Ryan McFadden

Deeper by Jeff Long is the sequel to The Descent (unrelated to the movie called the Descent). Both books are about the journey into a literal Hell at the centre of the earth.

The Descent was one of those books that grabbed me and didn’t let go — and I would consider it in my Top 10 books. Seems that people either love or hate this book. If you can get past that thousands of miles of caverns have gone undiscovered for centuries, and that in these caverns is another race of humanoids…if you can buy into that, then it’s a great action/horror story.

The Descent returns us to Hell a few years later. Now, the interesting thing with The Descent is that it has a theme. The theme being us versus them (or more notably, Freedom versus Terrorism, or Christian vs Islam). And quite frankly, it pissed me off.

I remember at Banff, Rob Sawyer told us we had to have a theme in our books. After reading The Descent, I strongly disagree. The theme pissed me off. It took me out of his well crafted world and kept dumping me in our world. Quite frankly, it annoyed me.

Now, once they returned to Hell (about 1/2 way through) it started getting much better again. But at times I couldn’t help but think that I’ve been here, done that. And I guess that’s the problem — I had been here and done that — and it was a book called The Descent. Nothing new was really added.

Of course, now I find out, this is merely the second book in the trilogy. The first was released in 1999, this one in 2007 (and it just so happened that I read the Descent this year so I didn’t have to wait 8 years). But I hope that I don’t have to wait years between books, as while this didn’t stack up against The Descent, it was still a good read — I’m still on board the series.

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From a recent Toronto Star article: An April 2005 article in the Australian Book Review complained that “literary fiction is losing market share to memoirs and genre fiction.” The Sept. 10 Publishers Weekly repeated the phrase “literary fiction has lost its authority in the culture,” often heard in publishing industry circles.

And my response…so what? I’ve never understood the word ‘culture’. Shouldn’t culture be whatever people are doing, being, thinking, watching, reading? Not something that someone from another era thinks is important.

The reason literary fiction is declining is because NO ONE reads it. There’s no need to try to save it. If people don’t want to read it, they won’t. Our culture, for better or worse, is Survivor, mass market novels, Dexter, 30 Rock…

In Canada, literary fiction is supported heavily by subsidies (your money) while genre fiction doesn’t have that luxury. Which is strange, because if it sells, and lots of people read it, isn’t that culture? Not the book that only 100 people read?

Culture is just a society’s interests…and when those interests change, there doesn’t have to be the gnashing of teeth to save something…that no one wants to save.

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Not that anyone cares, but I read an interesting article in the Toronto Star today about Red Toryism…and finally I have a group that I can associate with. I’ve always changed my party allegiances depending on the platform., so I’m not a conservative, I’m not a liberal…

The definition of Red Tory: investment in physical and social infrastructure within a framework of fiscal restraint and bending when necessary to overwhelming popular sentiment.

The key word for me is fiscal restraint. When I graduated university, I was in debt. Lots of it. It was crippling and prevented me from doing things that I wanted. My belief is that it’s the same with a country. Big deficit, big debt is bad for everyone. Get that debt lower and suddenly there’s more money to spend.

Current Red Tory’s: Stephen Harper (who is only a Red Tory because of his minority government), Bill Davis, Bill Clinton, Jacques Chirac. Judging by those people — it’s pretty middle of the road (it’s called left of centre). Which is funny, because Harper is usually considered far RIGHT of centre.

With the recent defeat of John Tory (in one of the WORST election campaigns ever run) people were lamenting the death of Red Toryism. The Toronto Star article was basically saying that it is alive and well…that in fact, Dalton McGuinty is a Red Tory (perhaps the reason that there was a general apathy this election).

The article is here:. I’ve never been much of a party follower, and this article merely reinforces that belief.

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Since Writer’s Fest 2007, I have written 11,000 words for the Secret of Folloman Finn. Now, I was hoping to write 10,000 words that weekend alone (hahaha!) but in two weeks, I’ve nearly written a 1000 words a day. Which is a great total. It takes one or two hours a day, but it keeps me writing and in the flow.

In three weeks, I head to the World Fantasy Convention. I’d like to go there with 50,000 words completed. Seems like a nice total. That’s 3 weeks from now…so if I can keep up to a 1000 words a day, I should hit that total.

Not that I’ll be pitching this book before it’s finished. I WILL hit the dreaded ‘dead’ spots (this is when I write has written in the outline ‘then stuff happens’).

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Writing

Wheel of Darkness is the sixth book in the Agent Penderghast series by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. These books usually move fast…by fast I mean that they usually grip you by the throat around page 50 and never really let go. And while the action is fantastic, the books are built around this crazy character named Agent Penderghast — the ingenuity of McGyver, the social pretentiousness of Higgens, and the kick-assery of an Indiana Jones.

After six books, they’re also predictable. Especially the last two. There’s usually a HUGE cast of characters (most of which will be slaughtered), an ancient evil (that can usually be explained at the end like Scooby Doo), and of course, Agent Penderghast.

While I had enjoyed the other books in the series (several of them ranking among my favorites), after the last two books, I was worried that perhaps they had become too predictable (and therefore losing their ability to amaze).

Wheel of Darkness put those fears at ease. It moves fast and never really lets go. Predictable? Yes, but it didn’t matter. Like a ‘then there was one’ horror movie, knowing that everyone is going to die doesn’t really matter.

In this one, their chase takes them on the Britannia, the world’s largest ocean liner on its maiden voyage. On board are the richest (and most pathetic) human beings on the planet, Penderghast, a murderer, and an ancient evil artifact.

Now, I know that by the end of the book, half the passengers will be dead (especially the rich ones), the murderer will get his comeuppance, the ocean liner will probably be at the bottom of the sea…and Agent Penderghast will be just fine.

But did it matter that I knew all this? Nope, not one bit. Hate to use the cliche, but this is a roller coaster book. Loved it. Finished it in two days. Now I have to wait a year for the next book in the series…

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