The Sci Fi Catholic Yak Module
Catholic science fiction is still a neglected field. Here is my small amateurish contribution:
http://fatherjoe.wordpress.com/2...ction-excerpts/
Peace,
Father Joe
DGD,
Thoughtful post. I respect you for taking a step back and looking at your work here, even if it means you change little.
I freely admit that I am an unfamiliar reader of much fantasy. When I decided to write fantasy, I mistakenly stopped reading it for fear I would unintentionally borrow from other writers.
But Mir is widely read in the genre and she did not share your worldbuilding concerns that I recall. Certainly she didn't find the book "conventional and free of surprises," at least from what I remember of her review.
Be that as it may, I definitely do not think Christians need to join the fantasy niche, since most readers don't belong there. At least, not if we are writing to the culture at large.
Sharon was writing for a different niche. It was a risky thing to attempt and only sales figures will tell if she succeeded or not. I'd say, if her audience will try it, they will love it, AND they will fall in love with fantasy.
BECAUSE her worldbuilding is not Tolkien-esq, I think she has made fantasy accessible to Everymom. Is that bad? To open the genre to people who had become accustom to thinking it is only stories that have nothing to which they can relate?
There is that male/female protagonist issue. Will men always see a woman's internal struggle as whining? Or was Susan Mitchell really whiny?
That's a subject I'd still like to explore.
But back to this topic. As I understand what your saying, for the most part, you didn't like The Restorer because 1) it didn't contain Catholic theology; and 2) it didn't develop the world the way you're accustomed to.
I can understand, on that basis, you wouldn't recommend it to those of like mind. But did it succeed in what it was trying to accomplish?
That, I think, is possibly one way to review a book.
Becky
For what it's worth, D.G., I didn't think you were unduly harsh (maybe because I'm accustomed to discussions on a site where really, really fierce deconstructions of bad fantasy/sf take place, and let me assure you that by contrast you pelted this novel with roses).
If it's badly done, then it doesn't get a free pass simply by playing the "But it's a Christian novel!" or the "But it's in the viewpoint of a female character!" cards.
Re: worldbuilding - does Susan particiate in any battles? If so, how does an ordinary housewife with no sword training/military experience manage not to get killed in the first ten minutes? Or is she more of a Joan of Arc figure, important as an inspirational leader but not (as I have read somewhere) actually wielding a sword in battle?
What I took from your review is that Ms. Hincks did not manage to convince you about her world, which is indeed a failure in world-building. If the enemy characters are portrayed as nothing more than the Necessary Threat (they're only there to give the heroes something to fight and they have no other reason for existence) and are Evil for no discernible cause other than our heroes are the Good Guys and naturally that makes those opposing them the Bad Guys, then it's not good enough.
If her heroine's only purpose in appearing in this world is to prop up the Good Guy's wavering self-esteem (and maybe convince a Semi-Bad Guy Who's Really On The Good Guys' Side Only He Doesn't Want To Admit It To Himself to change sides) by dispensing self-help bromides, then what is the point?
I would agree that if your only reason for disliking this book was because it did not include Catholic imagery and practices, then that would be invalid. But that was not what I took from your criticism; rather, you were pointing out how the society she depicts could have been richer and deeper than she realises. If she went back to the Old Testament (for the culture she is basing her world on) and read the requirements for the robes of the High Priest, for instance: all that gold, embroidery, jewels, incense, libations, lustrations, chanting, offerings, following of the calendar - all that *liturgy*, in a word!
Whoa. You pegged the Semi-Bad Guy Who's Really On The Good Guys' Side Only He Doesn't Want To Admit It To Himself motif. Did you read the novel? Or maybe you've just seen that one before.
I'm comfortable with Susan doing some butt-kicking. My only problem there is that she gained her fighting powers right at the novel's tail-end. That needed some buildup to be believable.
All in all, I regret the review's tone. I regret the gratuitous joke about the bubble bath, which I probably wouldn't have made if I hadn't read the book myself while in the bath and burning scented candles (just don't ask). I also regret the third to last paragraph where I went hunting for theological objections when I really didn't have any. That is directly contrary to my blog's purpose, and I am seriously considering writing a public apology for that one. The rest of the review I still would have written if I had it to do over, but I may have tried to find a nicer way to say what I said.
The fantasy writer has the privilege of doing what no one else can legitimately do. He can make up his own religion. When you have the option of doing that, why not make it rich? But you're right; my objection is not that the book is not Catholic. I can think of some great non-Catholic Christian fiction writers. There's the aforementioned Peretti, who is an excellent horror writer who did a good job of finally getting rid of those curly-haired Italian angels. There's Paul Maier, who first taught me that Christian fiction can be good, and he's also a competent and well-loved historian. Of course there's Lewis, whose Space Trilogy, especially Perelandra is a thematically complex commentary on Paradise Lost and The Divine Comedy. And let's not forget George MacDonald, without whom we wouldn't be talking about "fantasy literature" in the first place. His children's books are downright dense, in a good way, because MacDonald was a heavy thinker; he makes incredible use of Christian imagery and allegory.
People who want to write Christian sf should consider putting Tolkien and Lewis away and studying a few other things: read MacDonald (with commentary) for starters. Second, watch the entire anime series Trigun, which makes the most inventive use of Christian images I've seen recently (I've got to get me one of those cross punishers). Third, read lots and lots of Gene Wolfe, Connie Willis, and Madeline L'Engle. Fourth, get your hands on Church Fathers, some good Church histories, Josephus, a dictionary of Christian mythology, some Joseph Campbell, a good collection of mythological texts, some serious theology, and dive in.
Well, you know my thoughts on the matter. People who want to write "Christian" SF should really spend some time asking themselves why they want to write Christian SF?
Is it to uplift and edify the Church? Or is it to share the richness of the gospel with the world at large. Building up the members of the Body of Christ is about the only reason I would choose to place myself in a "ghetto within a ghetto" (which is what Christian SF is). But then again, if that was my intention, I'd just write a devotional nonfiction book or other religious nonfiction.
Writing Christian science fiction for the Church strikes me as an exercise for those who believe they must separate themselves from the world and create sanitized Christian versions of secular things.
But then again, you knew I'd say something like that D.G.D!
I liked your review of the recent novel. Keep 'em coming.
I write Christian SF cause I like SF and cause I'm Christian.
If I were a dog fetishist, I'd write SF with lots of attractive dogs who wanted to marry the protagonists.
If I were a hardcore feminist, I'd be writing, er....Joanna Russ type stories, or Sherri Tepper, I guess.
But I'm a Christian (evangelicalish) and I have enjoyed SF since I was 16, and so I write Christian SF. 
It's not rocket science.
I may not write brilliant SF, but then, few people do. Most of us slog along trying to get better.
Feel free to read my stuff and tell me if you think it's dreck (which DGD probably will think so), or if you like it. At the moment, I'm working on something that caught an editor's eye, and, well, that raises the bar. I want it to be BETTER, ya know?
Oh, and Becky is sweet but I'm not that well-read. I love SF, but I am not a fast reader anymore (those days left with my health), so I content myself with what my eyes can bear. Right now, I'm on a Dresden Files and FABLES kick. SEEKER is on my read soon list (it's been sitting in my living room for a couple months). And I ordered a bunch of urban fantasies and some Best Ofs.
But widely read. Nah.
Mir--just reread "A Saucer of Loneliness" cause it's the sort of story that makes me sigh and feel very, very human.
DGD,
Hey, I wanted to thank you for stepping up and exposing yourself like this. It probably would be easy to brush others off and go on with life. However, to be humble (yet bold) enough to take a look at this episode and realize some change might be in order takes a lot to do.
If you're the black sheep of the group, I'm proud to hang out by you in the flock. Keep up the good insight and challenges.
Jason
But Mir, why does it have to be Christian SF? Why cant it just be SF? I love aikido and singing, but I don't write aikido SF or musical SF?
Because you're not me.
Not everything I've written has been Christian SF (example, my Rhysling nominated poem), but what one is tends to show up in fiction and poetry, because those are very intimate acts of expression. I simply do because I simply am. That's the best I can offer.
I don't love Christianity. I am a Christian. Essence. Not just preference. I see the world and people through the lens. So, there you go.
If I were a musician and music was my daily, consistent, practiced life, I suspect there would be musical tendencies in my work--characters who are musicians, structure that echoes a concerto, musical rhythms in the language, an exploration of what alien or faerie music would be like, etc.
What you are shows.
Mir
Oh, and various readers I've seen say that LeGuin's taoism shows up in her work.
Just as Gene Wolfe's Catholicism does.
Just as Lafferty's did.
Just as Isaac Bashevis Singer's Judaism did.
It's like asking me why I have Hispanic characters in my WIP urban fantasy. Um, cause I"m Hispanic. It's what I know and who I am.
For some, what they most identify with religiously or politically or philosophically shows up occasionally. For others consistently.
I don't tell people what to write. I don't have control over their muses. I don't have much control over mine, mfor that matter, and she's a lollygagger as is: My muse is quite devout most of the time. ; )
Mir
It mind as well be mentioned that Frank Herbert wrote druggie sci-fi....
Histor
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