Auralia’s Colors by Jeffrey Overstreet
My rating: 2/5 cats
when i learned i would have to read christian fiction for this readers’ advisory class, i thought, “booo” expecting it would be preachy and didactic and like my old CCD classes where we were talked down to and bored the whole time. but when i looked at the list of christy award winners/nominees, i realized i already owned this one (yayyy) because b/n just classifies it as general sci-fi/fantasy and i had no idea it was christian and i bought it because i liked the cover (here is where i am glad david is on sabbatical so i don’t have to hear a litany of Why I Am Wrong. but this shade of blue…she soothes me.) so but i didn’t know it was christian. and after reading it, i am still unsure. have i strayed too far from my flock to recognize christian values and themes?? i am genuinely puzzled. this just strikes me more as basic fantasy that a y/a audience would be perfectly comfortable reading, but i don’t feel particularly christianized after reading it.
in fact, it seems to have a decidedly un-christian message. a quick breakdown:
so the people in this realm are asked to make sacrifices for the good and the glory of their king (but really more the materialistic queen, naturally). they are denied color, and must donate all they have that is colorful and beautiful to the castle. they are told that after a certain period of time, all will be restored to them…and more. why is this so?? doesn’t matter, don’t ask questions—the specifics don’t matter. but so far so good, right?? this seems fairly biblical. and after a period of toil and deprivation the reward will come in the form of color and joy and freedom and all will have been worth it.. but so one little girl (our heroine) manages to thwart this by finding all these colors in nature and making a cloak that is so beautiful and magical and wowing them all and making everyone doubt their subservience to rules that seem, and indeed are, arbitrary. so by being a wild flaunter she wins and gets to be the one everyone loves. is this what god is up to these days?? from what i remember, rules were not meant to be questioned, it is called “faith,”right?, and trust and obedience are kind of big deals in the gentile worldview.
someone set me straight on this. {jen fisher, light of my life, does a very good job of this in her comments on the thread}
this is exactly what happened when i read lewis‘ till we have faces, which i love like candy. i never understood why it was shelved in the christian inspiration section at b/n—this is a retelling of the psyche/cupid myth (or eros, depending on where you’re calling from) but it at least offers up a recognizable christian theme: do not disobey. if your god/husband says “don’t look at me, i’m hideous” and you do, and he catches you, there will be consequences. so, exactly the opposite of auralia.
there is one line that struck a religious chord: “If you allow Abascar freedom, some people will choose what they shouldn’t…but take away that freedom and no one has the opportunity to choose what they should.” so fine—yes—free will and all. but still—the impetus that led to this thought was still auralia’s revolt. anyone read paradise lost? revolution is supposed to lead to banishment, not freedom and praise.
all “where’s the christianity” aside, this book is probably fine, but it is most decidedly not for me. i don’t read fantasy precisely for the things that are all over this book. too many “names” for creatures, people, lands…i just get lost in the unfamiliar. the prose seems overwrought and the story underwrought. for me, it’s like the guy you try to avoid at work who means well, but if you get sucked into a conversation with them, you just let your mind wander a little until he has spent himself. kind, but dull.
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