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A CHRISTIAN HARRY POTTER
From Arx
Publishing. [July 24, 2003]
[HollywoodInvestigator.com] Like a cohort of marauding orcs, the fantasy genre
has conquered popular culture. With the success of the Lord
of the Rings trilogy and the Harry
Potter series, the demand for fantastic adventures shows no sign of
abating. Yet, though sprung from Christian roots, fantasy today has
largely been co-opted by the postmodern, the neo-pagan, and the anti-Christian.
And for all its flaws, Harry Potter seems mild compared to the blatant
occult-inspired offerings which may be found on the same shelf at the local
bookstore.
Emily
C. A. Snyder is happy to buck that trend. Her new novel, Niamh
and the Hermit, is a wonderfully authentic revival of the classic fairy
tale complete with all the imaginative complexity of a Tolkien-esque subcreated
world.
What's
more, Emily is not shy about her Christian influences.
Fantasy is the
wonderful marriage of truth and storytelling, she opined in a recent interview. It is the splendor of God's creation, but through a glass darkly. Whereas much postmodern fiction despairs of the glass, fantasy looks to
the truth beyond and turns the darkness to a strange and lovely pattern. And indeed, Niamh
and the Hermit is a strange and lovely tale of beauty and deception,
valor and weakness, hope and fury.
Professor Joseph
Pearce of Ave Maria College, author of Tolkien:
Man and Myth, commented that Niamh
and the Hermit takes us through Celtic mist to a world of mystic wonder:
"Imagine Gandalf wandering in the footsteps of St. Patrick. Imagine
Middle Earth coloured in forty shades of Green."
In a pre-publication
review appearing on Catholic
Exchange, Kathryn Lively, author of Little
Flowers, called Niamh
and the Hermit:
"a rich narrative of various subplots
which intertwine to offer the reader a vivid look at author Snyder's gift
for world-building. The interworkings of fantasy and faith are seamed
nicely into the story. The influences of Eddings, Lewis, and other
writers of the genre are evident in Snyder's style, though Niamh is uniquely
her own -- an ambitious debut and highly recommended to fans of fanciful
tales."
Emily C. A.
Snyder is a graduate of Franciscan University of Steubenville. She
is a teacher in Marlborough, MA. Her short story, "Better Seen Than
Heard," has been published in Marion Zimmer Bradley's Sword
and Sorceress No. 19. Emily is creator of the Christian
Guide to Fantasy.
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