Stephen Lawhead’s THE SKIN MAP — Day 2

Stephen R. Lawhead's THE SKIN MAP

Day 2 of the CSFF Blog Tour! If you haven’t read Day 1, don’t miss it, for it contains RIDDLE #1 For the Stephen Lawhead autographed THE SKIN MAP give-away!

Just to recap, I spent an incredible weekend with Stephen in early October at the Laity Lodge Writer’s Retreat. As part of that, I had him sign an extra copy of The Skin Map that I AM GIVING AWAY AS PART OF THE BLOG TOUR!

Here are the rules to win the Stephen Lawhead signed copy of The Skin Map, book one of The Bright Empires:

  • You must visit my blog posts for all three days of the tour and make some sort of meaningful comment toward the discussion of that day.
  • You must solve each of the riddles, and after day 3, provide me the answers through this Contact Form.
  • Note … do not give your answers in a comment or others will see!
  • If more than one person fulfills the requirements, I will hold a drawing to determine the winner.

Note #1: The riddles are going to get progressively harder, with Day Three being VERY HARD. Put on your sleuthing hats!

Note #2: Anyone is eligible to win the autographed book, even those that already own a copy! BUT … if you already own a copy, and want this autographed copy, I would request that you hold a contest of your own to give away your unsigned extra copy after you win.

Note #3: Although the riddles have to do with the book, you can solve it without owning the book by using Google Books.

But first my own review, and then at the very bottom of this post you will find the DAY TWO RIDDLE:

Here’s my scheduleDay One: The Plot / Day Two: The Characters / Day Three: The Craft.

DAY TWO…THE CHARACTERS:

Kit Livingstone The main character, he lives a dull existence in London until he meets…
Cosimo Livingstone Kit’s great-grandfather who disappeared one day while going to the store. He is a time-traveling adventurer who is seeking the ultimate answers to the universe.
Sir Henry Fayth He is one of Cosimo’s partners.
Lady Fayth Sir Henry’s snobbish niece, she sort of befriends Kit and helps him in his quest.
Giles A servant of Sir Henry, he and Kit become friends.
Wilhelmina Kit’s girlfriend, who ends up lost in time. She is fast, efficient, and knows how to make an excellent cup of coffee!
Etzel The baker who finds and befriends Wilhelmina, they open up a shop together.
Herr Arnostovi The man who owns the building Etzel and Wilhelmina rent, he ends up going into business with them.
Arthur Flinders-Petrie The ultimate time and space traveler, he is the man whom everyone else is after, in one way or another, hint, hint!
Xian-Li The woman whom Arthur marries, her life becomes a key point in the plot.
Lord Burleigh Hiss! Yes, the villain of the novel. His machinations cause quite the problems for Kit and company.

Is this the entire cast from the book? Not by a long shot, but it is a good overview.

MY THOUGHTS ON THE CHARACTERS AND CHARACTERIZATION:

Stephen LawheadStephen, in my opinion, has done a great job creating and bringing to life the characters in The Skin Map.

No, we don’t get long pages of inner-turmoil-what-am-i-thinking-monologue, but then, these books aren’t in the Literature section of the bookstore, are they?

What we do get is a suspense-filled novel with characters in motion who grow, learn, and adapt in realistic ways to the strange events happening to them.

In my opinion, the cast of characters has just begun to be introduced. What strange new worlds will Kit, Mina, and Giles visit? What places and times? What odd people will they meet on their journey? I can only imagine in my anticipation.

The good news? Stephen has already finished his entire first draft of THE BONE HOUSE and submitted it to the publisher! Even though we still need to wait until next fall, there is no fear of a late publishing schedule.

My recommendation? Buy this book!

And even if you have a copy, make sure to enter my contest for AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF THE SKIN MAP!

WIN AN AUTOGRAPHED “THE SKIN MAP” CONTEST:

Remember … you have to take some part in the discussion each day, and also contact me with the solutions to the three riddles at the end of day three:

RIDDLE…DAY TWO: Convert the following QR-Code to text. Once you have the text, you must finish the provided sentence from the book. Your answer will be four words long.

QR Code For Book Give-Away, Riddle #2

Note: If you don’t have a QR Code Reader on your cell phone, you might be able to find a “QR CODE READER ONLINE”. Hint-hint! If you need the URL to the QR Code image, here it is:

http://www.epictales.org/images/Robert/BookGiveAwayQRCode.png

DISCUSSION…DAY TWO: Which character from the book would you most like to meet, and why? For me it would be Cosimo because he would have a fascinating story to tell about his life. Note, spoliers are allowed in the comments, so read at your own risk.

CSFF Blog Tour

And don’t forget to visit the other members of the tour:

Red Bissell
Thomas Clayton Booher
Keanan Brand
Grace Bridges
Beckie Burnham
Morgan L. Busse
Jeff Chapman
Christian Fiction Book Reviews
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
George Duncan
April Erwin
Tori Greene
Ryan Heart
Bruce Hennigan
Timothy Hicks
Christopher Hopper
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Becca Johnson
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Shannon McDermott
Allen McGraw
Matt Mikalatos
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Nissa
John W. Otte
Gavin Patchett
Sarah Sawyer
Chawna Schroeder
Kathleen Smith
Rachel Starr Thomson
Donna Swanson
Robert Treskillard
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Dona Watson
Phyllis Wheeler
Nicole White
Elizabeth Williams
Dave Wilson

8 thoughts on “Stephen Lawhead’s THE SKIN MAP — Day 2

  1. Rats!
    I missed the first day of the contest. If only I could find a ley line to travel back to yesterday, and while there, mend the mistakes I made-maybe buy some stocks too.

  2. I have to admit that I’m still in the middle of the read but thus far I am drawn to Sir Henry Fayth & Cosimo as the men I’d not only like to meet but with whom I’d like to hang out. Like Kit, aligning with and partnering with these men in their endeavors would make for an “added value” life.

  3. I really would like to meet Arthur the most, but I’d probably have a difficult or awkward time making anything of the meeting, and I don’t think I could expect a whole lot on his part to make up the difference. So I’ll go with Cosimo. I know he has a lot to offer, and he’d expect a lot of me as well, since he also still has so many questions. I’m not sure he made the most of his opportunities to teach and train Kit. He didn’t rebuff any honest questions, though he did put a dismaying number of them off until later. (I wouldn’t mind running into some of the rest of the zetetic Questors, whom we will most likely meet later.)

  4. Robert, Your character chart is a great story aid for The Skin Map. With so many characters I had more to keep straight in my head. But the final destination is worth the journey with this book.

  5. OK, I’ll be different and say that I’d like to spend a day in the lab with Gustavus Rosenkruez and see what types of things they were up to. And I still want to know what machine they were making…

    Cosimo and Sir Henry seemed really interesting to me until towards the end – I won’t give it away but they seemed (unfortunately) incredibly clueless about Burleigh.

  6. I’d have to say Wilhelmina because she goes through such an amazing transformation from when we meet her in the beginning to the person who ends up rescuing Kit and Giles at the end. I want to know how she’s become who she is (and a little bit more about the mysterious device she had made for her…)

  7. I haven’t had the chance to meet the characters yet! :P

    From your little chart here, though, I’d have to say Arthur Flinders-Petrie sounds like the most interesting character.

    It’s interesting how the main character of the book seems to be the only one who’s lived a “dull existence”. Isn’t that usually true of the protagonists in novels? Maybe authors do this so that readers will relate with the main character better. Know what I mean? Not many people go on quests through time and space. :P

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