Wednesday, October 26, 2011







Author’s Web site - http://www.stephenlawhead.com/


I received a review copy from the nice people at Thomas Nelson of The Bone House
in conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour







Here on the last day I thought I'd mention some questions I had about the series, and ley travel in particular. Kit's great-grandfather Cosmo explained his slowed aging by travel the ley lines. I wondered if ley travel leaves some type of temporal field around the traveler. Since you can travel to multiple places in the past, and Kit's servant traveled with Kit to the servant's future, can Kit find a ley line leading to Kit's future? Could Kit, or Lord Burleigh, travel back to the time just before Kit first left and stop him from leaving? If Kit can't travel to his future, would he be safe from Lord Burleigh in a time-line after Burleigh existed? And, does the time spent in another ley time line equal the time gone on their home time-line? I guess I'm wondering if Kit and Mina will encounter a Rip Van Winkle effect and return years after they first left London. If it sounds like I'm thinking too deeply on the Bone House and The Bright Empires series, then that says something about how well I enjoyed the book.


The Bone House reminded me a bit of an earlier Lawhead book series, The Paradise War. In that series, two college students travel by means of a Scottish stone cairn at a special time of day to another place that seems another time. Both series involve moving two modern day people o another place, but The Bright Empires story adds another wrinkle by including travel through time. One of the things I enjoy about the Bone House is how the author works in real places, real times, and even a few real people. His eye to detail shows in how well he crafts the story and places the reader in a place and time totally foreign to a modern reader and still brings it to life.


Some readers may find The Bone House a harder read than most books, but I appreciate an author who writes to make you think rather than spoon feed you each detail to make sure you understand. I enjoyed the second book in the Bright Empires series, and look forward to reading what new twists and turns Mr. lawhead can manage to pull off in the third book of the series.



*Participants’ links:
Noah Arsenault
Red Bissell
Thomas Clayton Booher
Beckie Burnham
Morgan L. Busse
CSFF Blog Tour
Jeff Chapman
Carol Bruce Collett
Karri Compton
D. G. D. Davidson
Theresa Dunlap
April Erwin
Victor Gentile
Tori Greene
Ryan Heart
Bruce Hennigan
Timothy Hicks
Christopher Hopper
Janeen Ippolito
Becca Johnson
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Marzabeth
Katie McCurdy
Shannon McDermott
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Joan Nienhuis
Chawna Schroeder
Kathleen Smith
Donna Swanson
Rachel Starr Thomson
Robert Treskillard
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Phyllis Wheeler
Nicole White
Rachel Wyant

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Tuesday, October 25, 2011

The Bone House


The Bright Empires - Book Two by Stephan R. Lawhead


Blog Tour - Day 2
Been There, Done That, Got the Papyrus T-Shirt





Skin Map(1st book in series) Trailer:















One thing that came to mind as I read The Bone house was how some of the locations were revisited, yet no one seemed to run into their self. This seemed confusing until I read that Mina told Kit to meet a man known as the Last Man on Earth Who Everything before a later meeting when the group would reconnect. The plan to collect an item before the Burleigh men seemed like a good idea. As long as Kit's group arrived earlier, they could gain the advantage. Yet even with this type of foreknowledge, plans didn't always work out as planned. In one timeline, a close run-in with the Burleigh Men and the Duke himself led to Kit's sidekick getting shot and almost captured. Kit tried to escape, but the ley lines failed to work as expected. He became separated from his team, and then Mina couldn't locate him. Kit became stranded in another place, in another time, and with no easy way out.


Through it all, a greater plan is in place for Kit, Mina, and the others' life. It's a plan the Master Planner has had in place since the beginning; a plan that existed long before the Skin Map. The idea of a Master Plan seemed a central theme of the book, and maybe the series. Life doesn't occur haphazardly. Things often happen because of choices made. Making a bad choice doesn't cancel the Lord's plans for a life, but it may require extra work one someones part for the same result. This is something I felt Kit has yet to discover. Though Evil may seem to be winning at times, the conclusion is already known and Evil is destined to be defeated.



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Monday, October 24, 2011

The Bone House


The Bright Empires - Book Two by Stephan R. Lawhead


Blog Tour - Day 1
Ley, Ley, La Ley Lines





Author’s Web site - http://www.stephenlawhead.com/



I received a review copy from Thomas Nelson of The Bone House
in conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour




Author Trailer:









The Bone House is second in the Bright Empires trilogy by Stephen R. Lawhead. It's rare that a second book holds my interest as much as the first. Some how, Mr, Lwhead pulls it off. Kit and Mina are back and closing on the Skin Map's location. In this book, Kit strikes me as a character akin to Ralph Hinkley in the 1980's TV series, The Greatest American Hero. He's learning as he's going becasue he doesn't have an instruction manual. This makes for an exciting read as the reader isn't quite sure what to expect as Kit rides the ley lines from place to place and time to time. Wilhelmina, Kit's former girlfriend who goes by Mina, has hit her stride in the past. She's co-owner of the hottest, and only, coffeehouse in Prague, part owner in a shipping company, and knows the Austrian Prince. Just when things seemed darkest for Kit, Mina shows up with a ley line-type GPS.




One of the things I enjoyed about the Bone House is the history slice of life Mr. Lawhead brings the reader. He seems to understand each period, easily moving between changes of manerisms and speech as the characters travel the ley lines. One of the most interesting examples for me was the character ported to the Stone Age. We know little about the people and period, but the author brought the world to life. There was little dialogue, but you almost feel the excitement as modern man learns to communicate with stone age man.




Ley lines connect times and places and we find out they aren't always running. As I read, I wondered if ley lines farther from Kit and Mina's home time and place require some kind of re-charge period. This might explain the Stone Age ley line's limited window of opportunity. The leys remind me of a computer processor. Circuits open and shut, and sometimes one-way travel is allowed, but shunted off in a new direction. Billions of possible combinations exist, and it seems impossibly complex. Yet, to the one who design it all, it makes sense.




Day 2 Blog: Been There, Done That, Got the Papyrus T-Shirt


*Participants’ links:


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