The Land of Bad Elves: a review of M.B. Mooney's The Living Stone

Unlike Middle Earth, the elves are the evil empire. The human lands of Erelon have been ruled for many years now by the elves of Kyrus. They've tried to wipe out traditional monotheism, and have imposed their own ways on human society. However, there are pockets of those who have held on to their belief in El. Among them are those led by one known as the Prophet.

Caleb De'Ador had been missing since he was 15, captured by the elf authorities and taken to Kryus, the centre of the elven empire. The high ranking elf that was in charge of him happened to be sympathetic towards the human nation, realising the injustice of his own kind. He had Caleb trained as a Bladeguard, something like a Samurai. Caleb returns to Erelon, intending to seek the Living Stone, which would confirm him into the ancient order of the Sohan-el. They are the true Samurai-like defenders of the faith that are now only a legend, and of which the order of the Bladeguard are a copy. To become a Sohan-el, a trained swordsman who has taken the oath must seek the living stone, an iron rock with a tree growing out of it, and lay his hand on it. If he is found worthy, the rock will released an unforged sword, the symbol of his office. The Sohan-el haven't been around for hundreds of years. As a Sohan-el, he can begin to lead humanity to stand up and fight for their freedom, and restore their glory as nations under El.

On his return to Erelon, Caleb finds that the Prophet, his uncle, has been imprisoned by the elves in a strong fortress-like prison. A local gangster introduces him to Aden, a child of the streets, who is the only one known to have escaped this prison. He offers to help under one condition, that he be allowed to accompany Caleb and the Prophet on their journeys. Caleb reluctantly agrees, and they bust the Prophet out.

Meanwhile, in the mountains to the West, a door to the underworld has opened, which happens once in 527 years. A legion of demics (a sort of small orc or troll) pour forth, led by a giant horned Demilord named Thoros. They once roamed freely on the face of the earth until they were imprisoned in the underworld by the Sohan-el. Every 527 years, when the door opens, a limited number of them escape with the goal of finding the key to the underworld, so that they can reopen the door and let the rest of them out. They begin their journey to the northern city of Ketan, devouring every living thing in their path. The demics eat human flesh, but the demilord eats their souls -- reminiscent of William Hodgeson's The Night Lands. From the first town, only Eshlyn and her infant son survive. She must make it to the walled city of Ketan, warning everyone she meets on the way, urging them to join her. The infant is a descendant of the ancient human dynasty that once ruled in Ketan. Now, Ketan is a backwater, ruled by a corrupt high elf who was sent there as punishment.

Ketan is also the destination of Caleb, Aden and the Prophet, along with a growing group of companions. The Living Stone is somewhere in the mountains just beyond.

Mooney keeps the action going from both sides, Eshlyn's struggle to persuade townsfolk of the dangers only a day or so behind her; Caleb and company's journeys, barely a step ahead of elven authorities. The characterisation is good. Caleb is impulsive and sometimes insists on performing heroic acts even when they could endanger their mission. The Prophet isn't a Gandalf nor a Professor Dumbledore. While he knows how to hear the voice of El, he hasn't been a good father figure, and he regrets that. There are also good elves, such as Caleb's mentor in Kyrus, and the First General of Ketan, who must work around elven corruption. There are also good humans, as well as those who probably deserved to be eaten by the demics. Of course, there's a lot of samurai style action and swordplay, as well as good strategy. Mooney has invented his own profanity, words like “crit” and “break”, for which I'm sure, if we lived in Erelon, our mothers would wash our mouths out with soap.

It's a good read, and Mooney sets us up for the sequel.

Review: Somewhither, by John C. Wright

After reading the preview of the first chapter on Wright's blog page, I couldn't wait for this book to come out. Now, I can't wait for book two.

In the first chapter, Ilya goes to his dad with a question that must be answered, expecting the usual brush off response. He's one of those dads that seems aloof, non communicative, but demanding of obedience, with high expectations of a top notch highly disciplined fighting machine at the end of a program of rigorous training that he puts his sons through. Training for what...? That's part of his dad's secretive nature. But hidden somewhere in that dense forest of hardwood is actually a fatherly heart that cares. So, Ilya expects a brush off response, and he appear to be getting just that. He probes for more, while his dad probes him in return for the intent of the question. Then, suddenly, his dad springs to his feet, barks out a series of orders, inducts him into the order of the Knights Templar and Ilya's childhood is over. That's not a spoiler, I hope. It's only the first chapter.

I also can't wait for the last book in the series, because I want to see his dad's response to the long tale that Ilya is going to report to him.

In the course of the story, Ilya makes other discoveries about himself. I like stories where there are hidden facts about oneself that are to be discovered, like Harry Potter finding out who he really is, and Frodo realising that that old ring that's been sitting in the top drawer of the desk all this time is, in fact ... -- well, you get the picture. There are some pretty amazing things to be discovered about Ilya as well.

The premise of this story is the answer to the question Ilya went to ask his dad in the first chapter, "How many universes are there?" Some proponents of the Many Worlds Interpretation say there's one for every atomic particle that ever made a wrong turn. According to Wright, there's one for every time God changed the course of history by whatever act he did, whether it be bringing the world wide flood, confusing the languages, delivering the children of Israel from Egypt (I could go on, but some of them could be construed as spoilers) -- there's always a world that splits off in which that didn't happen.

I finished the book, thinking it was awfully short. I went to the Amazon Kindle page so as to check the size of the book, and to my surprise, it was 590 pages!

Anyway, although I did grimace at some of Ilya's boyish ways and his occasional thickheadedness, it was a page turner (or in my case, a screen swiper). Like I said, I'm waiting for the next one...

Click on the cover image above to get to the Amazon page.

Hello again.

I've been away from this blog for too long, and now I've decided to make a new half-way-through-the-year's resolution to get back on it, and try to be more regular. I do have a number of things that could have been going on it, such as some book reviews, which I'll post in a minute.

But first, let me announce that Pepe is now a free download, in return for signing up for a newsletter. Here's where you go to sign up. Just click on the cover image:

...or here: www.robbycharters.co.uk/pepe.php

The Memories of Geoffrey Hughes

I've just completed a short story, which you should be able to read here.

I suppose you could call it a cross genre Science Fiction / ghost story. It's not a horror story, not into things like seances or occult, just includes a wee ghost. I think you'll like it.

Websites and Domain Names

I've got two new websites. One isn't so new, but I just never got around to posting about hit here.

The not so new one is, www.Robbys-eBook-Formatting.co.uk, which is my business website, selling my services as an eBook formatter.

The newest one, just published with my new domain name today, is www.RobbyCharters.co.uk, which is technically also a business website, but selling my books. That also will have the list of where to find all my stuff online.

Do Christians Love Guns?

...that's the title of a recent blogpost and newsletter by Andrew Strom. Find it here.


My first comment on it was, "I agree with you 100%, but I’m afraid you’re in for an avalanche of email every bit as big as the one you got for “Tea Party”"

When I went to hit the "Post" button, the site hung. I thought that was my prediction suddenly coming true, with the sudden avalanche of comments coming in. I finally got mine in later, and proceeded to view some of the comments. It's quite clear to all that just because one receives Andrew Strom's newsletters and frequents his website, isn't an indication that one agrees with him 100%. In fact, predictably, even though "Pasivism" wasn't mentioned in Andrew's article, nor even alluded to, that quickly became a hot topic on the comment stream. Here's one:

A question for all you pacifist Christians. If you were in that grade school, there was a gun on the table next to you and you heard the screams of people and gunshots. Would you leave that gun on the table and say, “violence is not Christian!” and continue to let dozens be killed?
The way to stop a bad person with a gun is a good person with a gun

 The one just before that was a very long one, probably worth reading to get the jist of the anti-pacifist view. However, all that wasn't the point of Andrew's post.

Here was my longer post:

I posted my comment above, and THEN looked at some of the earlier responses…

I don’t think Andrew is saying that it’s wrong to stand against injustice with use of force. It’s just not the Christian mandate. The police and the military, after all, use force to do many of the same things mentioned above. They’re not in violation of God’s laws. Even a revolution might be in order at times, but don’t mistake it for the advancement of the Kingdom of God.

As for the example of David and Goliath, above: The Jewish people had (or still have — depending on your theology) the mandate of maintaining a nation in the land God had given them as a part of God’s covenant with Israel. Christians, under the New Covenant, didn’t receive such a mandate. We’re called to support those in power, especially those who enforce justice.

Now, as to the question, what should we have done during the early Nazi period in Germany, or whether to use a gun to prevent a greater disaster etc etc. …

Is having an easy answer a mark of Truth? Is any one approach automatically the right one for every situation?

I see, in the reigns of King David and King Solomon, a scriptural basis for both passivism and non-passivism. David fought many wars to establish the Kingdom of Israel all the way to the borders God had promised to Moses. He was 100% in God’s will in doing so. However, in doing this, he was a “man of blood”, and therefore wasn’t granted the privilage of building God’s Temple. King Solomon, a “man of peace”, was called to do that, and Solomon’s reign, in stark contrast to David’s, was an era of peace.
Picking up a gun to shoot someone, even to stop a school shooting spree, is a position I hope I’m never thrust into. We could, for the purpose of argument, say it’s a sin. However, the rabbis have an argument based on the degrees of sin — the breaking of a lesser commandment instead of a greater one. A destitute woman has a child who is starving to death. To allow the child to die when it’s possible to save his life, would be a sin equal to murder. The commandment prohibiting murder is one of the greater commandments, whereas the commandment against stealing is one of the lesser. Therefore, the woman would be justified in stealing food, thus committing the lesser commandment, in order to keep from committing the greater one — allowing the child to die.

We’re called to be perfect, even as He is perfect, in a world that is anything but perfect. There are, therefore, no easy answers.

So, to sum up, I don’t think it’s necessarily wrong for Christians to own guns, and engage in politics, but not as a part of the Christian mandate. Neither do I believe pacifist are out of order.

In fact, I’d say I’m a pacifist.

New Release: The Eurasian

A few days ago, I released my novel, The Eurasian, which I have been working on for over two years. It's my fifth full length one, and I suppose it's too early to judge if it's my best. It took the longest to write, because some parts were difficult. Some of the settings were rather daunting, so I had to take long breaks from it to let it settle, and come up with more inspiration and do research. I hope I've done a good job.

Right now, it's a free download at Smashwords.com, and $0.99 at Amazon Kindle (they don't allow me to make it free there).

What follows is the longer description:

The world of the late 21st century is divided between Greater China, the Western Block, the Islamic Block and the Southern Free States of Africa and South America. The Western Block is dominated by the multinational corporations, who have created a paradise for its citizens -- so everyone thinks.

Mickey O'Brien is the Eurasian, half Asian and half Irish. He has a problem with that, because all his friends are fully Asian. However, no one has actually met each other -- only their virtual projected images they show on their on-line classroom environment. He and his classmates meet each other for the first time as they go on a class trip to America. It turns out they all had things to hide.

In America, they accidentally discover what the Multinationals have been trying to hide. Their hover van is hijacked, and they are left trapped in the great American outback, a vast area of what was once U.S.A., now divided between countless republics. Some are Nazi, some are militant Christian and other redneck cowboy states, some Native American Nations, Mafia kingdoms, etc etc. The wild west is again wild. Once having stumbled in, can they ever find their way out again?

It's a story of finding out what's real, and discovering true faith as they become involved in an espionage war trying to prevent a Nazis takeover.