The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham

I picked this book up in the library, mostly because it was an old, fabric-covered hardback. The first page had me hooked, and I took it home with me.

After the first few pages, there isn't much action -- this is a classic destruction-of-the-world-now-what-do-we-do, end-of-society book. The author makes good use of descriptive language, but if anything, tends to let his character stay bemused a bit too long. He wanders around for quite a few pages without accomplishing anything.

Mr. Wyndham's take on what would happen if most of the world suddenly went blind is pretty good, although I would have preferred to see more of the blind people retain their sense of self and accomplish more. The only blind person who actually tries to figure out what happened and protect himself and his family is met towards the end of the book. Before that, all we see is whining and mass chaos.

The main character, William Masen, is very likeable. The girl lead, Josella Playton, is rather too humanistically philsophical for my taste -- I was glad that Masen felt uncomfortable with a few of the proposed cultural changes.

There are several points in this book where helping those in need is depicted as a useless pasttime. The author seems to think that as long as the human race is perpetuated, we don't need to worry about those who are incapacitated or weak. This is a troubling trend, which may be brought on by evolutionary thinking -- survival of the fittest and all that.

Because of the portions where several hard philosophical issues are brought up, not to mention the cultural changes that are proposed, I don't recommend this book for teenagers under about 17, unless their parents are discussing it with them. Many science fiction books like to speculate about how people would throw off the shackles of convention if they were finally freed from cultural expectations.

I really enjoyed reading this book, although I probably did tend to gloss over some of the description to get to the action. Who says escapism is always bad?

Heidi

Pagan Christianity

Pagan Christianity, by Frank Viola

This is a fascinating look at how our current institutionalized church structure clashes with the very fluid New Testament church.

Mr. Viola seems to have researched his claims exhaustively, and he includes scripture references for each of his claims. The basis for his declaration that our format is based on pagan and secular practices is well-documented, with quotes from various leaders over the centuries and Mr. Viola follows the development from a Spirit-led fellowship of equality in Christ through Catholicism's superiority complex and down the the split that still interferes with every denomination that uses a pastor, altar, podium, and even worship team.

While I don't necessarily agree with (or maybe I just don't follow!) all of his reasoning, the picture that a reader comes away with exposes how little we have really changed from the Roman Catholic structure and what Mr. Viola thinks would be the framework for a church which is truly a living organism.

I don't remember any inappropriate portions of this book, but it would not be easy for young children to understand without guidance. While it is not the Bible, it is certainly illuminating.

Dorothy L. Sayers

I fully intended, when I heard about Dorothy Sayers, to read some of her treatises on education. I may still get around to those, but I've just been enthralled by the Lord Peter Whimsy series.

Lord Peter is an independently wealthy younger son of a duke. He dabbles in book collecting and being insanely curious about everyone else's business. When you meet him in 'Whose Body,' he gets a call from his mother about an acquaintance of hers who found a body in his bathtub 'dressed only in a pair of gold spectacles.' Hmm.

These, like many of the other books I like, are murder mysteries. There are dead bodies, motives, and deadly weapons floating all throughout the story. My 15-year-old sister is trying to read them before I get finished -- back off, darling!

So, in view of the corpses, this is probably a book for about 13-14 years or older. There is adultery in two of the stories I've read so far, and there is also drug use in one in particular - 'Murder Must Advertise.' So I might up the age recommendation to 15 (of course!) for the rest of the series. It's probably better not to let any young children read the first one, because then they will be panting for the next installment! I know I was.

As the icing on the cake, Lord Peter has a valet named Bunter who is a slightly more open version of Jeeves, and a detective friend named Charles Parker who does all the leg work for the investigations. Peter is unapologetically lazy about doing any hard work. He wants the fun parts and the thinking parts.

Dorothy Sayers was a friend of C.S.Lewis and J.R.R.Tolkein, but I have yet to find any overt references to any of her characters being Christian. This was somewhat disappointing to me, but the mysteries are still valid. And hard to figure out. There was this one where the murderer -- but that would be telling!

John Buchan

I feel kind of silly. I didn't expect, when I started this book-review blog, that I would suddenly stop reading for weeks at a time! Believe me, this is abnormal behaviour. Oooh, maybe I've got a life! False alarm, everyone. I'm getting back into the swing a bit, especially with this cold (both in my nose and the air). The problem is that I like to read all the books by one author as soon as I find him. John Buchan, in this case.

Richard Hannay Series:
The Thirty-Nine Steps
Greenmantle
Mr. Standfast (I'm reading this one now.)

Other books:
Hightower
Augustus

I know there are more, I just haven't picked them up yet.

I haven't read Augustus, because it's a historical novel-type, and I was wanting the adventures that were placed in the World War I era.

Greenmantle's pretty good, but a bit more involved than The Thirty-Nine Steps. Hannay travels all over the war zone and around in circles. I think I needed a map to keep track of him...

Hightower was fun, but the love story in it was extremely annoying. I can't say much without giving it away, so I'll just say it was frustrating in the approach he took. You probably won't understand that unless you read the book. Sorry.

Mr. Standfast is interesting, and I've always like stories where the main character has to go undercover and 'become another person,' so I'll finish that one soon. Hannay has a love interest in this one, so we'll see how that plays out. I like Buchan's adventures, but so far his romance is not exactly to my taste. We'll see.

Ta, till next time.

The Thirty-Nine Steps

I have just finished the best book I have read in forever!

Well, at least a month.

The Thirty-Nine Steps, by John Buchan; published in 1915 (You'll find that I like older books.)

I meant to have the book right here with me while I wrote this, but my father seems to have appropriated it.

This is the story of young Mr. Richard Hannay, who made a fortune in South Africa, came back to England, and is now bored out of his mind. He wishes for an adventure -- bam! Adventure drops in his lap. Ha! Not only adventure, but murder, conspiracy, and spy-like-stuff. This story gets a bit fantastically coincidental, but in the tradition of upstanding adventure stories it is always just barely plausible even where improbable.

Mr. Scudder approaches Hannay with a incredible story about espionage and assassination which Hannay finds himself believing, almost against his own logic. He agrees to help Mr. Scudder hide from his enemies, but before long Mr. Scudder is found pinned to the floor with a knife! Of course, Hannay immediately takes off in a wild scurry across the countryside, trying to find allies to help him as he learns more and more about the plot Mr. Scudder has uncovered. Of course, there are the thirty-nine steps...

This book is told in the first person; it gives a pricelessly believable look into the mind of Mr. Hannay as he zig-zags through intrigue. There are many scenes that test the protagonists powers of invention to hide, and he always comes through beautifully disguised.

I can hardly wait to lay hands on the book again; I hope to find some good quoteables!

I hope you can find this book and find is as good as I have.

This book is suitable for almost anyone above 10 years old; even younger if they can read/understand it. Again, there is murder involved.

Those of you specifically concerned with attitude please note that the protagonist lies several times about what is going on and runs from the police -- however, he clearly wishes to involve the law in his efforts, and states his distaste for being 'wanted,' although he is never advertised for. I suppose you could say he simply went for a jaunt, and when he saw people nearing his position he went to extreme lengths to be left alone... .

There is absolutely nothing sensual/sexual in this book at all that I remember.

Enjoy!

Terry Pratchett - Discworld

Terry Pratchett is definitely one of my favorite authors. (Let's see, how many does that make?)

Discworld is a very imaginative alternate-universe series. It gets off to a good start, and it is helpful to read the books in order; however, Pratchett does not fall into his stride until about the third or fourth book.

Captain Samuel Vimes, not Rincewind, ends up being the main character in many of the stories. There are many examples of courage, good sense applied in an innovative fashion, but mostly these are rather light nonsense books. You do have to engage to keep all the characters straight, but they are easy reading.

Warnings:

For those of you concerned about this, there is magic. There is also a Dictator, more or less in complete charge. There are all kinds of mythical creatures, and there are personifications of Death and Time and many other interesting characters as 'gods.' These are all played as a bit of a spoof, including Death, who always speaks in capital letters.

There are a few crudities scattered throughout as jokes; some are obviously crude, others can be very funny.

There are references to sex between different characters -- there are not very many scenes to make you wince, but a few. These mostly begin to occur much later in the series.


I would put this around 16-18 years and above. If you let your kids watch pg13 romantic comedies, this will be right in that class. If you don't watch anything but pg, and fast forward any of that (e.g. kissing), then you will want to leave these books for adults with a wacky sense of humor.

Under Construction...

Sorry about anything that doesn't work on the page -- I'm still under construction.

Ngaio Marsh

I'm going to start with an author instead of a book.

I've been reading through as many of Ngaio Marsh's books as possible in the last year. She writes mysteries, similar to Agatha Christie. Ngaio Marsh is a New Zealander (did I spell that right?). Most of her stories are set in England, but I've read a few set in NZ, Rome, and other vacation spots.

The common character in all of these stories is Roderick Alleyn. We follow his ascension through the ranks of Scotland Yard, all while trying to outguess him in solving the mystery. Marsh seems to think it funny to interrupt his vacations with a murder either in his party or nearby. I don't know when the poor guy relaxes.

I like Ngaio Marsh because she is very good about giving you all (or almost all) of the information necessary to solve the crime before she tells you. Her detectives, Alleyn and Mr. Fox, discuss the cases. Only in the last couple of chapters -- and they're generally rather short -- do they start to exclude you from the conversation.

I just completed 'Death and the Dancing Footman,' and I was able to guess the killer correctly; however, in the one I read just previous, 'A Wreath for Rivera,' I did not.

Marsh rarely introduces last-minute motives or information. She has done this a few times, but overall you have a fair chance. She tries to keep the murder believable, often choosing the person with the most realistic motive. But don't let that fool you! There are motives scattered all around, and you need a sense of her regard for human fallibility in order to succeed.

Marsh usually has a sketchy love story or two in each book -- no fear, there are no R-rated scenes. There is simply a rather sweet realization of mutual attraction. She does occasionally portray and extra-marital affair, but there are no details. You are simply informed that so-and-so is seeing --


Had to take a break. I am in school, after all...

Where was I?

As for warnings, I would recommend these books for about 14 years and older. Parental discretion, as always; these are murder mysteries, after all.

Anyone is welcome to add their impressions to mine -- fair warning, though; I am writing this from a traditional Christian point of view. Nothing nasty, please.