Book Review

 C.S.Lewis Images of His World, Douglas Gilbert & Clyde S. Kilby
This is an awesome coffee table book for fans of C.S. Lewis, like me. After a brief prologue going over his conversion from atheism to Christianity, which is what he is best known for, the book displays various pictures from his life and of the different places he'd been to school and worked over the years. Family photos, pictures of friends, teachers, colleagues with brief captions and stories of their relationships. Pictures of houses, streets, colleges, and personal walking paths in Ireland, England and Scotland where he'd lived and traveled to in his lifetime. Not all of the pictures are old. Some are just he scenic views he would've witnessed in his day. Also included are pictures of some of his notes and drawings that he'd made for different stories. At the end a timeline is laid out of his life highlighting pivotal personal moments and publications of some of his works from his birth to his death. Refreshing light reading and excellent pictures. Probably nobody but Lewis fans would be interested, but I recommend it anyway.

Book Review

Walking Through The Wardrobe: A devotional quest into The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe; Sarah Arthur
Another Christmas book. A devotional canvassing LWW by C.S. Lewis. This one isn't meant to last for the year with a daily reading. Arthur is a Lewis fan and you can see that this is more of a study into the first Narnia book itself rather than an outright Bible study.The chapters are longer and they break LWW down by characters giving a profile of each and how they're related to the Christian message that Lewis was conveying. Each chapter cross references other works of Lewis, adds trivia tidbits about his life or origins of story elements, and also poses questions for self reflection and Bible verses to read and ponder related to each subject. It's a very thorough exercise. I would suggest the same caveat that I did regarding A Hobbit Devotional - that of being firm in your faith before reading so as not to worship the fictional material, but other than that, I really liked this one. It's hard to misinterpret Lewis when it comes to his expounding on Christian principles anyway. New Christians or those flirting with Christianity could get something out of this. And even if the Christian connection isn't what you're after, it still is good for laying out how all the main characters fit together. Secularly speaking, I always thought that four main characters was too many, but I have a new perspective after this. So I recommend it to everyone, Christian or not.

Book Review

Revenge of the Dwarves, Markus Heitz
The drama continues in the third book of the series. But even though it picks up with the resolution to the events from the last installment, it behaves as the first of another couplet like the first two books were. The world must now extend to the mysterious Outer Lands from which all of Girdleguard's troubles originate. Attacks from without the borders slowly introduce a group of foreign Dwarves, a race of good Orcs, and a peek at the race that the late Djerůn belonged to from the Outer Lands as well as reacquaint the readers with the previous characters. But it doesn't give too much away at once and focuses mostly on the action giving the momentum to the antagonists for most of the book. It makes for a stressful read along with the breakdown of Tungdil's marriage and the tainted return of his foster father, but there's still plenty of comic intervention although it's a bit uneven at times. It comes together in the last third of the story to build to the cliffhanger climax that leaves much unfinished business for the next book to clear up.
I have to say I'm not happy with the translation this time. There was a different translator for this book and the narrative isn't as smooth in general. Also the editing leaves a lot to be desired this time. Lots of typos and the wrong names in the wrong places.
All in all I liked it but so far it's not as good as the first two. But I'm confident that once the story is resolved in the next book it'll be another winning couplet.