Pendragon Cycle - Lawhead

[watervole]

After skipping ahead to find the 'Christian' bit, I've concluded this trilogy is not for me.  I don't mind books with strongly religious characters, but a fantasy novel where the Christian god is speaking directly to the major character just does not work for me.

By comparison, I have no problems at all with Narnia (where others dislike the Christian allegory).  I guess we all vary in our tastes.

Anyway, I appear to have a thick trilogy looking for a new home.

Anyone want it?

Comments

[lonemagpie.livejournal.com]

Well, it *is* fantasy...

[communicator.livejournal.com]

I think it's a strange story choice because people who are of that religion might for the same reason be put off if it sin't handled quite right. And I can imagine that views on what is right will vary a lot. It's a very tricky choice.

[grikmeer.livejournal.com]

Sorry about previous comment, I was misreading a lot of things. My brain is not screwed on properly, sorry ^_^;;

[watervole.livejournal.com]

YOu're welcome to the books if you want them. I have the set of three.

[izhilzha.livejournal.com]

Well, I find that rather...sad. At least as far as Taliesin goes. Do books like Lois McMaster Bujold's Curse of Chalion hit this same squick for you, since they have hefty spiritual/god content but are set in a more obviously fantastic world? (Sorry--inquisitive minds want to know. *g*)

[izhilzha.livejournal.com]

You could say the same about any kind of philosophical or religious belief, whether based in Real World structures or not. As a writer and woman of faith myself, I call bull**** on that whole concept; one has to write what is within one, and if it means that others of one's own faith community or those outside that faith community don't get it, well, that's a hazard of being an artist. Period.

All that to say that I don't think it's a strange story choice at all, particularly since later version of the Arthurian legends folded in a lot of Christian themes. I can see how that might bother someone, though: when I tried to read The Mists of Avalon, I found the Celtic/pagan rite and mysticism to be more than I could handle in the context of stories I already loved in other versions. So, yeah, to each their own squick, I guess. :)

[watervole.livejournal.com]

I'll let you know when I've read it. That's on my 'to read' list. I don't mind spiritual content as a rule. This one I disliked on two grounds which are an odd coupling to say the least.

As an athiest, I object to the Christian god being treated as real in work of fiction (I dislike propaganda). But on the oppostite front, as someone brought up Anglican, I actually dislike 'God' being in a fantasy novel as it seems to trivialise him.

Mutually inconsistent reasons for disliking it!

[watervole.livejournal.com]

I think the Arthurian mythos should have Christian themes - that's part of the basic background. I just don't like the way Lawhead handled it. It didn't fit in Atlantis.

[winterbadger]

I recall (vaguely--it was a while back that I read him) liking Lawhead's first series, as it came close to being a decent time travel story. Then I read another one of his (I think one of this Pendragon series) and being disappointed. Don't recall why though; possibly because it struck me as yet another person writing an Arthur novel without having much that seemed to me new and interesting to do with it or engaging characters.

I think I don't need writers to be innovating all the time (I *really* don't like the idea that if one isn't doing something new one isn't doing something worthwhile--it seems akin to the business concept I loathe that if one's company isn't constantly growing and expanding it's dead and worthless), but if a setting has been explored and employed as *many* times as the Arthur stories, I'd kind of like a new book using it to have *something* that suggests the writer isn't simply churning. Appealing characters, good writing, well researched detail--something!

[dumain.com (from livejournal.com)]

This from a retired deity?

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

Militant atheist here states that her main objection to Lawhead is the appalling grammar...