{"id":6065,"date":"2009-11-19T02:53:30","date_gmt":"2009-11-19T08:53:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.epictales.org\/treskillard\/2009\/11\/19\/the_curse_of_the_spider_king_amdash_day_3\/"},"modified":"2009-11-19T02:53:30","modified_gmt":"2009-11-19T08:53:30","slug":"the_curse_of_the_spider_king_amdash_day_3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.epictales.org\/treskillard\/2009\/11\/19\/the_curse_of_the_spider_king_amdash_day_3\/","title":{"rendered":"The Curse Of The Spider King &mdash; Day 3"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/1400315050\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\"  src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.heedtheprophecies.com\/wp-content\/themes\/spiderking\/images\/bookcover.png?w=200\" alt=\"The Curse Of The Spider King\" title=\"The Curse Of The Spider King\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p><strong>Day 3, whoohoo!<\/strong> <\/p>\n<p>The <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/csffblogtour.com\/\">Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog Tour<\/a><\/strong> has had a great week promoting <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/1400315050\">THE CURSE OF THE SPIDER KING<\/a><\/strong> (COTSK), a new novel written by <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/enterthedoorwithin.blogspot.com\/\">Wayne Thomas Batson<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.christopherhopper.com\/\">Christopher Hopper<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>If you are coming to this review but haven&#8217;t read my previous one&#8217;s, you can find them here:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.epictales.org\/treskillard\/the_curse_of_the_spider_king_amdash_day_1\">Day One &mdash; an EXCELLENT book.<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.epictales.org\/treskillard\/the_curse_of_the_spider_king_amdash_day_2\">Day Two &mdash; a few trifling points of improvement.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Anyway, today I want to cover the Spiritual aspects.  There could be some <em>minor<\/em> plot spoilers below.  Click to read on.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<h3>Ellos Is Clearly God<\/h3>\n<p>In the beginning of the book, a few character talk about &#8220;Ellos&#8221; as if he were the God of their world.  A secular kid might think this is polytheism&mdash;each world has its own God, but&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Later, Anna, a Sentinal, says this to Kat:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;Kat, you&#8217;ve no doubt been wounded by very mean and shallow people &#8230; people who don&#8217;t realize how beautiful differences are.  In Allyra you don&#8217;t need to worry about such things. You know, we have a saying in our home world: &#8216;Ellos cares not for garments, flesh, or any outward thing. Ellos cares for the heart.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Ellos?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is our favorite name for God.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Therefore, Ellos is established clearly as the single, one God of this world, as well as the Elven world.<\/p>\n<h3>The Clever Use Of Scripture<\/h3>\n<p>Not only do Wayne and Chris include references to God, but they have included a direct reference to John 1:5 (ESV) and John 3:19.  In the passage below, elves are fighting against a Wips&mdash;a shape-shifting smoke creature&mdash;and it can only be killed by reciting the Word of God:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Travin laughed. &#8220;&#8216;Hear the words light. Light has come into the world, and the darkness has not overcome it&#8217;&mdash;that was very dramatic, don&#8217;t you think, Vendar?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Using the words of Ellos, our mighty God, is the only way to inflict harm on a Wisp.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Still, you gave quite a speech!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Laugh if you want, Travin, but once you&#8217;ve dealt iwtha Wisp youself, you won&#8217;t be so smug.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Smug? Nay. I feared for my life! &#8230;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>This happens another time, too, when Mrs. Finney dispatches an assassin Wisp at a school right before he kills her.<\/p>\n<h3>Dependence On God Is Shown<\/h3>\n<p>Besides the Sentinals, Kiri Lee emerges as the most spiritually minded character. She prays or thanks God three times.  Once, she even quotes some long scripture from Romans 8.  <\/p>\n<p>Powerful stuff, and fit in so naturally that you hardly notice it.<\/p>\n<h3>Setup For Later Books<\/h3>\n<p>Even though the references to God is fairly frequent in this book, other deeper spiritual themes are missing. <\/p>\n<p>But I fully expect Wayne and Christopher to hit harder on deeper things in future installments in the series.<\/p>\n<p>Having setup a dependence on God, it is only a matter of time before one of the main characters starts thinking more about serious issues, and themes emerge that communicate the basic truths of the gospel.<\/p>\n<h3>My Son&#8217;s &#8220;Curse Of The Spider King&#8221; Book Trailer<\/h3>\n<p>Along with <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/jtmlife.blogspot.com\/\">Jon Maiocco<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/teeninklings.blogspot.com\/\">Christian Miles<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/epictales.org\/blog\/leightonblog.php\">Leighton<\/a><\/strong> is putting together a book trailer that will incorporate 3D CGI elements.  Here is a 3D render of the spider my son has created:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.EpicTales.org\/images\/Leighton\/SpiderFinished.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\"  src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.EpicTales.org\/images\/Leighton\/SpiderFinished.jpg?w=450\" alt=\"Leighton's 3D Spider\" title=\"Leighton's 3D Spider\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Cool and scary, eh? <\/em><\/p>\n<p><center><a href=\"http:\/\/csffblogtour.com\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/epictales.org\/images\/CSFF\/CSFF_Button_380.jpg?w=1200\" alt=\"CSFF Blog Tour\" title=\"CSFF Blog Tour\" \/><\/a><\/center><\/p>\n<p>Views: 47<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div style=\"float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/1400315050\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\"  src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.heedtheprophecies.com\/wp-content\/themes\/spiderking\/images\/bookcover.png?w=200\" alt=\"The Curse Of The Spider King\" title=\"The Curse Of The Spider King\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p><strong>Day 3, whoohoo!<\/strong> <\/p>\n<p>The <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/csffblogtour.com\/\">Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog Tour<\/a><\/strong> has had a great week promoting <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/1400315050\">THE CURSE OF THE SPIDER KING<\/a><\/strong> (COTSK), a new novel written by <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/enterthedoorwithin.blogspot.com\/\">Wayne Thomas Batson<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.christopherhopper.com\/\">Christopher Hopper<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>If you are coming to this review but haven&#8217;t read my previous one&#8217;s, you can find them here:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.epictales.org\/treskillard\/the_curse_of_the_spider_king_amdash_day_1\">Day One &mdash; an EXCELLENT book.<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.epictales.org\/treskillard\/the_curse_of_the_spider_king_amdash_day_2\">Day Two &mdash; a few trifling points of improvement.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Anyway, today I want to cover the Spiritual aspects.  There could be some <em>minor<\/em> plot spoilers below.  Click to read on.<\/p>\n<div class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.epictales.org\/treskillard\/2009\/11\/19\/the_curse_of_the_spider_king_amdash_day_3\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;The Curse Of The Spider King &mdash; Day 3&rdquo;<\/span>&hellip;<\/a><\/div>\n<p>Views: 47<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6066,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,2,63,3,54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books-authors","category-christian-sf-fantasy-blog-tour","category-christopher-hopper","category-fiction-tours","category-wayne-thomas-batson","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.epictales.org\/treskillard\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/SpiderFinished5.jpg?fit=812%2C612","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p67v0M-1zP","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.epictales.org\/treskillard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.epictales.org\/treskillard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.epictales.org\/treskillard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.epictales.org\/treskillard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.epictales.org\/treskillard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.epictales.org\/treskillard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.epictales.org\/treskillard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.epictales.org\/treskillard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.epictales.org\/treskillard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.epictales.org\/treskillard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}