Stephen Lawhead’s fiction can enlarge your Kingdom perspective.
Christmas is coming and people are always looking to find a good gift for a decent price. I want to encourage you to pass along the gift of reading fiction (remember fiction is fun!). And in order to accomplish that, I want to recommend to you one of my favorite Christian authors, Stephen Lawhead.
I really have enjoyed his books over the last 30 years. Some are better than others. The quality of books even within a series may be better than others. But if you’re looking for a ‘diversion’ that will encourage you, make you think, and cause you to look for the sovereignty of God in difficult circumstances, I commend them to you.
My favorites are his historical fiction, how he sets them into a Christian milieu and works the presence of God into the stories. The books in the fantasy series aren’t bad either.
Pendragon Cycle – on the King Arthur legends (5 books)
King Raven Series – on the Robin Hood legends (3 books)
The Celtic Crusades – on the crusades following a Scottish family (who’d have guessed!) (3)
Song of Albion – series of fantasy epics on the battle of good and evil in ancient Scotland (3)
Byzantium – book about a Celtic monk’s hijacked pilgrimage to Byzantium. (1)
Patrick – the only one that I thought was more fiction than history. Still a decent read. Don’t start with this one though, especially if you’re a Celtic scholar!
Lawhead has come out with a new science fiction series in the last few years (The Bright Empires) that I have not had a chance to read. But I’d guess they’re pretty good, too.
I prefer Kindle these days due to the convenience of having the books with me on my phone/computer/iPad wherever I am. Hence Amazon.com is a good retailer, and quick. If you prefer hard copies, Christian Book Distributors (CBD) has a number of his books (unused!) on sale even cheaper than Kindle.
My next review will look at books more targeted for young-teen/middle grade students.
Dr. Mike McQueen
Urbana Theological Seminary
