The other day a friend told me he only reads non-fiction. I presume fantasy fiction books would be even lower on the list than general fiction, if he were to have such a list. Actually, I am aware that there are Christians who believe fantasy fiction is evil, even so-called Christian fantasy fiction. I will grant that some fantasy fiction is evil and some so-called Christian fantasy is questionable as well.
Why Read My Fantasy Fiction Books?
So returning to the question at hand, why should you or anyone read my fantasy fiction books? At the heart of it is letting truth illustrated by story touch mind and heart. My story helps a person apply truth to life situations, to look at reality through a fictional lens. I may be informationally educated by non-fiction, but I am both informationally and emotionally educated by fiction.
My fantasy fiction books will help you explore the various facets of life through other people’s eyes as well as your own. For instance, through the life of a character in a story you are able to emotionally experience the consequences of bad choices without having to make those bad choices yourself. It is through fiction, “Ivanhoe” by Sir Walter Scott, that I learned the impact of prejudice toward people who are different from me. It is through fiction, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” by Harriet Beecher Stowe, that I came to grips with the depth of the emotional trauma of slavery here in America. Few times have I ever cried reading non-fiction—if ever. Many times I have wept while reading fiction.
We can read about abortion, infanticide and euthanasia and understand the evil of it intellectually…or perhaps “not” understand it. Many see those things either through a fairly emotionless lens or through the lens of their own self-interest, but really fail to see it in the broader terms of its impact on others and on society in general. In “The Myth” I explore the emotional impact of those issues on numerous people involved in the implementation as well as the greater impact on society. I wept when I wrote the first chapter, and I have read that chapter to groups at various author events and I choke up every time. I see the issues through a lens far more real than anything I have read when it comes to non-fiction. Fiction gets you truly engaged in the realities of the issue at hand.
Fantasy Fiction Books Are Experienced
In a sense, you learn information from non-fiction, while you experience information when reading fiction, especially so with my fantasy fiction books. Non-fiction may tell you that God is sovereign. Fiction can show you the sovereignty of God in action so that you experience nuances of how His sovereignty works in relation to the events in one life in relation to another life and even the complexities of an entire realm. That is what I explore and illustrate in its immense complexities in “Seed of the Defiled.”
Thinking about my fantasy fiction books, I would also note in brief that it is my opinion that fiction and especially my style of fantasy fiction will help develop an emotional conscience.
Written by : John Edgell
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