In his own way, Ross Lawhead uses song and verse to enhance the setting, characterization, and plot of his story. At times, there’s some degree of imitation of the writers who have gone before, as with the frequent riddle exchanges he uses, but for the most part, he incorporates these devices in his own fashion.

Often song and verse are used in a serious fashion, as with this blessing that hints at the spiritual element of the book:

“May the Hand that Makes guide your hearts,
May the Light that Illumines shine on your path,
And the One that Goes Between aid your steps.”

Or the chant of the corrupt yfelgopes that reveals much of their nature and intellect:

“Fýr is First, it burns, it thirsts;
it feasts on flesh and fallen foes.

Urth is dirt, the Second house
we dig the dead, decayed to dust.

Thorn is Third, it cuts, it carves;
a cold and cruel crown for kings.

Ald is age it wastes, it wanes;
want walks Forth; when time wreaks wreck

Rech is smoke, the smog that smothers
the Fifth sense, smell. It chokes, it chars.

Claw is Sixth, it snicks, it snatches;
when sharp it shivs, and dull, it catches.”

Elsewhere, we get glimpses of history, social convention, and the workings of enchanted realms through snippets of song or verse. Yet for all the serious tone of the book, there’s also a lighthearted counterpart in some of this singing and recitation, perhaps poking a bit of fun at this genre convention, even as the book makes ample use of it.

We see this most strongly when Daniel, in order to survive in an elven forest, must make all his requests in song or in poetry (a skill difficult for him to acquire), and he fumbles around to come up with basic rhymes that will keep the forest happy, as seen here:

“Thank you, forest, great and good
For giving me my firewood.
But in order to survive the night,
I need this pile of wood to light.
Please give me what I require,
To make myself a good campfire.”

Without these elements, the plot certainly could have carried on, but the use of song and poetic verse added color and richness to the story.

What is it about songs and poems that have caused them to remain staple elements of the fantasy genre? Do you move past them without reading or study them for clues about the unfolding tale?

While in an ancient church during a “time between times,” children Daniel Tully and Freya Reynolds find themselves pulled into a dangerous underground realm, where creatures of folklore and myth abound. Freya wishes nothing more than to escape this frightening place, while Daniel responds with excitement over the opportunity to prove himself a hero.

In the telling of The Realms Thereunder, these childhood adventures intersect with adult lives of Daniel and Freya, and we witness how their experiences underground have shaped the course of their futures. Freya now suffers from OCD and an unshakable fascination with folklore while Daniel roams the streets fighting the evil he first confronted in the realms below ground.

Intermingled with the past and present experiences of Daniel and Freya is officer Alex Simpson’s investigation into strange occurrences caused by the mythic realms that are beginning to bleed into the surface realm of Earth at an increased rate.

Perhaps the greatest strength in the story is the complex plot. Intersecting storylines that occur in past and present keep the book moving along at a fast pace and arouse curiosity. The Realms Thereunder is constructed rather like a puzzle, and by the end, we see how the pieces from different times and places all fit together. Occasionally, however, it felt like the switches came too frequently and just as I became engaged in a storyline, Lawhead jumped into another thread of the tale, which distanced me a bit from the story.

In my opinion, the characters faded to the background in a story more driven by plot and the “cool factor” of various mythic creatures, hidden realms, and sleeping knights from days of old. The underground realm, peopled with all sorts of legendary beings, is a fascinating one, and a strong British tone marks both the portions of the story set in the underground realm and in England, thanks in part to the use of Anglo-Saxon folklore.

Given that The Realms Thereunder incorporates legends that many other fantasy novels also borrow from–with trolls, dragons, elves, and more–there are definitely echoes of the familiar here, yet Lawhead manages to put his unique angle on these old tales.

Questions regarding life, death, and the ultimate reality abound, but directly Christian elements are kept to a minimum. Nevertheless, The Realms Thereunder operates from a mostly Biblical framework through which concepts of truth, good and evil, and the unending battle against darkness are explored.

In many ways, this book reads like a prologue for things to come, laying the foundation for an epic conflict against a strong and cunning opponent. For several reasons (primarily related to characterization and writing style), it didn’t me grip me in a way that would make it stick with me afterward or prompt a reread. Despite that, I’ll probably continue a little longer with the series and see if it grows on me as it unfolds.

My recommendation

If you like urban fantasy with undertones of suspense, this one may be for you. For other fantasy fans, it’s mildly recommended.

Similar works

Perhaps it will come as little surprise, but the author I’ve read that most resembles Ross is his father, Stephen Lawhead. Yes, differences exist between their books, but they are both heavily influenced by British mythology (though Stephen typically pulls from Celtic mythology and Ross from Anglo-Saxon) and the way they fuse this lore with the everyday world gives their works a similar feel.

If you’re interested in learning more about the book, I encourage you to visit the other tour stops:

As a member of the CSFF blog tour, I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

During the tour, I’ll be talking a great deal more about the book, including an in-depth review, but I’ve included the basics here, so read on if you want to learn more.

The spotlight article focused on Christian fiction as a whole, pointing out the ways in which boundaries have begun to stretch beyond the stereotypical historical romance read by an audience largely comprised of white, middle-aged females. In a discussion of various facets of the genre, it included a substantial section on Christian speculative fiction and highlighted several positive trends.

The article suggested that a number of the Christian publishers are expanding their speculative fiction lines, citing Thomas Nelson (HarperCollins) and FaithWords (Hatchette) and Bethany House as examples. While Thomas Nelson seems to have interest primarily in supernatural or paranormal fiction, the others have begun to publish more fantasy titles.

In addition, the article explored the role of small independent publishers and pointed to the success of Marcher Lord Press as a promising step for Christian speculative fiction. The article concluded by quoting Jeff Gerke, founder of Marcher Lord Press, who said: “Now is the time when Christian speculative fiction can come out of the shadows and begin to find its audience.”

What do you think? Is this the time for Christian speculative fiction to come into its own? Are Christian publishers truly becoming more open to speculative books?

A creative work in itself, his poem Mythopoeia explores the value of myths that ultimately point to Truth. Though it’s long, I thought a number of you might enjoy it, so I’ve shared it below:

You look at trees and label them just so,
(for trees are ‘trees’, and growing is ‘to grow’);
you walk the earth and tread with solemn pace
one of the many minor globes of Space:
a star’s a star, some matter in a ball
compelled to courses mathematical
amid the regimented, cold, inane,
where destined atoms are each moment slain.

At bidding of a Will, to which we bend
(and must), but only dimly apprehend,
great processes march on, as Time unrolls
from dark beginnings to uncertain goals;
and as on page o’er-written without clue,
with script and limning packed of various hue,
an endless multitude of forms appear,
some grim, some frail, some beautiful, some queer,
each alien, except as kin from one
remote Origo, gnat, man, stone, and sun.
God made the petreous rocks, the arboreal trees,
tellurian earth, and stellar stars, and these
homuncular men, who walk upon the ground
with nerves that tingle touched by light and sound.
The movements of the sea, the wind in boughs,
green grass, the large slow oddity of cows,
thunder and lightning, birds that wheel and cry,
slime crawling up from mud to live and die,
these each are duly registered and print
the brain’s contortions with a separate dint.
Yet trees are not ‘trees’, until so named and seen
and never were so named, tifi those had been
who speech’s involuted breath unfurled,
faint echo and dim picture of the world,
but neither record nor a photograph,
being divination, judgement, and a laugh
response of those that felt astir within
by deep monition movements that were kin
to life and death of trees, of beasts, of stars:
free captives undermining shadowy bars,
digging the foreknown from experience
and panning the vein of spirit out of sense.
Great powers they slowly brought out of themselves
and looking backward they beheld the elves
that wrought on cunning forges in the mind,
and light and dark on secret looms entwined.

He sees no stars who does not see them first
of living silver made that sudden burst
to flame like flowers bencath an ancient song,
whose very echo after-music long
has since pursued. There is no firmament,
only a void, unless a jewelled tent
myth-woven and elf-pattemed; and no earth,
unless the mother’s womb whence all have birth.
The heart of Man is not compound of lies,
but draws some wisdom from the only Wise,
and still recalls him. Though now long estranged,
Man is not wholly lost nor wholly changed.
Dis-graced he may be, yet is not dethroned,
and keeps the rags of lordship once he owned,
his world-dominion by creative act:
not his to worship the great Artefact,
Man, Sub-creator, the refracted light
through whom is splintered from a single White
to many hues, and endlessly combined
in living shapes that move from mind to mind.
Though all the crannies of the world we filled
with Elves and Goblins, though we dared to build
Gods and their houses out of dark and light,
and sowed the seed of dragons, ’twas our right
(used or misused). The right has not decayed.
We make still by the law in which we’re made.

Yes! ‘wish-fulfilment dreams’ we spin to cheat
our timid hearts and ugly Fact defeat!
Whence came the wish, and whence the power to dream,
or some things fair and others ugly deem?
All wishes are not idle, nor in vain
fulfilment we devise — for pain is pain,
not for itself to be desired, but ill;
or else to strive or to subdue the will
alike were graceless; and of Evil this
alone is deadly certain: Evil is.

Blessed are the timid hearts that evil hate
that quail in its shadow, and yet shut the gate;
that seek no parley, and in guarded room,
though small and bate, upon a clumsy loom
weave tissues gilded by the far-off day
hoped and believed in under Shadow’s sway.

Blessed are the men of Noah’s race that build
their little arks, though frail and poorly filled,
and steer through winds contrary towards a wraith,
a rumour of a harbour guessed by faith.

Blessed are the legend-makers with their rhyme
of things not found within recorded time.
It is not they that have forgot the Night,
or bid us flee to organized delight,
in lotus-isles of economic bliss
forswearing souls to gain a Circe-kiss
(and counterfeit at that, machine-produced,
bogus seduction of the twice-seduced).
Such isles they saw afar, and ones more fair,
and those that hear them yet may yet beware.
They have seen Death and ultimate defeat,
and yet they would not in despair retreat,
but oft to victory have tuned the lyre
and kindled hearts with legendary fire,
illuminating Now and dark Hath-been
with light of suns as yet by no man seen.

I would that I might with the minstrels sing
and stir the unseen with a throbbing string.
I would be with the mariners of the deep
that cut their slender planks on mountains steep
and voyage upon a vague and wandering quest,
for some have passed beyond the fabled West.
I would with the beleaguered fools be told,
that keep an inner fastness where their gold,
impure and scanty, yet they loyally bring
to mint in image blurred of distant king,
or in fantastic banners weave the sheen
heraldic emblems of a lord unseen.

I will not walk with your progressive apes,
erect and sapient. Before them gapes
the dark abyss to which their progress tends
if by God’s mercy progress ever ends,
and does not ceaselessly revolve the same
unfruitful course with changing of a name.
I will not treat your dusty path and flat,
denoting this and that by this and that,
your world immutable wherein no part
the little maker has with maker’s art.
I bow not yet before the Iron Crown,
nor cast my own small golden sceptre down.

In Paradise perchance the eye may stray
from gazing upon everlasting Day
to see the day illumined, and renew
from mirrored truth the likeness of the True.
Then looking on the Blessed Land ’twill see
that all is as it is, and yet made free:
Salvation changes not, nor yet destroys,
garden nor gardener, children nor their toys.
Evil it will not see, for evil lies
not in God’s picture but in crooked eyes,
not in the source but in malicious choice,
and not in sound but in the tuneless voice.
In Paradise they look no more awry;
and though they make anew, they make no lie.
Be sure they still will make, not being dead,
and poets shall have flames upon their head,
and harps whereon their faultless fingers fall:
there each shall choose for ever from the All.

What do you think?

“…it proved both sinister and depressing. Since we are dealing with Men it is inevitable that we should be concerned with the most regrettable feature of their nature: their quick satiety with good. So that the people of Gondor in times of peace, justice and prosperity, would become discontented and restless—while the dynasts descended from Aragorn would become just kings and governors—like Denethor or worse. I found that even so early there was an outcrop of revolutionary plots, about a centre of secret Satanistic religion; while Gondorian boys were playing at being Orcs and going around doing damage. I could have written a ‘thriller’ about the plot and its discovery and overthrow—but it would have been just that. Not worth doing.”

In this passage taken from one of his letters, there’s a great deal of interesting theory on the nature of man, the workings of good and evil, and what makes a story worth telling, but I want to highlight his recognition that just because a sequel can be told doesn’t mean it should.  I love Tolkien’s books and have always wished he wrote more, but I’m glad that when he realized a sequel to Lord of the Rings would have detracted from the power of the mythic saga he built, he stopped writing it.

Often readers can more easily discern when it’s worth continuing with a story than writers of the work in question. And since fantasy frequently consists of (rather lengthy) series, there can be difficulty in telling when a story has run its course. Yes, readers want to become immersed in fascinating new worlds and spend plenty of time in the places they love. Yet stories can be robbed of their impact when a series runs too long or seems to endlessly spin off sequels or prequels. So it’s worth taking a step back, as Tolkien did, to objectively evaluate when a story should continue…or end.

Have you read series that seemed to drag on too long? Or seen a story-world explored so much that it lost its enchantment? If you write, how do you find the proper balance?

8. In western culture, dragons often are portrayed as evil creatures, but the figure of the Lady of Dreams Realized is more unusual. What inspired the character of the Lady and her relationship with the Dragon?

Interestingly enough, when I first sold Heartless to Bethany House, I received comments from in-house readers surprised at seeing a wicked dragon! Many (dare I say most?) of the dragons portrayed in YA fiction these days are good, wise, beautiful creatures, no longer the classic symbol of evil as back in the day of Spenser’s Redcrosse Knight. Or if there are bad dragons, they always have good counterparts. Quite unlike the classic evil dragons of old Western literature! But I’ve always loved a thoroughly evil dragon: Smaug, of course, Robin McKinley’s deadly Maur, and a handful of others. However, I digress!

The Lady of Dreams Realized was initially inspired from a chilling moment in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner. I read it for the first time my senior year of high school and was struck by the image it left in my mind:

Are those her ribs through which the Sun
Did peer, as through a grate?
And is that Woman all her crew?
Is that a DEATH? and are there two?
Is DEATH that Woman’s mate?

Her lips were red, her looks were free,
Her locks were yellow as gold:
Her skin was white as leprosy,
The Night-mare Life-in-Death was she,
Who thicks man’s blood with cold.

I had already worked with the image of Death as a Dragon in my early ideas for the Tales of Goldstone Wood. But after reading the Rime and exploring the various themes of death and life-in-death, I decided to expand the character of the Dragon to include the Lady Life-in-Death as well.

The Dragon himself is called the Death-in-Life or the Death of Dreams. His sister is both his opposite and his completion. While in Heartless the Dragon destroys Una’s dreams and thus sends her on her fiery downward spiral, in Veiled Rose we see his sister, the Lady, giving Lionheart his dream come true, and thereby ruining him. She is the more insidious of the two and, I believe, the more dangerous.

There are hints throughout Veiled Rose as to the Lady’s true form and origin. And there is much more to be revealed about both her and her brother. But I can’t say too much here! Wouldn’t want to give away spoilers.

9. In each of your previous books, a faerie knight in animal guise has played a role. Will we learn more about this sort of faerie in Moonblood?

Absolutely! These are some of my favorite characters, and we will see much more of them in Moonblood and still more in later books. In fact, the Faerie knight Eanrin is one of two protagonists in my fall 2012 release, Starflower. We will also learn that not all the Faeries assume animal guise . . . and not all who assume animal guise are Faerie! The rules of the Far World (if they can be called rules) are far more complicated than that.

10. Can you share any hints of what will take place in Moonblood?

Well, there are quite a few hints to be found in Veiled Rose, so I’d hate to give away too many more! We know that Rose Red has a father who is searching for her. We glimpse a strange monster in Goldstone Wood that asks Prince Lionheart about her. And we know that no roses bloom in the Near World anymore, not since Rose Red herself was a baby. So you can guess that all of these things will be brought up come Moonblood . . .

There will also be several carryover storylines from Heartless, including the old bridge that shouldn’t be crossed and poor dragon-poisoned Prince Felix. We will be plunging into realms beyond Goldstone Wood where we’ll meet several new Faerie kings and queens, each a little more dangerous than the last. And for any of you who might remember ugly Sir Oeric from Heartless, he’ll be making his return in Moonblood as well!

11. How many books can readers expect in the Tales of Goldstone Wood series?

I am currently contracted for six Goldstone Wood stories. So we’ll leave it at that and see where we go from there!

12. Are there projects you hope to tackle after the Goldstone Wood series concludes?

One or two. The Goldstone Wood series is rather large and has taken up a lot of my imagination for the last several years. I’ve drafted a YA comedy fantasy adventure that I really love and would like to play around with more later. I’m toying with a comedic retelling of Beauty and the Beast/Cinderella. I’ve also dabbled with a YA adventure story set in historical Sri Lanka (my husband’s homeland), but haven’t had a chance to pursue that yet. We’ll see! I certainly have plenty of ideas, but Goldstone Wood pretty much swallows up my writing time these days.

13. And a bonus question, just for fun, how did you come to collect so many cats?

Yes, well, I am the quintessential Crazy Cat Lady, so cats sort of just . . . happen to me. I currently have three rescue kitties and one purebred Abyssinian, my glorious Marmaduke. I love my purebred, but I am a sucker for a kitty in need. And when we got married, my husband and I (and our three cats at the time) moved into a house right next to a feral cat colony. Which was like pouring oil on a fire!

I now work with the feral kittens. Last summer, we fostered and found homes for four kittens and had one wild mother cat spayed so that she won’t produce more. This year, we’re going to try to do more. Feral kittens are difficult to work with since they are as wild as squirrels when you first catch them. But with some patience and love, they can become the very best house pets. We kept one of the kittens last year, a fluffy orange male whom we named Monster (after the cat in Heartless). He turned from an explosive ball of hissing terror into an absolute purring joy. It’s amazing to watch the transformation!

In another week or two, I am going to start catching more wild kittens out of the forest behind my house (and getting the parents fixed). So I will have a houseful again very soon. If you know anyone in the Raleigh area who might want a kitten, please let me know! I might just have the kitty of their dreams.

Any like-minded crazy cat people out there who would like to learn more about me and my cats may check out this blog: minervawritesherthoughts.blogspot.com. But please don’t believe everything she writes about me . . .

Thanks Anne for giving us a deeper glimpse into your writing process and your story world! It was a delight to talk with you.

If you would like to learn more about Anne and her books, I encourage you to visit her blog The Tales of Goldstone Wood. And if you’re a lover of fairy tales or Christian fantasy, by all means pick up a copy of her books. You won’t regret it!

1. What book (or books) has played the greatest role in shaping your imagination?

As an author of Christian fantasy, how can I possibly give an answer that does not include C.S. Lewis’s beautiful Chronicles of Narnia? I remember the first time I read one of those books (The Horse and His Boy, my favorite to this day) and saw whole new vistas opening before my seven-year-old eyes. At the time, of course, I wasn’t aware of the many layers of allegorical significance contained in that slim volume, but the story sucked me in and demanded rereading after rereading. And with each new visit to Narnia, I saw more of the Big Story Lewis was trying to depict. It was amazing, magical, and utterly unforgettable.

I also love many of the authors who were major influences on Lewis, especially George MacDonald and Edith Nesbit. I just reread MacDonald’s The Princess and the Goblin and was surprised by the many subtle influences his work has had on mine, influences that I had forgotten even existed! George MacDonald and Edith Nesbit both, in very different ways, knew how to awaken a child’s imagination, which is why their work will endure.

2. Did you always love fairy tales? What sparked your interest in these sorts of stories?

Absolutely! My interest in fairy tales began before I was reading. I was entranced when my mother read me the adventures of fairy Queen Crosspatch in Frances Hodgeson Burnett’s The Racketty-Packetty House. Before I was old enough to read it for myself, I would pull down an enticing copy of Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare simply to gaze at the beautiful illustration of Titania from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. My father would entertain me and my brothers with made-up stories about an inventor prince who created flyamins (vitamins that enabled flight) and talkamins (vitamins that enabled speech for pets) and all the baddies various who wanted to steal them. Fairy Tales and magic surrounded me throughout my young life, and I cannot remember a time when I was not interested.

3. If you had to narrow it down to just one, which fairy tale would you call your favorite?

I so wish I could be completely original, but I have to say I love Beauty and the Beast. Possibly because Robin McKinley’s Beauty is one of my all-time favorite YA fantasies, but I really do just love the story itself. There are many interesting variations on that theme as well, such as The Lady and the Lion, The White Cat, and even the tragic Yellow Dwarf, which left a strong impression on me from the first time I read it. It’s such a timeless theme with so much possibility for embellishment!

4. Your stories have many spiritual parallels. Did you intend from the beginning to create these analogies or did they emerge over time?

Particularly in my first novel, Heartless, the spiritual twist forms the backbone of the plot. Remove the allegory, and all you have left is the story of a petulant pill of a princess whose problems are all solved by marrying a handsome prince. Yick. Not my favorite storyline! But with the spiritual element, it becomes a story of total depravity and undeserved grace, in a context of classic fairy tale archetypes. Much more appealing!

The allegorical elements developed far more gradually in the rest of my stories. While Heartless began with the allegory, my other novels began simply as plots and characters, and the spiritual element developed with the rest of the story. Nevertheless, I believe that each of my books falls to pieces the moment the spiritual element is removed. So while I rarely go into a new project these days with the idea, “I shall now write an allegory about this!” I am always praying for God to reveal to me the message He intends to communicate through each work.

5. How does your relationship with God influence your writing?

My relationship with God is the foundation of my work. As my career has developed, this truth has become more and more apparent. Each book I have written has been significantly harder to write than the one before, driving me constantly back to my knees for guidance and wisdom. I consider time spent in prayer and meditation an essential part of my work day, and I can always tell the difference in a day when I neglect that time with God and try to “do it on my own.”

6. How long have you been developing the Goldstone Wood world?

Funny you should ask that! Just today, while I was cleaning out and (sort of) organizing my studio, I came upon an old notebook from back in 2004. Flipping open to an early page, I found the scribblings of a short story . . . a short story I recognized as the beginnings of the full-length novel I just finished drafting, Book 5 in the Tales of Goldstone Wood. This made me smile, especially considering how drastically the story has grown since then! Yet the heart of the story remains true, and I am very excited to share that novel (currently title-less) with all of you come summer 2013!

All this to say, I have been developing these stories and this world for quite some time. It is a Fairy Tale world rather than Epic Fantasy, so the development is comparatively simple. I consider the genres of Fairy Tale and Fantasy to be distinct, and I definitely fall into the Fairy Tale category. Mine is no Tolkien-esque universe! Nevertheless, a lot of time, thought, work, and prayer has gone into the invention of Goldstone Wood and will continue to, Lord willing, for years to come.

7. When I first read the back cover copy of Veiled Rose and spied the name Rose Red, my mind immediately went to the fairy tale Snow White, Rose Red, yet upon reading the book I found little connection between your Rose Red and the girl of fairy tale fame. So what led you to choose the name Rose Red?

Interesting question! The fact is, while I was pleased with the fairy tale association of the name, I did not choose “Rose Red” as a reference to the classic story.

As hinted at in Veiled Rose, my Rose Red’s real name is Varvare. When I was first developing the character, Varvare was the name I called her. But she needed to have a more “Southlands” appropriate name while living as the veiled goat-girl up in the mountains. Varvare is a name derived from the Armenian word “vard,” which is “rose.” “Rose Red” is a close translation of the name “Varvare,” worked well as a Southlands name, and carried a strong fairy tale connotation. Thus it was chosen.

Roses, as you will soon discover, play a big role in the upcoming novel, Moonblood. We’ve already seen hints of this (both Heartless and Veiled Rose reference the lack of roses in the mortal world), and we will see that storyline developed.

I particularly like how the name in and of itself creates a link between my work and old fairy tales. The story Snow White and Rose Red includes a man enchanted into bear form. Men and women taking animal shapes is a recurring theme in the Goldstone Wood stories, and I enjoy having a subtle nod to the classic tales that inspired those ideas. Part of the fun of writing, for me, is making these “literary nods,” so to speak. A reader with a quick eye might catch references to classic fairy tales, to Shakespeare, to Robert Browning, to Samuel Taylor Coleridge, to Edmund Spenser, to George MacDonald, and so many more! It’s part of how I like to connect myself to the writers of the past.

Come back Wednesday for part two of the interview, in which Anne discusses dragon mythology, faerie knights, her upcoming novel Moonblood, and more.

Tom Hardwidge of Arthrobots creates these gleaming little creatures from assorted bits of metal, including watch gears and discarded ammunition:

And Insect Lab has come up with its own version of steampunk insects, which involves fusing real (dead) insect specimens with steampunk cogs, gears, and other metallic components for intriguing (and slightly creepy) works of art.

Did any of these catch your fancy? Or were they too reminiscent of real world creepy-crawlies to inspire you?

You’re also welcome to share about any other Christian speculative fiction novels releasing this month in the comments, if you want.

I Am Ocilla
by Diane M. Graham

Five hundred years ago, five kingdoms were cursed by a dark stranger when he failed in his plot to overtake the world. He vanished, slipping through a rip in time leaving behind devastation that separated the five kingdoms. Rumors spread of his return and a desperate search for the Chosen One begins. For only the Chosen One can fulfill the prophecy and free the world from the evil one’s grasp.

How important is a name? For Ocilla, it’s all she knows of her life. Trapped in a dungeon, she remembers nothing else, and in her darkest hour she believes dying is so much easier than the fight to live. But destiny will soon change everything when the search for the Chosen One brings two strangers to her cell door.

Travel with Ocilla on a fantastical journey to find herself and her true value, as she enters a world where darkness has descended but the bright light of hope shines through for those willing to believe…a world where nothing is quite what you think it is and fantasy is truly reality. In the process, she may find a love so pure and good, she can’t believe she is deserving of such a gift.

Set out on a quest of faith, not common sense.

The Radiance
by John Robinson

Former Army Ranger Travis Walker discovers hope for his shattered life coming from an unexpected source. A force of mysterious origin, dubbed the Radiance, is causing worldwide intelligence, both human and animal, to advance at a horrifying rate. Worse, no one knows when the effect will stop…or if it can be stopped.

A crack team of scientists and military leaders–and headed by Travis’s wealthy industrialist brother Cale–is hastily assembled to combat the phenomenon. Against his better judgment Travis is drafted into this group to give his “everyman” take on things. There he finds himself running on an inside track, battling not only worldwide hopelessness, terrorism, and greed, but his own dark and cynical passions as well.

And it is here, in this strange new battlefield at the brink of Armageddon, the wounded warrior finds his hard-won skills being called upon, one last time.