Fantastical Truth

Imagine a mind virus has taken over people you love. You have fought the good fight. Now you’re tired and feel like retreating. You and some old friends are desperate for a solution. Then one captain says he has a surprise. You open vast hangar bay doors to discover … a wonderful fantasy franchise, lovingly restored, with everything back as it should be, yet better. But how? “Well,” says the resto...

Did you grow up in “cultural Christianity”? Do you think this background helped you love Jesus more, or drove you away from him? What would your neighbors think? As people debate whether we even live in a Christian culture, how do these public moral tropes and gospel reflections influence our stories, Christian-made or otherwise? Subscribe to Lorehaven articles  •  news  •  library  •  reviews  • ...

What if you were a teenage prodigy who could use mathematics to predict the future? But finally your numbers-driven world collapsed into betrayal and kidnapping by a criminal empire? That’s the equation for Calculated and its sequels from novelist Nova McBee, who now joins today’s episode. Subscribe to Lorehaven articles  •  news  •  library  •  reviews  •  podcast  •  gifts  •  guild Episode spon...

Real life is already making fake “life” with artificial intelligence programs. But many science fiction writers have already rushed ahead to ask whether these artificial “lives” would count as human beings with human rights. Can we see the image of God reflecting in these synthetic creatures made in man’s image? Today we’re joined by a popular author who’s just passed the Turing test! Subscribe to...

Last weekend we remembered not only Jesus Christ’s perfect sacrifice, but his resurrection—the same resurrection he has promised for all who receive him. On this podcast we’ve explored Epic Resurrection before, but not with questions like: Do we get to fly? Could we “apparate” from place to place? Dive underwater for hours? Will we get superpowers after the Resurrection? Subscribe to Lorehaven art...

“We come to it at last: the great battle of our time.” Last week we shared this metaphor, and since then the cultural struggles have heated up even more. This is mainly because of our world’s possibly fastest-growing religion, which we call Sexualityism—that is, strong belief in one’s own sexual identity, which usually leads to false worship, legislation, and culture wars. One guest who’s experien...

Today’s next Fantastical Foe doesn’t look that villainous. Instead she dresses up as whimsical kittens, cozy cottages, or obvious heroes and villains. He will approach you with pleasant platitudes, from a church, or even from that smiling popular fantasy author. She will shine like an angel of light, telling your heart beautiful lies such as, “Everyone is basically good, and you only need to fight...

What if you had to survive in a futuristic East Asian world, ruled by a social credit system, by pretending you were genetically altered? Let’s break from our ongoing series about present-day Fantastical Foes . Instead we’ll jump into the sci-fi cyberpunk world of Enhanced , Candace Kade’s newly released novel. Today, she rides into the studios to share her own social credit points! Su...

If a church or group of Christians hurt you, that is part of your origin story.[1. Photo by Karl Fredrickson on Unsplash .] True heroes, on their journey to victory, often face many temptations to the dark side. One of those temptations is to a fantastical foe we’re calling deconstructionism . How can we show sympathy to victims who need to tear out bad structures, while refusing to let profession...

The time has come to explore the wild lands. From legalism to worse attacks on God’s image in us, many Christian fantastical fiction fans have suffered what can only be described as church trauma . How can we show Christ’s love to these enemies while more importantly healing from these attacks that may come from relatives, the church back home, or other bullies who might slander us because of our...

What if you were stuck in a burdensome power armor and had to flee from the wrath to come? If this sounds familiar, it’s because you know the classic story of Pilgrim’s Progress . But this version has giant mechs. Plus robots, space marines, and talking platypuses. John Bunyan didn’t write those parts, but author David Umstattd did. Today he stomps into the studio to share his narrative podcast an...

Aliens! Now that we have your attention, here’s a plot twist: the aliens just want to show their love. But they’re also nationalistic, because they’re only sending America all their cute little balloons for Valentine’s Day, yet they’re too early, and don’t match the pink and red decor. This is no fantasy: fighter pilots have been shooting down floating objects, over Alaska, Montana, and Lake Huron...

This episode releases on Valentine’s Day. But we’ve noticed that for a lot of fantastical fiction, and especially traditional Christian-made fiction, every day is Valentine’s Day. You get fantasy romance. Fairy tale romance. Fairy-tale retelling romance. YA superhero romance. And so much more. So, why all the romance? And will we spend a whole episode making fun? No way. It’s Valentine’s Day! Inst...

The Chosen biblical drama series is headed back to theaters to conclude season 3. Somehow this season, above all, we’ve seen a lot more criticism of the show. Are these creators trying to replace the true Christ with a TV Jesus? Aren’t they adding to Scripture and supplanting the local church? Is this Mormon propaganda? We’ll return to this fantastical-adjacent series to explore the purpose of bib...

What if you were a blind young man living in medieval times? And you were called to a special and future-mythological mission: to become the wizard Merlin? Robert Treskillard’s fantasy Merlin’s Spiral series has been re-forged into audiobook form. This day Sir Robert himself rides into the studio to share more about his medieval fantasy—round tables, knights of yore, and the wonderful true King re...

Have you been watching the hit animated Christian-made streaming series, The Wingfeather Saga ? No doubt you’ve heard of the fantasy series by singer/songwriter Andrew Peterson. This story of the Igiby family’s darkly whimsical journey has attracted legions of readers from all ages. Now it’s a streaming series from Angel Studios. Today, series CG director Keith Lango visits our studio to share mor...

Long ago, before C. S. Lewis or J. R. R. Tolkien, and before even George MacDonald or G. K. Chesterton … lived another fantasy writer, British poet Edmund Spenser. In the 1590s his epic adventure was published in six books. It’s an epic fantasy allegorical poem, written in nine-line stanzas, involving phrases like “iambic pentameter” and other incredible facts we need explained by a literature exp...

For fantasy franchises, 2022 was a rough year. From Middle-earth madness, to not-so-secret Disney agendas, to yet another creative disaster threatening to destroy the DC multiverse, fans have gone through drastic changes. What were the top threats to fantasy fandoms in 2022? And how should Christians view the grief process after corporations seem to destroy the best worlds? Subscribe to Lorehaven...

You’ve just time-traveled. At the approximate rate of 60 seconds per minute, 60 minutes per hour, 24 hours per day, you’ve crossed into a new year. As per usual, to start our 2023 season of Lorehaven’s Fantastical Truth, we’ll review the top ten articles, news, and pages at Lorehaven.com last year. Subscribe to Lorehaven articles • news • library • reviews • podcast • gifts • guild Episode sponsor...

We’re preparing for the end of our 2022 podcast season. Between this year and the next, Zack and Stephen will enjoy a two-week break. First, however, we should open one last podcast present. With all due respect for amazing toys, we’d like to talk about useful gifts we received but still remember years later. In the words of C. S. Lewis’s Father Christmas, which “tools, not toys” at Christmas help...

Some months ago, a certain other  Lord of the Rings -ish TV show prompted some fans to say, “Now we’re really going to appreciate  The Hobbit film trilogy!” But after that certain other show, we saw little appreciation. Mostly the fans wanted to criticize that certain other show. Some of us never stopped appreciating The Hobbit films. That’s why we feel so alone in a company of Dwarves who really...

It’s the holiday season! So we would like to say a few words: Whoop-de-do. Also: hickory-dock. These inspiring words come from just exa-a-actly the worst-written Christmas song you may have ever heard of. But you have heard of it—and many others. Which songs are your least favorite? Which fantastical songs are the best? And when should you start listening to Christmas music? Should we Christians f...

Before our new season of Christmas Magic , let’s finish off our Dystopian Doom series with a whole other wicked government for you to rise up against. In a world ruled by twelve alliances, one young man has a chance to compete in The Chase for a chance to pass exactly one law. But how can a newly freed people live under grace? Bradley Caffee, author of The Chase Runner series, dashes into the stud...

Welcome to the world of the Consortium, which uses nanotech implants to turn people into hyper-logical beings. The young woman Recorder is one of these, assigned with her neural implant to high-tech record-keeping. When she’s cut off from that technology, can she discover humanity before the Consortium discovers her? That’s Recorder by Cathy McCrumb, whose sequel Aberration releases this month. Ca...

Just in time for Election Day, we’ve begun our new series: Dystopian Doom . That means we should start with the two most infamous dystopian novels ever made. You’ve heard of them and may have already read them—Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932) and George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949). What are their differences? Which villain is worse, the flippant Mustapha Mond or the torture of Big B...