by Jason Joyner | May 17, 2006 | Blog, Uncategorized
Today on the Christian Fantasy literature tour, I wanted to talk about Stephen Lawhead (I feel like one of those PBS hosts). He is considered by many to be one of the premier fantasy writers in Christian fiction to be sure. He also has a following outside of the CBA from my understanding.
I read the Song of Albion series around 1998 or so. It starts with The Paradise War, and continues in The Silver Hand and The Endless Knot. It follows the adventures of a graduate student at Oxford who is drawn into a Celtic fantasy land and slowly over time becomes the hero and ultimately, its savior. It is a powerfully written narrative. The first and third books are written in the perspective of the hero Lewis/Llew, while the second book is written from the perspective of the trusted bard Tegid. The first two books really drew me in. I can still recall my own imaginings from these books, 8 years or so later. Unfortunately I found that the third book was more plodding in pace, but in pushing through to the end I was rewarded with the connection evident in all three books that was skillfully woven into the story the whole time.
I’ve read more of Stephen Lawhead’s books, including book one of the Pendragon cycle that chronicles the legend of Arthur (these books would also appeal to the fantasy reader as well). It seems that Lawhead can be spotty – I eagerly jumped into the 2nd of the Pendragon cycle only to really lose steam from the previous narrative. I noticed this pattern in a historical trilogy he wrote as well. However, he remains an excellent fantasy author, and I do recommend the Albion series.
Like I said earlier, I haven’t read much in the genre of fantasy. I don’t know why, as I’ve enjoyed all my forays into them. I really admire those writers of fantasy and science fiction, because it takes so much imagination to conjure up whole worlds and mythologies associated with them. I have trouble enough keeping my own real world plot threads from tangling! I have appreciated being part of the Christian Fantasy tour, and there are several books that have been highlighted through other tour participants that are now on my radar (where I’ll find time to actually read them is another matter). Be sure to check out the other participants listed in the preceeding couple of posts. I noticed one more blog I haven’t linked to so far:
Sharon Hinck’s blog
And we also had Karen Hincock join in with a post (unofficially).
Unless I get any other bright, fantastical ideas, it will be back to normal in the next post. Whatever that means…
by Jason Joyner | May 16, 2006 | Blog, Uncategorized
The first Christian fantasy book I read as an adult was Oneprince. It was a very gripping tale, with a young prince thrust into the kingship and trying to save his kingdom from darkness. It had talking animals, an amazing escape, and the search for an unlikely ally. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to read the ending!!! Apparently it was meant to be a two or three part story, but it must not have sold enough to justify continuing. So the lousy publisher let people hang out there with a serious cliff-hanger. Boy, it was a good ending. I waited and waited for the next book, seemingly in vain…
The good news is, from the looks of things the version on Amazon has is the “full edition”. I hope to get it some time and finish the adventure I started back in the early 90’s. Has anyone read the full version? I’d like to hear from you if you have!
Looks like we have a couple of new additions to the tour:
The Jerkrenak’s Den (of course!)
Jim Black
I can’t believe I didn’t highlight Becky Miller’s blog (although I did link there)
Becky Miller’s A Christian Worldview of Fiction
Megawriter
LaShaunda’s See You on the Net
Tomorrow I will look at a prolific writer in the fantasy genre.
by Jason Joyner | May 14, 2006 | Blog, Uncategorized
I hang out at a blog and discussion board called faith * in * fiction, oh, about daily! This weekend I was priveleged to join in a “blog tour” promoting a focus on Christian fantasy literature.
Say what?
There are a group of us spending a few posts this week discussing Christian fantasy. This genre may seem to be the realm of wizards, dragons, elves, and magic, and some may argue that it is not an “appropriate” read for Christians. Well, we have all probably heard of a couple of little books: you know, Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia. As Becky Miller writes in an introduction to fantasy,
In most fantasy types—classic or high fantasy, adventure fantasy, even fairy-tale fantasy—good and evil are defined in rather stark, unyielding terms, based on what the author believes.
She goes on to say:
Fantasy’s first value, therefore, is that it can give voice to a Christian’s deepest held beliefs.
I honestly haven’t read much fantasy of any kind recently, besides reading Narnia to my boys. However, I have enjoyed several books in the genre in the past, and I look forward to reading some of the other books that will be discussed in this tour.
The inspiration for this tour is Tim Frankovich’s Christian Fiction Review, where he provides a very helpful service in reviewing books to help sift out the must reads from the others out there. Specifically, he did a fantasy focus that is the subject of this week. To be honest, I haven’t read any of the books that Tim highlights. *blush* Sorry, but I’m too busy reading suspense to help me with my own sooper sekrit…
I’ve said too much 😉
ANYWAY, I will discuss a couple of fantasy books that DIDN’T make Tim’s list in the next couple of days. In the meantime, please check out the following sites and see what they have to say on this topic!
Mirathon
Insights from Beth Goddard
Marci’s Writer Lee blog
Sally Apokedak’s All About Children’s Books blog
Steve Trower’s Old Testament Space Opera blog
Cheryl Russel Unseen Worlds
Shannon McNear Shannon’s Eclectic Musings
For Monday only: Chris Well’s blog
by Jason Joyner | May 14, 2006 | Blog, Uncategorized
You’ve gotta love the things they come up with.
Caffeine dipsticks
by Jason Joyner | May 12, 2006 | Blog, Uncategorized
Some weeks just don’t go as planned. Maybe that is why the admonition, “Don’t worry about tomorrow, for today has its own troubles” was given. Anyway, doing anything here took a little hit.
I’ve got some ideas for what to do here. I see some amazing blogs (check out the always growing links on the right!) and what they do. I can’t recreate that, and don’t particularly want to. I will talk about life, writing, having some fun, and where faith can fit into all of that.
Sometimes I will just talk about faith. I happen to be the adult Sunday school teacher at my church, and we are beginning a series on the book of Romans. Reformation here we come! 😉
I basically am studying the book of Romans in depth for myself, and from that I intend to teach the class. I plan on posting once a week or so just on what I’m getting out of this book. So check back in the future and we can do a little on-line walk through Romans together.
by Jason Joyner | May 10, 2006 | Blog, Uncategorized
OK, so today was not my day to mess with this thing.
1. My phone line was down all morning, so I couldn’t access the net on my DSL line.
2. I finally get on, and realize that the last major post I did totally mucked up the formatting and knocked out my whole right side. Well, I spent my last half hour trying to fix that without success. Grrr. So now the post is in purgatory until I can figure out how to fix the formatting.
(Oh, I did also spend a few minutes there watching the new Halo 3 trailer online. Wow…)
Anyway, hopefully I’m back to regular programming tomorrow.
