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Pretty Terrible

Pop Culture Criticism by Natalie Luhrs

May 28, 2015

Bad Life Decisions: Make Me Read Theodore Beale

While I was at Balticon this past weekend, my husband sent me a text message.  It was a picture of a book.  It was horrifying.  It was this:

War in Heaven, Theodore Beale

Reader, I asked him to buy it.

Why, you ask?

So you can help me raise some money for RAINN (or a charity in your country which does the same sort of work).  For every $5 donated to RAINN, I will read and  live tweet one page of this 399 page delight with the hashtag #readingVD. I’ll also re-publish the tweets and add additional commentary by chapter here at Pretty Terrible–those’ll go up as I finish each chapter (there are 29 chapters in the book, as well as a prologue and an author’s note).

However, I’m not going to read any of it until we’ve raised at least $500–and I’d like to raise that by June 11.  If we manage to raise $2,000 I will read the entirety of Theodore Beale’s Eternal Warriors™: The War in Heaven™.

Here’s the back cover copy:

Mariel thought she was the guardian angel of an ordinary boy–until the night an army of fallen angels took an unholy interest in her charge. Overcome by an angel prince of awesome power, Mariel can only watch as an even greater terror descends upon Christopher’s home then vanishes with him.

Christopher had never believed in angels, or even in God, Heaven, or Hell. But he had never imagined an angel like Kaym, with his hard-core style, terrible beauty, and distinctly unangelic disposition. Kaym has important friends and incredible power of his own–power that Christopher can share, if he’ll join their fellowship and take up their crusade.

And Christopher is willing. He’s tired of following all the rules, and being Kaym’s friend comes with some very appealing perks. In fact, once he has wings and the ability to fly, storming the gates of Heaven sounds like a lot of fun. Still, when he discovers his slightly out-of-favor angels are just as happy to be called demons, even Christopher becomes a bit disturbed…

Sounds super-great and awesome, yes? Cannot wait to find out what Kaym’s “hard-core style” is. One can hope it’s a Metallica t-shirt, black jeans, and a mullet.

So how is this going to work?  Pretty simple: make a donation to RAINN for at least $5 and send proof of your donation (along with the amount of your donation) to mercurysalts at pretty-terrible dot com and I’ll update the total amount raised below. If we hit $500 on or before June 11, I’ll start reading.

I’ll even make the first donation myself.

Donations to RAINN: $5,125/$2,000

Okay then! Looks like this thing is HAPPENING.  If you want me to read the entire book, we still need to raise $2,000.  Or, you know, more. More is good, as RAINN does necessary and important work.

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Filed Under: Bad Life Decisions Natalie Luhrs

About Natalie Luhrs

I'm a lifelong geek with a passion for books and social justice.

Reader Interactions

Lunchtime Art
Links: 05/29/15

Comments

  1. Steve says

    May 28, 2015 at 10:55 am

    And I thought watching Michael Bag movies for charity was quite an undertaking… Will bourbon be involved?

  2. Kari Sperring says

    May 28, 2015 at 11:00 am

    I donated £25 (about $38 at current exchange rates( to Women’s Aid, which does similar work to RAINN here in the UK.
    I hope you get the full $500.

  3. Rafael says

    May 28, 2015 at 12:46 pm

    “Awesome power”?

    Really? I get what the word means, but it reads like the writer was stroking his mullet while rocking out to Slayer.

  4. Natalie Luhrs says

    May 28, 2015 at 12:50 pm

    @Rafael: Well, to be completely fair to Teddy, he probably didn’t write the back cover copy.

  5. --E says

    May 28, 2015 at 2:54 pm

    Heh, I thought you were being sarcastic with the (TM), but I see that is on the cover!

    WHUT.

  6. bluestgirlblog says

    May 28, 2015 at 2:55 pm

    Will you accept donations to other local organizations? (Like this: http://rvap.uiowa.edu)

  7. Natalie Luhrs says

    May 28, 2015 at 2:59 pm

    @bluestgirlblog: I will!

  8. yamamanama says

    May 28, 2015 at 4:23 pm

    I read this piece of crap a long time ago, back when it was free.

  9. Beth N. says

    May 28, 2015 at 4:25 pm

    This sounds like it will be fun. And your choice of hashtag made me laugh out loud (yes, I am twelve years old).

    I really do hope that the novel goes well beyond the tepid adolescent wish fulfillment promised by the cover copy–well, of course a teenaged boy would be the central focus of a celestial conflict!–and well into a WTFery that would justify the efforts you put into it. Looking forward to your tweets!

  10. Michal says

    May 28, 2015 at 8:17 pm

    Air guitar angel!

  11. Rafael says

    May 28, 2015 at 10:39 pm

    @Natalie Luhrs:

    Well whoever was failed.

  12. gary massey says

    May 29, 2015 at 4:19 pm

    Wait I enjoyed the series years ago and was actually hoping for the 4th book(never happened). Now is the author a complete wacko, yes but so was L. Ron and he actually had some good work go figure.

  13. Kate says

    May 30, 2015 at 2:51 am

    “… an angel like Kaym, with his hard-core style, terrible beauty, and distinctly unangelic disposition.” He’s a Kpop idol! *rubs hand together* Eeeeexcellent.

    I’m puzzled by the non-standard capitalisation of heaven and hell. (Perhaps it’s appropriate in a fantasy setting?)

  14. Lexin (@mpmrommel) says

    May 30, 2015 at 4:43 am

    I have donated £50 to Women’s Aid in the UK. I think that comes out to about $75. Looking forward to it!

    I read one of Vox Day’s books once…oh, my ears and whiskers!

  15. Tim Lieder says

    May 31, 2015 at 3:41 am

    I was trying to parody the book but it seems parody-proof since how can you make it even more ridiculous than it already is. When paragraphs like –

    Mariel smiled as she watched the boy return to his computer and begin hesitantly typing again. The paper was more than half finished, so she felt this particular battle was well in hand. Another thirty minutes, and Christopher would be free to run downstairs to the PlayStation and play his new football game. Thank God she’d been able to convince Mrs. Lewis that “Bloody Fist of Death” was really not an appropriate game for a teenager. Or anyone, for that matter.

    Are written without shame or irony, I weep for humanity.

    Or at very least I marvel at the publisher who read a chapter on an angel making sure that a teenager did his homework and said “Yes! This! This is what I’m looking for!”

  16. Natalie Luhrs says

    June 1, 2015 at 6:59 am

    @ Tim: WordPress agrees, as it marked your comment as spam. Presumably because this writing is about as scintillating as some of the word salad that spammers use. 😀

  17. yamamanama says

    June 2, 2015 at 12:01 am

    Venereal Disease says he’ll be more impressed if you read A Throne of Bones instead.

    He can’t be wrong all the time. My reaction to A Throne of Bones was “zzzzzzzzzzzz.” I’d be impressed too.

  18. yamamanama says

    June 2, 2015 at 6:03 pm

    Wait, did Dox Day actually trademark the title?

  19. Natalie Luhrs says

    June 2, 2015 at 6:44 pm

    Someone did! There was a video game, too.

  20. Ouranosaurus says

    July 28, 2015 at 11:02 am

    Just donated $13.42 Canadian, or $10 of your “American dollars.” Two more pages!

Trackbacks

  1. Mass Effect/AEC: Chapter 25 (c.2)- Capitol | Neither Here nor There.... says:
    May 28, 2015 at 10:26 pm

    […] Tweet of the Day:  Bad Life Decisions: Make Me Read Theodore Beale […]

  2. Linkpost injected | Geata Póeg na Déanainn says:
    May 29, 2015 at 10:21 am

    […] Natalie Luhrs is reading what looks to be a terrible book for a good cause. I encourage everyone who has the ability to donate. I will be donating to an equivalent UK-based charity. […]

  3. Links: 05/29/15 — Pretty Terrible says:
    May 29, 2015 at 10:31 am

    […] And finally: don’t forget that a donation of at least $5 to RAINN gets us that much closer to me reading t…. […]

  4. The Bark Between The Stars 5/29 | File 770 says:
    May 29, 2015 at 8:41 pm

    […] Hugo Awards hacking, he wrote a series of religious-inspired fantasy novels for Pocket Books. And blogger Natalie Luhrs is going to live-tweet his debut novel, Eternal Warriors: The War in Heaven, for […]

  5. Bad Life Decisions: A Clarification — Pretty Terrible says:
    June 2, 2015 at 10:30 am

    […] it seems that my fundraiser for RAINN has gotten a lot more attention that I […]

  6. Links: 06/05/15 — Pretty Terrible says:
    June 5, 2015 at 10:30 am

    […] next week? The start of #readingVD! […]

  7. Bad Life Decisions: Prologue, Chapters 1 & 2 — Pretty Terrible says:
    June 9, 2015 at 10:30 am

    […] And this got long, so I’m going to stick it behind the jump.  And if you want to make me read more of this book, you know what to do. […]

  8. Bad Life Decisions: Chapters 3 & 4 — Pretty Terrible says:
    June 11, 2015 at 10:30 am

    […] you want to make me read the whole thing, here’s how to make me do it.  Currently I am only obligated to read to page 280, the end of chapter […]

  9. Bad Life Decisions: Chapters 5 and 6 — Pretty Terrible says:
    June 16, 2015 at 10:31 am

    […] has been raised. That’s to the end of Chapter 19. If you want me to read more of this book, you know the drill. It’s for a good […]

  10. Bad Life Decisions: Chapters 7 & 8 — Pretty Terrible says:
    June 18, 2015 at 10:31 am

    […] Let’s make this happen! […]

  11. Markierungen 06/19/2015 - Snippets says:
    June 19, 2015 at 12:49 am

    […] Bad Life Decisions: Make Me Read Theodore Beale — Pretty Terrible […]

  12. Bad Life Decisions: Chapter 13 & 14 — Pretty Terrible says:
    June 30, 2015 at 10:31 am

    […] Fundraising status: $1,730 raised for RAINN so far! $270 more and I’ll read the whole thing! […]

  13. Bad Life Decisions: Chapters 15 & 16 — Pretty Terrible says:
    July 2, 2015 at 10:30 am

    […] Fundraising status: $1,800/$2,000! So close to the goal! […]

  14. Bad Life Decisions: Chapters 19 & 20 — Pretty Terrible says:
    July 16, 2015 at 10:30 am

    […] Fundraising status: $1,820/$2,000. I will note that the Author’s Note is really something special. […]

  15. Bad Life Decisions: Chapters 21 & 22 — Pretty Terrible says:
    July 21, 2015 at 10:30 am

    […] Current fundraising status! […]

  16. Bad Life Decisions: Chapters 23 & 24 — Pretty Terrible says:
    July 28, 2015 at 10:31 am

    […] Only $105 more to my goal of $2,000 for RAINN (or equivalent organizations)! Can we do it? I sure hope so, because once I hit the last paid-for page, I’m done–in fact, if you’ve been meaning to donate and haven’t yet, I suggest you do so now: I won’t be counting anything sent to me after this Friday, July 31. […]

  17. Bad Life Decisions: Chapters 25 & 26 — Pretty Terrible says:
    July 30, 2015 at 10:31 am

    […] news! The goal of $2,000 has not only been met, it has been exceeded! As of this writing, we’re $25 short of a stretch goal: Mary Robinette Kowal reading a passage […]

  18. Bad Life Decisions: Chapter 29 and Author’s Note — Pretty Terrible says:
    August 6, 2015 at 10:30 am

    […] I’m going to hold that in my head as I read the second book in this series next month and as I read Summa Elvetica in October.  Why, you ask? Because this project has managed to raise $5,125 dollars for RAINN and other organizations doing si… […]

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