Sunspots 899

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to others*:

The Arts: Gizmodo  describes 13 streaming services, ranging from free to ad-supported to paying, that you have probably never heard of.

Tor.com has published an article on Galadriel, as Tolkien portrayed her. (Note that the article isn't based on the upcoming Rings of Power video series.)

Christianity: (or something) A Conversation writer discusses the role of dragons in religions.

A Christianity Today writer writes about the possibility of having artificial intelligences as worship leaders and preachers.

Health: NPR on how sweat that smells stinky protects us.

Politics: FiveThirtyEight reports on Republican election deniers who won their elections.

Science: (or something) CNet tells us about things that make us more attractive to mosquitoes.

*I try not to include items that require a password or fee to view.

Thanks for reading. 

Veiled Rose by Anne Elisabeth Stengl

I have recently read Veiled Rose by Anne Elisabeth Stengl. The book is the second in a series. Three have been published, and the fourth is due out next month. Here's my post on the first book, Heartless. There is not a Wikipedia article on Stengl, or her books, as yet. Here is the Amazon page for the author, and she has a blog, which sometimes includes material on her books.

Heartless was the author's first novel. There was no sign of her lack of experience in that book, and there is none in this one. The characters are three-dimensional, the plot is complex, and not easily predictable, there are a multitude of settings. The second book is mostly about events that took place before those in the first book, but they are told from a different viewpoint, and this unusual time sequence should not hinder readers. Either book should be enjoyable on its own.

I will try not to give away the plot in this post, but will muse on certain aspects of Veiled Rose.

First, a little about the world of Goldstone Wood. The land (perhaps a continent, perhaps an entire world) is divided into uplands, where humans live, by lowlands, where they don't. There are bridges between the uplands, not made by mortals. Stengl has also divided the lands into the Near World, which, as I understand it, contains the uplands, the Between, which contains the lowlands, and the Far World. (See here for more on this, from Stengl.) Fairies can enter the Near World, where mortals live, but they also live in the Between, and perhaps in the Far World. These three are perhaps three different dimensions, or three different universes, co-inhabiting the same space. Stengl doesn't make a huge deal of this -- her characters, and their lives, are more important -- but the idea of living in more than one world at once definitely adds to the book. Tolkien, for one, had a similar construction, as his elves and their evil adversaries lived in two worlds at the same time. But their appearance was different, depending on which world they were seen in. In Stengl, the appearance of a character seems to be the same in whichever World they are found. (Some characters, such as dragons and fairy knights, have two different forms, but they can take these without changing Worlds.)

There are Paths, made by the fairies, within the Near World, and, probably the other Worlds. Characters who can find those Paths can move rapidly between locations.

Stengl is a bit coy about these aspects of her sub-creation: "So we know of at least three realms of existence, three levels of reality. Might there be more?" Perhaps she didn't know, herself, when she wrote that, in June of 2011. Perhaps she did, but wasn't going to tell us yet.

Second, the characters. One of the main characters in the book is Lionheart, who is also known as Leo, and by other names. He is the crown prince of one of the realms in the Near World, and young enough to play in the woods, but old enough that he is allowed to play in them without supervision. The second main character is Rosie. Lionheart meets Rosie, a girl, perhaps human, perhaps not, while playing in the wood. Rosie's origin is uncertain, and she doesn't know it herself. She always wears a veil. Lionheart doesn't know why, but doesn't really care, as she becomes his best friend. But their friendship has restrictions. She doesn't come into the castle where he lives, and he can't always go into the woods to be with her. Their friendship, by the way, seems to be quite innocent. Perhaps they are somewhat in love with each other, but perhaps not. Very few people have seen Rosie, and when people do, many of them think she is some sort of monster. She can use the Paths, at least the ones in her area, and take Lionheart on them.

Third, evil beings. One type of evil beings is the dragons. The dragons are like dragons in many other books -- they can send fire out of their mouths, they can fly, they are intelligent and can speak, they can trap unwary humans who look into their eyes, or listen to them too willingly. But, like at least one of the dragons of Ursula Le Guin's Tehanu, they can exist in human form or dragon form.

There is some other sort of evil being, perhaps also a dragon, in the books. There are at least two of these, who have the power to tempt by speaking directly to the mind of mortals. The two are in some sort of competition. The theology, or whatever it should be called, of the Goldstone Wood books is complex, and much of it is not merely an imaginary replication of Christian theology, or any other kind that I am aware of. I do believe, as I indicated in the post on the previous work, that the Goldstone Wood books are written with a Christian world-view, but that the fact that it's only a world-view, not the message of the books, is a plus, as I see it.

Fourth, I will say this about the plot. Rosie and Lionheart do not get married in this book. There are other characters, one of them named Daylily, who has decided to do what her father wants her to, and get Lionheart to marry her. He doesn't do that, either. Daylily is a complex character, and a strong one, and there are things that she does that I didn't expect.

More could be said, but I'll stop. I will confess that I have already read the third book in the series. In fact, I've read all three books twice.

Thanks for reading.

Heartless, by Anne Elisabeth Stengl

Heartless (Tales of Goldstone Wood), by Anne Elisabeth Stengl, is a fantasy book, with swords, magic, and dragons. (See here for my musings on why sword and sorcery fiction is popular). It won the Christy award for Best First Novel in 2011. I haven't read the other winners, and I'm not sure if a fantasy novel has won this particular Christy Award previously, but the award was well deserved.

Stengl does not have a Wikipedia article on her, and Heartless doesn't, either. Here is the Amazon page for the author, and she has a blog.

I'll try to give away as little as possible of the plot, but will muse on various aspects of the novel. The plot is complex.

First, I confess that I have read two novels, by the same author, published after Heartless, in her series, Tales of Goldstone Wood. The second one, Veiled Rose, mostly takes place before the events in Heartless. There are some allusions to these events in Heartless, indicating that the author didn't just write a second novel based on the first one -- the first one foreshadows the second, and she already had largely it in mind when writing the first. (There is supposed to be a fourth novel, to be released later this year.)

Second, there is no doubt in my mind that this qualifies as a Christian novel, by almost any standard. I don't say this because it mentions Christ, or God, or the Bible, or salvation. It doesn't. In fact, the theology of the characters is nearly non-existent. They don't worship together, and they don't pray on a regular basis. I hope to post later, giving more detail on why I say that the book is Christian. My guess is that the fact that there is no direct "preaching" in the book might make it more attractive to non-Christians.

There is a Christ-figure, not in the sense that he dies to pay for the sins of others, at least not within the events of this book, but in the sense that he comes from another realm -- fairyland -- with the purpose of taking a bride for himself.

There are, as I said, dragons. Stengl's dragons live a very long time. They can appear as dragons, huge lizards with wings and fiery breath, or as human, or at least human-like, beings. They can talk, and are intelligent. They love treasure. They are almost entirely evil. No dragon is a main character, but a few of them appear in the book, and they are important in it.

The theme of the book is trust. Una, a princess coming into adulthood, and who is one of the main characters, trusts the wrong person for much of the story, but finally comes to trust the right one. In fact, she trusts him enough to let him kill her, as a dragon, so that she may live as a human. The episode reminded me of the experience of Eustace Scrubb, transformed from a dragon to a human by Aslan, in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, by C. S. Lewis, but Stengl's depiction is more gripping, and, as I said, coming to that point is, in large part, what the book is about.

This is a fine book, and compares well with good fantasy from mainstream publishers. I confess that I have read Heartless twice in less than two months, and I am glad that I did.

I have read both the hardback book and the Kindle edition. Bethany House, the publisher, is to be commended for the latter. Not only are there color ornaments, and the like, and not many typos, but you can go to page numbers in the book, if you need to.

The book could have used a map, but there isn't one, in either edition.

Thanks for reading. Read Heartless.

Leviathan

In a previous post, I mused about behemoth, a real, or perhaps imaginary, creature mentioned in the Book of Job.

I now turn to leviathan, which is mentioned in the next chapter of Job, also as part of God's response to Job, which, basically, is that God knows what He is doing, and Job doesn't.

Job 41:1 “Can you draw out Leviathan* with a fish hook,
or press down his tongue with a cord?
2 Can you put a rope into his nose,
or pierce his jaw through with a hook?
3 Will he make many petitions to you,
or will he speak soft words to you?
4 Will he make a covenant with you,
that you should take him for a servant forever?
5 Will you play with him as with a bird?
Or will you bind him for your girls?
6 Will traders barter for him?
Will they part him among the merchants?
7 Can you fill his skin with barbed irons,
or his head with fish spears?
8 Lay your hand on him.
Remember the battle, and do so no more.
9 Behold, the hope of him is in vain.
Won’t one be cast down even at the sight of him?
10 None is so fierce that he dare stir him up.
Who then is he who can stand before me?
11 Who has first given to me, that I should repay him?
Everything under the heavens is mine.
12 “I will not keep silence concerning his limbs,
nor his mighty strength, nor his goodly frame.
13 Who can strip off his outer garment?
Who shall come within his jaws?
14 Who can open the doors of his face?
Around his teeth is terror.
15 Strong scales are his pride,
shut up together with a close seal.
16 One is so near to another,
that no air can come between them.
17 They are joined to one another.
They stick together, so that they can’t be pulled apart.
18 His sneezing flashes out light.
His eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.
19 Out of his mouth go burning torches.
Sparks of fire leap out.
20 Out of his nostrils a smoke goes,
as of a boiling pot over a fire of reeds.
21 His breath kindles coals.
A flame goes out of his mouth.
22 There is strength in his neck.
Terror dances before him.
23 The flakes of his flesh are joined together.
They are firm on him.
They can’t be moved.
24 His heart is as firm as a stone,
yes, firm as the lower millstone.
25 When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid.
They retreat before his thrashing.
26 If one attacks him with the sword, it can’t prevail;
nor the spear, the dart, nor the pointed shaft.
27 He counts iron as straw;
and brass as rotten wood.
28 The arrow can’t make him flee.
Sling stones are like chaff to him.
29 Clubs are counted as stubble.
He laughs at the rushing of the javelin.
30 His undersides are like sharp potsherds,
leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge.
31 He makes the deep to boil like a pot.
He makes the sea like a pot of ointment.
32 He makes a path shine after him.
One would think the deep had white hair.
33 On earth there is not his equal,
that is made without fear.
34 He sees everything that is high.
He is king over all the sons of pride.”

*41:1: Leviathan is a name for a crocodile or similar creature. (Quoted, including the note, from the World English Bible, which is public domain. All quotations from the Bible in this post use that version.)

Most Bible scholars suppose that leviathan means crocodile. But not all do:

Some think this to be a crocodile but from the description in Job 41:1-34 this is patently absurd. It appears to be a large fire breathing animal of some sort. Just as the bomardier beetle has an explosion producing mechanism, so the great sea dragon may have an explosive producing mechanism to enable it to be a real fire breathing dragon. - taken from the lexicon page on leviathan, from the Blueletter Bible. That same chapter also suggests that the creature may have been a plesiosaurus.

As far as I am aware, there is no credible evidence that dinosaurs and humans lived on earth at the same time. Nor is there evidence that fire-breathing dragons ever existed, either, however much we might wish that they had (or do). As in the previous post on behemoth, my guess is that at least some of the description given in Job is fanciful, like some of the beliefs about animals in medieval bestiaries. (We may have some equally ridiculous beliefs about some creatures now, but don't realize it.) The point of Job 41 is not to give an accurate zoological description, but to point out to Job, and early readers of the story, that God is in charge, even of remarkable creatures. My guess is that Job, and quite a few of his contemporaries, supposed that leviathan was as described, but had never seen such a creature.

Unlike behemoth, leviathan is mentioned more than once in the Bible.

There is a passing mention in Job 3:8.

Here's part of Psalm 74:12 Yet God is my King of old,
working salvation throughout the earth.
13 You divided the sea by your strength.
You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters.
14 You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces.
You gave him as food to people and desert creatures.

Again, this seems to be poetic, not referring to actual events, but who knows?

There is another passing reference in Psalm 104:26, and there's also Isaiah 27:1 In that day, Yahweh with his hard and great and strong sword will punish leviathan, the fleeing serpent, and leviathan the twisted serpent; and he will kill the dragon that is in the sea. Again, this doesn't seem to be meant strictly literally. One reason I think so is because the same chapter also talks about Israel budding, blossoming, and producing fruit.

If there really were, or are, dragons, God made them, or allowed them to come into existence. That's really the point of Job 41, I believe.

Thanks for reading.

Dragonquest, DragonKnight and Dragonfire by Donita K. Paul

I previously posted about Dragonspell, a sword and sorcery book of faith fiction, by Donita K. Paul.

I'll start this post on the remaining books in the series, which are DragonQuest, DragonKnight and DragonFire, by adding evidence that the books, although they do not mention Christ or Yahweh by those names, are definitely Christian. (They are Paladin and Wulder, in these books. Paladin is a living, embodied person. Wulder is a supreme being, who is prayed to.) On page 33 of DragonFire, Paladin is stated to be 2,000 years old. On pages 240-241 of DragonQuest, a communal act of worship is described, and called worship. Also, on page 241, Dar, one of the main characters in the books, says, ". . . We come in the name of Paladin. . ."

I'll next say that I have difficulty, as a reader, in understanding some of Paul's sub-creation. I indicated some of that difficulty in my first post. In this one, I'll say that two of the characters are something called "meech dragons," as distinguished from minor dragons, major dragons, and fire dragons. I can visualize those last three types of dragons. But I can't decide whether meech dragons even look like dragons. They wear clothing, at least some times, they speak, and, in other ways, they seem to be pretty much human. I also have trouble distinguishing, in my mind, between some of the seven high species, or, as Paul calls them, races. I can't even remember whether Kale and Bardon, the two main characters, are o'rant or marione. (Actually, Bardon is supposed to be a hybrid, perhaps of these two species, or maybe from one of them with an emerlindian, or perhaps something else. But he keeps his hybrid status secret.)

Paul, like other writers of sword and sorcery fantasy, owes a debt to Tolkien. One significant difference with Tolkien is that Tolkien's orcs, and other evil creatures, were thoroughly evil, without any apparent inclination to even choose to do good. Paul has one bisonbeck who chooses the side of good, and the ropmas seem to be more simple-minded than they are evil. (See my previous post for my reaction to Paul's naming skills.) However, Paul is like Tolkien, in that her seven "high races" can choose to do evil, or at least to stop doing good.

Another interesting aspect of the books is that Paladin becomes sick, because of the apathy of the high races. They have largely stopped acknowledging Wulder, and being friendly to each other. He recovers, at least partly, as the faith of the people of Amara is revived.

Bardon, a male, becomes a second protagonist in these three books, along with Kale, who was the protagonist in the first one. One interesting aspect of Bardon's thought life is his adherence to Wulder's Principles, which, apparently, are taught as a sort of catechism.

Here's some evidence that the books were written with a Christian world-view, if any is needed:

"The odd thing, my dear," said her father, "is that once one has ceased trying to protect self, one finds self in a very comfortable position."

"Where?" asked Kale.

"In Wulder's care." (p. 219 of DragonFire.)

The main attraction of the books was the plot and the characters, not the theology. Besides, if you go to a novel for definitive guidance on theology, you will get what you deserve. They are stories!

DragonQuest was published in 2005 by WaterBrook Press, a Division of Random House, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. DragonKnight was published in 2006, and DragonFire in 2007, by the same publisher.