Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, it’s actually time for some book-blogging. Here are just a few of the things I’ve been reading over the last month or so.

Halting State, by Charles Stross. Stross has a number of moods; this particular book is most like his The Atrocity Archive without the supernatural aspect, that is, it’s a thriller about organized cybercrime, counter-terrorism, distributed espionage, and massively-multiplayer on-line games. It begins with an unprecedented crime–a robbery of a bank in a virtual world by armed orcs–and goes on from there. There are geeks, cops, and spooks galore, and the whole thing is a lot of fun. It isn’t primarily a comic novel…but if you understand why the line “They’re tunneling TCP/IP over AD&D!” had me rolling on the floor, then this is definitely a book for you.

The Merchants’ War, by Charles Stross. Here’s another of Stross’s moods: the fourth book of his series The Merchant Princes. For those who came in late, the series concerns one Miriam Beckstein, an investigative reporter who discovers (early in the first book) that there are parallel worlds, that there is regular contact between them, that she’s not really from here, and that her new relatives have significant expectations as to how she is going to lead her life. It’s a series about intrigue, politics, interdimensional economics, and alternate history, and it just keeps getting better. The only downside is that every volume ends with a major cliffhanger…and then, of course, you have to wait for a year to find out what happens. I won’t say more, as the books naturally follow closely one upon the other, and I don’t want to spoil the earlier volumes. (Start with The Family Trade; and if it leaves you a little cold, don’t let that bother you. The later volumes are worth it.)

Howl’s Moving Castle and Castle in the Air, by Diana Wynne Jones. We got these on the strength of Hayao Miyazaki’s movie version of Howl’s Moving Castle, and read ’em aloud to our kids. I liked Miyazaki’s movie (I gather Jones likes it as well), but I have to say that Jones’ novel makes a whole lot more sense, especially toward the end. Castle in the Air involves Howl and Sophie as well, though they are not the primary characters. There’s a third novel, House of Many Ways, which was published last June; we’ve not gotten it yet. Bottom-line: charming fantasy, and the kids all loved them.

East of the Sun, West of the Moon, by John Ringo. This is the latest in the series that began with There Will Be Dragons. That book was a fun outing marred only by Ringo’s need to share his sexual tastes and philosophy with the rest of us. Each successive book has been a little weaker than its predecessor, and this one was, frankly, a major disappointment. Too little plot, too little fun, too much sexual silliness. I really didn’t need to hear any more about rape fantasies, rape victims, or overcoming rape-trauma, thank you very much, or hear about all of the ladies who’d really like to sleep with the hero. I’ll take a gander at the next volume in the series, if any (there are some outstanding plot threads that were not addressed here that I’m curious about) but I don’t know whether I’ll buy it or not.

Yours, Jack, by C.S. Lewis. Lewis had a prolific correspondence, much of which has been published previously; this book is intended to be a selection of that correspondence devoted to matters of spiritual direction, that is, to helping others to grow in the spiritual life. I’m not entirely sold on that label, as I suspect that Lewis would have been the last to consider himself a spiritual director; indeed, he often pleads incompetence and suggests that his correspondents take up some question with their own spiritual directors (or “directeurs“, as he calls them). And many of the letters involve matters of doctrine or apologetics rather than any kind of spiritual direction. Nevertheless, it was an intriguing book to read, giving as it does a more personal flavor to the material I’ve seen in his books. And it was fascinating to watch Lewis grow and mature over the course of his life.

I would not advise sitting down and reading it straight through; I bought it in July, and read it a few letters at a time as the opportunity (ahem) presented itself over the next four months. There’s nothing astonishing or new here, but I enjoyed it, and it gave me food for thought.

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Heaven, by Peter Kreeft. It’s a challenging subject; but so, as Kreeft points out in the introduction, is God Himself:

But that hasn’t stopped us from writing millions of books and billions of words about God. Many of those words are silly and stupid. Most of them are secondhand platitudes. But some are helpful and enlightening. And a few are even awesomely wise and wonderful. Perhaps the same is true of our word about Heaven. And perhaps all four kinds of words are found in this book.

I don’t know that I thought any of it “awesomely wise and wonderful.” But I did find it helpful and enlightening on a number of axes, and particularly on the relationship between time and eternity. Time is due to change; God is unchanging, and hence eternal, timeless. Some have therefore said that Heaven is utterly timeless. And yet, as the Apostles’ Creed tells us, we must believe in the Resurrection of the Body. We will, ultimately, have bodies in heaven; they will be both similar to and different from the bodies we have now. But the possession of bodies implies the ability to change, which implies some experience of passing time. And yet, it must be greater, larger, richer than our experience of time now.

Many things there are that are a mystery, that are too deep and wonderful for me to understand. Kreeft has touched on these, and it’s clearly necessary to take much of what he says with a grain of salt. I suspect him (through no fault of his own) of saying things that are ultimately true, and yet misleading, just as any description of something we’ve not yet experienced can be exactly true and completely precise, and yet not communicate the essence of the experience. (How can you describe a chocolate chip cookie?)