is a fine collection of Christian sci-fi and fantasy fiction
928004
RealmScapes, published by Brimstone Fiction, an imprint of Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas, is a fine collection of Christian sci-fi and fantasy fiction. The umbrella term is speculative fiction, yet the thoughtful and wildly imagined stories present solemn hints of truth. If you need a quick fix of Christian escapism, these are some of the stories to get you there. Inventive, humorous, and sometimes shocking, these seventeen adventures will blast great amounts of satisfaction your way.
Highly recommended.
137343
As is the often the case with anthologies like this, Mysterion is a collection of mostly delightful stories that, unfortunately, have allowed just a few less delightful stories to hang out among them. But let us begin with the good, because, by and large, that is what we have going on here.

Whatever your perspective, nobody likes preachy stories, except, perhaps, the authors who write them. Fortunately, the stories in Mysterion almost never feel preachy. The themes in fiction usually shine best when they are presented subtly, and the editors of the text have mostly done a good job of choosing stories with clear but discrete messages. The stories in this collection are just that, and never feel like sermons. I believe that most of the stories in this collection can be enjoyed by anyone who appreciates speculative fiction, regardless of their faith background.

Most of the stories here are creative and written well. I particularly enjoyed some of the shorter pieces like St. Roombas Gospel and Yuri Gagarin Sees God, but some of the longer pieces like The Monastic, Too Poor To Sin, and A Good Hoard are also more than worth the read. These stories and others cover topics ranging from the nature of angels, to the value of the soul, and, quite often, to redemption.

Im always cautious to label a story bad for fear that I am really just a bad audience member for the story, but there were definitely a few tales that stood out as lower quality and less genuine than the rest. For this reader, A Lack of Charity was a gratuitous and predictable tale of revenge that had pretty much made its point a few pages in, but kept going anyway. I really wanted to enjoy Yuki and the Seven Oni by S. Q. Eries, but I found doing so difficult. The concept of an outsider bringing their faith to a foreign land is explored much more thoroughly elsewhere in the collection. I do like what the story has to say about the power of hope and prayer, but came across as heavy-handed. I wish the author would have focused more on developing the characters of Yuki and her stepmother more thoroughly. Stories like these two were disappointing to me, even cringe worthy at a few moments, because the author seemed to focus more on the message than the story.

That being said, if you are willing to look past (or even skip over) a handful of such moments, you will find that Mysterion is a unique and wholesome mix of thoughtful stories that touches fairly on a variety of faith-related issues in our society.
4097411
Powers of Detection collects 12 short stories that are an innovative blend of fantasy and mystery. Using a fantasy backgrounds for who-done-its not only makes for a fun read, it is also quite practical as this anthology should appeal to both mystery fans and fantasy fans. My mother is the former, I am the later and we both liked this book.

Many brilliant authors lend delicious stories to this work. My favorite, without question, was the Simon R Green story "The Nightside, Needless to Say". Of course, I'm prejudiced, I love Green's Nightside series. With this story he leaves Taylor behind, and instead introduces a new (and just as dysfunctional) PI. Though only slightly familiar by Anne Bishop's previous work, I found her story "The Price" to be intriguing and quite well done. "The Death of ClickClickWhistle" by Mike Doogan was so well written and funny that I am seeking out other works of his just because of this tale.

Only one of the stories failed to truly captivate me, and that was "The Boy Who Chased Seagulls" by Michael Armstrong. It also isn't really a mystery, so I'm not sure how/why it was included in this anthology. It is much more a modern fable and a mystery story.

The other eight stories are "Cold Spell" by Donna Andrews, "Lovely" by John Straley, "Fairy Dust" by Charlaine Harris, "The Judgment" by Anne Perry, "The Sorcerer's Assassin" by Sharon Shinn, "Palimpsest" by Laura Anne Gilman, "Cairene Dawn" by Jay Caselberg, and "Justice is a Two-edged Sword" by Dana Stabenow.

Though one of the stories is less than excellent, the rest of the volume is spectacular. Though small at only twelve stories, this anthology is still well worth the price because the quality is superb. If you like anthologies or mystery or fantasy, then treat yourself to this wonderful work.

Highly Recommended.
4171214
Wow!  This was a *great* book.  I don't exaggerate when I say this is the best Christian Sci-Fi I have ever read.  I enjoy Lewis' Space Trilogy very much, perhaps more than Dream Thief, but, while the Space Trilogy is technically Sci-Fi, Lewis' writing style and his understanding of science, even for when he wrote it, makes Lewis' works read more like Fantasy.  Lawhead is the first Christian author I have ever read who has a believable future- true science fiction.  Though I've read only four of Lawhead's works so far, I far prefer his Sci-Fi to his Fantasy.
It is great to see that we (Christians) still exist in the future.  In every other book I have ever read, and I have read a lot of science fiction, the Christians are not ever mentioned, as if a plague came and wiped all of us out sometime in the late 21st century. Religion in Sci-Fi is given short shrift in general, but, if mentioned, it seems to usually be anything but monotheistic.
This isn't a Christian dogma book, where everything is allegorical- Christians, and God, are simply an integral part of the storyline, and there is a Christian worldview behind it.  Yet there are many non-Christians who play important roles as well, including a number of the key protagonists and heroes.  A non-Christian should not feel intimidated in picking up this book- it is a very good read.  The story line catches you, moves quickly, and it's almost as if you're out of breath waiting for the next event.  Though the one disappointment I had was sometimes it felt like sections of action were skipped and only referred to after the fact, I stayed up a couple nights till 2 or 3 in the morning till my eyes could no longer focus and my brain kept rereading the same paragraph.
And Lawhead doesn't even go for easy answers with his Christians.  They aren't conservative/fundamentalist, as Christians are commonly portrayed as all being, but clear and logical thinkers.  Christianity isn't presented as a Western religion, which is accurate, as it has not been in numbers since the 70's, now that most Christians are in the 2/3rds world, and if the Nestorians are included, it was primarily an Asian religion until 1000 AD.  Indeed, the primary Christian in the book is from the largest Baptist state in the world, Nagaland, India.  Christianity also isn't shown as just a moral belief with an idea of some great deity we can pray to, but with an excluded middle.  This is a God who can and does work miracles- amazing, believable ones- just as He does in real life.
Would that this were a genre, rather than, as it would seem, the only book of it's kind out there.  The biographical conversion story is an old, valuable format in Christian literature.  Here now it has been merged with science fiction in an engrossing and believable way.  And in an inspiring way.  Too often when I read science fiction I come away with a sense of hopelessness.  Often the underlying worldview of the author, seeping through the pages of his or her work, is one without hope, in the sense of expectant joy about the future.  This was not the case in Dream Thief.  The reader gains a strong understanding that God is working all things together for the good of those who love Him.  One identifies with the main character feeling a number of times that all is lost, and the situation too dire to be saved.  But when looking back throughout the experience, retrospectively God's hand can not be ignored.  I could easily recommend this to friends to read so that they might draw closer to truly understanding and being one with God.
4271601
great research, good story, fast pace, very imaginative...a distinctive book and series in a growing genre of Christian biblical fantasy
765689
Anthologies that deal primarily with the subject of Sword and Sorcery are rare these days, especially after the demise of Rogue Blades Entertainment. So it was with a certain amount of anticipation that I read Azieran Adventures Presents: Artifacts and Relics: Extreme Sorcery, from Heathen Oracle. Edited by Christopher Heath, the anthology comprises eight short stories and three novellas from established authors and relative newcomers, as well as a classic piece by Clark Ashton Smith and Foreward by Jason M. Waltz.

The story selection is varied, and some even tie into Christopher Heath's own extensive world of Azieran. Like any collection, the contents can be a mixed bag, though I'm pleased to say the vast majority of these tales are well worth the read.

Among my favourites was The Lover's Quarrel by James Beamon. Not your ordinary lover's quarrel, this story opened the anthology with a bang and set the tone for the rest of the book.

The Book of Echoes, a brand new tale of Dorgo the Dowser by Joe Bonadonna, continues the exploits of one of my favourite fantasy characters. First seen in Mad Shadows: The Weird Tales of Dorgo the Dowser, the retired mercenary chases down a rare and powerful tome that has crossed dimensions from Azieran to Dorgo's world of Tanyime.

The Mad Song, by David West, is the story of Khyte of Vjorn, a sell-sword who warns a caravan of imminent danger on a subcontinent that legends had it was once destroyed by denizens summoned with the fabled Pipe of Mahmackrah. But of course the Pipe is only legend, right?

David C. Smith, author of the Fall of the First World trilogy, contributes a novella titled Shadow-born, Shadow-taken, a tale of warring gods and the humans caught up in their petty squabbles.

Other notable stories are two tales by Christopher Heath: Azieran: Assimilation by Second Dawn and Azieran: The Slaver of Karsith Keep, as well as By Hellish Means from Bill Ward, The Red Heart of Dolfar by John M. Whalen and The Sword Cult, a tale of Calthus, by Steve Goble. And of course there is classic fiction from Clark Ashton Smith in The Black Abbot of Puthuum.

Editor Christopher Heath has assembled a strong entry in the field of fantasy, in what I hope is the first of more to come. This collection is definitely recommended.
2578648
I don't know that I can do this review justice, so I'll just say that I found this collection to be a wonderful collage of stories in an anthology that manages to be thought-provoking and heart-wrenching in the midst of science fiction and fantasy stories that seem vividly real. I'm so very glad that I was able to swim through Lake's prose again like this. Despite enjoying several of his novels, I've always felt that short stories were where his voice was strongest -- and this anthology shows that in spades.

This should be an obvious read for those who've read and enjoyed his fiction before -- but it is also a great choice for those who have never read a Jay Lake story or novel. Although some of the stories are tied in one way or another to some of his previous work, there's nothing here that requires previous experience with earlier writing or that doesn't hang well on it's own. Definitely a worthwhile buy.

Someone asked for a list of the stories included -- after all, in buying an anthology, it can be useful sometimes to see if there are new morsels to savor or old favorites to love on. Here's the stories listed as they are in the table of contents, albeit not as nicely formatted as the one in the book:

Last Plane to Heaven: A Love Story
Angels i: The Houses of the Favored

SCIENCE AND OTHER FICTIONS
The Starship Mechanic
Permanent Fatal Errors
"Hello," Said the Gun
The Speed of Time
West to East
The Women Who Ate Stone Squid
Looking for Truth in a Wild Blue Yonder

Angels ii: Scent of the Green Cathedral

STEAM, PUNKS, AND FAIRIES
Spendthrift
Jefferson's West
They Are Forgotten Until They Come Again
The Woman Who Shattered the Moon
The Blade of His Plow
Grindstone
The Temptation of Eustace Prudence McAllen
That Which Rises Ever Upward

Angels iii: A Feast of Angels

PHANTASIES OF STYLE AND PLACE
Promises: A Tale of the City Imperishable
Testaments
The Fall of the Moon
A Critical Examination of Stigmata's Print "Taking the Rats to Riga"
From the Countries of Her Dreams
Unchambered Heart

Angels iv: Novus Ordo Angelorum

DESCENT INTO DARKNESS
The Tentacled Sky
Such Bright and Risen Madness in Our Names
Her Fingers Like Whips, Her Eyes Like Razors
Mother Urban's Booke of Dayes

Angels v: Going Bad

THE END
The Cancer Catechism
2668247
Stephen R. Donaldson, probably best known for his fantasy epic "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever", delivers his second collection of shorter work in "Reave The Just And Other Tales".  Although uneven in quality, there are a lot of goodies here for Donaldson  fans.
Apart from the duology "Mordant's Need", Donaldson's work  is often serious in tone, dealing with moral/ethical questions.  Likewise,  the stories in this collection seem to focus mostly on themes like justice,  sin and redemption.
Donaldson likes to draw his moral dramas with broad  strokes and wide settings.  When using the shorter form, the intensity of  the moral drama becomes so strong that the tales resemble parables rather  than short stories.  Specifically in "The Djinn Who Watches Over The  Accursed" and in the title story, the protagonists resemble  incarnations of ideas, not so much real people.  Combined with Donaldson's  formal, stately prose style, this often leads to a "processional pace  and mood", to quote another reviewer.
Favorite stories are  "Penance", one of the most moving and psychologically insightful  vampire stories I ever read, and "The Djinn Who Watches Over The  Accursed", an interesting and fable-like meditation on being cursed.  Other very strong entries: "The Kings of Tarshish Shall Bring  Gifts" and "The Woman Who Loved Pigs".  The only real  clunker in this collection is "What Makes Us Human".  It's the  only science fiction story in this predominantly fantasy collection.  Apart  from that, the lighter style makes it seem a bit of a throw-away story.  Not surprisingly, this is the oldest story in the collection.
Over all,  this is a strong collection.  Donaldson, a master of the long form,  demonstrates that he can condense his style effectively in shorter works.
399097
Over the past thirty years I have read over 2,500 science fiction and fantasy novels.  This trilogy ranks among the best of them.  I was very sorry to see that the first two reviews basically trashed this novel, not on its literary value but because of the reviewers' own religious views.  Science fiction and fantasy novels are about escape from reality, not religion.  These novels take place in alternate dimensions - why bring Christianity into them?  The books are well written, with a gripping plot, credible characters, and new concepts to the sagging fantasy world, such as external souls with their own personalities and morals.  Is this a Christian concept?  I'm not mentioning my own religion here, because it simply isn't relevant to the literary value of this wonderful series.  If you can't separate fiction from reality (or your own personal beliefs), you have no business reading fiction of any sort.  You also have no business watching television at all or reading the newspaper - yellow journalism exists (and is fiction).  Don't allow the reviewers' own insecurity about their religious beliefs stop you from enjoying a superb fantasy.
2887749
This is a collection of seven short stories about the Black Templars, all by Guy Haley. Several are related. Three follow each other with the same main character, an Initiate who fails in his test to become a Sword Brother for reasons that I would let you discover and who only succeeds after five hundred years. He is over six centuries old by the time the last two consecutive stories take place on Armageddon. Other stories feature the same character at two different points in his career: as a Castellan and when entombed as a Dreadnought.

My favourite of the set is  by far  the Glorious Tomb, the one about the Dreadnought, simply because it is the most moving with the main character wanting to continue to serve and live, and live to serve, even after death and even when he no longer fully understands what is happening. The uncanny Crusader  one of the two stories featuring High Marshall Helbrecht of the (somewhat fanatical) Black Templars is perhaps the strangest story of the lot, with the Black Templars hunting a Xenos enemy and ready to exterminate it only to be confronted by another and even more deadly specie.

Potential readers should note that while they might appreciate some of the stories more than others, they are not any real weak ones, and I happen to believe this although the bombastic Black Templars are not exactly my favourites among the Space Marines. Four stars for a good set of short stories.
980886
Far from Earth, yet linked by penumbral rifts, the Orianus solar system exists.  From ages past; plants, animals, and humans from Earth have passed to other inhabital(and for the unfortunate, uninhabital) planets of the Orianus system.  Even the message of the Gospels have made their way through the penumbral rifts.  On the planet of Kaeldon, modern scientists have accidently unleashed an ancient enemy set on world domination.  Only from the help of millenia old wizards and warriors, ancient technology of unknown origin, and more importantly, through the faith in God, might the citizens of Kaeldon have a chance at survival.

"Black Storm Rising" (BSR) is a thrilling ride.  D. Shane Burton does a wonderful job of allowing his characters to tease the reader with suggestions of hidden knowledge they hold but cannot divulge.  This keeps the reader's interest to ponder what truly is happening.  Much of the time, the plot twists catch you off guard, even though you were expecting them to show up somewhere.  BSR is one of my top suggestions to a Christian Science Fiction reader.  As an added bonus, BSR is twice the length of most novels, yet is priced as a regular novel.  It is an excellent buy for the money and excellent choice for libraries to add their catalogs.

CSFFC ratings:
Teen Friendly:  A  (With the detail of writing, the BSR would be considered an adult story, but with no cursing or sexual scenes, it is definitely teen friendly.)
Christian Message:  A  (D. Shane Burton focus's greatly on morals, prayer, and trusting in God.  Well Done.)
Drug or Alcohol Content: A (none)
Crude or Profane Language: A (none)
Sexual Content: A (none)
Writing:  A-  (Writing style is clear and descriptive.  Only a few minor editing mistakes.)

Leathel Grody
Author of "The Foundations of Hope Trilogy"
Christian Science Fiction & Fantasy Central Reviewer
3218734
The majority of these stories are romantic speculative fiction, so they don't necessarily have a boy-meets/loses/gets-girl plot line, even though the romantic aspect is extremely important.  I'm a dedicated Lois McMaster Bujold fan, so found her contribution worth reading, but I don't think anyone new to her series would -- there are too many characters in too short a space for someone who's unfamiliar with them.  Catherine Asaro's entry tells the story of the non-pov characters in her Luna novel, Charmed Sphere, and was intriguing enough that I went right out and bought that book, too.  Most other stories were solid and enjoyable -- although I felt the story about the man who came back to reunite his wife with the man he'd stolen her from, while a good paranormal romance, did not belong in the anthology, since it was a standard paranormal element and added nothing to the understanding or discussion of reincarnation or the afterlife, as I would expect of speculative fiction.  The surprise entry, as far as I was concerned, was the final story by Jo Beverly.  This was a stunning tour de force, correlating the inspirational speeches of Winston Churchill and a far-future fantasyish world, and illustrating on a very personal level the sacrifices of war.  Absolutely phenomenal, and well worth the price of the anthology for this story alone.
1751274
This is a collection of some 20 fantasy stories all written in 2008 (at least according to the copyright page).  I'd not seen them in any other collection prior to this so I'm thinking possibly they were written *for* this particular collection.

Overall I found this collection quite enjoyable, though I preferred the stories in the first half over those in the second half it seemed like.  There are some REAL winners here  Most of the ones I liked seemed like they were part of a larger world created by the author, either one that existed in other works or which was first-made for this one.  A couple I flat couldn't even understand but as with any such collection I just skipped them--that's always a blessing when you've got many stories to work with.

Recommended mostly for collectors of such fantasy story collections or if you just want something that will work out to be fairly light reading.
2279602
I'm hooked on this series.  It's not deep, it's just good wholesome Christian fiction of the first order.  Share it with a friend.
2881586
After a disaster of Biblical proportions, a man who managed to think ahead must fend off those who did not.  Business executives flee a monstrous creature that pursues them through their building.  Three men find themselves stranded in a life raft in the middle of a lake, with the rift between them growing.  A woman must deal with a mysterious man who keeps trying to steal her children.

Diane Cook's MAN V. NATURE is a masterful collection of stories that often take on the air of fables.  An undercurrent of the fantastic runs through most of these tales, though this is by no means a genre collection.  It is, instead, a very solid collection of fiction that tackles the human nature by removing itself a step or two from reality, without ever quite bridging the gap to surreal or science fiction. (Many of these stories reminded me of Margaret Atwood, if that helps.)  This is definitely a collection you'll be thinking about once you put it down, and entire collections like that are hard to come by.
4803241
Although the Amazon description for this collection of 12 original selections about human-canine bonds describes the worthwhile work of TADSAW, it neglects to mention that proceeds for the nook sales go to support it.  My copy was a no-strings-attached gift from one of the contributors, my friend Andrew M. Seddon.

SF genre  stalwart Kevin J. Anderson is the best known author here, but veteran anthology editor Kyle has assembled a quality collection across the board; every one of the selections is a good, worthwhile read delivered in an accomplished style.  T. H. Cragg's contribution is a genuinely touching nonfiction memoir of the homecoming of his father's "war dog" after World War II.  The rest of the tales (the titular pun is obvious!) are fiction, mostly of the speculative sort.  Except for one story, the human leading characters are current or former members of the military, or military-like organizations.  Their canine companions are mostly dogs, but wolves are represented in a couple of stories, and in the SF yarns, they may simply be dog-like creatures.

My favorite of the three descriptive-fiction stories is Kyle's "Partners;" it has truly engaging, believable characters (I could like Blake, Micki and Steele, and four-footed Thor, as series characters!), a good premise and plot with a skillful resolution, and nicely textured writing..  The grisly reality of World War II aerial combat is vividly evoked in L. J. Bonham's "Sancho."  And C. R. Asay, in "The Greatest," gives us a dog narrator who actually comes across as thinking and feeling the way we can imagine a dog would (if it were able to be this verbal).

Among the speculative fiction stories, the stand-out for me was Andrew's "The Dancing Golden Girls," (and not just because the author is a friend, or because I beta read it!).  Set in 1927 Egypt, it's the first of the author's cycle of stories about World War II veteran Sheffield and his dog Baltasar, whose travels pit them against various sinister entities of a Lovecraftian sort, but handled without the existential pessimism that's often tacked on to HPL's own work.  (I'm a fan of Lovecraft take-offs, and nobody does them better than Andrew!)

The latter story has a resolution, despite being the first of a series.  If the other speculative stories have a flaw, its that the authors often dump us into the middle of events right at the beginning, in the midst of a seemingly partially-built world and a situation with a considerable back-story that's disclosed only gradually and not completely.  These cried out for more explanation, and they often don't have real resolutions, either.  (Granted, events in life often don't have tidy resolutions!)  If I didn't know better, I could see some of these as novel excerpts.  (S. A. Wallin's draconic fantasy "The Commander's Tail" actually is a "companion piece" to her still unpublished The Dragon's Daughter.)  Sometimes this was a bit frustrating, though I could usually take it on its own terms.  That said, Doranna Durgin's "Just Hanah" is a fine example of a "coming of age" story, and Anderson does a great job of creating palpable suspense in his near-future dystopian vision, "Dogged Persistance."

None of these stories have any sexual content, and they either have no bad language or not much of it.  Violence is generally not too graphic, and it isn't there unless it needs to be.  Darkness and death are very often realities in the character's world; but the stories' messages are about hope and life.  And for readers who are lovers of hope and life, they're highly recommended!
3700533
Last night, I stayed up way past the normal time I turn in, reading a new Christian novel e-book that I found out about on Twitter, called Knox's Irregulars by J. Wesley Bush. I was immediately intrigued, because it was Christian science fiction. It is rare that I read modern Christian novels, and even rarer that I enjoy them. I am a lover of classical literature, and most modern novels, particularly Christian novels, don't really stand up well next to the classics. However, I was pleasantly surprised with Knox's Irregulars.

Knox's Irregulars is set in the 25th century, on a distant planet that humans have colonized. There are two groups of humans inhabiting the planet, the New Genevans, a small group of Reformed Christians and others living on the south end of the planet's continent. The other group is the Abkhenazi, a much larger people group, whose religion and politics could best be described as a cobbling together of New-Age spirituality, Islam, Marxism and Nazism.

The Abkhenazi group is rather poorly off, economically, because of their political/religious reasons. As we see in Islamic and Marxist nations, the people always suffer greatly due to the political and religious views of those nations. But their soldiers fight with the fanatical devotion we see from Islamic fighters and the Nazi soldiers. Further, they attempt to engineer evolution in humans through experiments on their prisoners and subjects, something we've seen from Nazism.

The New Genevans, on the other hand, are a mostly Christian group, primarily Reformed Christian(read: Calvinist), although there are those who don't adhere to Christianity in their midst. They tend to be more prosperous than their Abkhenazi, promoting jealousy from their neighbors. What the Genevans lack in sheer force, they tend to make up for in technology. But technology isn't everything when one is greatly outnumbered.

When war starts between New Geneva and the Abkhenazi, Corporal Randal Knox is forced to take the lead of a ragtag band of survivors who make it past the first clash with the Abkhenazi, and who are now attempting to make it back to the main force of the army. When this small band of survivors finally makes it to the primary city where the main force of the army was supposed to be, the Abkhenazi now occupy that city and are keeping the New Genevans prisoner. Knox is faced with a decision, attempt to make it back to the army much farther south, or attempt to get the underground milita groups working together to defeat the Abkhenazi. Knox is also drawn to the young medic that is part of his group, a beautiful young woman, and attempts to begin a relationship with her.

The writing in this book draws you in and engages you. The author is evidently a well-read man, judging by his use of different philosphers and thinkers and mentions of historical events. It has always been my experience that the best authors are men who read well, and this book would seem to prove my point. His characters have depth, although the author doesn't go into needlessly long detail about who his characters are and what they do. Not only is the story engaging, the characters realistic, but there is also a bit of theological work in here, making it much more interesting for those of us who are Christians. I would strongly recommend this e-book for a read, particularly if you enjoy science-fiction. If you don't, this book would still be enjoyable for you I think. It's worth every penny you spend on it, and more.