Review: Offworld- by Robin Parrish

So I’m finally getting closer to catching up with the Christian Sci-Fi Fantasy Blog Tour, and am able to post a more proper review of the book for the month.  For August us bloggers took a trip to Mars with the characters of Robin Parrish’s Offworld.

This book definitely keeps the pace up, the opposite of a slow and over worded novel.  In fact there were a few times I found myself trying to figure out whether or not it was going too fast.  But only a few times.  I haven’t finished the book yet, though I’m pretty close.  And it’s been hard to break the action to put the book down for the night.  Enjoyable when I don’t have to be up by a certain time the next day.

I’m able to get into the lead characters, each one a necessary part of the story.  There are some I care about more than others, but that may have been Robin’s goal.  Offworld is truly the story of the characters, and not simply a plot filled out with unimportant bodies.

And speaking of the plot, man am I looking forward to seeing how this book ends!  When I said the characters matter, well, it goes the other way too.  This isn’t just a grouping of great characters thrown into a room and inconsequentially recorded.  It’s a good story.

I’ve been partially let down by the direction the book has taken thus far, but I’m not sure why.  I guess I liked things as they were after the first few chapters and hoped it would work out differently.  The way things have turned out is not a let down in and of itself, in fact it’s quite enjoyable.  But I guess I would like to see the idea explored in a different direction (at this point in the book I’m going to assume it would have to be a work completely separate from this novel).  I mention all this not to downplay the book, but rather to point out that it sets a foundation for even more to be explored.

On the spiritual aspect of the work, it’s definitely a safe book to read thus far.  Honestly I haven’t seen much depth spiritually, and I’m hoping for something powerful before it’s all over.  I’m not seeing how it might happen, but there’s enough there to work with if you have the desire to do so.  I’ll just have to wait and see if Robin Parrish wanted to or not.  I will say that considering the Christian world view changes a lot of potential outcomes throughout the book, so in that regard the spiritual aspect has the potential of adding suspense for the reader who accepts Christ as their Lord and Saviour and who accepts the Bible as the infallible word of God.  The book could still tear that apart, though I’m not expecting or hoping that it will do so.  What I’m really wanting to know is what kind of spiritual impact the conclusion of the book is going to have on readers.  Lord willing I’ll find out in the next couple of days.

And, Lord willing, you too dear reader will have the opportunity to see what the conclusion of the book has to offer.  Not just from my opinion, either.  I’ve got in my possession a couple extra copies of this book to give away.  Be on the lookout next month for the giveaways to begin, it’s my goal to start with the next CSFFBT.  And if all goes well there should be somewhat regular giveaways to follow, with a variety of books from a variety of authors.  I have some ideas in mind on how to do the giveaways, but feel free to share any of your own ideas.  However it happens, as long as the end of this book doesn’t tank, I’m really looking forward to passing it on to other readers to enjoy.  It’s been a fun book to read, even for a guy who’s not really a sci-fi fan.

Some official websites to follow up on are:

Offworld – http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0764206060

Robin Parrish’s Web site – http://www.robinparrish.com/
Robin Parrish’s blog – http://twitter.com/robinparrish(that’s the address he gives for his blog on his Web site)

To find out what other bloggers thought of the book and the author, please visit some of the other sites below.  And remember, the more you follow and reply to these kinds of reviews and books, the more chances there will be of publishers supporting Christian speculative fiction.

Thanks for reading, and thanks fellow CSFFBT bloggers!

Brandon Barr
Jim Black
Justin Boyer
Keanan Brand
Gina Burgess
Canadianladybug
Melissa Carswell
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Linda Gilmore
Beth Goddard
Todd Michael Greene
Katie Hart
Ryan Heart
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Melissa Meeks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Mirtika
Eve Nielsen (posting later in the week)
Nissa
John W. Otte
Lyn Perry
Steve Rice
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Speculative Faith
Stephanie
Rachel Starr Thomson
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Dona Watson
Elizabeth Williams

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After hearing and seeing enough about HDR pictures I decided to look into them myself.  Basically, an HDR picture is when you take three pictures of the same thing:

1. underexposed
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Now I’m no expert, so this explanation won’t get you a degree.  But it will give you a basic understanding.

So why should you care?  Well, let me show you.  First, here’s a few of my newbie HDR projects (HDRs on the right):

Believe it or not, the hdr image on the right here is how the colors ACTUALLY LOOKED IN REAL LIFE. Taken at the "Grand Canyon of Yellowstone NP"

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