Sean Russell: Interview
Tuesday, December 07, 2004
An interview with Sean Russell author of "The One Kingdom". I have been looking for a Tolkien type epic that does not copy Tolkien but has the expanse and battle scenes. All reviews of this series seem to support this view. Read the authors' intentions for "The One Kingdom". The cover art is very good as you can see.
Sean Russell: Interview
Sean Russell: Interview
Monday, November 22, 2004
Here is a section of Q&A's from Stephen Lawhead about his books. I really like the sections that explain some of the Celtic names and characters from his Albion series and the Pendragon(Taliesin,Merlin,Arthur) series. These books are highly recomended!
Stephen Lawhead Web
Stephen Lawhead Web
Thursday, November 11, 2004
THE ARCHIVES OF ANTHROPOS
By John White
A hard to find series written in the style of C.S Lewis' Narnia world.
IVP | The Archives of Anthropos
By John White
A hard to find series written in the style of C.S Lewis' Narnia world.
IVP | The Archives of Anthropos
Friday, November 05, 2004
The cover art for the Fionovar Tapestry ... Strange but beautiful.
The Collaborative Worlds of Janny Wurts and Don Maitz
The Collaborative Worlds of Janny Wurts and Don Maitz
Here is an interview with John Marco author of the Tyrants and Kings series ...
John Marco Interview - Page 1 of 5
John Marco Interview - Page 1 of 5
Tuesday, November 02, 2004
Tuesday, October 12, 2004
Fantasy Node - Stephen Lawhead
This site has some good short reviews of many fantasy authors. It sounds like this person really reads these and has good judgements on most of the authors.
This site has some good short reviews of many fantasy authors. It sounds like this person really reads these and has good judgements on most of the authors.
Monday, February 09, 2004
Here is a wonderful section of George MacDonald's "Lilith". The prose is so glorious and flowing that you are lifted into and through another world. As I have read MacDonald's books I am constanly amazed at how much he influenced Lewis and Tolkien. Both of these great authors seem to pull various scenes from MacDonald writings. Lewis is quoted as being influenced strongly by GM when he called him his "master". Tolkien may have said less and pulled more from MacDonald than he acknowledges ... check out Passages about the goblins underground passages in MacDonalds "The Princess and the Goblin".
The Princess and the Goblin
Here now is a great passage from "Lilith"
Thunder, clap or roll, there had been none. And now came a sweet rain, filling the atmosphere with a
caressing coolness. We breathed deep, and stepped out with stronger strides. The falling drops flashed
the colours of all the waked up gems of the earth, and a mighty rainbow spanned the city.
The blue clouds gathered thicker; the rain fell in torrents; the children exulted and ran; it was all we
could do to keep them in sight.
With silent, radiant roll, the river swept onward, filling to the margin its smooth, soft, yielding channel.
For, instead of rock or shingle or sand, it flowed over grass in which grew primroses and daisies,
crocuses and narcissi, pimpernels and anemones, a starry multitude, large and bright through the brilliant
water. The river had gathered no turbid cloudiness from the rain, not even a tinge of yellow or brown; the
delicate mass shone with the pale berylline gleam that ascended from its deep, dainty bed.
Drawing nearer to the mountain, we saw that the river came from its very peak, and rushed in full
volume through the main street of the city. It descended to the gate by a stair of deep and wide steps,
mingled of porphyry and serpentine, which continued to the foot of the mountain. There arriving we
found shallower steps on both banks, leading up to the gate, and along the ascending street. Without the
briefest halt, the Little Ones ran straight up the stair to the gate, which stood open.
Outside, on the landing, sat the portress, a woman-angel of dark visage, leaning her shadowed brow on
her idle hand. The children rushed upon her, covering her with caresses, and ere she understood, they had
taken heaven by surprise, and were already in the city, still mounting the stair by the side of the
descending torrent. A great angel, attended by a company of shining ones, came down to meet and
receive them, but merrily evading them all, up still they ran. In merry dance, however, a group of
woman-angels descended upon them, and in a moment they were fettered in heavenly arms. The radiants
carried them away, and I saw them no more.
"Ah!" said the mighty angel, continuing his descent to meet us who were now almost at the gate and
within hearing of his words, "this is well! these are soldiers to take heaven itself by storm!--I hear of a
horde of black bats on the frontiers: these will make short work with such!"
Seeing the horse and the elephants clambering up behind us--"Take those animals to the royal stables,"
he added; "there tend them; then turn them into the king's forest."
"Welcome home!" he said to us, bending low with the sweetest smile.
Immediately he turned and led the way higher. The scales of his armour flashed like flakes of lightning.
Thought cannot form itself to tell what I felt, thus received by the officers of heaven.* All I wanted and
knew not, must be on its way to me!
We stood for a moment at the gate whence issued roaring the radiant river. I know not whence came the
stones that fashioned it, but among them I saw the prototypes of all the gems I had loved on earth--far
more beautiful than they, for these were living stones--such in which I saw, not the intent alone, but the
intender too; not the idea alone, but the imbodier present, the operant outsender: nothing in this kingdom
was dead; nothing was mere; nothing only a thing.
We went up through the city and passed out. There was no wall on the upper side, but a huge pile of
broken rocks, upsloping like the moraine of an eternal glacier; and through the openings between the
rocks, the river came billowing out. On their top I could dimly discern what seemed three or four great
steps of a stair, disappearing in a cloud white as snow; and above the steps I saw, but with my mind's eye
only, as it were a grand old chair, the throne of the Ancient of Days. Over and under and between those
steps issued, plenteously, unceasingly new-born, the river of the water of life.
The great angel could guide us no farther: those rocks we must ascend alone!
My heart beating with hope and desire, I held faster the hand of my Lona, and we began to climb; but
soon we let each other go, to use hands as well as feet in the toilsome ascent of the huge stones. At length
we drew near the cloud, which hung down the steps like the borders of a garment, passed through the
fringe, and entered the deep folds. A hand, warm and strong, laid hold of mine, and drew me to a little
door with a golden lock. The door opened; the hand let mine go, and pushed me gently through. I turned
quickly, and saw the board of a large book in the act of closing behind me. I stood alone in my library.
The Princess and the Goblin
Here now is a great passage from "Lilith"
Thunder, clap or roll, there had been none. And now came a sweet rain, filling the atmosphere with a
caressing coolness. We breathed deep, and stepped out with stronger strides. The falling drops flashed
the colours of all the waked up gems of the earth, and a mighty rainbow spanned the city.
The blue clouds gathered thicker; the rain fell in torrents; the children exulted and ran; it was all we
could do to keep them in sight.
With silent, radiant roll, the river swept onward, filling to the margin its smooth, soft, yielding channel.
For, instead of rock or shingle or sand, it flowed over grass in which grew primroses and daisies,
crocuses and narcissi, pimpernels and anemones, a starry multitude, large and bright through the brilliant
water. The river had gathered no turbid cloudiness from the rain, not even a tinge of yellow or brown; the
delicate mass shone with the pale berylline gleam that ascended from its deep, dainty bed.
Drawing nearer to the mountain, we saw that the river came from its very peak, and rushed in full
volume through the main street of the city. It descended to the gate by a stair of deep and wide steps,
mingled of porphyry and serpentine, which continued to the foot of the mountain. There arriving we
found shallower steps on both banks, leading up to the gate, and along the ascending street. Without the
briefest halt, the Little Ones ran straight up the stair to the gate, which stood open.
Outside, on the landing, sat the portress, a woman-angel of dark visage, leaning her shadowed brow on
her idle hand. The children rushed upon her, covering her with caresses, and ere she understood, they had
taken heaven by surprise, and were already in the city, still mounting the stair by the side of the
descending torrent. A great angel, attended by a company of shining ones, came down to meet and
receive them, but merrily evading them all, up still they ran. In merry dance, however, a group of
woman-angels descended upon them, and in a moment they were fettered in heavenly arms. The radiants
carried them away, and I saw them no more.
"Ah!" said the mighty angel, continuing his descent to meet us who were now almost at the gate and
within hearing of his words, "this is well! these are soldiers to take heaven itself by storm!--I hear of a
horde of black bats on the frontiers: these will make short work with such!"
Seeing the horse and the elephants clambering up behind us--"Take those animals to the royal stables,"
he added; "there tend them; then turn them into the king's forest."
"Welcome home!" he said to us, bending low with the sweetest smile.
Immediately he turned and led the way higher. The scales of his armour flashed like flakes of lightning.
Thought cannot form itself to tell what I felt, thus received by the officers of heaven.* All I wanted and
knew not, must be on its way to me!
We stood for a moment at the gate whence issued roaring the radiant river. I know not whence came the
stones that fashioned it, but among them I saw the prototypes of all the gems I had loved on earth--far
more beautiful than they, for these were living stones--such in which I saw, not the intent alone, but the
intender too; not the idea alone, but the imbodier present, the operant outsender: nothing in this kingdom
was dead; nothing was mere; nothing only a thing.
We went up through the city and passed out. There was no wall on the upper side, but a huge pile of
broken rocks, upsloping like the moraine of an eternal glacier; and through the openings between the
rocks, the river came billowing out. On their top I could dimly discern what seemed three or four great
steps of a stair, disappearing in a cloud white as snow; and above the steps I saw, but with my mind's eye
only, as it were a grand old chair, the throne of the Ancient of Days. Over and under and between those
steps issued, plenteously, unceasingly new-born, the river of the water of life.
The great angel could guide us no farther: those rocks we must ascend alone!
My heart beating with hope and desire, I held faster the hand of my Lona, and we began to climb; but
soon we let each other go, to use hands as well as feet in the toilsome ascent of the huge stones. At length
we drew near the cloud, which hung down the steps like the borders of a garment, passed through the
fringe, and entered the deep folds. A hand, warm and strong, laid hold of mine, and drew me to a little
door with a golden lock. The door opened; the hand let mine go, and pushed me gently through. I turned
quickly, and saw the board of a large book in the act of closing behind me. I stood alone in my library.
Stephan Lawhead Interview .... Author of the Grail Series and the Celtic Series and more ...
The Stephen Lawhead Website
The Stephen Lawhead Website
Waiting for the new book from George R R Martin ... here it is.
Amazon.com: Books: A Feast for Crows (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 4)
Here is George's Own Web pages
George R. R. Martin
-Steve
Amazon.com: Books: A Feast for Crows (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 4)
Here is George's Own Web pages
George R. R. Martin
-Steve
Interesting review on Greg Keyes "The Briar King" ... rated up there with George R R Martin and almost approaching T O L K I E N ! ????
The Briar King Review
-jrrlewis
The Briar King Review
-jrrlewis
Friday, January 16, 2004
Here is a great article about the Lord of the Rings ans it's connection to the Passion of Christ.
"In a letter J.R.R. Tolkien tells a friend that the central theme of The Lord of the Rings is the temptation to immortality. The immortality that the main characters must renounce is the vague but very real natural omnipotence offered them by use of the Dark Lord's Ring of Power. In their quest to destroy it the heroes of the trilogy—Bilbo, Frodo, Aragorn, Gandalf, Sam and Galadriel—all face the temptation to use the power of the Ring to inflate their present state of being beyond all decency and make themselves into a Dark Lord, all-powerful and immortal ".... read on below
The Passion According to Tolkien
"In a letter J.R.R. Tolkien tells a friend that the central theme of The Lord of the Rings is the temptation to immortality. The immortality that the main characters must renounce is the vague but very real natural omnipotence offered them by use of the Dark Lord's Ring of Power. In their quest to destroy it the heroes of the trilogy—Bilbo, Frodo, Aragorn, Gandalf, Sam and Galadriel—all face the temptation to use the power of the Ring to inflate their present state of being beyond all decency and make themselves into a Dark Lord, all-powerful and immortal ".... read on below
The Passion According to Tolkien
Here is the text to George Macdonalds' "Lilith" this is a second novel in the vane of "Phantastes" which is also highly recomended.
-Steve
Lilith, by George MacDonald
-Steve
Lilith, by George MacDonald
Wednesday, January 14, 2004
Welcome to Epic Fantasy Authors!
If you love Tolkien's works, and you can't get enough, then this is the place to hang out. I started reading the Lord of the Rings in 1973! I was in high school at the time. Tolkien had died in September of that year and there was a resurgence of interest in his books. Since then I have re-read them many times and also read them to my boys during the course of the movie releases. My goal is to open up thought and discussion about Tolkien and other authors like him, to reveal new vistas (perhaps through older works) and speak about the spiritual links and understandings of these works.
-JRRLewis
If you love Tolkien's works, and you can't get enough, then this is the place to hang out. I started reading the Lord of the Rings in 1973! I was in high school at the time. Tolkien had died in September of that year and there was a resurgence of interest in his books. Since then I have re-read them many times and also read them to my boys during the course of the movie releases. My goal is to open up thought and discussion about Tolkien and other authors like him, to reveal new vistas (perhaps through older works) and speak about the spiritual links and understandings of these works.
-JRRLewis
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