A Tour of Christian Fantasy

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