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148. Why Do Some Christians Revile ‘The Chosen’? | with Josiah DeGraaf and Jenneth Dyck
Fantastical Truth Podcast, Feb 7, 2023

Into the Darkness
Reviews, Feb 3, 2023

The Chosen Succeeds Where ‘Woke’ Stories Fail
Jenneth Dyck in Articles, Feb 2, 2023

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148. Why Do Some Christians Revile ‘The Chosen’? | with Josiah DeGraaf and Jenneth Dyck
Fantastical Truth, Feb 7, 2023

147. Why Can Christians Celebrate Stories about Merlin and King Arthur? | with Robert Treskillard
Fantastical Truth, Jan 31, 2023

146. How Did Animators Adapt The Wingfeather Saga For Streaming TV? | with Keith Lango
Fantastical Truth, Jan 24, 2023

145. How Did Edmund Spenser’s ‘The Faerie Queene’ Shape Christian Fantasy? | with Rebecca K. Reynolds
Fantastical Truth, Jan 17, 2023

144. Which Top Six Fantasy Franchises Gave Fans Grief in 2022?
Fantastical Truth, Jan 10, 2023

143. Which Top Ten Lorehaven Stories Proved Most Popular in 2022?
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Into the Darkness
“Charles Hack’s Into the Darkness summons a close-range science fiction story, focusing on the personal challenges of space warfare among alien cultures with a steady pace and serious tone.”
—Lorehaven on Feb 3, 2023

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“Pacing starts slow but creature lore grows in C. S. Lewis’s sequel, introducing practical tyrants and talking-beast politics into a Narnian resistance.”
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Lorehaven helps Christian fans explore fantastical stories for Christ’s glory: fantasy, science fiction, and beyond. Articles, the library, reviews, podcasts, gifts, and the Lorehaven Guild community help fans discern and enjoy the best Christian-made fantastical stories, applying their meanings to the real world Jesus Christ calls us to serve. Subscribe free to get any updates you choose and to access the Lorehaven Guild.
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What Place Antagonists? The Vanishing Sculptor, A CSFF Feature

I posted a review of The Vanishing Sculptor, the newest release by Donita Paul, over at A Christian Worldview of Fiction. My one criticism was that the antagonist shows up late. For a good portion of the story, the main […]
Rebecca LuElla Miller on Sep 23, 2009
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I posted a review of The Vanishing Sculptor, the newest release by Donita Paul, over at A Christian Worldview of Fiction.

My one criticism was that the antagonist shows up late. For a good portion of the story, the main objective of the protagonist is connected to a problem that seems a result of accident. Only toward the latter part of the book does an antagonist surface to thwart the protagonist and her companions from fulfilling their quest.

Even then, the antagonist doesn’t seem to be connected to any greater evil. He is simply out to dominate the world for his own aggrandizement. He is prideful and controlling and evil, but he also seems opportunistic. He didn’t cause the initial problem—at least not that we can discern from this story—but he saw an opportunity to use these circumstances for his own machinations.

As I was reading The Vanishing Sculptor, I asked a hundred or so pages in, Where’s the antagonist? I liked the characters, I knew what they wanted, but the achievement didn’t seem like it was going to be hard or that anyone would try to thwart its accomplishment.

For me there was a significant reduction of tension.

Perhaps that’s OK for a change. Uniformly, the reviews I’ve read so far are positive. My own review is positive. I liked the book a lot. But I can’t help but wonder, if the antagonist showed up sooner, how would that change things? If there was a greater degree of difficulty early on, how would that alter the tone of the book, the themes, the character development?

In essence, I’m wondering, how important is the antagonist?

Some writing instructors say an author needs to understand what the antagonist wants just as much as what the protagonist wants. Others go a step farther and say the antagonist must have strengths and weaknesses, that no antagonist should be painted as pure evil.

The latter position would seem to undermine the good vs. evil fantasy motif. But doesn’t leaving the antagonist out do the same thing? Or downplaying his role by having him come in late?

Which again brings up the question, how important is the antagonist?

Rebecca LuElla Miller
Best known for her aspirations as an epic fantasy author, Becky is the sole remaining founding member of Speculative Faith. Besides contributing weekly articles here, she blogs Monday through Friday at A Christian Worldview of Fiction. She works as a freelance writer and editor and posts writing tips as well as information about her editing services at Rewrite, Reword, Rework.
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Lorehaven helps Christian fans explore fantastical stories for Christ’s glory: fantasy, science fiction, and beyond. Articles, the library, reviews, podcasts, gifts, and the Lorehaven Guild community help fans discern and enjoy the best Christian-made fantastical stories, applying their meanings to the real world Jesus Christ calls us to serve. Subscribe free to get any updates you choose and to access the Lorehaven Guild.
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