Early this year, after watching Amazon’s adaptation of Wheel of Time (among other things), I began wondering if a (moving) picture is really worth a thousand words. The articles linked below are the result of the research I collected and analyzed during that time. Instead of determining whether television and film can do justice to…
Just a few years ago, I would not have described myself as a “music person.” I didn’t have a favorite artist or favorite genre of music. Most “popular” songs I regarded as shallow. I sang hymns in church, but loved them more for their words than anything else. (I mean, have you read “The Love of God”?) Occasionally, I listened to Christian radio and had a passing familiarity for what is termed “contemporary” in that genre.
But my ambivalence toward music in general changed when I discovered what can only be called “fantasy music.”
Continue readingIs ‘Fantasy Music’ a Thing? 5 Songs That Inspire the Way Fantasy Stories Do
A version of this article was published in Speculative Faith on December 7, 2018, under the title, “Growing Diversity in Fantasy Genres Gives Us Hints of Eternity.”
By definition, science fiction and fantasy are unique among literary genres because of the presence of a wide range of diverse characters and people groups. Certainly, many are fictional (as far as we know)—Vulcans, Calormenes, sentient droids. Certainly, many portrayals, such as that of female characters and Native Americans, have been fetishized and over-troped. But, like much of the world, science fiction and fantasy are growing up, growing wiser, and embracing the stories of traditionally marginalized people groups. Some might say SFF is ahead of the curve.
Earlier today, I checked my notifications on Twitter and learned that my supernatural fantasy novel, Rise of the Seers, had been included in the Lorehaven Library, a listing of fantastical Christian fiction.