Fantastical Truth

This week, we’re still in Resurrection Sunday mood.[1. Photo by Tingey Injury Law Firm on Unsplash .] So let’s consider a big biblical idea. It’s so important that all stories reflect this—the big idea that the Law of God should lead us to the grace of God. But how many stories get these concepts out of balance? When do they swerve too far toward “law,” and into legalism, or too far toward “grace,...

Guess what’s big at the box office and the streaming-service menu, boys? It’s biblical fiction! From the giant-smash hit House of David on Amazon Prime, to The Chosen and its planned Bibleverse, to the new King of Kings animated Jesus movie and even more adaptations from Old and New Testaments, these creations are winning millions of fans but also some evangelical enemies. Few of these seem intere...

“Fallen, fallen is Disney the great! The Mouse has become a dwelling place for cringe, a haunt for every unclean secularist agenda, a haunt for every flopbuster franchise, a haunt for every unclean and detestable remake.” Yes, we know the line. But after facing fairy-stale adaptations, flippant super-capers, and the adrift vessels of “Stalled” Wars , how could we restore Disney? Mission upda...

Breaking news. A new casting or creative announcement has got fans in an uproar. Alack, it must be a new day ending with the suffix -day . But in this case, the reliably rumored cast announcement is so strange, and so ghastly, and so out-and-out weird beyond the worlds, that it warrants us bumping our planned episode and focusing a whole other episode on this most bizarre and terrible news instead...

At least one Christian astronaut, Butch Wilmore, recently splashed down in the Dragon capsule of Crew 9 (thereby resolving our spaceships versus dragons debate !). How many Christians, however, have created newer stories above the circle of Earth on the planet Mars? We’ll journey back to recap a few Christian-made Martian stories you may have missed over the last years. Episode sponsors Enclave Pu...

What happened to the once-popular Western genre? As a prospector doll put it, “Once the astronauts went up, children only wanted to play with space toys!” And yet the Western legend lives beyond the Earth, often mixed with the sci-fi genre. What is a space Western ? We invite raygun-slinger and After Moses sci-fi Western author Michael F. Kane to ride into the studio. Episode sponsors Audio-Epic.c...

What if you woke up in a crumbling mountain castle with the beast of your nightmares? Then discovered this kindly dragon speaks like a man and reads books? And, whether literary or not, how would such a dragon—the mascot of traditional fantasy—fare in a battle against spaceships ? That’s the burning question behind this week’s book “battle” between E. Stephen Burnett as well as Rachelle Nelson, au...

The planet Mars. Named after the Roman/Greek god of war. Fourth from our sun. A frigid desert, with gravity 38 percent Earthen level, and many secrets lurking in its frozen rock. This world looms large in the public imagination, thanks in part to the many fantastical stories orbiting this alien land. From princesses and Tharks, to inspiration for Arrakis, and from high fantasy and hard sci-fi, how...

The fight for the Space Mission begins in his homeworld. Brock Rivers never wanted to be a repairman on Mars. Years ago, he failed to protect his family, and now he labors across a frontier planet to keep his children alive and escape CAUSE. Now he is summoned back to Earth for an impossible dream: to resist CAUSE, confront the secret adversaries among his own people, and to restore gospel mission...

For all the years we’ve kept up with Christian-made fiction, many authors have hoped to “cross over.” They don’t want to reach only readers who are Christians. Instead, they also want to influence unbelievers. This is a great goal, to be sure. But when may our pictures of “unbelievers” not match with reality? And just within the last few years, has the “general audience” shifted so gradually that...

We love Christ’s church. But sometimes really faithful Christians just don’t know how to story. Alas, that starts with the Book of books. Folks like to read God’s written word with axes and shovels to chop out blocks for building propositional doctrine. Other readers feel they need to read the Bible with magnifying glasses and tweezers so we can extract the shiny ore of valuable virtues to enrich...

Once there was a fairly popular genre called Fantasy. He was well-known, great with kids, friendly with young men and women. But he wasn’t nearly as popular as the top-selling genre ever—Romance. Romance was everywhere. She was especially popular with female readers, who were carrying Romance everywhere. Fantasy began to grow jealous. But then something happened. Fantasy and Romance fell in love....

After her fairy godmother’s magic act, Cinderella carefully slips her feet into—a set of fine glass seven-league boots.[1. Photo by Tim Rebkavets on Unsplash .] She clicks her heels three times and is whisked away to the land of Oz. Meanwhile, a beautiful princess flees from the prophecy of a deadly spindle. She discovers the house of seven dwarves, where she must hide from a wicked witch along wi...

Every week, at least a dozen new Christian-made fantastical novels arrive from aspiring authors. Now that fan demand might finally grow to meet this supply, it seems daunting to find the best of these stories. Today, learn how Lorehaven is curating the best Christian-made fantasy, sci-fi, and beyond—with this flagship podcast and our new upgraded Library book search ! Share this episode to enter o...

Once there was a family of three geeky little bears who decided to read this strange new genre called science fiction. The first reader, the traditional and wise Papa Bear, opened his 600-page hardcover showing rivets on the cover, read two chapters, then rumbled approval. “This science fiction is hard!” said he. The second reader, the curious and considerate Mama Bear, opened her 220-page paperba...

What if the future king’s squire and a struggling songstress teamed up to solve a medieval murder? Jill Williamson debuted her first fantasy, By Darkness Hid , in April 2009. Since then she’s written many dozens of books across fantasy, sci-fi, and teen-spy genres . Now she is returning to the Blood of Kings world for Squire of Truth , released last week, and joins our podcast. Share this episode...

Happy New Year! As we launch this podcast’s 2025 season, we look back at a website with a legacy that predates Lorehaven. Way back in 2006, several Christian fantasy creators started a team “blog” called Speculative Faith. Let’s look back on that project that led to thousands of great articles from dozens of creators, and then later grew into the Lorehaven mission and this podcast. Episode sponsor...

Merry Twelve Days of Christmas Season! After last week’s break, we return with our first New Year’s Eve special. Which top ten Fantastical Truth episodes and Lorehaven.com articles did readers love most in the last year? We’ll survey all of these, and give fun updates, to close our 2024 season. Mission update Christian-Made Stories Got Even Better in 2024 , Jenneth Dyck Later this week: new Onscre...

What’s the most annoying slogan from Christian critics of fantasy? That may be, “We’re not meant to enjoy stories; instead we must Preach the Gospel.” But what may be the second most annoying slogan about Christian fantasy? One surely is, “We don’t need newer stories if we have Lewis and Tolkien.” How then can we as fans respond with grace to Lewis-and-Tolkien-Onlyism? Episode sponsors Audio-Epic....

‘Tis the season for Christmas stories and stories fans claim are Christmas stories. Which ones have aged for every season? And which ones could be safely left back in childhood when we thought they were fun? In this special episode, let’s open the spiced eggnog, celebrate the best, and boo the rest. Episode sponsors Enclave Publishing: Memoria by J. J. Fischer Laurie Christine: Garden of Mysteries...

Nov. 29 was C. S. Lewis’s birthday. The famous author and scholar was born 126 years ago in 1898. And while fans eagerly await whatever director Greta Gerwig and Netflix might do with Narnia, we decided to ask: how would we take Lewis’s other fantasy tales, the Ransom Trilogy, to adapt for the screen? Episode sponsors Enclave Publishing: Memoria by J. J. Fischer Laurie Christine: Garden of Mysteri...

We love stories with fine writing.[1. Photo by Jonathan Francisca on Unsplash .] As the Scripture says, “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.” But sometimes readers just want basic style, quick tools for the simple job of getting you in and out of a fantastical work of fiction. Which kind of stories do you prefer and why? Episode sponsors Audio-Epic.com: “1232&#...

Boom. Doom. Gloom. Criminals pillage. Cities burn. Mobs rampage. Tyrants rule with iron fists. We live in a society! People here often feel we’re overdue for dystopia. Even now, dystopian tales prove popular among many readers. Let’s explore why and ask whether Christian fans really need these stories. Episode sponsors Enclave Publishing: Lethal Kings by Victoria McCombs Laurie Christine: Garden o...

Hi! Wow. Middle of autumn. I know what you’re thinking about. Christmas! This weekend the new comedy The Best Christmas Pageant Ever! releases in theaters. And five Thanksgiving seasons ago, in Nov. 2019, new fans began watching the second half of a new biblical fiction drama called The Chosen . This week, we’re thankful to host one of the three Chosen screenwriters who also cowrote The Best Chris...

What’s the red-headed stepchild of Christian-made fiction? If you said science fiction , you’re partly right. But here’s a happy prediction: this other wandering genre is probably getting adopted! That might leave outside the other orphaned books—in the genre called horror . Is this one genre above others doomed to be rejected? Mike Duran, author of the nonfiction book Christian Horror , returns t...