Chris Crawford

I am reviewing this book for the Christian Books Only Group on Goodreads.
The Tuning Station is very well written and extremely readable. There are a few typos but nothing major. It is clean -free of bad language (aside from a few borderline words), violence and sexual activity.

Although it is fiction; the main character visits a "time machine" allowing him to view different times in his life, much of the detail, experiences and emotions could be factual. Indeed the author states that some of the book is based on personal experience and that comes across when reading it. The main character splits into two at some point in his life, one of him (Chris) lives as a Christian and the other (Ted) as an atheist. The main character attempts to establish when he diverged and the reasons why. The separate parts of the main character take each other back to experiences that they believe shaped their decision making; joyful ones and painful ones, hoping to change each others' ways of thinking and belief systems. Both learn from each other.

I have no doubt that this book will cause people to think and that it will move people with shared life experiences: marriage breakdown, dealing with disabilities, social isolation and many others. I can also see how it could be used as an evangelistic resource but I would be concerned that the author hasn't gone far enough to address some of the arguments raised by Atheist Ted. I also thought that Christian Chris sometimes chose the wrong method to address Atheist Ted's questions. At various points they have heated debates, I would've liked to see less of this.

The underlying current of the book is that our life experiences influence our decisions about God. I'm not sure I agree with this as the only influence, as I believe that God chooses some to be saved in advance and works through His Holy Spirit to draw those people to Him. However, I liked the way the book demonstrates the profound impact we can have on each other through a simple action or timely word. I'm not sure I understood the ending of the book and felt that the Christian message of salvation could've been made clearer but I also think that might have been too predictable for non-Christian believers.

A book that will make you think. Recommended for all readers… (more)

Chris Crawford is a very precise thinker, and he has given a lot of thought to interactive storytelling. He can tell you exactly what he means by "interactive" and exactly what he means by "storytelling". His presentation of theory was superb, to me. His practical implementation of his theory was less than inspiring to me, but I come from a writing background, not a game development background. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to create a kind of interactive story (on Crawford's terms) that would inspire me. What Crawford has presented with his interactive storytelling engine is a start, and a logical one - but not one that gets my own creative juices flowing.… (more)