of the probabilities that all prophecies could be fulfilled in one man, in response to the critic who says, "It is all just a coincidence." Emphasis on Jewish sources to answer the accusation, "That's the way you Christians look at them, but what about the Jews?"


9. Support of Deity: The Resurrection--Hoax or History?


This heavily documented section of evidence for Christ's resurrection refutes theories set forth to disclaim this miracle.


10. Support of Deity: The Great Proposition


The "if…then" argument applied to Christ: "If God became man, then what would He be like?" Quotations and observations of great Christians and non-Christians about the person, character, life, and death of Jesus of Nazareth, and His impact on the world for two thousand years.


PART THREE: THE CASE FOR AND AGAINST CHRISTIANITY


Section I. Introduction


This section deals with inspiration of the Bible, anti-supernaturalism, and archaeology. All three topics relate to the documentary hypothesis and form criticism. There they are treated at the beginning rather than under each of the following two sections.


11. Is the Bible from God?


Part 1 presents the case that the Bible is historically accurate. Here the case is made that the Bible is trustworthy in that it is inspired by a perfect God.


12. The Presupposition of Anti-supernaturalism


A presentation of the presuppositions of both documentarians and form critics. Often the alleged objective historical conclusions are molded by a subjective worldview.


Section II. Documentary Hypothesis


The discipline of literary criticism applied to the Pentateuch is examined along with evidence for Mosaic authorship.


14. Introduction to the Documentary Hypothesis


What is the documentary hypothesis? What are the JEDP documents?


15. Introduction to Biblical Criticism


Biblical criticism defined and the different critical schools explained.


16. Introduction to the Pentateuch


The purpose and importance of the first five biblical books.


17. Development of the Documentary Hypothesis


A description of the various documentary theories and their modern revisions.


18. Ground Rules


The ancient oriental environment provides various principles to apply to the Old Testament.


19. Documentary Presuppositions


An investigation of the four basic documentary assumptions: (1) The priority of source analysis over archaeology; (2) a natural view of Israel's religion and history; (3) the theory that there was no writing in Israel at Moses' time; and (4) the legendary view of the patriarchal narratives.


20. Consequences of Radical High Criticism


A discussion of the results of Israel's history being viewed as unhistorical, fraudulent, and naturalistic.


21. Evidence for Mosaic Authorship


The internal and external testimony for Moses' authorship of the Pentateuch.


22. The Phenomenon of Divine Names


The various uses of the divine names (Elohim, Yahweh, and others) are put in perspective.


23. The Repetition of Accounts and Alleged Contradictions


Certain stories in the Pentateuch are said to be repeated, and others to have contradictory details.


24. Incongruities


The writing in the third person and the record of Moses' death are factors said to be incongruous with Mosaic authorship.


25. Internal Diversity


A discussion of the assumed difference of subject matter, style and diction.


26. Conclusion to the Documentary Hypothesis


Section III. Biblical Criticism and the New Testament


Basic tenets of form criticism examined. Practical answers to basic assumptions and conclusions. The modern quest for the historical Jesus.


27. Introduction to New Testament Form Criticism


Form criticism is defined and its purpose and proponents discussed.


28. Historical Skepticism


The reliability of the record of the historical Jesus is examined.


29. Jesus Under Fire


An examination of the historical quests for Jesus and their culmination in the Jesus Seminar.


30. Conclusion to Form Criticism


A look at the contribution and limitations of the form critical approach.


31. Modern Theology and Biblical Criticism


by C. S. Lewis


PART FOUR: TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES


Personal Note from the Author


32. The Nature of Truth


33. The Knowability of Truth


34. Answering Postmodernism


35. Answering Skepticism


36. Answering Agnosticism


37. Answering Mysticism


38. Certainty vs. Certitude


39. Defending Miracles


40. Is History Knowable?


Bibliography

Biographical Sketches of Selected Authors

Author Index

Subject Index

The Four Spiritual Laws




My Thoughts:


This version of “Evidences” was published in 1999 and consisted of McDowell's previous Evidences I & II with updates for a changing culture. Since this version there has been another version, updated by McDowell and his son Sean as our culture continues to change and the questions asked are different from even 20 years ago.


I read this mainly for the first part about whether we can trust the Bible or not. I feel that Part 2 and Part 3 flow from that answer and so am not nearly as concerned about that. The final and fourth part is for people who sit up at night worrying about whether there is a God and the consequences of deciding either way. Somebody needs to address those, but I'm not concerned with them.


McDowell himself recommends not reading this straight through but simply choosing an area that interests you or that you have questions about and diving in. This is setup in the way a scholarly paper would be, with main points and then sub-points drillling down so a chapter might look like 1, A, A1,A2,B,B1, 2,A, A1, A1a etc. Because of this, there is a lot of repetition as many of the same answers apply to different questions and challenges.


I started reading this in October of last year and used this for my work read. I'd read 5 or 10 minutes a day at work and have finally wrapped this up. The final part was hard for me to get through because it wasn't what I was looking into, but as I knew that going in, it wasn't a frustrating experience.


Thinking about this, I'd recommend it to Christians who feel a need to bolster their knowledge about how what they believe is based on more than Airy Fairy Nonsense. For non-Christians, I'd say it would help someone who is genuinely seeking an answer to “What is Truth?”. McDowell does address the fact that there are a lot of people who are asking questions but who either don't want a genuine answer or who simply want what they already think confirmed. You can't MAKE someone believe something, no matter how much evidence is presented to them.


Overall, this was a very strengthening read for me, a shot in the old arm, as it were. I am sure I will be revisiting various parts of this book as the years pass.


★★★★★




Wednesday, July 21, 2021

The Wisdom of Father Brown (Father Brown #2) ★★★☆☆

 



This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Wisdom of Father Brown
Series: Father Brown #2
Author: G.K. Chesterton
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 268
Words: 73K







Synopsis:


From Wikipedia


"The Absence of Mr Glass", McClure's Magazine, November 1912.

"The Paradise of Thieves", McClure's Magazine, March 1913.

"The Duel of Dr Hirsch"

"The Man in the Passage", McClure's Magazine, April 1913.

"The Mistake of the Machine"

"The Head of Caesar", The Pall Mall Magazine, June 1913.

"The Purple Wig", The Pall Mall Magazine, May 1913.

"The Perishing of the Pendragons", The Pall Mall Magazine, June 1914.

"The God of the Gongs"

"The Salad of Colonel Cray"

"The Strange Crime of John Boulnois", McClure's Magazine, February 1913.

"The Fairy Tale of Father Brown"




My Thoughts:


Another fine collection of short stories where Father Brown at least makes an appearance. I know I said it in the first book but to call these “mysteries” is rather misleading. At least in the sense of a detective sussing out the facts and figuring it out. Father Brown just kind of makes pronouncements based on what he thinks about the fallen nature of humanity and goes from there.


I feel like my schedule of alternating these with books by the Bronte sisters is working out well. If I were to read the Father Brown books too close together I suspect I'd get annoyed. While Chesterton and I both share the Christian Faith, his way of viewing the world, expressed through the character of Father Brown are very different. Personally, I'd box Father Brown's ears and tell him to stop being so clueless. But since he's not real and Chesterton is dead, that simply isn't an option. Probably just as well as Chesterton could roll over me like a steamship both physically and mentally. Unless I got him with a surprise kidney punch first ;-)


I chose this cover from the Librarything collection because it perfectly represents Father Brown. I think it is from the tv show (of which I've heard nothing good) and man did they choose someone just as Chesterton described. A brown shapeless potato. And that actor is the most potato'y that I've ever seen. Kudo's to him for being such a potato! And the short story format is just like a baked potato too. Just enough to keep you full and happy but not so much that you become a glutton.


★★★☆☆




Wednesday, July 14, 2021

Screwtape Proposes a Toast and Other Pieces ★★★✬☆

 


This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Screwtape Proposes a Toast and Other Pieces
Series: ----------
Author: C.S. Lewis
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Allegory
Pages: 128
Words: 35K







Synopsis:


A collection of short stories consisting of:


MINISTERING ANGELS


SCREWTAPE PROPOSES A TOAST


THE SHODDY LANDS


THE MAN BORN BLIND




My Thoughts:


Man, Lewis could write some really WEIRD stuff. As peculiar as it may sound, a demon proposing a toast and going off about the general blandness of evil in the world was the most normal of these stories. The Man Born Blind almost reminded me of a Roald Dahl story with it's twisted ending.


I am glad I read these and I think the points Lewis was trying to get across WERE conveyed but man, I just didn't expect that level of weirdness from him.


★★★✬☆





Friday, May 07, 2021

The Exorcist (The Exorcist #1) ★★☆☆☆


This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Exorcist
Series: The Exorcist #1
Author: William Blatty
Rating: 2 of 5 Stars
Genre: Horror
Pages: 282
Words: 101K









Synopsis:


From Wikipedia


An elderly Jesuit priest named Father Lankester Merrin is leading an archaeological dig in northern Iraq and is studying ancient relics. After discovering a small statue of the demon Pazuzu (an actual ancient Assyrian demon), a series of omens alerts him to a pending confrontation with a powerful evil, which, unknown to the reader at this point, he has battled before in an exorcism in Africa.


Meanwhile, in Georgetown, a young girl named Regan MacNeil is living with her famous mother, actress Chris MacNeil, who is in Georgetown filming a movie. As Chris finishes her work on the film, Regan begins to become inexplicably ill. After a gradual series of poltergeist-like disturbances in their rented house, for which Chris attempts to find rational explanations, Regan begins to rapidly undergo disturbing psychological and physical changes: she refuses to eat or sleep, becomes withdrawn and frenetic, and increasingly aggressive and violent. Chris initially mistakes Regan's behavior as a result of repressed anger over her parents' divorce and absent father.


After several unsuccessful psychiatric and medical treatments, Regan's mother, an atheist, turns to a local Jesuit priest for help as Regan's personality becomes increasingly disturbed. Father Damien Karras, who is currently going through a crisis of faith coupled with the loss of his mother, agrees to see Regan as a psychiatrist, but initially resists the notion that it is an actual demonic possession. After a few meetings with the child, now completely inhabited by a diabolical personality, he turns to the local bishop for permission to perform an exorcism on the child.


The bishop with whom he consults does not believe Karras is qualified to perform the rites, and appoints the experienced Merrin—who has recently returned to the United States—to perform the exorcism, although he does allow the doubt-ridden Karras to assist him. The lengthy exorcism tests the priests both physically and spiritually. When Merrin, who had previously suffered cardiac arrhythmia, dies during the process, completion of the exorcism ultimately falls upon Father Karras. When he demands that the demonic spirit inhabit him instead of the innocent Regan, the demon seizes the opportunity to possess the priest. Karras heroically surrenders his own life in exchange for Regan's by jumping out of her bedroom window and falling to his death, regaining his faith in God as his last rites are read.




My Thoughts:


I think this book would have been much easier to read as fictional horror if I didn't believe that demons are real, that possessions are real or that exorcisms are real. That being said, Blatty is no Christian. He grew up catholic and this story deeply reflects that but he was what you'd call a “nominal” catholic. A “nominal” X is someone who likes to say he is X but only believes or practices select bits of X while criticizing and trying to change every other bit of X. It is kind of like saying you love pizza and then only eating the cheese and throwing the rest away.


My main issues with this book weren't about the demon possession or the nature of evil. Unfortunately, it was all with the nature of God. The older priest, Merrin, believes that God is an Omega Point (from what I understand that is extremely similar to the hindu idea of Nirvana, where everyone becomes part of one gigantic thingamajig and loses their individuality). That is extremely problematic for me as it denies what God has revealed about Himself in the Bible as a personal God. It also makes Jesus' sacrifice on the cross and His resurrection meaningless as we're all going to reach perfection naturally on our own through evolution.


My other issue is that Jesus, as God, is barely mentioned. In the Bible, in the New Testament, the disciples of Jesus and then later others, cast out demons in Jesus name. They didn't use complicated rituals and perform mystical ceremonies. The name of Jesus has power for those who believe in Him. It really felt like the author believed in the power of evil and demons but wasn't quite so sure about the power of God.


With these issues in mind, I think this is going to be the first and last book by Blatty that I read. There's a sequel to this called Legion that I had on my TBR but that's not going to happen now.


On a final note, ouija boards are dangerous. They open the user up to the supernatural and unfortunately, only the evil side of that. Don't play around with them folks, they are not a game.


★★☆☆☆



 

Thursday, April 29, 2021

Innocence of Father Brown (Father Brown #1) ★★★✬☆

 


This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Innocence of Father Brown
Series: Father Brown #1
Author: G.K. Chesterton
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 269
Words: 78K






Synopsis:


From Wikipedia


"The Blue Cross", The Story-Teller, September 1910; first published as "Valentin Follows a Curious Trail", The Saturday Evening Post, 23 July 1910

"The Secret Garden", The Story-Teller, October 1910. (The Saturday Evening Post, Sep 3, 1910

"The Queer Feet", The Story-Teller, November 1910. (The Saturday Evening Post, Oct 1, 1910)

"The Flying Stars", The Saturday Evening Post, 20 May 1911.

"The Invisible Man", The Saturday Evening Post, 28 January 1911. (Cassell's Magazine, Feb 1911)

The Honour of Israel Gow (as "The Strange Justice", The Saturday Evening Post, 25 March 1911.

"The Wrong Shape", The Saturday Evening Post, 10 December 1910.

"The Sins of Prince Saradine", The Saturday Evening Post, 22 April 1911.

The Hammer of God (as "The Bolt from the Blue", The Saturday Evening Post, 5 November 1910.

"The Eye of Apollo", The Saturday Evening Post, 25 February 1911.

"The Sign of the Broken Sword", The Saturday Evening Post, 7 January 1911.

"The Three Tools of Death", The Saturday Evening Post, 24 June 1911.




My Thoughts:


While this series is categorized as a mystery, it's not Sherlock or Wimsey or even Wolfe. Father Brown doesn't go around looking at a thread caught on a bush and extrapolate the life story of the perp and then reveal him to the authorities. No, Father Brown studies the nature of fallen humanity, discovers the culprit and tries to get them to do the right thing, whether repentance or turning themselves in.


Chesterton was a converted Catholic and as such, Father Brown is pretty strong on his catholic doctrine. At the same time, it really didn't come across as Chesterton trying to preach or convert his readers. He was trying to tell a great story first and for me, it worked.


The main thing that worked best for me though was the short story aspect. Chesterton wrote each story for a magazine back in the day and then had them collected later. I didn't have to power through a whole novel and I could stop between stories without losing anything. I appreciate that simplicity and lack of tangled complexity that a lot of modern books seem to deliberately aim for.


One interesting aspect that stood out to me was that in several of the stories the villain of the piece took poison rather than face public justice. That happened in one of the Lord Peter Wimsey books too and I wonder if it was a “sensibility of the times” thing? I don't think of the bad guys of today taking poison but either fighting or flight'ing or of readers caring one way or the other. I'll be keeping an eye out to see if it happens in any more stories.


A good addition to my reading rotation. Since I am also reading several other mystery series, I am going to be switch hitting the Complete Works of Chesterton with the Complete Works of the Sisters' Bronte. That way I don't Mystery myself out :-)


★★★✬☆


Wednesday, April 21, 2021

Crusade (Saint Tommy, NYPD #5) ★★★✬☆

 


This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Crusade
Series: Saint Tommy, NYPD #5
Author: Declan Finn
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 171
Words: 53.5K






Synopsis:


From the Publishers & Me


Still working abroad, Detective Tommy Nolan has a hot tip that leads him to Germany. Women and children are disappearing from Catholic Bavaria. The local police have their hands tied. Tommy is the last hope for answers.


Yet again, Tommy is in over his head. What starts as a sex trafficking ring turns into a terrorist conspiracy to unleash Hell on Europe. To stop it, Tommy must fight Nazi vampires, terrorists, and a swarm of succubi who want him as their next meal.


With the help of a local german police officer, a jewish rabbi with the secret of the golem at his fingertips and a group of bavarian special forces armed with paintball guns filled with holy water, it's up to Tommy to put a stop to the rite that will raise Asmodeous the demon. Unfortunately, Tommy doesn't get there in time and a hell gate is opened. This allows Jade, the succubus who ran the sex trafficking ring to gain incredible amounts of power and become a low level demon herself. She and Tommy duke it out, Tommy wins and they find Asmodeous trapped within a circle. The battle exorcist from the previous book is left to deal with him.


Tommy adopts one of the girls rescued from the sex ring and it turns out she has some sort of psychic powers. With his wife just having given birth to his own biological daughter, Tommy's family is growing by leaps and bounds,




My Thoughts:


I think the first thing I need to say is that this book doesn't shy away from some very tough subjects. Sex trafficking is not only happening in Africa or the Middle East or South America. It is happening here in the United States and in all of Europe as well. It is pervasive and evil and Finn doesn't sugar coat it. He's not graphic nor describing the horrors in detail, but one woman is raped to death off page as an object lesson to the other prisoners. With that said, lets talk about the more pleasant aspects of the book.


Tommy gets to fight nazi vampire muslim terrorists. No joke. Vampires, unfortunately, play a very small part. They simply crumble to dust when touched by Saint Tommy. The author does go into speculation about pre-history, much as he did in the previous book about the stone and vampires are grouped into that era of lore. There are some seriously cool fight scenes but that leads into the one thing that made me knock half a star off the rating.


Finn is constantly making pop-culture references throughout this book. It was apropos and funny but those things have a very limited shelf life and I don't like them in the books I read. I find it cheapens them. Most of it was John Wick related this time. I love the movie John Wick and got it all, but in several years, even if the movie has cult status sticking power, people simply aren't going to know what Finn is referencing. Then there was the golem mecha vs the dragon succubi and I had to roll my eyes at that fight. It was just to over the top for my taste.


I've got one more book available to me in this series then I have to decide if I want to continue or not. Finn is up to book 8 and from the reviews I've seen he does have an end game plan, but it won't be for several books after 8. Upon reflection it would seem that my best option is to stop after book 6 and let him finish the series. Good thing I had this little conversation with myself!


★★★✬☆




Friday, April 09, 2021

Till We Have Faces ★★★☆☆

 


This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Till We Have Faces
Series: ----------
Author: C.S. Lewis
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Allegory
Pages: 309
Words: 84K






Synopsis:


From Wikipedia


The story tells the ancient Greek myth of Cupid and Psyche, from the perspective of Orual, Psyche's older sister.


It begins as the complaint of Orual as an old woman, who is bitter at the injustice of the gods. She has always been ugly, but after her mother dies and her father the King of Glome remarries, she gains a beautiful half-sister Istra, whom she loves as her own daughter, and who is known throughout the novel by the Greek version of her name, Psyche. Psyche is so beautiful that the people of Glome begin to offer sacrifices to her as to a goddess. The Priest of the goddess Ungit, a powerful figure in the kingdom, then informs the king that various plagues befalling the kingdom are a result of Ungit's jealousy, so Psyche is sent as a human sacrifice to the unseen "God of the Mountain" at the command of Ungit, the mountain-god's mother. Orual plans to rescue Psyche but falls ill and is unable to prevent anything.


When she is well again, Orual arranges to go to where Psyche was stranded on the mountain, either to rescue her or to bury what remains of her. She is stunned to find Psyche is alive, free from the shackles in which she had been bound, and furthermore says she does not need to be rescued in any way. Rather, Psyche relates that she lives in a beautiful castle that Orual cannot see, as the God of the Mountain has made her a bride rather than a victim. At one point in the narrative, Orual believes she has a brief vision of this castle, but then it vanishes like a mist. Hearing that Psyche has been commanded by her new god-husband not to look on his face (all their meetings are in the nighttime), Orual is immediately suspicious. She argues that the god must be a monster, or that Psyche has actually started to hallucinate after her abandonment and near-death on the mountain, that there is no such castle at all, and that her husband is actually an outlaw who was hiding on the mountain and takes advantage of her delusions in order to have his way with her. Orual says that because either possibility is one that she cannot abide by, she must disabuse her sister of this illusion.


She returns a second time, bringing Psyche a lamp for her to use while her "husband" sleeps, and when Psyche insists that she will not betray her husband by disobeying his command, Orual threatens both Psyche and herself, stabbing herself in the arm to show she is capable of following through on her threat. Ultimately, reluctantly, Psyche agrees because of the coercion and her love for her sister.


When Psyche disobeys her husband, she is immediately banished from her beautiful castle and forced to wander as an exile. The God of the Mountain appears to Orual, stating that Psyche must now endure hardship at the hand of a force he himself could not fight (likely his mother the goddess Ungit), and that "You too shall be Psyche," which Orual attempts to interpret for the rest of her life, usually taking it to mean that as Psyche suffers, she must suffer also. She decries the injustice of the gods, saying that if they had shown her a picture of Psyche's happiness that was easier to believe, she would not have ruined it. From this day forward she vows that she will keep her face veiled at all times.


Eventually, Orual becomes a Queen, and a warrior, diplomat, architect, reformer, politician, legislator, and judge, though all the while remaining alone. She drives herself, through work, to forget her grief and the love she has lost. Psyche is gone, her other family she never cared for, and her beloved tutor, "the Fox," has died. Her main love interest throughout the novel, Bardia the captain of the royal guard, is married and forever faithful to his wife until his death. To her, the gods remain, as ever, silent, unseen, and merciless.


While Bardia is on his deathbed, Orual decides she can no longer stand the sight of her own kingdom and decides to leave it for the first time to visit neighboring kingdoms. While resting on her journey, she leaves her group at their camp and follows sounds from within a wood, which turn out to be coming from a temple to the goddess Istra (Psyche). There Orual hears a version of Psyche's myth, which shows her as deliberately ruining her sister's life out of envy. In response, she writes out her own story, as set forth in the book, to set the record straight. Her hope is that it will be brought to Greece, where she has heard that men are willing to question even the gods.


Part Two

Orual begins the second part of the book stating that her previous accusation that the gods are unjust is wrong. She does not have time to rewrite the whole book because she is very old and of ill health and will likely die before it can be redone, so instead she is adding on to the end.


She relates that since finishing part one of the book, she has experienced a number of dreams and visions, which at first she doubts the truth of except that they also start happening during daytime when she is fully awake. She sees herself being required to perform a number of impossible tasks, like sorting a giant mound of different seeds into separate piles, with no allowance for error, or collecting the golden wool from a flock of murderous rams, or fetching a bowl of water from a spring on a mountain which cannot be climbed and furthermore is covered with poisonous beasts. It is in the midst of this last vision that she is led to a huge chamber in the land of the dead and given the opportunity to read out her complaint in the gods' hearing. She discovers, however, that instead of reading the book she has written, she reads off a paper that appears in her hand and contains her true feelings, which are indeed less noble than Part One of the book would suggest. Still, rather than being jealous of Psyche, as the story she heard in the temple suggested, she reveals that she was jealous of the gods because they were allowed to enjoy Psyche's love while she herself was not.


The gods make no reply, but Orual is content, as she sees that the gods' "answer" was really to make her understand the truth of her own feelings. Then she is led by the ghost of the Fox into a sunlit arena in which she learns the story of what Psyche has been up to: she has herself been assigned the impossible tasks from Orual's dreams, but was able to complete them with supernatural help. Orual then leaves the arena to enter another verdant field with a clear pool of water and a brilliant sky. There she meets Psyche, who has just returned from her last errand: retrieving a box of beauty from the underworld, which she then gives to Orual, though Orual is hardly conscious of this because at that moment she begins to sense that something else is happening. The God of the Mountain is coming to be with Psyche and judge Orual, but the only thing he says is "You also are Psyche" before the vision ends. The reader is led to understand that this phrase has actually been one of mercy the entire time.


Orual, awoken from the vision, dies shortly thereafter but has just enough time to record her visions and to write that she no longer hates the gods but sees that their very presence is the answer she always needed.




My Thoughts:


When I read this for the first time 20 years ago I have to admit, I didn't understand what Lewis was driving at or even trying to accomplish beyond retelling one of his favorite myths. And that is another reason Why I Re-Read Books. Therefore I stand before you today to announce that I completely understand this book now and every detailed nuance is as a flashing neon sign to my vast and experienced intellect.


Hahahahahahahaahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!


Oh man, yeah, right. * wipes tears of laughter away *


While I enjoyed this and thought Lewis did a masterful job of writing, I don't understand what he was trying to get across any better than I did all those years ago.


Let me be clear though. That is completely on me. I have about one teaspoon's worth of artistry in my 165lb frame (which is about a fingernail clipping's worth) and I have used it up choosing black suspenders and a black bow tie to wear to church. When an author chooses to do something literary, it either passes right over my head (like this) or it comes across as pretentious and I rip the guy a new one. I need the obvious, the hammer over the head, the straight up statement. Allegory is not my thing and I feel like I'm color blind.


I still did enjoy this but I don't think I'll ever re-read it again. I will stick to Lewis' other works where he simply spells out what he's trying to say.


★★★☆☆