Reading Christian Speculative Fiction
I suppose first I need to define my terms. Fiction can include short stories available at places like Residential Aliens or Digital Dragon or it can refer to novel-length stories for middle graders, young adults, or adults.
The term speculative includes the various forms of fantasy (urban, epic, dystopian, etc.), science fiction (space opera, techno, cyberpunk, etc.), and supernatural suspense or thriller (terms for types of horror).
Christian as an adjective describing fiction refers to the substance. As a given, Christian speculative fiction is written by a Christian, but not everything written by Christians qualifies as “Christian.” Rather some element of the story needs to be distinctly connected with what it means to be Christian. Perhaps the characters are predominantly Christian. The plot might revolve around something distinctly Christian. Or the themes may relate in a specific way to the Christian faith.
So my question: are you reading Christian speculative fiction?
I’ve been surprised in some of the Christian sci fi or fantasy writer forums and/or email groups I’m in when “what are you reading” comes up. Christian writers aspiring to publish with a Christian publishing house are too often reading anything but Christian speculative fiction.
Furthermore, there seems to be little talk about what author is writing compelling fiction. In other words, there’s little genuine “buzz” being generated.
What’s more, writers don’t seem to be communicating with their readers about what other writers in the genre are producing. I say this because of the latest Clive Staples Award that required voters to read two … just two … of the nominated books. Sadly, a number of ballots were discarded because this stipulation was not met. In addition, the number of voters dropped from the previous year when only one book was required reading.
I’ve heard from time to time the argument that there aren’t really many Christian speculative fiction readers. Rather, our “small” niche is simply vocal.
I’ve not bought into that theory for a multitude of reasons. But I can’t help but wonder — if there are as many Christian readers who love speculative fiction, why hasn’t some book in the genre become a big seller?
Are the really good writers simply bad at promoting their work? Are readers so hardened by the barrage of ads we all endure, that a genuine endorsement falls on deaf ears? Or is the Christian speculative fiction that’s out there missing something that readers are looking for?
What are readers looking for? A compelling character, I’d say, or a compelling place, like Narnia. An attention-holding plot with some unpredictable turns. Is that it?
I’ve read books like that and they haven’t generated buzz.
Does just the right person (whoever that may be) have to start the talk? Perhaps that’s it — besides their quality, the stories that will catch fire must first catch fire with influential talkers.
I wonder what Oprah thinks of Christian speculative fiction. 😆
Thanks for your paragraph, describing what you mean by Christian! I
have shamelessy copied it (with attribution) as a comment on a recent
post of mine.
I do all I can to talk up what I consider really good Christian speculative fiction. But I wouldn’t be half so informed and well-read myself if it wasn’t for YOUR efforts through the CSFF. I have always loved fantasy, but until I joined the CSFF, I had no idea there was so much good stuff out there from Christian authors.
Is it possible that part of the problem is Christian readers have grown so accustomed to NOT finding anything in this niche that they’ve quit looking?
I find much Christian speculative fiction lacks bite. Sorry. Oh yeah, there’s plenty of fantasy YA stuff. In fact, the majority of Christian spec-fic is YA! So where’s the “adult” Christian spec-fic? And what would distinguish adult Christian spec from YA spec? I dunno. As a lifelong reader of speculative fiction, contemporary Christian spec-fic seems like spec-fic lite. As a result, I mostly read secular spec-fic. There’s a way bigger selection, there’s more freedom to explore wild ideas, and, well, they can say “damn.”
Haha! Love this, Mike. It’s so true, too. I read a lot of christian fiction, but I’ve read (and still do read) even more secular fiction. I think that Christian Writers are so bound up by the idea of not allowing anything that might be labeled “bad” by the Christian society in their books that many of their books have come out dry. Not all of them, mind, but I’ve read a few like that for sure. And as far as the Adult vs. the YA of Christian Speculative Fiction, you’re question is extremely valid. Where on earth is the Adult content? Because quite frankly, all the Christian fiction I’ve read up to this point (with the exception of “A Throne of Bones” which I’m reading through now, and a few Ted Dekker and Frank Perretti titles) would certainly fall within the YA category.
Also, it seems that a lot of Christian Writers are afraid to explore. You mention how the secular group seems more willing to explore the wild ideas, and I think that’s just it. It’s not that we have to write explicit sex scenes or cuss every other word or something like that… But I think a lot of Christian writes are afraid to really delve in to the darker side of things: the darker side of characters, of worlds, of ideas, of words, of purpose and so forth and so on… We are afraid that if we do this, we will be labeled “dark”. But the real world is a dark place, and human nature is dark. If we, as Christians, can’t write “dark” for fear of a label, then how on earth are we supposed to contrast it with the Light?
I don’t know… just my two cents on the subject. 😉
And, to quote Dory here: “Well that’s not good. If you never let anything happen to him, nothing would EVER happen to him. Not much fun for little Harpo.” 😉
And there is also this:
“Well done?!” Una stared at him. “Look at this place.” Below them, the desolate landscape smoldered within the remains of the battle. “Everything is ruined. Why didn’t you come back sooner?”
“Una,” Kai said, looking at her fondly. “I never left.”
She shook her head. “But you let Fidelus… you just let him… be… this whole time. And Duessa, too. Couldn’t you have bound him up in a Tale right from the beginning? Or used the Elements to unwrite him so that he never would have done all this?”
“Unwrite evil, and you’ll unwrite goodness right along with it. The best Tales have both.” Kai picked up the Silver Quill and ran the feather along his finger. “Better to strengthen the good than rid the world of evil…”
~”Story’s End” by Marissa Burt ~
😀 😀 😀
Mike, to me those weaknesses of Christian spec-fic are symptoms of the main problem, not the problems themselves.
Avoiding the word “damn,” for example, is symptomatic because authors/editors/readers act as though sin comes from an outside Thing rather than the human heart. At the core is ignorance of the Gospel, which in turns leads to lack of bite, lack of exploring wild ideas and in place, a strictly enforced “wholesomeness” that minimizes both evil (which God allows in the real world to show more of His glory) and God’s blazing glory.
Martin, I think it was your post that made me realize I needed to define my terms. Glad to have you include the paragraph you mentioned in the comments.
Rachel, thanks for mentioning CSFF. The main reason we started the tour some four years ago was just so that others would learn what was available in Christian speculative fiction.
Mike, I don’t suppose Christian YA speculative fiction has a bite to it, but I’m pretty glad about that. I read a secular YA that was considered mild, and I was grieved over the junk that kids are exposed to today.
But come to think of it, I’m not sure but we should define “bite.” If you mean substance, then I think a lot of Christian speculative fiction has “bite,” including some YA. For adult “bites” you might try Tom Pawlik’s Vanish, the second one whose title escapes me now, and the upcoming Beckon. How about Kathryn Mackel’s Vanished from a couple years ago, or Athol Dickson’s magic realism from a year ago. How about Stephen Lawhead’s new series starting with The Skin Map?
I think we too often make generalizations based on a small sampling. Some of the best fiction, well-written speculative stories with substance, is out there waiting to be found.
Now if you are using “bite” to mean salty language, well, no, then there is no “bite” to Christian speculative fiction. I just don’t see why this is an issue. I just finished The God Hater by Bill Myers and his characters cussed quite a bit, but he didn’t quote them. It wasn’t annoying or distracting or artificial, and I only think I noticed how he handled it because this language issue comes up so often among writers.
I do happen to agree with Stephen on the language issue. I don’t like reading bad language because my heart is evil and I more naturally succumb to bad thoughts when that language gets in my head. But when I was teaching (at a Christian school), my class read a classic YA novel about the American revolution, and there were a few “damn Yankees” in the text (there was also a fagot, referring to a stick of wood — always created a stir among the middle school kiddos 😉 ). We skipped over the cussing, chuckled, and went on.
I guess my point is, what we do with what we hear is really the issue. But I do object to writers today advocating for bad language as if that makes a work better. It doesn’t. I believe a good writer can find a way out of most cussing if they look for it. Up until Gone with the Wind novels without cussing were the norm, and how many of those are still considered classics?
Becky
Yeah, we disagree on the cussing thing, Becky. Mind you, I’m not advocating R-rated stuff. Just how about we put our characters in the real world instead of a bubble (for “real world,” I mean any prime time TV program, AM / FM radio fare, and the box office receipts for any given weekend). Why, oh why must one of THE DEFINING characteristics of Christian fiction be… no cussing? It’s just embarrassing. Perhaps we should think up something more, um, noteworthy to define our genre by.
You asked why more Christian writers aren’t reading a lot of Christian spec-fic and I told you my reasons. It’s spec lite. I suppose we could argue about whether or not my reason has merit, but to me it does. I love Tosca Lee’s stuff. And Dean Koontz’. Like the idea behind Coach’s Midnight Diner, but it is too far from the mainstream to represent Christian speculative fiction… although that’s what it is. And I’m just TIRED of all the Christian YA fantasy stuff. Please! Give me some meat and potatoes… or does the CBA only serve asparagus with low-cal Hollandaise sauce? Yuck!
P.S. You hereby have permission to strangle me next time we see each other. Just don’t cuss while you do it.
Mike, I respect you a lot and will withhold any strangling. My point is that you are speaking here from a limited perspective. The books you’ve mentioned to me personally — no question, I see why you say what you do here. But I’d like to know if you’d continue to hold to this view if you read some of the titles I suggested above. We won’t know unless you actually read them, which I know you don’t have time to do.
Perhaps instead you could at least hold the door open a crack that what I’m saying might have some merit.
And Mike, I think it is writers who insist on bad language who need to think up something more noteworthy to define the genre. I mean, seriously, can’t we write fiction compelling enough that people won’t think, Oh, I really missed the cussing in this story. If there’s nothing else to think about at the end of the novel, then there’s a lot more wrong than the absence of “real world” language.
Becky
Becky, of the books you’ve mentioned, I have read Bill Myers, Athol Dickson, and Stephen Lawhead. However, Dickson is not hard spec and Lawhead is not marketed as Christian fiction (his books are usually found in the general market section). So does my opinion count anymore since I’ve read some of them?
You said: “I think it is writers who insist on bad language who need to think up something more noteworthy to define the genre.” I’m not insisting on bad language. I’m insisting on real language. Especially for our “adult” fiction. Second, I don’t think bad language should “define the genre” in the same way I don’t think ABSENCE of bad language should “define the genre” (which, if I’m not mistaken, you do). Third, who determines what “bad language” is?
Being part of that readership… I’m inclined to say it’s because (And I’m not sure who is at fault) there is NO non-community way of knowing about a lot of Christian speculative fiction. I’ve never even heard of most of the authors who write in this niche- except through this blog and off-hand comments by Kaci Hill. Outside of the web-community of some readers ( only a small number of those that there are) I can’t even find evidence this genre really exists outside of Ted Dekker and Bryan Davis and Donita K. Paul. (Which is, mostly, the extent of the Spec. fic of a Christian nature to be found here. I had to order the Tahn books and look wide for them.)
I am puzzled by the dichotomy as to language- Why does language impart reality? I’ve never read a single work of fiction in my life that was realistic. Tolstoy and Dostoevsky (sp?) are not truly- real people don’t have the kind of reactions Raskolnikov has as much as you think. Updike and Crane don’t give you reality, Sinclair won’t- it’s impossible. We either make it too terrible (melodrama) or we gloss over the bad parts (kiddie-story/ Romance). No one hits the mark.
So… I’m not sure that the inclusion of vulgar language can truly impart the reality you seek. I’m not sure anything can.
As far as the “Christian fiction=no cussing” is concerned, that’s a stereotypes. There are always stereotypes and false assumptions. In fact, Fantasy itself suffers from similar (in their absurd simplicity) stereotypes. Fantasy is “magic, quests, rings, dragons, and elves”. It’s also “nerds in the basement who play D&D while listening to Led Zepplin and wearing home-made costumes.”
Including and spelling out profanity and obscenties doesn’t do away with that oversimplistic label, because the people who gave it aren’t going to read the new, edgier, against-the-grain fiction to realize their wrong because they are the people who never read it terribly much in the first place.
Joshua, just in case you’re addressing me… In the last year, I have probably read a half dozen Christian spec novels. Is this enough? Or does my opinion not count until I read a dozen a year? Or two dozen a year? It just cracks me up how predictable that response is: If you don’t like Christian spec-fic it’s because you haven’t read enough of it. Might there not be other legitimate reasons?
Re: profanity — It AMAZES me how big an issue this is for Christians and makes me wonder how terribly cloistered we are. Sure, “the inclusion of vulgar language” may not “impart reality.” But that doesn’t mean its “exclusion” does. If our goal is to “impart reality” (a noble goal for Christian writers), then being real about the way people talk should be admissible. I have no problem with G-rated stories. None. But shackling our entire genre with such restrictions is more than absurd, it’s just plain legalistic. Stereotype stands.
My shelves contain over 150 Christian speculative fiction titles, as per your definition. A handful are YA; most are not. A great many are from indie publishers, and most are written by members of the Lost Genre Guild. I wonder if the LGG might do well to add a reader club of some sort to the existing author network. We sure aren’t getting the word out if the only readers are authors themselves.
I believe there are over 400 books on Jeff Gerke’s list though that figure is from a year or two ago; it could be above 500 by now. I have read Christian spec fic almost exclusively for years, and I’m not going to run out anytime soon!
Grace and Joshua, this is the point I was afraid I’d hear. I have a Google alert for the term “Christian fantasy” and from time to time I see a blogger write something like, Anyone know of a Christian fantasy? The comments show how out of touch the people visiting that blog are as to what is currently available.
How can readers find the good books?
Mike, I’m fairly certain you think of your book as good — what author wouldn’t. How will readers find it? And to the secondary issue, would more find it if you had cussing in it?
I just don’t buy the “no bite” answer if we’re talking about a lack of “real world” language. People haven’t stopped reading Tolkien because there’s no cussing.
But are our stories wowing people to the point that they are tweeting about the great novel they’re reading? Are they writing reviews and moving onto the next thing, or are they lingering over the story because of its impact? Are they telling their friends at church, recommending it to the people they bump into in the library or book store? Are we telling readers we’ve found a really, really great story? And if not, why not? What might we be missing (besides bad language – 😉 )
Becky
Again I insist that “no cussing” is not the main problem of Christian fiction. It’s a symptom — a symptom of a larger problem that bases our stories on weak views of God and the Gospel. If we don’t see God as incredible and fantastic, the way Scripture shows Him, and we don’t see all of life, the real-world universe, as ourselves as players in that grand drama of redemption that is directed by and stars Him, how exactly will we make great stories that echo those truths? How will we show sin, directly and in all its horror, and thus honor how horrible He’s said it is, and thus show others how much more magnificent He is?
Mike, so many of the most fantastic stories that show evil for what it is, and don’t shy from that, have proven they don’t need cusswords to do that. With you I agree: we ought not shy from showing how some people talk. But consider this:
1. Not all people cuss right and left. It depends on the person, or the character.
2. Consider not just The Lord of the Rings, as Becky pointed out, but one of the grittiest films of the last decade, which shows evil for what it is and yet doesn’t require inordinate amounts of Bad Words to do so: The Dark Knight. Does the Joker swear? He doesn’t need to. He shows, not tells. And the story shows, with Bad Language when necessary, the reality of evil and the need to fight it.
Even the violence of The Dark Knight is surprisingly non-graphic — Christopher Nolan is a genius at not showing his audiences something, instead letting them infer it, and thus engaging the imagination more and making something even more potent by paradoxically not showing as much as he could have. Example: the Joker slitting someone’s throat, in which nothing is shown, but the buildup, tension, and portrayed aftereffect come off as just as intense as if an action was actually shown. This is also why older horror films are often much scarier and more intense than newer slash-and-show-all-of-it-in-3D movies. A less-is-more principle.
The same is true of the (often unappreciated) film Equilibrium, which shows the darkness and evil of a society that’s shunned human emotion in an attempt to be better, and persecutes those who refuse the treatment. In this R-rated film, there are only two Bad Words. Adding more was simply unnecessary; the story speaks for itself. And the two words (one of which is even difficult to hear) add to the story, without seeming artificial or gratuitous. Again, less was more.
3. Saying “real people do it, so let’s show it” approaches the real reason, but doesn’t say enough. Real people also have sex, pick their noses, and go to the bathroom. The latter two are seem always needless to describe as relating to a story; the former, though, when described, could actually tempt readers to sin. That’s unlike showing violence or even showing Bad Language — two things the Bible is at best vague about, where it’s clear that no one should do anything but flee sexual temptations.
4. There’s still the meat-sacrificed-to-idols issue. Becky touched on this above: if you had more Cusswords in your book, I’d still buy it, but would that not limit your market among Christians? Sure, maybe your market is mostly to non-Christians, but frankly among those if you even hint at a Christian worldview in your book, many of them won’t be that impressed even if there are Cusswords as well. As for Christians, even if they’re legalistic and shun even hearing presentation of Bad Words — counting them up in films with otherwise excellent Christ-exalting themes, etc. — shouldn’t we try to reach them in love, and not abuse our freedom and cause them to sin (Romans 14)?
Hey, I’m with you. More Christians need to know that sin comes not from a Thing, like a particular word or genre or music style, but their own hearts. But there are better ways to confront that, with love, and not overcorrect by being legalistic against legalism. I’m not saying you’re doing any of that stuff, to be sure! But I know we’re all vulnerable …
By the way, my birthday is coming up next month, and The Resurrection is on my wish list. These are fascinating topics, and it’s great to hash them out here.
Stephen, this will be my last comment here and I’ll keep it brief. The underlying assumption in most of the “no cussing” comments here is that you don’t need it to tell a good story. My question, which remains unanswered, is So why not allow it? Yes, we don’t need it (just like we don’t need to show a lot of things: sex, blood, nose-picking, kitty litter, flatulence, or flossing). But WHY can’t we have it? Why can’t one of my characters utter the common, simple, mostly unoffensive, oft-used word “damn”? Answer: We are dealing with a sub-culture that wrongly defines morality and art. That’s it. We’re puritans who’ve come to see the absence of “damn” as virtuous. Sure we can write a good book without being explicit. But is a book with explicit scenes automatically bad? In the Christian fiction world, sadly, it is.
On that I’m with you completely, Mike. I think it should be allowed if an author (and editor with his oversight, and readers with their support) believes it’s integral to the kind of story he wishes to tell. To act as if No Cussing is the height of Christian principle in a story could both narrow the kinds of stories we can offer, and weaken other kinds of stories whose characters, setting and plots lend themselves to being more direct and intense that way! Still, I’d ask the questions I’d asked before, while simultaneously changing the “policy” among publishers, if I could.
Josh – Being part of that readership… I’m inclined to say it’s because (And I’m not sure who is at fault) there is NO non-community way of knowing about a lot of Christian speculative fiction. I’ve never even heard of most of the authors who write in this niche- except through this blog and off-hand comments by Kaci Hill. Outside of the web-community of some readers ( only a small number of those that there are) I can’t even find evidence this genre really exists outside of Ted Dekker and Bryan Davis and Donita K. Paul. (Which is, mostly, the extent of the Spec. fic of a Christian nature to be found here. I had to order the Tahn books and look wide for them.)
Which is funny, because I’m a very latecomer to fantasy. Honestly, the Where the Map Ends website has a huge list of specfic. If you’re wanting more suspense than speculative, I’d go to Fiction Addict – they review books of all genres. Or most of them.
More later.
On cussing: A wise man told me once to pick my battles.
I would agree with both points here. Stephen is right that cussing is not necessarily a pre-requisite for showing “realism”. But I do wonder at sometimes authors who make villains basically some sort of unrealistic gentleman who will try to kill you, but not cuss. That always boggles my mind, because isn’t it worse for the reader to see someone try to commit rape, murder, or some other horrific crime, than to see someone swear?
There is a method of just saying the character swore. Or the character “started cursing fluently”, so some such thing. Wouldn’t that solve the problem? If there even IS a problem?
Finally, not just villains, but military folks, police, etc., have been a bit, how shall we say, *fluent* in cursing and bowdy language historically.
I do think showing people realistically is important, but as Stephen also pointed out, we need to show the “realism” of the drama of redemption. So, maybe focus on that first.
Thanks for the chance to take part herein. God bless you all. 🙂
That’s a point, and you’ve said it well, sir! For me, here’s the difference: if I read about someone trying to murder, commit rape, etc, I do not have any desire to go out and do that myself. I recoil and recognize it for evil.
When a book I read is full of cuss words, those words get ingrained in my head (like anything else I read over and over and over again) and want to come out my mouth and insert themselves into half my mental sentences.
And I don’t really care to cuss, thanks.
That’s the biggest reason I shy away from books with a lot of cussing. I don’t really want to pick up the vocabulary myself.
Rachel, this is what I said to Mike, too. The thing is, my decision to steer clear of books (and movies) that induce me to think in “colorful language” does not translate to a “rule” for Christian fiction. I know there are times that cussing seems like the natural thing a character would say. If some writers feel their story would be less if they found a different way of conveying this, I’m not writing them off as less than Christian. Some publishers, however, are holding the line on this. Their prerogative since it’s their dime.
I’m just not convinced that peppering our stories with salty language (pun intended 😉 ) is going to get Christian speculative fiction “discovered.”
Becky
Which can happen to me as well, though perhaps because I hear these words anyway, at work and other locations, the words either don’t tempt me as much, or shouldn’t. And if I become angry and decide the world isn’t exactly to my liking — assuming for myself the role of God — and happen to cuss because of this sin, the main sin happened before. The cussword was just the result.
See, cussing doesn’t get into my head because of anger or something like that. The words just camp out and play themselves there :). I hear them in the real world as well, and that’s fine (though I mourn our culture’s tragic loss of vocabulary)–what I read stays with me more than what I hear.
I suspect there are others like me, which may be one reason so many Christians don’t appreciate cussing in their books.
That said, I do think you’re correct about the root thinking for many.
Mike said:
I do not. See definition above (this is why I defined my terms).
I never said your opinion didn’t count, either, Mike. I simply asked you to keep open the possibility that there are some meaty Christian speculative works that you haven’t read.
Becky
So why not just solve the problem of saying that the character swore, without saying the exact words he said?
I don’t know, to be honest. I can see both sides, so I’m kind of stuck on what to think. I’m not much help in this discussion, I suppose. ;))
The whole swearing issue is a lot easier when you can just make up your language and swear without offending the English speakers… (though I think one of my character’s has a name that is a minor swear word in Australia)…
On the actualy topic of the posting, I really think the biggest issue is getting the word out. A lot of the smaller presses have little to no marketing budgets and so are reliant on word of mouth and any “freebie” marketing opportunities that come about.
As an author I know I’m not as good at promoting my book as I could be. Partly from not knowing exactly where to do it, and partly due to my reclusive nature.
It can be hard for the smaller presses especially since many of their books aren’t to be found within brick-and mortar and may not even come up on a website if you search for Christian Science Fiction or Fantasy.
I would guess the other thing working against one of the books going big is the naturally fractured state of the Sci-fi/Fantasy fan base. Some people only want to read high fantasy, some only want to read realistic science fiction, others want space opera. Trying to find the one book they want (if they even know to look for it) is like trying to find a gold needle in a sea of bronze needles.
I think that if we really want this genre to take off in the near future it will take a high-profile celebrity with a wide audience of impressionable fans to highlight a book and send them all scrambling for it. And then that needs to happen again and again.
Otherwise it will just continue the slow burn as the word of mouth builds.
The slow burn was hampered in the past with the incredibly short shelf life of what books were available (maybe six months) before they vanished. Other than a few who managed to stick around.
But that’s changing with the newer POD models that don’t have to worry about the cost of keeping a book’s inventory warehoused. So every book can have its chance to live long enough to be discovered.
Stuart, that’s an interesting point. With POD, an author really does have a chance to build a readership over time. The quick turn-around for a new book isn’t as big a deal (though the first-wave fans will probably be impatient).
I think you might be right — a well-known, unrelated to the genre endorsement in front of a big audience just might be what it takes. If readers agree and love that book, then that author would be in a position to say, Oh, and if you like my book, some others that are similar are out there. Check out these titles.
You also reinforced my other thought — that the authors who aren’t naturally bent toward promotion are at a disadvantage from the beginning. Good writers who aren’t bush beaters and who don’t have the money to hire the bush beaters have their hands tied, it would seem.
I’ve wondered with another writer if in the new publishing climate, one thing “traditional” presses can’t offer is publicity. I mean, if authors have to do their own promotion, and POD houses offer everything the big houses do, but the author gets a bigger cut, then why would anyone want to publish with an established house? It seems to me they can stay in business by offering their name in the form of publicity.
Thanks for your comment, Stuart.
Becky
I can agree with everything you just said, Becky. With the state of publishing as it is, even the “traditional” publishers offer little help in promoting new authors. Even with Strang, I did most of the leg work and provided the cover, book trailer and had to hire a publicist. Yes, it cost, but I didn’t get form the publicist a good return on my money.
Now, I do it myself as an indie author of Christian fantasy – Yes, YA. However, most of the people who have bought, read and reviewed my books are ADULTS! Kids as young as 8 to senior citizens of 88 have read Allon. So just because a fantasy is classified YA doesn’t mean it can’t appeal to all ages. And non-Christian are have commented favorably, so the label doesn’t necessarily interfere.
Overall, Christian publishers of all sizes – with few exceptions-have done little to forward the cause of Christian Speculative Fiction. That leaves us authors, dedicated publishers and believers in CSF to pave the way. That isn’t easy and requires a LOT of work, time and effort to gain readers and acceptance by the larger Christian reading community.
Shawn Lamb
Wow! That’s a lot of comments. If I didn’t type so slow I’d address every point. When I was in high school only the girls took typing class, so I didn’t. When I look back that should have been the reason to take the class. Man was I stupid.
Anyway, I stopped reading secular fiction 28 years ago so I do not compair secular to Christian fiction. I compair Christian fiction to Christian fiction. Back in the 80’s before Al Gore invented the Internet I would go into a Christian bookstore and buy whatever book did not have an Amish girl on the cover. There were so few books to choose from that I ended up reading some real stinkers. But now with the Internet the sky’s the limit. There is no way I can possibly read fast enough to keep up with the good books.
As one who reads countless reviews before reading a book – blogs like this one and reviews on Amazon and sites dedicated to only reviewing novels – I rarely read a book that I consider to be a poor read. Of course some are better then others but that should be expected. As a reader I say to authors, “Do your best. Don’t worry about what the world writes or what they think. Glorify God in your work and in the end everything will be as it should be. Would you spend a year writing a novel if you knew you would make no money but one sinner would come to Christ?” I say it’s worth it.
Here’s a good article by Athol Dickson. http://whatatholwrote.blogspot.com/2011/01/worst-list-of-all-time.html
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