Lorehaven helps fans of all ages explore fantastical stories for God’s glory. Find the newest fiction for young readers plus teens+YA and adults. Get articles and podcasts that engage the best Christian-made fantasy, sci-fi, and beyond. Subscribe free to join the Lorehaven Guild for monthly book quests!
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Fantastical books for middle grade readers!

Best for older children ages 8–12
Beneath the Swirling Sky, Elizabeth Groening
Skate the Seeker by Jeff Ayers
The Red Door, Chris Solaas
boys’ fiction · girls’ fiction · all fiction
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Top resources

  • Try These Three Practical Questions to Discern Fictional Magic
  • How Do We Discern Good and Bad ‘Magic’?
  • Three Fantastical Christian Stories to Help Your Kids Head Back to School
  • The Death and Rebirth of Magic in Children's Fantasy

New books for teens + young adults

Best for readers ages 13–18—and beyond!
The Looking-Glass Illusion, Sara Ella
The Eternity Gate, Katherine Briggs
Calligraphy Guild, R. M. Archer
young men’s · young women’s · all fiction
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Top resources

  • Beware the Real Danger of Entertainment
  • Christian-Made Fantasy Can Shine Light in the Grimdark
  • How to Disciple Your Kids with Dangeous Books
  • How Reading Epic Fantasy Helps Me Be Brave
  • Engaging Fictional Violence in Our Real Worlds
  • Engaging That @&*% Our Stories Often Say

New fiction for adults

Challenging novels for wise readers 18 and up.
The Looking-Glass Illusion, Sara Ella
Light of Eidon, Karen Hancock
Wandering, Loren G. Warnemuende
men’s fiction · women’s fiction · all fiction
articles · podcast · reviews · subscribe

Top resources

  • Even If We Like Fantasy and Sci-Fi, We Can Still Practice Accidental Legalism
  • How God Uses Story Villains for Our Good
  • Sensual Scenes in Fiction Pose Unique Temptations for Women
  • Stories With Bad Ideas Can Still Help Us Grow
  • Engaging Fictional Violence in Our Real Worlds
  • Engaging That @&*% Our Stories Often Say

Film, streaming, TV, video games

Help your kids engage their world for Christ!
Explore The Pop Culture Parent

Top resources

  • Let’s Not Excuse Movie and TV Porn For the Sake of ‘Redemptive’ Stories
  • Christians Can’t Consistently Blame Leftist Fiction While Pushing Our Own Propaganda

The Little Mermaid’s Live-Action Remake Fares Better Than Critics Forecast

Some new songs may flounder, but Ariel’s voice and Triton’s character redeem the 2023 Disney film. · Marian Jacobs
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Lorehaven helps fans of all ages explore fantastical stories for God’s glory. Find the newest fiction for young readers plus teens+YA and adults. Get articles and podcasts that engage the best Christian-made fantasy, sci-fi, and beyond. Subscribe free to join the Lorehaven Guild for monthly book quests!
Crew manifest Faith statement FAQs
All author resources Lorehaven Guild Subscribe for free

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Lorehaven is reaching Christian fans, homeschool families, church influencers, and cultural conservatives.

Yes, Christian Creators Can Hire Secular Staff

From sets of “The Chosen” to other positions, faithful employers face challenges when they work with unbelievers. · E. Stephen Burnett

Bilge and Beanstalks! Yahoo Scrawls Another Bad Take on C. S. Lewis’s Narnia

Watch this, she’s gonna say, “Susan Pevensie got lipstick and grew up and that’s why she’s going to hell.” · E. Stephen Burnett

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Lorehaven print issues (2018–2020)

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Lorehaven helps fans of all ages explore fantastical stories for God’s glory. Find the newest fiction for young readers plus teens+YA and adults. Get articles and podcasts that engage the best Christian-made fantasy, sci-fi, and beyond. Subscribe free to join the Lorehaven Guild for monthly book quests!
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/ Magazines / Fall 2020

Captain’s Log

Fiction helps us survive our struggles and groan for redemption.
E. Stephen Burnett | 1 comment

Welcome again to SpookTober, now available in a special Extended Edition. Thanks to the generous sponsors of 2020, you can now enjoy scary news, terrifying threats, and spine-chilling viral stories, not just at Halloween, but all year long!

During this un-holiday season, your exact monsters may vary in size and species.

Family health scares abound. Travel is limited even in states that have opened. Small businesses have collapsed, and even larger businesses are struggling. For Lorehaven, all live conferences were cancelled, so we had to go web-only. (This may bring more upgrades to Lorehaven going into 2021. Watch this space for news.)

Imagine traveling back to fall 2019 and predicting to such a naive populace that they will soon face this weirdness, and for many others, even worse suffering.

Lest this sound too terrible, this year may have also brought you some benefits.

For instance, since spring 2020, my wife and I have kept my day jobs. Hers even got an upgrade. We’ve stayed healthy. Late in the summer, we even moved to a new house and returned to full-time foster care—this time, with teenagers, and times two. If not for pandemic tumult, we may not have accepted these happy challenges.

Oh, and my first book released, The Pop Culture Parent: Helping Kids Engage Their World for Christ. It’s nonfiction with my friends Ted Turnau and Jared Moore. Thanks to this, I’ve been blessed to write more articles and even speak at virtual events.

This fall, however, I’ve likely been happiest to resume a discipline of reading new books, like C. S. Lewis collections, Bram Stoker’s Dracula (a re-read), and of course new Christian-made fantastic titles. Those novels include Emily Hayse’s Realm Award–winning Seventh City. Her marvelous “cozy-epic” fantasy, set in a chilly land reminiscent of Alaska, helps remind me why I love and believe in these stories.

Alas, too many Christian readers still don’t even know these stories exist.

Maybe we’re too distracted by the most popular pop culture. This is easier to find and known to everyone (so we feel better enjoying it). Or we see that our world is beset with plagues, persecution, and political struggles. We ask: shouldn’t we devote more time to these real needs rather than try to escape to some fantasy?

One answer, of course, comes from J. R. R. Tolkien’s classic essay “On Fairy-Stories”:

“Escape is one of the main functions of fairy-stories, and since I do not disapprove of them, it is plain that I do not accept the tone of scorn or pity with which ‘Escape’ is now so often used. Why should a man be scorned if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if he cannot do so, he thinks and talks about other topics than jailers and prison-walls?”

Still, with all due respect to the professor, I’m actually not trying to use fantastical novels to get out of jail and simply go home. Rather, I want to “escape” to fantasy worlds, spend time there to train as a better person for Christ’s glory, and then move back and forth between those “homes” and “prisons” to help others.

Anyway, reality isn’t the prison. It’s just held captive and groaning because of sin. One day the groaning will end. In that day, all those fantastical notes, which we just managed to hear alongside the groans, will transform into God’s eternal song.

There, we shall no longer have mourning, pain, masks, or social hatred. The former things will have passed away, and all that good “fantasy” will be fulfilled by the King.

Let any “escapist” stories you enjoy help you long for this real-life future.

E. Stephen Burnett creates sci-fi and fantasy novels as well as nonfiction, exploring fantastical stories for God’s glory as publisher of Lorehaven.com with its Fantastical Truth podcast. As the oldest of six, he enjoys connecting with his homeschool roots by speaking at conferences for Christian families and creators. Stephen is coauthor of The Pop Culture Parent: Helping Kids Engage Their World for Christ from New Growth Press. He and his wife, Lacy, live in the Austin area, where they serve as members of Faith Baptist Church.
Website | Facebook | Twitter |
E. Stephen Burnett
E. Stephen Burnett creates sci-fi and fantasy novels as well as nonfiction, exploring fantastical stories for God’s glory as publisher of Lorehaven.com with its Fantastical Truth podcast. As the oldest of six, he enjoys connecting with his homeschool roots by speaking at conferences for Christian families and creators. Stephen is coauthor of The Pop Culture Parent: Helping Kids Engage Their World for Christ from New Growth Press. He and his wife, Lacy, live in the Austin area, where they serve as members of Faith Baptist Church.
Website · Facebook · Instagram · Twitter
  1. Jennifer Hallmark says:
    November 3, 2020 at 1:31 pm

    Encouraging thought ?

    Reply

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Lorehaven helps fans of all ages explore fantastical stories for God’s glory. Find the newest fiction for young readers plus teens+YA and adults. Get articles and podcasts that engage the best Christian-made fantasy, sci-fi, and beyond. Subscribe free to join the Lorehaven Guild for monthly book quests!
Website · Facebook · Instagram · Twitter