Some believe that fantasy, science fiction and other imaginary fiction have no place in the Christian faith and life.
I disagree. Imagination is a gift from God. But, like all other things in life imagination can be abused and used for the wrong reasons.
Christian fantasy, if applied properly, can be a great witnessing tool. The important thing to remember is that it is fantasy. If used properly as an analogy or to illustrate a point it can effectively spread the gospel.
In author Kathryn Butler’s The DreamKeeper Saga imagination is at its peak and makes an excellent vehicle to illustrate the love of God and his plan of salvation.
The DreamKeeper Saga Set consists of five books collected by Crossway in a beautiful open-front slipcase holding all five books in the series.
The heroine: twelve-year-old Lily McKinley has suffered the great loss of her father. Her world is in shambles and she is at the lowest point in her young life.
She’s a very imaginative and somewhat dorky and small for her age. She’s often the brunt of jokes at school, especially from a particular bully.
Her mother mourns and practically works herself to death to take care of Lilly and her grandmother who suffers from dementia.
One day while going through her dad’s things, Lilly finds a strange iridescent stone on a single necklace link in one of her dad’s books.
Later at school when confronted by the school bully something miraculous happens.
Rushing home after school she is shocked to see a dog-sized dragon rooting through the food in her kitchen. She panics, but the dragon disappears when Lilly tries to tell her mother.
Later she confronts the dragon once again and what happens next is remarkable.
She is transported to a reality of dreams guided by the dragon: Cedric, who startles her when he talks.
In the first book: The Dragon And The Stone, Lily’s quest begins in a new realm where magical creatures of all sorts exist and she and her unexpected ally from school and other creatures fight to save the world from the evil that rules the realm of nightmares.
In The Prince And The Blight -Book 2, Lily attempts to return to her normal life. Try as she might she struggles to leave the Somnium Realm behind but to her dismay all sorts of creatures from her dreams materialize.
Cedric returns to tell her how a mysterious illness has taken over the Realm. Lilly must face off a new adversary.
In Book 3: Lost In The Caverns, Lily once again returns to the Realm to restore what the Blight destroyed and finds herself on a rescue mission and facing a new foe: the evil King Magnus.
In The Quest For The Guardians, the 4th book in the series, Lily is reunited with her family only to discover the evil nightmares from the Realm have invaded the waking world. She calls upon her family, friends and guardians to time travel (sort of) to save the world from total destruction.
The final book in the series; in The Last Keeper, evil nightmares must be stopped. It’s is up to Lily, her faith and her friends to make things right. Darkness threatens to envelope the Realm.
What a great series! I’m 73 years old and reading the series made me feel like a kid again discovering an exciting adventure!
My grand-kids and nephews and nieces will love this series. I love how the gospel is intertwined in the story. The series reminds me of The Lion, The Witch and Wardrobe, The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland and other classic tales.
Having read the entire five books in the series I have a few observations.
It was fascinating observing the author's style and story-telling skills mature.
Characters became more grounded and complex. Despite their appearance or weirdness they all had well-developed personalities, quirks and idiosyncrasies. They became real.
Storylines built upon past events and moments of fear, happiness and the whole gambit of emotions were well placed, described and felt.
No words were wasted or unnecessary. Story flow was smooth, precise, to the point and well-defined.
2 Timothy 1:7 - For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
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