Archive for November, 2007

CFBA presents "Auralia’s Colors" by Jeffrey Overstreet

November 29, 2007

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
AURALIA’S COLORS
(WaterBrook Press September 4, 2007)
by
Jeffrey Overstreet

Of all the books I’ve read in 2007, Auralia’s Colors is, by far, my favorite. His writing pulled me in from the first, and his characters and storyworld kept me reading when I should’ve been doing other things. Like schoolwork. :-)
A full review is posted at Infuze.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Jeffrey Overstreet lives in two worlds. By day, he writes about movies at LookingCloser.org and in notable publications like Christianity Today, Paste, and Image.

His adventures in cinema are chronicled in his book Through a Screen Darkly. By night, he composes new stories found in fictional worlds of his own. Living in Shoreline, Washington, with his wife, Anne, a poet, he is a senior staff writer for Response Magazine at Seattle Pacific University.

Auralia’s Colors is his first novel. He is now hard at work on many new stories, including three more strands of The Auralia Thread.

ABOUT THE BOOK:
As a baby, she was found in a footprint.

As a girl, she was raised by thieves in a wilderness where savages lurk.

As a young woman, she will risk her life to save the world with the only secret she knows.

When thieves find an abandoned child lying in a monster’s footprint, they have no idea that their wilderness discovery will change the course of history.

Cloaked in mystery, Auralia grows up among criminals outside the walls of House Abascar, where vicious beastmen lurk in shadow. There, she discovers an unsettling–and forbidden–talent for crafting colors that enchant all who behold them, including Abascar’s hard-hearted king, an exiled wizard, and a prince who keeps dangerous secrets.

Auralia’s gift opens doors from the palace to the dungeons, setting the stage for violent and miraculous change in the great houses of the Expanse.

Auralia’s Colors weaves literary fantasy together with poetic prose, a suspenseful plot, adrenaline-rush action, and unpredictable characters sure to enthrall ambitious imaginations.

Visit the Website especially created for the book, Auralia’s Colors. On the site, you can read the first chapter and listen to jeffrey’s introduction of the book, plus a lit more!

PRAISE

“Film critic and author Overstreet (Through a Screen Darkly) offers a powerful myth for his first foray into fiction. Overstreet’s writing is precise and beautiful, and the story is masterfully told. Readers will be hungry for the next installment.”
Publishers Weekly

“Through word, image, and color Jeffrey Overstreet has crafted a work of art. From first to final page this original fantasy is sure to draw readers in. Auralia’s Colors sparkles.”
-–Janet Lee Carey, award-winning author of The Beast of
Noor
and Dragon’s Keep

“Jeffrey Overstreet’s first fantasy, Auralia’s Colors, and its heroine’s cloak of wonders take their power from a vision of art that is auroral, looking to the return of beauty, and that intends to restore spirit and and mystery to the world. The book achieves its ends by the creation of a rich, complex universe and a series of dramatic, explosive events.”
-–Marly Youmans, author of Ingledove and The
Curse of the Raven Mocker

CSFF presents "Scarlet" by Stephen Lawhead

November 28, 2007

This month’s CSFF blog tour features Scarlet, byStephen Lawhead. College demands don’t allow me to post a full review, so a short synopsis will have to do. :-)

Scarlet is the second book in the King Raven trilogy and most of the story is told from Scarlet’s, first name Will, point of view. As the story opens, he sitting in prison, a dungeon really, and is trying to stave off the hangman’s rope by telling his story to a young priest. The trick is to make his story interesting enough to prolong his life, but not to give anything away regarding King Raven and his band of outlaws.

The King Raven trilogy is a re-telling of the story of Robin Hood. In this trilogy, the setting is not Sherwood Forest of England, but is set in Wales. In his first book, Hood, Mr. Lawhead makes a compelling reason for the change of scenery, one that makes much more sense than the legendary Sherwood Forest.

No matter the setting, the first two books of the trilogy pulled me back in time, when England was invaded by France Normans and the sufferings the native populations endured under a tyrannical rule. It is the story of a small group of people, led by a displaced king, determined to reclaim the land and kingdom settled by their ancestors, now under foreign rule.

Other blog tour participants:
Trish Anderson
Brandon Barr
Wayne Thomas Batson
Jim Black
Justin Boyer
Grace Bridges
Amy Browning
Jackie Castle
Valerie Comer
CSFF Blog Tour
D. G. D. Davidson
Chris Deanne
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Linda Gilmore
Beth Goddard
Marcus Goodyear
Andrea Graham
Jill Hart
Katie Hart
Sherrie Hibbs
Timothy Hicks
Christopher Hopper
Becca Johnson
Jason Joyner
Kait
Karen
Dawn King
Tina Kulesa
Mike Lynch
Margaret
Karen McSpadden
Melissa Meeks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Mirtika or Mir’s Here
Eve Nielsen
John W. Otte
John Ottinger
Lyn Perry
Deena Peterson
Rachelle
Cheryl Russel
Ashley Rutherford
Hanna Sandvig
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Rachelle Sperling
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Robert Treskillard
Jason Waguespac
Daniel I. Weaver
Laura Williams
Timothy Wise