Books–stories themselves–come in so many shades and textures and ways.
Some books are lush, gorgeous, enriching.
Some are dense but necessary.
Some, like The Enclave by Karen Hancock, are just plain riveting.
It took me all of about two chapters to be sucked thoroughly into The Enclave, guessing at its mysteries, marveling at its setting, caring about its characters, strongly relating to the absent-minded Christian-out-of-water hero, and really not wanting to put it down.
There are probably several reasons for this. One is the setting — The Enclave takes place at a state-of-the-art scientific institution, a think-tank for brilliant scientists at the edge of all science can do. Before it was clear that I was going to be a writer, I loved the idea of becoming a scientist, so The Enclave sucked me in on that level. The one-punch-after-another, sock-’em-good-and-keep-’em-guessing plot and pacing helped too. But most of all, The Enclave pulled me in because I cared about its characters, especially Cameron Reinhardt, a brilliant Christian scientist whose faith is mocked and belittled by his collegues but who stays faithful anyway, who hides a secret past and is so convincingly absent-minded that I think Karen Hancock knows what it’s like to get up in the morning and put your shirt on inside-out.
Without characters who are so relatably human, The Enclave would still be exciting and fascinating, but it somehow wouldn’t matter so much.
With that thought, I leave you till tomorrow. In the meantime, check out Karen Hancock’s blog, where she’ll also be talking about The Enclave for the next few days, and her Web site.
You can also check out the rest of the tour bloggers at the links below.
Brandon Barr
Jennifer Bogart
Keanan Brand
Grace Bridges
Canadianladybug
Melissa Carswell
Valerie Comer
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Janey DeMeo
Jeff Draper
Emmalyn Edwards
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Beth Goddard
Todd Michael Greene
Heather R. Hunt
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Mike Lynch
Melissa Meeks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Mirtika
Eve Nielsen
Nissa
John W. Otte
Steve Rice
Crista Richey
James Somers
Speculative Faith
Stephanie
Rachel Starr Thomson
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Elizabeth Williams
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