Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Is This Christian Fantasy?

I read a Christian Fantasy novel the other day. Correction, I read half of a Christian Fantasy novel the other day. The reason I didn’t read any more of it is because near the beginning of the book the characters got on horses. Then they rode and talked, rode and talked through the middle of the book. I kept looking for something one of the characters needed to change about his life. It wasn’t until page 47 that the author revealed that the character didn’t like the level of respect he received from his bosses. I thought that was a little weak, but at least there was something. After that, they rode and talked some more. There wasn’t an inciting incident in the first 115 pages. If there was one, it was so weak I missed it.


This is sad. The book has a potentially good premise and will probably sell several copies on that alone, but the writing quality just isn’t there. I haven’t seen the body of Christian Fantasy, but I would hate to think that this novel is representative of Christian Fantasy. There are many people who think Christian Fantasy would sell if the publishers would publish it. Some publishers are moving in that direction, but could it be that the problem isn’t the lack of fans or the unwillingness of publishers to meet the demand, but a deficiency in the quality of manuscripts authors are submitting?