Special thanks to the members of CSFF who posted during the Motiv8 Fantasy Ficton Tour the first week in October. These are the ones I know, though there well may have been others: Merrie Destefano, Margaret, Robert Treskillard, Amy Browning, S.J. Deal, Jeff Draper, Laura Williams.

Today begins the tour for Bryan Davis’s Beyond the Reflection’s Edge, first in the Echoes from the Edge series. As it happens, book two, Eternity’s Edge, released this month. By all means, read book one first and don’t read the blurb about book two until you finish because there are major spoilers.

What’s especially interesting to me is that Bryan has almost created his own genre. Zondervan, the publisher of this series, accurately identifies it as adventure fantasy, though I’ve also seen the term contemporary fantasy referring to these books.

I’ve described Bryan’s writing as science fantasy at times, but in reality, it is a mix of contemporary, science fiction, fantasy, and supernatural suspense. Thus my claim that Bryan’s books are in a unique category. Nevertheless, I do think his work has much in common with what Philip Martin identifies as adventure fantasy in The Writer’s Guide to Fantasy Literature. Here are the high points of Martin’s definition:

This fantasy accepts the notion of adventure for its own sake … The escapades in adventure fantasy are shaped mostly by the internal desires of their protagonists, rather than epic struggles between Good and Evil … Similar to high fantasy, adventure fantasy is awash in magicians and magical beasts, in quests for any and everything, with enchanted rings, amulets, and swords with cryptic inscriptions stacked high in every castle closet and treasure hoard … These stories seldom offer the culminating quest or defining moment found in Tolkien or other high fantasists. Instead, the escapades often end with a return home—but you are left with the suspicion that the characters will venture out again soon … Evil in adventure fantasy is not grand Evil personified, but a more obscure cousin: Chaos … Throughout the fantasy adventure tale runs a distinct thread: a moral code. Adventure fantasy glorifies the cult of the good night, gallivanting about to save those in distress, freeing all from the cruel yoke of monster, dragon, or pirate … A moral code is what keeps the endless forces of chaos at bay, Like the samurai warrior or the knights of the Round Table, the heroes of adventure fantasy are chivalrous and charming, prone to honesty, willing to sacrifice to help the weaker.

It is in this latter area that Bryan’s work most nearly fits the cagegory.

An excellent group of bloggers are participating in the tour for Beyond the Reflection’s Edge, and I encourage you to take some time this week to read what all they have to say. We already have some debate generate at one blog about the cover. See what you think about these posts, then stop by A Christian Worldview of Fiction on Wednesday to vote for the October CSFF Top Blogger Award.

Brandon Barr, Jennifer Bogart , Justin Boyer, Keanan Brand, Kathy Brasby, Jackie Castle, Valerie Comer, Courtney, CSFF Blog Tour, Stacey Dale, D. G. D. Davidson, Shane Deal, Janey DeMeo, Jeff Draper, April Erwin, Karina Fabian, Marcus Goodyear, Andrea Graham, Todd Michael Greene, Katie Hart, Timothy Hicks, Joleen Howell, Jason Joyner, Kait, Mike Lynch, Magma, Terri Main, Margaret, Rachel Marks, Melissa Meeks, Rebecca LuElla Miller, Eve Nielsen, Nissa, John W. Otte, Steve Rice, Ashley Rutherford, Mirtika or Mir’s Here, Chawna Schroeder, Greg Slade, James Somers, Steve Trower, Jason Waguespac, Laura Williams, Timothy Wise.