Fantastical Truth

Today it appears cooler heads have cancelled the apocalypse.[1. Photo by Emanuel Kypreos on Unsplash .] But were we ever really in that level of danger? This sense of dread feels new. But as C. S. Lewis once wrote, we must practice timeless wisdom when we’re living in an atomic age: “If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human...

Magic . The very word feels like a curse to many good Christians. Add other terms like witch or wizard and you’ll get an even more heated cauldron of controversy. We’re no strangers to that at Lorehaven. Now our longtime friend Marian A. Jacobs has created the definitive book treatment of this topic. This week, On Magic and Miracles is cast into the world, and Marian herself Apparates into our stu...

Jesus told many parables, some even fantastical. Yet some Christians presume these parables are simple allegories. Is this really the point of parables? Or do they reflect biblical truths in more meaningful ways? We’re inviting Cru ministry creatives who’ve made a new audio drama, inspired by the parable of the prodigal son, called The Road to Kaeluma . We’ll explore questions like: What are...

Aircraft pilots see a lot of amazing sights, above the Earth in planes and even spaceships. But men who do this challenging work often confront the nastier sides of these hard jobs, struggling to stay good in a gritty world. For pilot and new sci-fi novelist Dan Daetz, these realities rocket into a cosmic setting when one man, with the ugliest job in the universe, must break free from his past. Th...

Realm Makers started in 2013 with a Christian-led speculative fiction writers’ conference. Now it’s a 24/7 organization to train aspiring authors, a traveling bookstore, and cousin to a stationary bookstore. This summer the conference levels up with the Realm Makers Expo , a crossover fan-centered event with many other Christian groups and fantastical creators. Join us for this inside look i...

In just 1.5 months, the inaugural Realm Makers Expo will arrive in Grand Rapids. Like the continuing Realm Makers writers conference , this event marks a fantastic chance for Christian fans and creatives to meet with like-minded believers in Jesus. But any big Christian-led conference also attracts people who like biblical virtues and ideas as well as Christians ourselves, yet are not truly believ...

Books will last after Jesus’s return. That’s clear from Revelation 20:12, which refers to human life record books used for judging the dead. What then about other kinds of books, especially fantastical novels? Will amazing stories made by Christians, including those we explore at Lorehaven, last forever? Can we enjoy new stories? And what about great stories created by nonbelievers? Episode sponso...

Kathryn needs no magical stone, slingshots around the sun, or fantastic phone box. She can time travel quite naturally, falling asleep in Victorian London only to wake up in the World War II era. Now she’s caught up in a quest to save her sister from Jack the Ripper and choose only one timeline by her 25th birthday. Every Hour Until Then author Gabrielle Meyer joins us to explore: What is time tra...

‘Tis the season for graduations. Right now some students are happy to leave their textbooks behind. But what sorts of books should faithful readers want to take with them, not just in their childhood and teenage years, but into their lives as Christ-following grown-ups? Today’s guest has given many a graduation speech, and he’s also the author of middle-grade fantasy: Houston Christian University...

“This is a story about something that happened long ago when your grandfather was a child. It is a very important story because it shows how all the comings and goings between our own world and the land of Narnia first began.” Seventy years after its publication on May 2, 1955, why do we still love Lewis’s sixth Chronicles of Narnia book, The Magician’s Nephew ? Episode sponsors Enclave Publishing...

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...