1. sheesania says:

    I actually didn’t care much for By Darkness Hid, unfortunately…I really wanted to like it, but it just rubbed me the wrong way. However, from what I’ve read of this book, it sounds quite interesting. The worldbuilding and the darker tone of the story both appeal to me. I got it for my Kindle and will probably read it once I’m done re-reading Words of Radiance. Hopefully I’ll enjoy it more than By Darkness Hid and finally be able to participate in the love for Jill Williamson’s books!

    • Paul Lee says:

      I actually didn’t care much for By Darkness Hid, unfortunately…I really wanted to like it, but it just rubbed me the wrong way.

      Largely agreed about Blood of Kings. For me, there were just too many expectations that were too directly transplanted, especially in regard to modern non-denominational evangelical Christianity being more-or-less present. The parallels to Judaism and to the ancient Hellenistic world were interesting, and maybe the religion would have seemed more authentically like primitive New Testament Christianity if the story didn’t go out of its way to make points about how bad the institutionalized, liturgical versions of the alternate-world Christianity were. To me, it gave me more of the “religion is bad, Christianity as religion is bad, it’s all a relationship so smash the Institution, but FYI don’t think about rebelling against our little institution” vibes that I grew up with.

      But it’s been years; Blood of Kings was among the first Marcher Lord Press series that I eagerly purchased back when I was still excited about things.

      Hard to remember specifically—but there was one worldbuilding element that was very interesting to me, maybe it wasn’t in the first book. Some kind of spiritual dream-walking thing that I think was drawn from Native American lore and seemed to be accepted with some ambiguity in the books, not shown to be blatantly and 100% evil. But I might be mistaken, it’s been a while.

      • sheesania says:

        Largely agreed about Blood of Kings. For me, there were just too many expectations that were too directly transplanted, especially in regard to modern non-denominational evangelical Christianity being more-or-less present.

        This was the main thing that disappointed me about By Darkness Hid. You’re in a fantasy world, you have a really neat opportunity to portray Christianity in a novel, unexpected way – and instead you kind of shoehorn modern American evangelical Christianity into the world. However, I’m the sort of person who looks for strangeness (for lack of a better word) in my fantasy. I don’t want to read stories about individualistic Americans and modern evangelical Christianity plus magic and dragons. I would like to read stories about different new cultures, different new worlds, and different new ways to look at God’s truth. The Narnia books, for instance, are full of classic Christian truths (salvation, redemption, …) but presented in new, unexpected lights given that fantasy world’s context.

        I don’t think I got far enough in the series to come across institution-bashing, fortunately…

        Hard to remember specifically—but there was one worldbuilding element that was very interesting to me, maybe it wasn’t in the first book. Some kind of spiritual dream-walking thing that I think was drawn from Native American lore and seemed to be accepted with some ambiguity in the books, not shown to be blatantly and 100% evil. But I might be mistaken, it’s been a while.

        I don’t remember this, but I know I did find the bloodvoicing magic interesting…at least, the idea of it interesting. I was a bit disappointed in how the magic wound up being used. Here you have magic that lets you communicate instantly across long distances and read people’s minds – incredibly powerful and full of possible repercussions for society, not to mention all the intriguing potential plots and themes. (And it has a cool name. “Bloodvoicing”! Love that.) But the magic and its implications weren’t really developed, in favor of a focus on characters who I didn’t find particularly compelling. Oh well.

        I guess the general thing that bothered me about By Darkness Hid was that it had a lot of interesting ideas and a lot of potential, but the ideas were all sort of mishmashed together without much cohesion or development. Maybe it improved with later books; I don’t know. Anyways, I’m glad some of you enjoyed it! I’m still searching for a modern Christian fantasy author that I can really get into.

        • Paul Lee says:

          I guess the general thing that bothered me about By Darkness Hid was that it had a lot of interesting ideas and a lot of potential, but the ideas were all sort of mishmashed together without much cohesion or development. Maybe it improved with later books; I don’t know.

          That’s a solid analysis. To Darkness Fled is easily the best of the series, I think, and it can be truly brilliant. The journey through Darkness is fantastic, and some of the high concepts in the series as a whole are wonderfully iconic and memorable. But To Darkness Fled pushed some of my personal buttons in regard to its depiction of evangelicalism and getting saved, etc.

          I think you and I share some perspectives on fantasy and faith-based themes in fantasy. I would like to suggest Curse Bearer by Rebecca P. Minor. The protagonist of that story (who is female) relates closely to the experience of growing up in a Christian home, struggling with angst and doubt and with being misunderstood. Achan from Blood of Kings is a convert hero, whose testimony is dark and gritty in exactly the standard ways that makes it so conventionally heroic from an evangelical perspective—something that our personal experiences can probably never be. (I don’t say this to insult Achan or The Blood of Kings. He was exactly the right character of exactly the right fantasy story for someone, just not for me.)

          If you’re interested, I wrote a review of Curse Bearer for this website.

          • sheesania says:

            Thank you very much for the recommendation; I really appreciate informed recommendations like this, since I don’t know many people in real life who read Christian fantasy. The review was also very helpful. I’ll have to see if I can get my hands on that book…without a library or a mailing address it can be tricky to get a hold of physical books!

    • Zac Totah says:

      It’s a great book. But I think I said that already, didn’t I? 😉

  2. My copy appeared on my kindle today. Looking forward to reading it.

  3. Somewhat related: as of this morning it was revealed that Chinese scientists want to celebrate the life and stories of Jill Williamson.

    AFP: China ‘clone factory’ scientist eyes human replication

    • notleia says:

      [insert joke about the Chinese not having enough people yet?]

       

      (Creepy thought: China’s 1-child policy has lead to a huge imbalance between male:female ratios, and so now I’m imagining a dystopian thing where women are cloned as literal mail (okay, maybe more like email, but whatevs) order brides. Except that’s almost the plot to Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence [nowhere near as good as the first, but interesting to look at, at least])

  4. Pam Halter says:

    SWEET!!  Can’t wait to read this!

  5. Thanks so much for the article, Zachary. I’m glad you enjoyed the story. 🙂

  6. I second Zachary’s opinion. ^ ^ I really enjoyed the first installment and I’m looking forward to reading the others. The worldbuilding for the book is just fantastic. ^ ^

    storitorigrace.blogspot.com

     

What do you think?