Why spend time dissecting fantasy and categorizing the different types? Speculative readers (and CBA publishers) need to know that not all fantasy revolves around a quest.

One of the unfortunate impressions about Christian fantasy that still lingers seems to be that all fantasy is the same, that it is derivative and stale.

First, to a certain extent, all stories are derivative, which is why writers quote from time to time the mantra that there are no new stories. But beyond that, “stale” is a little hard to swallow when there has been so little “fresh” work that can be classified as “Christian.” When will Christian romance be considered “stale” for example? Only when readers decide to stop buying it. So, in order for Christian fantasy to be considered stale, there first has to be an adequate supply for readers to get tired of.

To get to the point of “an adequate supply,” it seems to me we must first expose the misconception that all Christian fantasy is alike. In truth, there is much variety within the genre; not every story is a rehash of Tolkien’s tale—not even other epic quests.

The Writer’s Guide to Fantasy Literature, edited by Philip Martin (The Writer Books) gives a good description of five basic categories of fantasy. Before I jump into those, just a personal note of discovery about the truth of this point. On a writers’ discussion board, a number of us in the SFF thread responded to a topic about our work in progress. I’m not sure now what the driving question was—maybe, what is your pitch? Regardless, one thing that struck me was the amazing variety. No two stories sounded remotely alike. Were there some elements that we shared? In the most remote way, as all mysteries have something unknown to discover, as all romances have two people who fall in love, so too, fantasy has evil in conflict with good. That’s really its most basic requirement, but there are SO many ways stories can work within that “quilting frame.”

Here are the categories Martin identifies.

High fantasy. This is perhaps what people think of when they hear the term. These stories have settings that sound like Europe in the Middle Ages, with knights and kings, castles and cottages. These stories are rooted in classical mythology and “tackle head-on the question of Good and Evil.”

Adventure Fantasy. These stories encompass a large variety, from swordplay to talking animals (or talking stuffed animals). The cohesive element is the desire of the character(s) for personal adventure, as opposed to engaging in the lofty purpose or great cause of high fantasy. Martin, concerning Evil in adventure fantasy:

Evil in adventure fantasy is not grand Evil personified, but a more obscure cousin: Chaos. In adventure fantasy, forces of evil (or uncertainty) are everywhere in never-ending supply: dragons, sorcerers, scheming barbarians, stalking Heffalumps. Unlike big Evil, Chaos is fluid, constant.

Fairy Tales. These stories are more directly designed to deal with heart issues: fear, courage, greed, love. From The Writer’s Guide to Fantasy Literature: 

Fairy tales tend to deal with personal transformation. In fairy tales, people (or creatures) change in dramatic, often miraculous ways, and this is at the heart of the story. The ugly duckling is transformed into a beautiful swan, the toad into a prince, a cinder-maid into a princess, the fool into a wise person. Also, fairy tales explore on a very individual level the invisible boundary between the safety of home and the dangers that lie beyond (and that occasionally force their way into the cottage.) …

Fairy tales look out for the warmth of the hearth—or cottage, village, or protective castle walls—to the unknown, possibly evil world of the dark forest—the foreign land, the big city, the land of the wealthy, the odd strangers, the wilderness realm of monsters.

Magic Realism. I think of this as Twilight Zone-type fantasy. Martin’s description: “Magic realism produces stories in which magical things happen, often unexpectedly, in the midst of very realistic, everyday settings and events … In these stories magic is more likely to act as an independent character than as a tool used by other characters.”

He points out the varied nature of this type of fantasy. Some stories infuse the ordinary with the fantastic, often crossing over into modern mainstream fiction, though they clearly depend on the central tropes of fantasy: good versus evil and magic. Some magic realism reveals the magical as good. In other stories, it is what causes the character’s downfall as he follows his base desires. Often the distinction between dreams and reality is murky at best.

Martin again:

In magic realism, abstract thoughts and concepts become real. Something intangible is given sudden visible form … One writer suggested that Tolkien fantasy is inherently Protestant, with its reliance on the profound meaning of each individual’s actions. Magic realism on the other hand is more Catholic, with its belief in magical transformation from outside, mysterious powers. In any case, magic realism is fantasy, but one in which the key rules are often invisible to the humans involved.

Dark Fantasy. As is true for other categories, within this classification there are numerous sub-groups: horror, Gothic, dark satire, urban, vampire, and ghost stories.

Martin makes an interesting statement about horror, that I wonder whether it applies to all the dark fantasy:

It’s roots lie in ancient tales wherein the matter of curses is closely linked t religion and taboos. Doing something wrong is bound to lead to awful consequences. These stories are morality plays: often the plot hinges on unraveling the mystery of just what was done wrong—and on discovering the manner in which this can be corrected or reversed. Horror explores the consequences of misguided action, just as the Old Testament of the Bible explores the sometimes horrific consequences of what happens to those who transgress the law.

Does any other genre offer such a varied tapestry? No two fantasy stories have to look alike, and I suggest that fewer and fewer Christian fantasies resemble the large successes of the past.

What’s your favorite type of fantasy, or do you prefer other types of speculative fiction? What draws you to your favorites? What’s your favorite novel in your favorite category?

This post is an edited version of two articles that first appeared here in October 2006.

I once heard a speaker say that good fiction mirrors reality. This can be easy to see in historical fiction or contemporary fiction. Of course it mirrors reality. It’s our world, just a few non-real people and places thrown in. It could be real, under the right circumstances.

But what about speculative fiction? Fantasy and science fiction and the other “weird” genres often don’t look remotely like our world. Can that be a mirror?

Yes, it can. After all, mirrors come in all shapes and sizes. They can be tilted and turned, which changes the reflected picture. There are the mirrors in the fun houses at county fairs that make people thin or fat or give them extra big noses on their balloon-shaped heads.

Perhaps, mirrors can even show reality more clearly. Sometimes in a mirror, shadows and light are more stark. A sunbeam that isn’t visible in the room shines on the mirror and turns the mirror world into a dazzling, sun-doused version of the much darker room it reflects. Words written upside down or backwards—gibberish as they currently are—can be read in a mirror.

Historical fiction or contemporary fiction is a pretty, but standard mirror. But speculative fiction is a tilted, wacky mirror that highlights different angles than other types of fiction.

As Christians, our reality looks different than in secular fiction. Our reality has a God who created the world and sent His Son to die to redeem His people. It has stuff like miracles, walking on water, plagues, and a world-wide Flood. All stuff the “reality” we see around us with just a physical eye says is impossible.

Speculative fiction, in that sense, is more important to Christians. Speculative fiction takes out the “reality” that only serves to mask God’s reality as revealed in the Scriptures. In speculative fiction, Christians can highlight spiritual warfare, the depths of darkness, the utter brightness of light, and the rumbles of God’s power that courses through the world hidden by physical reality.

Fantasy, science fiction, and the other speculative genres show all this by what doesn’t change in Christian speculative genres, no matter how strange and unfamiliar the world might be. God’s greatness and power doesn’t change. The beauty of redemption doesn’t change. Light and dark doesn’t change. Christian speculative fiction mirrors this in a vast variety of ways, but it is there.

In that way, Christian speculative fiction is more real than the physical reality we see around us. Our jobs, worries about money, and life distract us from the deeper reality we’re supposed to be seeing.

C.S. Lewis says it much better than I can at the end of The Last Battle:

It is hard to explain how this sunlit land was different from the old Narnia as it would be to tell you how the fruits of that country taste. Perhaps you will get some idea of it if you think like this. You may have been in a room in which there was a window that looked out on a lovely bay of the sea or a green valley that wound away among mountains. And in the wall of that room opposite to the window there may have been a looking-glass. And as you turned away from the window you suddenly caught sight of that sea or that valley, all over again, in the looking- glass. And the sea in the mirror, or the valley in the mirror, were in one sense just the same as the real ones: yet at the same time they were somehow different–deeper, more wonderful, more like places in a story: in a story you have never heard but very much want to know. The difference between the old Narnia was like that. The new one was a deeper country: every rock and flower and blade of grass looked as if it meant more. I can’t describe it any better than that: if you ever get there you will know what I mean.

It was the Unicorn who summed up what everyone was feeling. He stamped his right forehoof on the ground and neighed, and then cried:

“I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now. The reason why we loved the old Narnia is that it sometimes looked a little like this.¹

This is perhaps why we love speculative fiction so much. We catch a glimpse of the real country in the fantasy ones, just like we sometimes spot flashes of the real country in our own world. Speculative fiction shakes us from our comfortable lives in this world. After all, we aren’t supposed to be completely content with this world. We’re supposed to be longing and looking for something better. If we wish we could live in Narnia or Middle Earth or Ilyon or the Goldstone Wood because they feel greater and more beautiful than our own world, it is because we know there is a world to come that is more beautiful and better than the world we live in now. After all, our world is itself only a mirror—a tainted, flawed, pitted, dark antique-glass sort of mirror—of things to come.

If you’ve ever asked “why isn’t there more Christian fantasy?” I have another question for you:

What are you a fan of?

That is, which storyteller is your favorite to cite, when you want to tout the virtues of Christian fantasy?

Okay, now take J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis out of the running. Granted, maybe they weren’t your first choice, but let’s face it, that’s kind of like answering “Jesus” in Sunday school.

Is that harsh? Maybe it’s my bias, but it seems like any time we bring up what is great about our genre, we jump straight into a TARDIS and return to the days of old, when there wasn’t even an idea of something being “Christian” fiction. We hold up Lewis and Tolkien with the honor they deserve, as the patriarchs that inspired us to push forward.

But is that all we can do?

Think back to the last 20 or even 30 years. Are there any names that sparked a passion in you to explore the What If? Elwood. Frank Peretti. Stephen Lawhead. Kathy Tyers.

What about the last 10 years? Ted Dekker. Kerry Nietz. Nadine Brandes. Jill Williamson. Tosca Lee. Mike Duran.

Perhaps you know these names, maybe even fans. But are you part of a fandom?

I look at how we engage with mainstream popular culture today. We debate at length the nature of superhero films. We cosplay as Time Lords, elves, and starships. We adorn ourselves in the branding and seek out art and memes that reference the popular works.

Is there a way to bring that level of fandom to our own culture? Granted, it is easier to hit on the high notes that “everyone” knows.  I mean, if I say “Don’t blink,” you likely understand the reference. Would the phrase “Empty numbers” hold as much weight? Within our circles, should it?

This really struck me during the Realm Makers 2016 conference, especially the costumes at the awards gala. There were dozens of detailed and well thought out costumes, all celebrating the fun and wonder of speculative fiction. Characters from across popular culture were represented: Kylo Ren, Ashoka, the Ninth and Eleventh Doctors, the TARDIS, even a unicorn druid.

Maybe these stood out because of their ease of recognition. But out of all the costumes I only saw two derived from the pages of the Christian speculative fiction we clamor for. One was an Amish zombie. The other was Reagan Moon.

Perhaps again this touches on why the fandom feels weak to me. Only a few Christian fantasy titles have reached a level of near universal recognition even within our small ranks. But shouldn’t this be an even stronger case for you to celebrate a favorite character or world from Christian speculative fiction? To help expose even more people to the story that inspired you?

I also wonder where the in-depth discussion of Christian speculative fiction is taking place. This may seem ironic, coming from an article on Speculative Faith, but I mean discussion going beyond high concepts and the discussion of general market popular culture. Where are the posts discussing the world-building, characters and theology of recent titles?

I hope that all I have done here is display my ignorance! Please point me to where I can find these discussions and the wonderful fandom. After all, I admit I am the last person to be admonishing anyone about not engaging in our unique culture without first acknowledging that I have failed in this area.

But knowing that I have an issue is the first step, and “knowing is half the battle.” So I have a challenge to lay down, and to accept.

Let’s move beyond the questioning and become champions. You have all read a novel or have experienced a form of fandom for Christian speculative fiction. Celebrate it! Tell us about it below, what captured your imagination? What made you yearn for something more? And what challenged you and made you think about your beliefs in a new way?

These are the discussions that will help drive our fandom forward and help it to grow. And for those of you who love cosplay: I’ll challenge you to seek out a character from the pages of Christian speculative fiction that strikes a chord with you and cosplay that wherever you go. Be an evangelist for our genre that holds Truth at its core and doesn’t just reflect it through a mirror darkly.

Let’s engage in this journey together and be intentional about celebrating that which we profess to love so as to bring others along with us to discover and adventure through these new stories that await us.

One unrealistic element of modern fiction is the scarcity of prayer. There are, of course, exceptions, the Christian market being one gigantic one. In the mainstream, however, many a book and movie and television episode goes by without one prayer sent heavenward. Given what is happening in these books and movies and episodes, you would think someone would be praying.

Of course, it doesn’t follow that because prayer in fiction is realistic, all prayers in fiction are realistic. With that in mind, here are some thoughts on how to keep fictional prayers true to life.

There are no atheists in foxholes, but there are plenty on the boat back home. Conventional wisdom holds that there are no atheists in foxholes, and this is generally true; horrible things have a way of sending people scurrying for help to all the gods they do or do not believe in.

But remember, Christian writers, what conventional wisdom also says about foxhole conversions. Conventional wisdom is limited, made up of aphorisms rather than facts; there are atheists in foxholes and there are honest (and long-lasting) foxhole conversions. But conventional wisdom almost always has some basis. Atheists have been known to pray in foxholes, but it’s not always the spiritual revelation some Christians make it out to be.

Circumstances dictate prayer. Most people with even a casual belief in God (and some without even that) will, when facing death, pray if given half a second. But if you have only half a second, your prayer will be very quick, likely simple, and if not simple, incoherent.

Prayers are simplified not only by immediacy of danger but also by intensity of need or want. The moment of greatest urgency is when people are least likely to dot their theological i’s and cross their theological t’s – and to keep the established form.

Never underestimate the old refuge of the nursery. Give a man ten minutes to write an article, G. K. Chesterton once said, and “he will run screaming for refuge to the old nursery where he learnt his stalest proverbs.” There are other crises that will send us screaming for refuge to the old nursery, particularly if we haven’t had much schooling on the relevant matter in the intervening years.

How should a character pray, especially if he has more than a harried moment between gunshots or explosions to try? That depends on how he has prayed. The old nursery is often the deciding factor. It is highly realistic for the most uneducated person to pray a formal, eloquent prayer full of Thee’s and Thou’s – if his grandmother took him to Mass or Lutheran services, and got the liturgy inscribed in his memory. On the other end of the spectrum, a Ph.D. might well be stumped on how to proceed after “Now I lay me down to sleep” – if childhood prayers are the only ones he ever learned.

This helps bring to light a cardinal rule of writing prayer in fiction: A character’s prayers should be shaped not by generalized assumptions (“A person with this much education, or this much religion, prays like this”), but by his present circumstances and past experiences.

Prayer is, in the valued literary word, realistic. More importantly, it’s a part of reality that can’t be wholly left out of art without doing an injustice to life. Prayer is a human constant across time and cultures, and it touches on many fundamental things, not least our seesawing hopes and fears on whether or not we are – in fact or in effect – alone in the universe. Its place in art, when properly done, can’t be denied.

I’m two days removed from returning from Realm Makers, the conference of conferences, the gold standard for Christian writers of spec-fic.

In its fourth year, Realm Makers has seen tremendous growth, attracting countless geeky Christian writers who love to roam the broad lands of the strange and awe-inspiring, and let their stories explode with creativity.

Sadly, this passion for all things weird and wonderful has fallen upon the hard ground of the CBA, unable to take root and flourish into the forest it could be.

Why is that? The reasons and debates have been numerous, including Why Isn’t There More Christian Fantasy. I won’t go into that now.

Coming off the exhilarating high of Realm Makers, hanging out with nearly 200 fellow spec-fic writers, I want to look on the bright side. Perhaps we’re on the edge of a trend, riding the tip of the wave of the next big thing.

Christian spec-fic.

In his Realm Makers follow-up post, Mike Duran summed up this optimism nicely:

One of my big takeaways from the conference is that there’s genuine momentum here. Sure, I could be over-stating this, running on fumes from a long, sleep-deprived weekend. But I don’t think so. It’s not just that a bunch of geeks have another place to congregate. It’s not just that Christian nerds now have a conference where mentioning vampires won’t provoke a nervous side-eye. It’s something… bigger.

I’ll add that at Realm Makers, I met a bunch of young writers. Guess what they’re writing and reading? In conversations I’ve been part of, I’ve heard the same thing—the younger generation loves spec-fic.

We don’t have access to a TARDIS (sadly), so we can’t know what the future holds. However, we can look at the present, and from my vantage, being a lover of spec-fic and having attended Realm Makers three years in a row, I can say that the terms “spec-fic” and “Christian” are no longer diametrically opposed.

What’s even more encouraging is the number of Christian authors churning out quality fantasy and sci-fi.

5 Excellent Authors

Nadine Brandes

The Out of Time Series is one of the best I’ve read—the final book releases in October. Dystopian fiction has descended from its peak, but Nadine has created something special here. Brimming with a creative world and fascinating concepts, infused with the hope so often missing in dystopian stories, and bursting with action, these books are must-reads.

Patrick Carr

I read the first two books in his Staff and Sword Trilogy, and finally got my hands on the final book at the conference. The stories combine fast-paced action with layer upon layer of intrigue, characters you want to follow and learn about, and one of the most original heroes you’ll find.

Jill Williamson

Jill is brilliant, and I say that having only read her fantasy books. I devoured The Blood of Kings Trilogy, which included one of my favorite characters ever and the most painful (in a good way) romance you could wish for. Oh, and a unique fantasy world, an evil prince, and the battle between light and darkness.

Then we have her new series, The Kinsman Chronicles. Easily one of the best fantasy books I’ve read. Complex, unique, a vibrant story world, a cast of believable and relatable characters, and an epic similar to what you’ll find in a Brandon Sanderson fantasy. And that’s only book one.

Andrew Peterson

I haven’t read the acclaimed The Wingfeather Saga yet, but my friends who have absolutely rave about it.

Mary Weber

I read Storm Siren this summer. Not only was it beautifully told, with an original storyline and strong cast of characters, it gave me a punch to the stomach. I’m talking about the diabolically brilliant ending. It will leave you begging for book two.

The list goes on and on. Check out the SpecFaith library for a treasure trove of titles.

Spec-fic isn’t dominating, and it’s unlikely to take the place of Amish fiction anytime soon, but we’re headed in the right direction. We have Christian authors weaving fantastical tales that shed light on life’s most powerful truths while telling darn good stories along the way, even if they don’t specifically target the CBA audience.

That’s something to be excited about.

Do you think spec-fic will continue to grow in the CBA?

Year four is in the books. Realm Makers, a writers’ conference for those with a speculative bent, combined with a faith-based worldview, is the brainchild of Becky Minor. Each of the conferences to date has been bigger and better.

This video, a teaser for the 2016 conference, gives a good flavor of what Realm Makers is all about.

Any number of conferees tweeted about the conference and their experience. Others, such as Steve Laube and Mike Duran, wrote blog posts. We must not leave out Facebook which also had any number of conferees sharing their experience. And then there is Instagram, with all the pictures telling the story of another successful conference.

Besides fun and workshops, there were contest winners.

Nadine Brandes and Sara E. Morin won the first ever Excellence in Editing Awards.
Kirk DouPonce once again won the Parable Award for the best cover design.
Genre award winners included Kerry Nietz in the Supernatural/Horror/Other category and John Otte in the Sci-fi category.
The first ever Realm Award went to Carrie Noble.

Plans for next year are already in the works, and this time the conference will be moving west. As per Saturday’s Spec Faith news item, Ted Dekker will head up the lineup for the conference to be held in Reno, Nevada.

For many of us, Realm Makers serves as a beacon, a tangible piece of evidence that speculative fiction is alive and well among Christians. We love it, we watch it, we read it, and we write it. May our tribe increase!

A New Threat
The Psygen Chronicles, Book One

by Aaron DeMott

Introduction

Finalist – 2015 Realm Makers Genre Award In Science Fiction

When an alien ship lands unexpectedly in the middle of her clan’s territory, Bast is sent to investigate as part of her scout trial. After an accident, she meets these new visitors. She and her senior scout Rrrark are invited to return with the aliens to their home planet to open diplomatic relations. What started out as a simple diplomatic mission becomes complicated when they discover a pirate scheme that might be more than it seems. Only Bast, Rrrark, and two of the aliens called Pysgens are capable of stopping the pirates.

Excerpt

Prologue

Tomed bolted upright out of a deep sleep. He swung his feet from the bed and pulled the bottom of his shipsuit over his legs. Something had woke him, but what? He rubbed his eyes and cast his gaze around the room. The room looked normal enough. Gray walls and beige carpet, a generic painting on the wall to the right, all normal for a stateroom on a Hiem-class starship. The air circulator hummed along with a steady rhythm. Even the door that led from the bedroom to the rest of the suite was still cracked open just as he had left it.

Tomed sensed nothing in his room. He frowned, extended his consciousness outward, and felt the alarm of the bridge crew a moment before the red alert klaxon sounded. He pushed his arms into his shipsuit and cashed out of his cabin before he had finished zipping it up.

The bridge was controlled chaos. A dim light pulsed red when the alert siren sounded. The voices of the bridge crew mulled together as all of them hollered out damage reports and status updates.

“We’re venting atmosphere!” an officer called out.

“Engines are still offline!”

Tomed pressed himself against the doorpost at the rear of the bridge until he was needed. The damage assessment station and the engineering monitor were to his left and right. The weapons control station and sensor station, the captain and the first officer’s stations and the navigation and helm controls were in rows ahead of him. The Main Holographic Display, or MHD, dominated the very front of the bridge. It currently displayed a three-dimensional hologram of his ship, the Goddard, with several areas highlighted in red.

Captain Trenton stood behind a frazzled-looking lieutenant and stared over her shoulder at the damage assessment station. He finished double-checking her readout, then glanced up at Tomed.

“Good morning, Psygen. I’m afraid we’ll have a slight delay in getting you to the conference as SeQish.”

“Well, it can’t be helped. My presence there is more a formality than anything else.” Tomed shrugged. “Looks like I slept through all the fun. What’s the situation?”

“Well, we had a surprise visit from a pirate ship.” The captain raised an eyebrow and cocked his head slightly to the side.

Tomed frowned. It looked like the captain expected some kind of reaction from the statement. There was something about pirate activity in this sector that should ring a bell . . .

Tomed really wished he had a cup of coffee, he’d never been able to think clearly in the morning, and it was somewhere around six—at least, it was in the last time zone he’d been in. He shook his head and willed himself to wake up.

“I think,” he replied, “the latest report said that there wasn’t any pirate activity in this sector since the new resort opened over at Antar. Shouldn’t all the pirates be over there?”

Captain Trenton chuckled. “Funny you say that. Apparently the pirates that attacked us didn’t get the memo about the resort opening. They thought we were a luxury cruise liner.”

Tomed laughed loudly enough to distract several of the other bridge crew.

“Wait . . . they somehow mistook a Hiem-class cruiser for a luxury liner?”

“Yeah,” the captain said, “you’d think the giant UGAL logo on the side of the ship would’ve been their first clue. That and we’re a little small for a cruise ship.”

“So, how much damage did they cause?” Tomed asked.

“We’re still assessing the situation. Lieutenant Roshen.”

Lieutenant Roshen cleared his throat and ran a hand through his thick curls. “We’re venting atmosphere from the stern storage bay, and we’re leaking drive plasma from the starboard engine manifold.”

Tomed looked over at the readout. The atmosphere leak was already sealed off, but it looked like the drive plasma leak was getting worse.

“What’s the chief engineer’s assessment?” he asked.

The captain looked grim. “He’s working on it now, but he’s not sure he can repair it.”

“Mind if I take a look at the damage report? Tomed asked.

“Be my guest,” the captain said as he gestured at the console.

Tomed sat down and scrolled through the damage assessment. The plume of plasma that jetted out of the fracture on the starboard engine manifold obscured the ship’s sensors. That made it difficult to get an exact reading on the full extent of the damage. A plasma beam had struck the starboard engine pod about twenty-four centimeters behind the field output emitter—an area that wasn’t accessible from inside the ship. Tomed grunted at the report and then stood. “I think this plasma leak will have to be repaired or we won’t make it back to any UGAL outpost. Worse, it doesn’t look like the damage can be repaired without shutting down the reactor core. Our best option would be to find a planet to land on. That would make the repairs easier, and we wouldn’t have to worry about life support running out if we’ve vented too much drive plasma to restart the reactor.”

“That’s exactly how our chief engineer assessed the situation,” the captain replied. “You seem to have a rather thorough grasp of starship mechanics. I though Psygens were mostly diplomats.”

Tomed grinned. “There’s a lot more to being a Psygen than most people associate with the job.”

“There’s more to most jobs than people thing,” Captain Trenton said over his shoulder as he walked over to the navigation console.

“Ensign Materton, have you found any planets in the vicinity that would be suitable to land on to make repairs?”

A short brunette looked up from the console. “Possibly sir,” she said. “I’ve found a planet which a remote survey probe indicated might be habitable. However, we haven’t sent live survey teams anywhere near it. It’s also pretty much the only one within the range that engineering says we can make.”

“Pretty much?” the captain asked.

“Well sir, there are two more planets within our range, however . . .”

The ensign turned to the con and pressed in a sequence that brought up a readout in a separate holo-window. Tomed and the captain both leaned in to read the display.

“Each of these other choices”—she pointed to the relevant portion of the readout—“has problems that would make them a bad choice for a repair stop.”

– – – – –

The Author

Aaron has had a few different jobs, ranging from computer tech support, to real-estate, and lawn and farm sales and service. He also enjoys photography and reading, and has been a Star Trek and Star Wars fan for as long as he can remember.

You can find him on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, his blog, and other fine social media sites.

Today I’m headed to Realm Makers. It’s the best growing conference for Christian writers (and fans) of fantastical stories, fantasy, science fiction, and beyond.

Perhaps you’re going too? If so, feel free to introduce yourself below.

Perhaps you’ve also chosen a favorite cosplay for the Friday banquet.

I’ve chosen mine, but I had to sort through a list of possible cosplays and reject a few.

So if you are looking for me at Realm Makers, here is what I will not look like.

1. A presidential candidate you despise.

Whoever is running for president whom you cannot stand, rest assured, I will not cosplay as her, him, or it. After all, I just couldn’t. It’s the hair, or that creepy stare, or that social position that is contrary to everything you believe in. But that other person, the candidate you absolutely adore, I would surely dress as that person. Assuming you like any of them.

2. No-Face

I’m sure a more-professional fan who has actually attempted this cosplay could confirm otherwise. But from here it looks like No-Face is one of the easiest cosplays to manage:

1. Make a cool mask, inspired by the figure from Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away.
2. Stick it on top a black bedsheet, with holes cut in the side for black-sleeved arms.
3. Profit.

Perhaps I’ll attempt a No-Face cosplay in the future, when I have a real time crunch.

3. Gajeel

I actually seriously considered this cosplay. Actually, I would not have dressed as Gajeel, an enemy from “Fairy Tail” who ends up joining the anime’s titular magic guild. I would have dressed as Edolas Gajeel, a twin from an alternate dimension who is a mild-mannered reporter. When he and real-Gajeel meet, they do not come to blows. Tough-guy Gajeel does not mock his parallel-world self. Instead they easily recognize the other’s awesomeness.

4. Iron Man with Hulkbuster™ Armor

This proved too expensive for someone who barely made it through Calculus 1. And that’s before we even talk about the orbital satellite that shoots down all the spare parts.

5. Someone from ‘Game of Thrones’

That “Game of Thrones.” That “Game of Thrones.” I do not like that “Game of Thrones.”

Insert your “easiest cosplay is a birthday suit” joke here.

6. The Green Arrow

My marksmanship is terrible, and most days my jaw muscles do actually move. I don’t look that great in green, and actually do fairly well as a team player rather than being repeatedly told how your team matters more than the whole “lonely hero thing.”

Also, I looked all over Ikea, but could not find a do-it-yourself-assembly salmon ladder.

7. Storybook Noah’s Ark

This proved entirely too cutesy, doctrinally incompatible, and cotton-ball-intensive.

8. Deadpool

Overdone. And now that webcomic artists are literally drawing pictures where the “punch line” is Deadpool swearing at Captain America, I think this cosplay trend (despite the movie’s success) has just about leaped a whole Discovery Channel tank full of sharks.

9. Your pastor

I don’t know your pastor, and he has not (to my knowledge) featured in a motion picture, so I’m not sure I could pull it off. Plus, alas, some pastors do not (yet!) understand the Christ-exalting possibilities of fantastical stories, so if you have seen this yourself, I would not want to remind you of this. Or perhaps if you struggle with this, I could walk up to you, peer at you over my spectacles, and you could say exactly what you would like to say.

10. This man.

Summer TV shows have been steadily improving over the last several years. Two shows that I’ve been enjoying recently are Outcast and Preacher. Both shows share many similarities: they are both based on comic books, they are both set in small towns (Outcast is in West Virginia and Preacher is in Texas), they both portray a vicious battle between the forces of light and darkness, and they both feature a man of the cloth as a prominent character (naturally, the main character in Preacher is a preacher, and the preacher in Outcast is the primary supporting character). Both shows are well-written and more than a bit freaky, but what strikes me the most is how the Bible and the Gospel message are portrayed in these programs. Specifically, how they are positively portrayed.

Let’s just get this out of the way first: Hollywood is a repulsive pit of sin and corruption. Well, most of it is, anyway. That’s not to say that there aren’t many fine examples of quality wholesome entertainment to be found on the big and little screens, but even when that happens, it’s probably not because the producers and filmmakers are going to take their little light and let it shine, let it shine. Clean and wholesome entertainment can be just as lucrative as the vulgar filth we expect to come pouring out of Tinseltown. However, money talks, and where there’s an appetite, someone is going to feed it. Attractive and heroic do-gooders battling the forces of evil is nothing new, but there has been a noticeable shift in recent years. Back in the day, the demon hordes would be banished by a holy relic or a vague verse from the Bible. Now it seems that the power holding evil at bay is increasingly being named for what it truly is: the power of Jesus Christ.

The church and its leaders have historically received a negative image on screen, so it was quite a surprise to hear the Gospel being proclaimed in such direct language on these two TV shows. Now, I would certainly not consider them to be “Christian” shows. The Preacher is hardly a good shepherd to his flock, which isn’t really his primary mission anyway. The show contains some very suspect theology, yet it is refreshing to hear him encourage his congregation through the Scriptures, though he does seem less than sincere.

Outcast is more explicit in its content and in its Gospel message. The main character is somewhat of an agnostic that happens to be able to drive out demons with his touch, and the pastor that he works with has a foul mouth and a drinking problem, but he wholeheartedly believes in God’s power to banish demons from the afflicted.

I am sure the scriptwriters don’t really believe it when they write things like, “Only the power of Jesus Christ can drive out the darkness,” but as someone who does believe it, I am glad to hear statements like this being broadcast throughout the world. TV and movies are the last place where one should look for sound doctrine, yet it seems that Hollywood is becoming more open to depicting the church and the Christian faith in a positive light lately, particularly in the horror genre. I don’t watch many horror films, but from the movie trailers, it looks like the battles being fought are often not just a vague supernatural entity terrorizing a hapless family, but something antagonistic towards God which can only be defeated by calling upon God’s power. This has been going on since The Exorcist and before, though this style of horror seems to be popping up with greater frequency.

I do not care if Hollywood is supportive or antagonistic towards Christianity. God’s grace doesn’t need to be validated by actors and actresses reciting lines written by someone else. I do not expect a full-blown salvation message to be preached from a television pulpit, but it warms my heart when I hear little kernels of truth, and there is great power even in such small words.

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Please indulge a little self-promotion: my seventh novel Nikolai the Penitent released yesterday from The Crossover Alliance. The story follows a young man making his way through the nightmare world of medieval Germany during the Black Death plague. The genre is epic historical fiction, not speculative per se, though there are hints of the supernatural. It is a very grim and brutal story with strong mature content, but there is a message of hope and redemption buried beneath the horror and suffering. Available on Amazon and BN.com, as well as The Crossover Alliance website.