Into the Fire

“I still don’t quite get how you love the fuller, richer, slower-paced story and still love some of the stories you love. Some day you’ll have to try to explain it to me.”
Rebecca Luella Miller in her reply to my comments on George Bryan Polivka’s fantasy/pirate prequel novel Blaggard’s Moon.

Today’s post is in response to the above quotation by Rebecca Luella Miller (aka Becky to most of us). It got me to thinking a bit about my tastes in fiction, if and how they’ve changed, and the whys and wherefores of my likes and dislikes. So, Becky: this one’s for you.

Let me start by saying I’ve never read C. S. Lewis or Tolkien. Geez, I can hear the gasps all over the worldwide web with that admission. But it’s true. I tried to read The Screwtape Letters, but the language was halting for me. I preferred Randy Alcorn’s contemporary version Lord Foulgrin’s Letters. Anyway, I’m not a cartoon person, although I appreciate the skills of brilliant animation and computer generated images. And consequently or in addition to that admission, I am not a fantasy reader. For me, to sit and watch “The Lord of the Rings” gets boring quite quickly. Same with “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe” and “Prince Caspian”, even though I thought all of them were well done.

I rarely read Sci-fi because that kind of speculation into the future generally annoys me unless it seems very realistic which is probably why I enjoyed Austin Boyd’s Mars Hill Classified Trilogy. Austin’s authenticity and knowledge of space travel made the incredible story believable and very entertaining.

So let me conclude my dislikes with historical novels, chick-lit, and some cozy mysteries (if what I perceive them to be is accurate). I have only read a handful of historical novels and those mostly because of extreme recommendations either from certain friends or because of a particular curiosity.

Now . . . I used to read mostly romance novels in the Christian fiction realm. Some were very good, rich, deep. Some were not. Many were “category romance” so with as much as I read, they became too formulaic to enjoy. Now I read mostly suspense, mystery, and thriller novels. And I also read novels which are difficult to shove into specific genres.

I prefer stories which provide rich characters and authors with distinct voices, or I enjoy authors who manage to stay out of the picture and let their characters and stories take me wherever they want me to go. Two very different examples of the latter kind of writer are Ted Dekker and Davis Bunn.

Authors with very distinct voices and much varied styles are Robert Liparulo, Susan Meissner, Lisa Samson, Claudia Mair Burney, Chris Fabry, Tom Morrisey, Harry Kraus, Kristen Heitzmann, Brandilyn Collins, Tim Downs, Don Brown, James Scott Bell, Athol Dickson, and Mary DeMuth to name a few. I have read everything some of these novelists have written.

My attempt at explaining why I like novels which could be considered opposites probably culminates in the author’s voice and the appeal of the characters. The story must work, but more importantly I have to enjoy who I’m “listening” to in the process of that story developing.

How does that work for ya, Becky?

Father, thank you for all the transitions, different paths along the writing and reading roads. You see before me, go before me, make my paths straight. You are amazing, Lord. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.