Off topic

I recently read Starlight 3 (Starlight) and it was terrible. "Science fiction" but mostly fantasy, the stories were mostly idea sketches rather than stories. E.g. "What if God is arbitrary and capricious and we are supposed to love him because he is the source of all pain, and what if the world were filled with the random visitations of angels" ... ok. Interesting idea, but not much story there (heck, not much of an idea either). Lots of that sort of sketch, a good reminder as to why I don't read many sf short story collections any more.

On the other hand, I have to compare it to Infinite Space, Infinite God which is moving. It is a collection of science fiction stories by Catholics, written with religion as a strong influence. But they are stories first. Some of them are very moving, some are very touching, but they are stories. The concept sketch gets out of the way on the title page and the rest of the volume is solid stories.



I very much enjoyed it and wish there was more fiction of that sort.

http://www.amazon.com/review/R24RAI4EGTRBUP/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm is my Amazon.com review.

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Shifting gears, I've also been reading a fair amount of Carol Berg fiction. Even won one of her books in a contest. She writes about frail and believable people, often in difficult situations, often marred or broken by events, and how they are restored.

When you realize that Carol H. Berg and Carol Berg are probably different people the lack of graphic sex or violence in the books makes sense (CHB's book on amazon is an erotic tale and comes up when you search for CB. None of the Carol Berg books I've read have had sex or graphic violence in them).

I don't know if With Hearts Expanded is by her or not, but I could well believe she is the Carol Berg listed as an author. ("The continuing history of the Convent of the Sisters of the Order of St. Benedict at St. Joseph, Minnesota, from 1957 to the present. Includes some history of the College of St. Benedict, as well.").

I expect some great things from her as she gets her footing.

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Finally, like everyone else in the bloggernacle I've read Elantris by Sanderson and enjoyed it. Should be interesting to see what he does with The Wheel of Time.

Ok, enough of this, I'll be back to regular posts shortly.