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A Crown of Chains
Reviews, Jan 27, 2023

The Magician’s Nephew Taught Me Christ’s Compassion in the Midst of Grief
Elijah David in Articles, Jan 26, 2023

Rose Petals and Snowflakes
Book Quests, Jan 25, 2023

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Silver Bounty, Victoria McCombs
A Sword for the Immerland King, F. W. Faller
Calor, J. J. Fisher
Once Upon A Ren Faire, A. C. Castillo
Exile, Loren G. Warnemuende
Aberration, Cathy McCrumb
The Truth Beyond the Lies, Kathleen Bird
Frost, Winter's Lonely Guardian, E. E. Rawls
Dream of Kings, Sharon Hinck
The Change, Bradley Caffee
Quest of Fire: Desperation, Brett Armstrong
Wishtress, Nadine Brandes
Flight, Kristen Young
The Deliverer, Jason William Karpf
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146. How Did Animators Adapt The Wingfeather Saga For Streaming TV? | with Keith Lango
Fantastical Truth, Jan 24, 2023

145. How Did Edmund Spenser’s ‘The Faerie Queene’ Shape Christian Fantasy? | with Rebecca K. Reynolds
Fantastical Truth, Jan 17, 2023

144. Which Top Six Fantasy Franchises Gave Fans Grief in 2022?
Fantastical Truth, Jan 10, 2023

143. Which Top Ten Lorehaven Stories Proved Most Popular in 2022?
Fantastical Truth, Jan 6, 2023

142. What Christmas Gift ‘Tools, Not Toys’ Helped You Grow As a Person?
Fantastical Truth, Dec 20, 2022

141. Ten Years After ‘An Unexpected Journey,’ Must We Really Hate The Hobbit Films? | with Rilian of NarniaWeb
Fantastical Truth, Dec 13, 2022

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Rose Petals and Snowflakes
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On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness
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A Crown of Chains
“A Crown of Chains creatively retells a biblical tale to explore themes of providence, racism, faith, and fidelity.”
—Lorehaven on Jan 27, 2023

Lander’s Legacy
“Lander’s Legacy stacks modern thrills and complex characters on a foundation of biblical what-ifs.”
—Lorehaven on Jan 20, 2023

Prince Caspian
“Pacing starts slow but creature lore grows in C. S. Lewis’s sequel, introducing practical tyrants and talking-beast politics into a Narnian resistance.”
—Lorehaven on Jan 13, 2023

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
“New and returning readers of all ages would do well to seek deeper magic within C. S. Lewis’s faithful classic.”
—Lorehaven on Jan 13, 2023

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Lorehaven helps Christian fans explore fantastical stories for Christ’s glory: fantasy, science fiction, and beyond. Articles, the library, reviews, podcasts, gifts, and the Lorehaven Guild community help fans discern and enjoy the best Christian-made fantastical stories, applying their meanings to the real world Jesus Christ calls us to serve. Subscribe free to get any updates you choose and to access the Lorehaven Guild.
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78. What If You Discovered Fairy Dust and Peter Pan Were Real? | The Heirs of Neverland series with Kara Swanson

Dust and Shadow author Kara Swanson shares the happy thoughts and nobledark struggles behind her Peter Pan retelling.
Fantastical Truth on Sep 7, 2021 · 5 comments

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What if you hated the idea of Peter Pan, then learned that your own skin sheds the fairy dust you need for traveling to Neverland? That’s the magical start of Kara Swanson’s Heirs of Neverland series, which began last year with the fantasy novel Dust. That book won three Realm Awards last July, and today Kara Swanson flies into our window and helps guide us to fantastical truth.

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Dust, Kara SwansonFrom our Lorehaven review of Dust (fall 2020):

Kara Swanson’s Dust shares the magical story of Claire, a girl who hates Peter Pan but who may be the key to saving Neverland. Because of Peter Pan, Claire’s brother is missing. In London, she meets a boy who helps her discover truths about herself and the strange and powerful dust that sheds from her skin. Her dust may not be the curse she always thought—it may be exactly what she needs to find her brother. She must evade pirates and rogue lost boys and learn whom to trust. Nothing is as it seems, and wishing on stars will get her nowhere in this delightfully twisted sequel to a classic.

  • Read the full review

Kara SwansonIntroducing novelist Kara Swanson

As the daughter of missionaries, Kara Swanson spent her childhood running barefoot through the lush jungles of Papua New Guinea. Able to relate with characters dropped into a unique new world, she quickly fell in love with the fantasy genre.

Swanson is the award-winning author of The Girl Who Could See and Peter Pan retelling/sequels Dust and Shadow (from Enclave Publishing).

Kara is passionate about crafting stories of light shattering darkness, connecting with readers, and becoming best friends with a mermaid—though not necessarily in that order.

1. What happy thoughts lifted you to biblical faith and fantastic imagination?

Shadow, Kara Swanson2. Which pirate maps led to your stories, including your version of Neverland?

  • Peter Pan history, from the Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH)

3. Where will you fly next in your creative journeys?

Follow Kara Swanson to Neverland and beyond

  • KaraSwanson.com
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Com station

Commentator “notleia” returns, regarding episode 77:

Welp, isn’t this all as clear as mud. For as much as this might be intended to serve as a Article Zero or Article Point Five, it still feels a bit reductionist. To use the hats metaphor, we all know that we all wear many different hats, but I don’t feel the need to put a hierarchy on the hats, but ask what each hat might bring to the discussion. But I am admittedly a follower of the postmodernist school of reading where it’s all thrown in the pot and stirred until something falls out (and then you argue about what that thing is and what it means).

Also I might argue that stories are not necessarily a deep-seated want in of themselves, that we have a deep-seated want for meaning, and we largely achieve that by means of the stories we tell ourselves.

But also, mostly unrelated, there’s a lot to unpack in these little side bits about people trying to gain authority by the Teacher, or the Evangelist or the Author, and how that relates to an authoritarian culture, but that’s my psychological/sociological nerd hat talking.

Also also: is “deconstruction” becoming a new negative buzz word, like “canceling”? Why? Admittedly I’m biased because I love deconstruction.

Next on Fantastical Truth

This month marks the twentieth-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. Maybe you dimly recall these terrible events, but Zack and Stephen remember them quite well. We also recall the stories and other images we used while trying to understand how people could do this. We will explore not just Sept. 11, and similar events today, but the greater question of how we use fantastic fiction to process real wars and rumors of wars.

Fantastical Truth
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    In the Fantastical Truth podcast from Lorehaven, hosts E. Stephen Burnett and Zackary Russell explore fantastical stories for God's glory and apply their wonders to the real world Jesus calls us to serve.
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    1. notleia says:
      September 7, 2021 at 5:09 pm

      LOL, do I get an official “Frenemy of the Site” shirt?

      YES, DECONSTRUCT EVERYTHING (ESPECIALLY THE SOUTHERN BAPTISTS)
      But for me, it’s more about uncovering our hidden blind spots and playing around with concepts than about proving dweebs like Plato wrong (that’s just a side benefit).

      (PS “Authoritarianism” is more specific than the concept of authority and all the assorted structures that authority organizes itself in. I’ll spare you an essay on it and provide a linky for some free reading: https://web.archive.org/web/20200916190422/http://www.theauthoritarians.org/options-for-getting-the-book/)

      Reply
      • notleia says:
        September 7, 2021 at 5:41 pm

        Better linky: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxxylK6fR81rckQxWi1hVFFRUDg/view?resourcekey=0-WGxUhtR8lhJdnFck4tTIyA

        Reply
      • Zackary Russell says:
        September 28, 2021 at 5:40 pm

        About authoritarianism, this recent article from The Atlantic should be noted. Basically, the prevailing wisdom for too long has wrongly been that authoritarianism only exists on the Right. As they show in the research referenced in this article, it’s just as much of a problem on the Left. It simply doesn’t get considered, and they discuss the reasons why here:

        https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/09/psychological-dimensions-left-wing-authoritarianism/620185/

        Reply
        • notleia says:
          September 29, 2021 at 7:00 pm

          Bob did have a pretty short note about there being such a thing as left-wing authoritarian followers, but that they are a much rarer beast. Even this linky doesn’t seem to argue that LWA are as prevalent as RWA. I find it interesting that there’s even differences between LWA and RWA despite their underlying psychology being the same — that LWA are more open to differences (and whether/how that might relate to the OCEAN personality test). Or maybe it’s a matter of threshold. But I think — don’t remember if it’s been documented — that LW spaces don’t reward LWA-ism in the same way that RW spaces reward RWA-ism. Or maybe, again, it’s a matter of threshold.

          But in any case, it is good to question whether you have blind spots.

          Reply
    2. Autumn Grayson says:
      September 7, 2021 at 11:14 pm

      When I was in first grade, I used to be obsessed with the Peter Pan story. Mainly the Broadway play I saw on tv. I never read the book, but a few aspects of the Peter Pan story spoke to me, especially since it interfaced with the way I was contemplating the notion of death at the time. I was a Christian even then, but the physical aspect of death still scared me.

      Since Peter Pan never grew old, he would be able to live forever so long as he didn’t get killed by Captain Hook or something. So he had risk and hardship and adventure, but still that chance to live on and on in a place that was important to him. There were elements of that that I wanted and wished for, even if I could never have them to that extent(at least on earth). So Peter Pan brought some of these things out of me where I could notice and work through them. I’m at a different stage now, when it comes to thinking about death, and Peter Pan is no longer my favorite story. But it was an important step along my path and an important part in my development.

      Kind of glad to hear the original Peter Pan book was darker and different than the movies, so I might have to read it (and Kara Swanson’s Dust) some time in the future 🙂

      Reply

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    Lorehaven helps Christian fans explore fantastical stories for Christ’s glory: fantasy, science fiction, and beyond. Articles, the library, reviews, podcasts, gifts, and the Lorehaven Guild community help fans discern and enjoy the best Christian-made fantastical stories, applying their meanings to the real world Jesus Christ calls us to serve. Subscribe free to get any updates you choose and to access the Lorehaven Guild.
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