Skin Deep: Man's Appointment with Destiny Book

I've dumped my first paragraph of comments in this review, b/c I think I was a bit overly negative-- this really is one of my favorites of John's books, and as long as you take it as the start of a series (and are OK with CBA (=evangelical christian) fiction that makes that worldview an integral part of the plot), then it is quite satisfying-- and as I've said before, I really like the direction John is going with this, even if he does things differently than I would. Sales have unfortunately been low, but John's been winning awards right and left, and the next book in the series (Powers) will apparently have a graphic novel version put out as well, so hopefully things will pick up. Everyone seems to think Powers is the best in the series so far, but I'm still excited about the one after that, which I've been waiting for for a long time. I still reserve the right to nit-pick and analyze these books, but I hope people will still take a chance on them-- John is a very underappreciated presence on the CBA market.

OK, I've got a few things to say about the book, so I'll try and divide them up a bit.

1) Don't read it if you don't like creepy psycho-supernatural stuff! It's not that it's the scariest thing out there, but if you like adventure stories instead, read his novel Fossil Hunter for a female-indiana jones type. My mom likes the latter, but just couldn't get into Shade, even by the end. And if John doesn't mind, I'll warn everyone right now that the series will only get weirder, at least by the third book. I'm expecting it to end up much more solidly in the fantasy genre, but who knows, maybe John's plans will change. In any case, I like the direction he's going, even if his style runs a bit different than I'm usually into.

2) Several reviewers have found Hailey, the female lead, to be too bland or wimpy next to Melchi, the male lead (a very eccentric lead)-- Melchi is really charismatic, and Hailey doesn't stand up quite as well next to him, as far as grabbing our attention. I admit that at times I was a bit frustrated with Hailey's character myself, and didn't always like her actions or reactions, but I think that was largely not her fault, but rather was the fault of her situation (and thus an acceptable piece of the story)-- she was in the position of the victim, and given that, John did a pretty good job of giving her some volition (John is known for his strong female leads, so I think it's clear enough that the problem is an inevitable one given her position as victim). Still, she is our primary viewpoint character (being the normal one), and it's hard not to desire some more strength out of her. It can feel a bit too much like we are just there to wonder whether it's real and marvel at how amazing and crazy/and-or heroic Melchi is.

3) Dracula-- read this too! Maybe first. I knew John liked the book, and obviously it is an influence, as Shade is "the vampire book with no vampires in it", but now that I've read about 2/3 of Dracula, I feel like Shade itself makes more sense. Certainly the heroic, manly and exceedingly chivalrous ethos which John loves is there, as well as the Christians gathered against unspeakable evil, the dilemma over what is reality and what is insanity (though resolved much earlier in Dracula), and even the female viewpoint leads who nevertheless are victimized by the erotically charged masculine Monster (the erotic being largely unarticulated but fairly obvious-- though actually a bit milder in John's book, which of course is written for the Evangelical Market).

4) Christianity-- this is a very obviously Christian, evangelical book, at least as you get closer to the end, and to be honest, I think it has to be taken as that-- I can't think of this as other than a CBA book. This is fine in a lot of places, but I was disappointed with the "conversion scene" near the end, which certainly fit the plot (according to the rules of the world of the story), and which did have a positive message (from my own Christian perspective), insisting that God's love is an unearned gift, rather than something to earn and constantly feel guilty about-- but it was way too formulaic, and I gathered from John that he knew it would be that way but just had to get it out (he's been working on some tight deadlines, and personally I think the only way to write a good book is to work at a more leisurely pace). I think evangelical fiction and evangelical culture as a whole (maybe excepting the emergent church, which I'm still learning about) is a slave to the conversion formula (ie, 4 spiritual laws, or however many it is, the Sinner's Prayer, etc), and I think that it's virtually impossible for American evangelical culture to honestly explore "salvation" in it's art anymore-- not to put down John or the other evangelical writers I know, it just seems like everything I've seen in the CBA has been focused on telling "Truth", ie, the proper formulaic understanding of who God is, how the relationship works, etc, rather than on working through our relationship to God, together with all the dirtiness and problems inherent in that situation (ie, what if God isn't actually there, the radical freedom of a God who can't be summarized in a formula, etc)-- the evangelical engagement with God in it's art seems to me to be more about containing God in what we know and militantly enforcing that formula, rather than allowing itself to be transformed by an engagement with a living God. Well, okay, I'm ranting now and am way off topic. But I can't help pointing out that this particular part of the book stood out like a sore thumb to me. But as has probably been made clear by now, I've got my own issues with this sort of thing, and may have been projecting my own issues onto the book a bit too much.

5) Details: Details are important in this book, but many won't be answered by the end. In fact, many may not be answered till the 3rd book, and some won't be answered at all, because John is trying to create a "thick" world, one in which you don't get all the answers and loose ends will always be there. I like this in a way, but we'll have to see how it works-- after all, stories are all about Closure, but then again, it's a bit "postmodern" of John to try this, and I think it could work quite well. Assuming he's still planning on doing this. We haven't talked about this aspect for a while.

6) The ending felt a bit abrupt, but then again, if you take the "point" of this story to be the resolution of whether we really are dealing with the supernatural or not, then this works very well as a prelude to the later parts of the story (since it also sets up other essential elements, like the fact that we have two sides working against each other, and we get a picture, albeit an imperfect glimpse, at the goal of the bad guys). I feel like I can't emphasize enough that this is the first of a series. There is a certain amount of resolution within the story itself, but the big picture just won't be even close to resolution until the 3rd book, as I understand John's direction at the moment.

I can't really go into more detail, as that would ruin the book, and considering that it's been over a month since I've read it and I didn't have room to bring it back to Iceland with me. If you are following Christian speculative fiction, or are interested in seeing what it is like, read the book! I'm looking forward to the rest, even if knowing about so much of the story in advance makes me a bit cheeky in the breadth and depth of my comments on it (sorry John!)