CSFF blog tour: DKA day 2
Filed under Blog Tours, Reviews on October 31, 2006
Tagged: Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy blog tour, dkamagazine.com
It is still October 31st as I write this. I hope you’ll forgive my tardiness, but my days recently seem to be lacking those few extra hours I need to get everything on my list done. The October 2006 issue of Dragons, Knights & Angels features 13 fiction pieces (two of which are classified as “student” entries), 2 news articles and 1 poem. I’ve read through 6 of the fiction pieces and the poem so far.
“Plaque” by C. T. Matthews takes an interesting twist on vampires, discussing the effect the blood of Jews and Christians have when digested. The conversion of the dying vampire at the end felt forced and artificial, however.
“A Song for Orcs” by J. Evans Seton is a great poem that calls orcs to rise up from their bestiality and replace the decadent, decayed culture of man with one of honor and heroism.
“Dragon . . . Knight . . . Angel” by Genevieve Cunningham is a student entry about a fallen knight and his redemption. The writing was disjointed, making the story hard to follow at points. A lack of character development made it hard to care about the knight.
“Damage” by Jane Lebak examined the relationship between guardian angels and their wards. Unfortunately, this story falls into the category I call “Chicken Soup for the Soul.” It relied on an emotional subject to tug the heart strings–and I’ll admit mine were pulled–rather than strong writing.
“An Epitaph for Shangri-La” by George L. Duncan follows a group of space explorers that happen upon a paradise planet and its deceased population. The story would have benefited from more showing and less telling, and I felt there were some extraneous scenes that had little to do with the plot or character development. Still, in true science fiction form, the writer examined some current trends in our culture and took them to a plausible conclusion that made me shake my head in sadness.
“A Swarm of Mermaids” by Christie McCreadie follows a cherub trying to earn his wings, or license, in this case. The use of first person present really drew me into the journey and I liked the use of mythical creatures as the obstacles to overcome. Strong but succinct descriptions allowed me to visualize each encounter.
“Useless Meetings” by Ivy Reisner is a humorous look at how the devil is constantly trying to devise schemes to destroy us, a la Screwtape Letters.
That concludes part one of my review. The tour runs today through Wednesday, November 1st. Be sure to check in with the other participants in the tour:
- Jim Black
- Jackie Castle
- Valerie Comer
- Frank Creed
- Christina Deanne
- Beth Goddard
- Todd Michael Greene
- Leathel Grody
- Karen Hancock
- Elliot Hanowski
- Katie Hart
- Sherrie Hibbs
- Joleen Howell
- Jason Joyner
- Karen and at Karen’s myspace
- Oliver King
- Tina Kulesa
- Lost Genre Guild
- Kevin Lucia
- Rachel Marks
- Shannon McNear
- Rebecca LuElla Miller
- Caleb Newell
- Cheryl Russel
- Mirtika Schultz
- Stuart Stockton
- Steve Trower
- Speculative Faith
Related Posts
- CSFF blog tour: DKA day 3
- CSFF blog tour: DKA day 1
- CSFF blog tour July 2006
- CSFF blog tour April 2007 (day 1)
- RotGK: CSFF blog tour (day 3)
