Stephen R. Lawhead discussion

Our common read of The Skin Map starts today, so I thought I'd post this thread as the place for all our comments, questions, information, etc. If your posts include any spoilers, please enclose that material in the Goodreads hypertext marks for "hide spoiler:" a <> at the beginning of the material and a > at the end, with the word spoiler between each pair of the little sideways triangle thingys. :-) (The word "spoiler" --without the quote marks-- goes after the / .)

The <> mark at the end of the material is supposed to have a slash mark, /, after the <, but for some reason the Goodreads program won't let me type any clearer example!

Well I started the audio a couple of days ago. I think it got off with a nice pace. I appreciated the lightheartedness at the beginning. With such a fantastical premise it went easier not taking things too serious.

I started it last night....2chapters in and I'm definitely intrigued :-).

Hope others are planning to join in as we'll since our group is not super active......thanks Werner for getting another group read started.

You're welcome, JoLene! Yes, I'm hoping we'll get some more participants in the discussion as we go along.

Here's the link to my review of the Skin Map, if anyone's interested: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/... . It doesn't have any spoilers, and might suggest some lines of thought.

I just finished it and also ran to library to pick up the second book. I will write my review in a day or two --- I like to let thing marinate, at least overnight?

Werner, I agree with a lot of your review, but let's wait for more to finish.

Roll call, who else is planning to read it?

I'm about 3/4 finished. Still enjoying this. Not real fast paced, but it's a well told story. Being a coffee lover myself, I'm enjoying all the coffee references.

I enjoyed that as well ---- I had recently watched a history channel program about how coffee really changed the way of life in Europe and may be responsible for the Industrial Age, because prior to that people mostly drank fermented beverages.

This is the second book in two weeks that has highlighted the coffe phenomenon. The other was The Hangman's Daughter.

Oh cool, I've got The Hangman's Daughter on my to read list.

Despite the fact that my mother was an addicted coffee drinker (she'd get splitting caffeine headaches that incapacitated her if she had to go without it for very long), I've never cared for the taste of it. (I know, I'm weird!) I've drank it exactly three times in my life, once to try it as a kid and twice as a courtesy to people who offered it, and I didn't like it any of those times! But that doesn't keep me from enjoying the book. :-) Everybody's taste buds are different.

Yes, my husband also hates coffee. I only started liking it when I moved to France for 3 years --- it was part of the culture to go for coffee breaks and I eventually developed a taste for it. Now, I mostly drink coffee in a latte form (lots of milk), otherwise, I have to put in too much sugar which isn't good !

The Hangman's Daughter was really good. It was also a super quick read.

The Hangman's Daughter looks interesting, and I see there are quite a few favorable reviews of it. If I didn't already have nearly 300 books on my to-read shelf.... (Sigh!)

Me too -- sigh. It popped to the front of the line when it got picked for my F2F bookclub. It was a hit.

Just finished. Gave it 4 stars.

I will continue with the series. I guess we know from the physics revealed in the first novel that we can't go to the future. I wonder how far back in time he'll take the characters. His speciality seems to be the Middle Ages (maybe a little earlier).

Lawhead obviously draws very heavily on quantum physics in this series; often, in SF novels, it's just a plot device to get the protagonist(s) to another world, or to explain the existence of another world, but here the story constantly revolves around it. I've always been skeptical of quantum physics; it seems to be have very little empirical support (even though science is supposed to be empirically-based!), and to be counterintuitive. But I don't know very much about it! Has anybody in this group ever made any serious study of it?

One major aspect of quantum theory, of course, is the idea of the relativity of time, which also appears here. That's one aspect I've been particularly dubious of; the Newtonian concept of absolute time seems to me to make more sense (from a human perspective). But I've recently begun to think that if it's viewed from a Divine perspective (if we think of God as being in some real sense outside of time, and not limited by it --and being eternally self-existent, that would seem to follow!), then the idea of relative time begins to make considerable sense!

I also don't know much about quantum physics but I think that Lawhead has done a great job of making it accessible --- meaning that it didn't bog down the story. I really liked the idea of the "mile-markers" that would send you to different time periods.

Interestingly enough, I am now reading 11/22/63, which is the Stephen King novel about a guy who travels back in time to try to prevent the Kennedy assassination.

Laura-Lee wrote, "I was wondering if anyone thinks this book... is similar in style to his book Paradise War."

I've read the Song of Albion trilogy, of which The Paradise War is the first volume, and I'd say there are probably subtle stylistic commonalities between the two books, and throughout Lawhead's whole body of work; it's true of all writers that they have a certain unique individual style of diction that's part of them, whatever they're writing. And both books deal with a young guy protagonist who stumbles into a whole new world he wasn't previously aware even existed.

That said, I think there are significant stylistic and other differences between the two books, and the two series in general, though that's just my subjective impression (I haven't really tried to do a close comparison, and I read the Song of Albion back in the 90s, so my memory of it isn't very recent). The older trilogy developed the characters and setting in more depth, because the author was working with just one fantasy world and a more limited cast of characters, and writing at more length. Here, the book(s) is/are shorter by comparison, and there's a kaleidoscope of settings and characters with a spotlight that keeps jumping among them. That stokes the interest factor, but it also precludes developing any of them as fully as the author typically did in his earlier work. And the older book made extensive use of Lawhead's trademark interest in all things Celtic, which isn't apparent here. (Again, that's partly because of the multiplicity of settings --but even so, he hasn't presented even one Celtic setting at all yet.)

JoLene, I agree that Lawhead does a really good job of integrating science and story here, something not all SF writers pull off --including some who are more used to writing in the genre than Lawhead, whose forte' is fantasy and historical fiction. (Of course, here he gets to blend science/historical fiction.) His only other SF novel I know of is Dream Thief, which is a book very different from this one. (I tried to read it a few years ago and didn't get into it, but that might have been just me at that time.)

I agree with Werner that the main commonality between this book and Paradise War is the time travel aspect. However, I feel that the Song of Albion trilogy overall was the story of one man -- Llew. Traveling back in time was the vehicle for him to become a hero, with his ultimate sacrifice. Also, I seem to remember that Paradise War started fairly slow with a lot of time spent in establishing his life in the present world. I did love that series, but I too read it a while ago.

In this series, I'm not sure that Kit is really the main focus --- I think that the focus here may be the nature of time itself with various characters representing different facets ot how it can be manipulated. Of course, I've only read one book in a 5 book series. For me, the style of this work is a bit of a departure with the non-stop action and so many simultaneous stories.

Besides the "non-stop action and so many simultaneous stories" that JoLene noted, Lawhead's concentration on relative time and multiple experiences of time traveling means that not all of the kaleidoscopic scenes he presents, as he switches among viewpoint characters, take place in chronological order --neither in terms of absolute chronology nor even in relation to each other. (It's a technique that keeps you on your toes!) How do some of the rest of you feel about this? Is it easy to follow, or challenging?

Werner over all I find that I can follow his switching the pov easy enough. After reading your review of The Spirit Well, I'm looking forward to seeing how he jumps chronically through the plot.

I thought that Lawhead did a good job of establishing the time and place within the first couple of paragraphs so it was no problem for me.

Hey all. I haven't said anything on here yet. I was thinking of re-reading The Skin Map with you all but I've got way too many books to read at the moment, and I've been insanely busy and tired.

Anyway, I picked up The Bone House for 3.99 on my Kindle last night so looking forward to that.

Here is my review of The Skin Map
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

Good review, Adam!

His pacing is consistant through the 3 books so far. He tackles the time / dimension issue a little differently than I have encountered before. In my opinion not his best works, but still had me foregoing sleep to read to the "end."

Who's your favorite character in this book? I'd have to say mine is Xian Li; she comes across as a wise, caring person with a lot of character (and I'll admit I have a thing for ladies who can kick butt when it needs it :-) ). But it's a hard choice, because Etzel is such an appealing character, too; he's so sweet and kindhearted that you have to love him. (I'm totally rooting for him to win Mina's hand!)

I agree that it's hard not to like Etzel and I too am hoping that he and Mina find happiness :-). I am also partial to Arthur Flinders-Petrie and the original Cosimo and I'm a bit sad that he may not appear again ---- however, given the non linear structure of the narrative, I have hope that he and Hebpnry will appear again.

As far as straight characterization goes Etzel is by far the most likable. I think Wilhemina is the most interesting. She started out 2 dimensional and then as the story developed so did she.

Kit is the one that I'm least intrigued with. He's nice enough, just a little predictable.

By now, I'm guessing that we've probably all reached the end of the book. Was the ending a surprise to you? Why, or why not?

For me, it was a bit surprising.....I certainly did not think that there was going to be any type of "space" travel. I was also sad when Cosimo and Henry died in the tomb, but hope that we will see them again.

I know that some of you already have, but wanted to see how many we're planning to continue with the series.

I've already read books 2-3 as well, and plan to read the fourth one soon after it's published!

Like JoLene, I was saddened by Cosimo and Sir Henry's deaths --and those were a surprise to me, because I fully expected Kit and company to rescue them. It also took me totally by surprise when Mina showed up to save the day; I was primed to see a female rescuer, but I expected it to be Haven. Kudos to Lawhead for coming up with the unexpected in his plotting!

JoLene plan to continue. I will probably read the entire series.

I just finished The Skin Map and am now half way through The Bone House. I'm enjoying Lawhead's history travel (dimension travel? universe travel?) genre as I have only read his other works taking place in a single time of history. I plan to finish the series, then onto the Song of Albion series. Which of the two series have you enjoyed better?

I think you'll enjoy Song of Albion. It was extremely good.

I personally liked the Song of Albion trilogy (which is the only Lawhead series I've read all the way through) better than the Bright Empires series so far; I think it's the deeper and better crafted work of the two. But it is more violent, and a few parts of it aren't for the squeamish. (The violence isn't gratuitous, though.)

Thanks for the input! I'm looking forward to the Song of Albion and will try to finish it while waiting for the remainder of Bright Empires.

I have only read The Skin Map of the Bright Empires series so this may not be completely valid. The Song of Albion trilogy is my favorite series by Lawhead and I don't think that Bright Empires will usurp it's place :-D

I agree with Werner --- I think that by focusing on one main character, the work seems a bit deeper. I also love all the celtic mythology. I am also a bit biased in that I don't really like long series --- getting me to read 3 books is a big accomplishment so 5 is really starting to ask too much ;-)

I have now finished the Bone House, but am on a waiting list with my library for the third book so I went ahead and started The Song of Albion. I already feel a deeper connection with the characters compared with Bright Empires. Still plan to read them all though :)

Just finished the Song of Albion and I have to say it was one of my most favorite reads in a long time. The way it ended stirred my faith and reminded me that there is way more to life than what we see.

Glad to hear you liked it, Andrew!

I agree --- it's one of my favorite trilogies.