First of all, for those of you who follow my blog and know that I only blog on Fridays, you may be wondering why I’m blogging on Monday. Today is my first day with the CSFF Blog Tour (no, not Christians Saving Furry Friends although I’d probably be all over that :p). It’s the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Tour!
Usually as part of the blog tour, I would read one of latest Christian speculative novels out, then review it along with my colleagues on each of our blogs. But this month is a bit different. We have been asked to share our favorite Christian speculative novel or author.
So I’m going to share the ones that ignited my love for Fantasy: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Yep, oldies but goodies. My dad first introduced me to fantasy with The Hobbit. I loved it! Thirteen dwarves, one hobbit, and one wizard on a wild journey to the Lonely Mountain (just writing that makes me want to go read it again :)). Its book filled with dragons, larger than life spiders, trolls and orcs.
My second exposure to fantasy was C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia. My mom began reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to my family when I was in second grade. I’ll never forget finding the book the next day, hiding in a corner of my room and finishing it. Then reading the next one and the next one and the next one :).
My last favorite is one rarely read. The Silmarillion. It’s basically a history textbook for all of Tolkien’s world. For those who have not read it, you’re missing out. One of the best fantasy romances (in my opinion) lays hidden within its pages. The story of Beren and Lúthien.
Want to find more Christian Speculative novels? Check out the links below. Each of these people will be sharing their favorites. Maybe you’ll find a new one too!
One more thing. The Clive Staples Award voting will be coming to a close this week. Some of you might be going what? It is an award recognizing Christian Speculative writing excellence. To find out more, click here: http://clivestaplesaward.wordpress.com/2010/08/02/2010-clive-staples-award-voting/.
To see the list of nominees, click here: http://clivestaplesaward.wordpress.com/2010-nominations-complete-list/
Morgan L. Busse 
welcome to the tour. I love Tolkein too. His books made a big impression on me.
Morgan,
Welcome! We’re glad to have you. I think Tolkien is going to be a biggie. I’ve limited mine to books we’ve toured, but I’m interested in everyone’s opinions.
Hi Morgan,
I agree, Narnia and Middle Earth are classics not to be missed. I however had two different selections for my favorites. One of which I enthusiastically place right next to Lewis and Tolkien!
Welcome to the tour, Morgan! It’s great fun and a great forum for discussion. I suspect many of us came to the genre the same way. For me it was Narnia; I didn’t read Tolkien till my midteens years (though ironically, Terry Brooks’s Sword of Shannara, which is heavily Tolkien-influenced, had a pretty big impact earlier).
So did your mom try to read the rest of the book to you the next night? Did you tell her you’d already read it?
Great story.
Becky
Morgan, my dad introduced me to Lewis and Tolkien at an early age too. And I was hooked from the beginning. What a blessing to have parents who encourage a passion for reading!
Morgan, let me add my welcome to you as well. You are definitely off to a good start. I appreciated the comments you made. And though Tolkien and Lewis are not my favorite authors, they are important to me, and I appreciate the contributions they made to speculative fiction.
Mike
Welcome to the Tour, Morgan! You hit a couple of my favorite “off the radar scope” books in The Silmarillion and Till We Have Faces. Not an easy read, either of them, but definitely rich in content.
I’m a Silmarillion fan too! I read and re-read the Lord of the Rings for years, not expecting to find other works by Christian fantasy authors. I’ve been delighted to find some, especially through this blog tour. Welcome to the tour!