Bibee, John. The Magic Bicycle series. (7 volumes, InterVarsity Press).

Blish, James. A Case of Conscience, Black Easter, The Day After Judgment.

Boucher, Anthony. "The Quest for Saint Aquin", "Balaam." In various collections, including Other Worlds, Other Gods (ed. Mayo Mohs, out of print)

Bradbury, Ray. Something Wicked This Way Comes.

____________ The Man (in The Illustrated Man and numerous other collections)

Carver, Jeffrey. Dragon Rigger (Tor Books).

Chambers, Mary, et al. Faith in Orbit: A Spaced Odyssey (InterVarsity Press, 1995). (Humorous cartoons exploring the intersection of SF and religion)

Chase, Carol. Hawk's Flight (Baen, 1991).

Chesterton, G.K. The Ball and the Cross

____________ The Man Who Was Thursday

____________ The Napoleon of Notting Hill.

Elwood, Roger. The Angelwalk trilogy: Angelwalk, Fallen Angel, Stedfast. (Inspirational Press).

Henderson, Zenna. Ingathering: The Complete People Stories. NESFA Press, 1995, 577 pp.

Hughes, Robert Don. The Prophet of Lamath (Del Rey, 1979)

____________ The Wizard in Waiting (Del Rey, 1982).

____________ The Forging of the Dragon (Del Rey).

____________ The Fallen (Broadman & Holman, Nashville, 1995, trade paper).

King, Stephen. The Stand (Complete & Uncut Edition, Doubleday, New York, 1990, 1153 pp.).

Lafferty, R.A. Past Master (Ace, 1968).

Lanier, Sterling. Hiero s Journey

____________ The Unforsaken Hiero.

Lawhead, Steve. Song of Albion trilogy: The Paradise War, The Silver Hand, The Endless Knot (Avon, 1994).

L Engle, Madeleine. A Wrinkle in Time and the various sequels.

Lewis, C.S. Space trilogy: Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength.

____________ The Chronicles of Narnia (7 vols.)

____________ The Screwtape Letters

Miller, Calvin. Singer trilogy: The Singer, The Song , The Finale (InterVarsity Press, 1975,1977, 1979).

Miller, Walter R. A Canticle for Liebowitz.

Morressy, John. The Mansions of Space (Ace, 1983).

Percy, Walker. Lost in the Cosmos (esp. "The Last Phil Donahue Show").

Peretti, Frank. This Present Darkness (Crossway Books).

____________ Piercing the Darkness (Crossway Books).

Powers, Tim. The Anubis Gates (Ace Books, New York, 1983).

Rogers, Mark. The Dead (Berkeley, 1989).

____________ Zorachus (Ace).

____________ The Nightmare of God (Ace, 1988).

____________ The Blood of the Lamb: The Expected One (Ace).

____________ The Blood of the Lamb: The Devouring Void (Ace, 1991).
____________ The Blood of the Lamb: The Riddled Man (Ace, 1992).

Siegel, Robert. Whalesong (Crossway Books)

Smith, Cordwainer. Norstrilia . NESFA Press.

____________ The Rediscovery of Man (collected short fiction) NESFA Press, 1993. Both are available in excellent clothbound reprints from NESFA Press, PO Box 809, Framingham, MA 07101-0203.

Stasheff, Christopher. The Warlock in Spite of Himself and the various sequels.

Wellman, Manly Wade. Who Fears the Devil?

____________ John the Balladeer (Baen, 1988).

White, James. The Genocidal Healer (Ballantine, 1992).

Williams, Charles. War in Heaven, The Place of the Lion, other novels.

Willis, Connie. Doomsday Book.

AUDIO:

Alice Cooper. The Last Temptation, Epic Records, 1994. Style: rock. (there is also a companion comic book trilogy from Marvel, available individually or in a single volume). (And yes, Alice Cooper is now a Christian! Miracles do happen!)

Arkangel. Warrior. (Contains The March of the Ents ) Style: Celtic. Joyeuse Garde Recordings, PO Box 840501, Houston, TX 77284-0501.

Atlanta Radio Theatre Company. Into the Labyrinth, Volume 4: Special Order. Original radio drama of a Lovecraftian Cthulu Mythos story told from a Christian perspective. $9.95 plus $2 postage from Atlanta Radio Theatre Company, PO Box 1675, Duluth, Georgia 30135-1880.

Barnabas. Waiting for the Aliens On The Gospel According to Barnabas. Style: Punk rock. Thorne Records, 100 South Sunrise Way, Suite 409, Palm Springs, CA 92262.

Cockburn, Bruce. Dancing in the Dragon s Jaws and various other albums (Charles Williams references).

Crabb, Kemper. The Vigil. Style: Celtic. Joyeuse Garde Recordings, PO Box 840501, Houston, TX 77284-0501.

Daniel Amos. Alarma Chronicles: Alarma!, Doppelganger, Vox Humana. Stunt Records. Style: Progressive rock.

Edwards, David. Dreams, Tales, and Lullabies. (George MacDonald references) Style: light pop.

Glass Hammer. Journey of the Dunedan. (Based on J.R.R. Tolkien). Lazeria Music. Style: Progressive/Celtic.

____________ Perelandra (due Fall 1995, based on C.S. Lewis). Lazeria Music. Lazeria Music, 1612 Cooling Ave., Melbourne, FL 32935. (800) 997-9137.

Johnson, Jeff and Dunning, Brian. Songs From Albion: Volume I, Volume II (1994), Volume III (1994). (Songs based on Steve Lawhead s Albion series) Style: Celtic. Ark Productions, PO Box 230073, Tigard, OR 97281.

Internet

alt.books.cs-lewis

alt.fandom.tolkien rec.arts.books.tolkien

http://www.cs.pitt.edu/~planting/books/chesterton/thursday/thursday.html
The Man who was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton.

http://www.scar.utoronto.ca/~94mcneim/100.html
The Monastery's CS Lewis Page

http://paul.spu.edu:80/~loren/lewis/
The C.S. Lewis Page

http://www.mit.edu:8001/people/douglas/lewis.html
Jack! http://sleepy.usu.edu/~slq9v/cslewis/index.html

http://www.cache.net/~john/cslewis/index.html
Into the Wardrobe: The C. S. Lewis WWW Page (NEW ADDRESS )

http://www.cs.pitt.edu/~planting/books/macdonald/princess/title.html
The Light Princess by George MacDonald.

http://www.lights.com/tolkien/rootpage.html
The J.R.R. Tolkien Information Page

http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/u/relipper/tolkien/rootpage.html
J.R.R. Tolkien Information Page (Lights version)

http://info.ox.ac.uk:80/~tolksoc/TolkiensOxford
Tolkien's Oxford

http://www.bgsu.edu/~edwards/lewis.html
Bruce Edwards' Inklings page

http://www.tiac.net/users/daved/cwilliams
The Web of Exchange: the Charles
Williams WWW page

http://linus.cs.ohiou.edu/~wlhd/alight/cooper.html
Discussion of Alice Cooper's conversion to Christianity.

Magazines

WONDER magazine, 2770 Fairlane Dr., Atlanta, GA 30340. $15/4 issues. Eclectic SF media/pop culture magazine; has G.K. Chesterton columns.

Films

Captain Kronos, Vampire Hunter. Hammer Films, circa 1966. (one of the last of the vampire films under the "traditional" rules that have vampires affected by crosses; the hero is a Christian mercenary who travels around in search of vampires to kill). Rating: probably PG.

Comic Books

Illuminator, The. Marvel/Thomas Nelson, 1993. 2 issues published. This comic was an attempt at a joint venture between one of the larger Christian publishers and the largest comic publisher to create a superhero comic that was authentically Christian and had standards that would hold up to those held by comic book fans. It was doomed largelybecause Thomas Nelson insisted on no advertising, and the graphic novel format caused the comic to carry a $4.95 pricetag -- quite expensive for a comic, particularly one that did not contain any "big name" artists or writers. You can still find this in some Christian bookstores and some used comic book stores.

Legends of Larian. Lion publishing, 1993. 2 issues published. This was an attempt by a former Judge Dredd artist (Jeff Anderson) and others to do a Christian fantasy comic that had a complex plot and top quality artwork -- and it succeeded. The main plot is the attempts of Sheela, a blind woman, to become queen of a country in another world, another time. The more interesting subplot is the tale of the redemption of Madlin, a half-elf mercenary hired as a bodyguard for the queen. This is an INCREDIBLE comic that Lion stopped publishing because of thetremendous cost versus sales (though a Lion rep noted to me that the comic generated more letters than most of the books they have published in the last several years). It can still be found in some Christian bookstores in the U.S. and England/Scotland/Ireland -- definitely worth searching for!

Screwtape Letters, The. Marvel/Thomas Nelson, 1994, $9.95 (graphic novel format) A very good adaptation of C.S. Lewis' classic.

The OATH by Frank Peretti (Word books, Clothbound).

This is an important book. If you like horror novels (Stephen King, Clive Barker, etc.), then you must, repeat, MUST go out and buy this and read it immediately!

The basic plot can be summarized as The Bridges of Madison County as written by Stephen King. It reads like a typical Stephen King novel, but with a decidedly Christian slant. Quality-wise, it's not as good as King's best (e.g., Salem's Lot), but is better than his more mediocre writings.

The significant thing here is that Frank Peretti's writing skills have dramatically improved! His earlier books (e.g., This Present Darkness) I compare to 1930's science fiction -- you read them for the ideas, not for the writing quality. But becoming a millionaire (due to the sales of the Darkness books) and having the time to sit down and work on the craft of writing has apparently had its effect. The Oath is the best horror novel that has been published by a Christian book publisher, and can hold its own with most horror being written today -- on the terms and playing field defined by mainstream SF and horror writing.

No, Tolkien it ain't. And it's not necessarily going to be a classic that will be read a hundred years hence. But it's a darn good read, and can be held up to SF fans as an example of a decent fantasy/horror novel written by a Christian and published by a Christian publishing house.

Also note that Word has arranged for the book to appear in at least some Barnes & Noble and SuperCrown bookstores (and presumably Borders as well, though I have not yet seen it in a Borders). Please -- if you buy it, do it through Borders or Barnes & Noble or Crown -- this will provide better sales incentive to the mainstream bookstores to carry Christian fiction than if you buy it in a Christian bookstore. A little-known fact is that the reason Christian books don't show up on the best-seller lists is that the best-seller lists completely ignore sales done by Christian bookstores -- they don't "count." So, if you buy it at a "mainstream" bookstore, it will impact the publishing industry statistics in a way that buying the same book at a Christian bookstore will not. -- and Peretti gets his cut no matter where you buy it.

Other items available from me (free; just send me a SASE):

1. Article I wrote for Christianity Today on the Illuminator comic book.

2. Article from September 1995 in the Chicago Tribune on Frank Peretti and The Oath. Includes a photo of fans standing in line (including yours truly), and a quote from me on why Christianity and SF are not oxymorons when placed together in the same sentence.

Copyright © 1996 by Ross Pavlac. All rights reserved.