Fiction to Scare the Jesus Into You

Well, today kicks off the CSFF tour of Robin Parrish's FEARLESS. In a most interesting turn of events, I received the book with little time to prepare for the CFBA's tour recently, but promised to work my best to review for the CSFF tour (though, it was still pretty short notice for my tastes as I'm not one of those folks with the luxury of taking a mini-vacation to read a book in one sitting). Today, I've received multiple comments on my PREVIOUS post without having even posted my CSFF review! Ha! Now that's funny.

For reference's sake, I'm including the previous post as part of this and simply adding my take. No need to duplicate efforts and rephrase something that's already been said well.

So, FEARLESS by Robin Parrish. I have to say, I enjoyed this work with mixed emotions. I'm a huge fan of superhero stories in general. I grew up loving Superman and Batman and I've probably seen every movie adaptation of a comic book you can imagine. I actually turn on the television two times a week and those times happen to be for Heroes and Smallville (both superhero shows). So, from the aspect of a typical man who loves his comics, FEARLESS was a great ride.

Robin writes well and weaves a captivating tale. I haven't read the first book in the series, so I had to play catch-up. Lucky for me, the publishers were kind enough to include a one page summary of the previous story's events. Does it get any better than that? Honestly, I didn't find it all that troublesome to piece together the previous story's events, which is a testament to a great sequel in any series.

So why the mixed emotion? I love superhero stories, right? Darn that Robin Parrish, he beat me to it. If you ever venture over to my website (http://www.danieliweaver.com/) and check out my works, you will find a story by the title WHEN NIGHTMARES WALK that happens to be the first of a proposed trilogy titled THE GIFTED. Want to take a stab at my idea? Yup, a series of stories about some ordinary folks with some not so ordinary abilities. Okay, it's absolutely nothing like FEARLESS (as in mine SHOULD actually be classified as suspense or supernatural thriller), but the sort of "genre" idea is the same. So, while I loved it, I loved it with a wishful tear in mine eye (dabs Kleenex...when will that agent of mine sell my novel?)

Anywho, enough lamenting. The story details and such are recapped below. But don't take only my word when I say "Buy this book! You'll love it." There are a lot of other folks with opinions of their own. Check out what they have to say!

For probably the best review I've seen so far, check out: http://spoiledfortheordinary.blogspot.com/
or any of the other CFBA reviewer sites on the blogroll at the bottom right of this page.

So, tune back in a few weeks for my official review, AFTER you've checked out the CFBA blog post below.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Robin Parrish had two great ambitions in his life: to have a family, and to be a published novelist.

In March of 2005, he proposed to his future wife the same week he signed his first book contract.

Born Michael Robin Parrish on October 13, 1975, Robin's earliest writing efforts took place on a plastic, toy typewriter, and resulted in several "books" (most between 10 and 30 pages long) and even a few magazines.

By the age of thirteen, he had begun winning local writing awards and became a regular in his high school's literary magazine. In college, he garnered acclaim from his English professors and fellow students while maturing and honing his skills.

After college, he entered the writing profession through a "side door" -- the Internet. More than ten years he spent writing for various websites, including About.com, CMCentral.com, and his current project Infuze Magazine, which is a unique intersection between art and faith which he also conceived of and created.

One of his more "high concept" ideas for Infuze was to return to his love for storytelling and create a serialized tale that would play out every two weeks, telling a complete, compelling story over the course of nine months. That serialized story eventually came to the attention of several publishers, who saw it as a potential debut novel for Robin Parrish.

In 2005, Bethany House Publishers brought Robin full circle by contracting him for the rights to not only that first book, Relentless -- but two sequels. A trilogy, to unfold in the consecutive summers of 2006, 2007, and 2008. One massive tale -- of which that first, original story would form only the foundational first volume of the three -- spread across three books.

Robin is the Editor in Chief and creator of Infuze Magazine. He and his wife Karen reside in High Point, North Carolina. Karen works for High Point's First Wesleyan Church, where Robin and Karen are members and Small Group leaders.


ABOUT THE BOOK:

Book Two of the Dominion Trilogy:

The world changed after that terrible day when the sky burned, and now every heart is gripped by fear...

Earthquakes, fire, disease, and floods pummel the earth, and its citizens watch in horror.

But in the darkness there is hope -- an anonymous but powerful hero whom the public dubs "Guardian." He is Grant Borrows, one of a chosen few who walk the earth with extraordinary powers. But while Grant enjoys this new life, signs of a dangerous ancient prophecy begin coming true, and those closest to Grant worry he may be hiding a terrible secret.

A search for answers brings Grant and his friends to London, where an extraordinary discovery awaits that will challenge everything they thought they knew. With a deadly new enemy dogging his steps, Grant realizes that the world's only hope may come from unraveling the truth about himself once and for all. But what he comes face-to-face with leaves even this most powerful of men shaken with fear.

Secrets will be revealed.

Friends will make the ultimate sacrifice.

And destiny will not be denied.

The story continues...