The Last Guardian of Everness, by John C. Wright

John C. Wright is a Christian writer of fantastic literature. By Christian, I don't mean that he tries to convert his readers, as some do -- which is OK, I guess -- but that he has a Christian world view. C. S. Lewis, Tolkien, and other writers of fantastic literature have had similar world views. (See this post for more about Wright. He didn't used to have a Christian world view.)

Wright is a good writer, I'm sure. He has quite a few books published, and one of them was a Nebula award nominee, which is high praise, indeed. However, I was somewhat less than enchanted by this book. Maybe he had an off day, or I had an off week, or maybe he is better at science fiction than fantasy.

The Guardians of Everness are engaged in a battle against evil, but the dimensions of that battle were unclear to me. Much of the story took place in dreams. The good side consisted of a Russian immigrant to the US, who didn't speak the best English, and, amazingly, got a job as a park ranger, although he didn't seem very qualified; his wife, a cute little woman who can be flighty and strange; the three generations of Waylock men, two of whom only do anything significant when they are dreaming, and one of whom doesn't believe in what the family is supposed to be doing, namely guarding the world against evil. I couldn't identify with any of these characters. There were all kinds of beings on the side of evil, including some from various kinds of mythology, including Irish and Norse, and apparently several others. I got confused by all of these.

Wright is worth a try, but I'm not sure I'll try this series again. I'll try Orphans of Chaos, the Nebula award nominee.

Thanks for reading, even though I (or you) may be having an off day.

John C. Wright on C. S. Lewis

John C. Wright (go here for his LiveJournal blog, and here for a page on his writings) is described, in the Wikipedia article on him, as "acclaimed," and the article says that Publisher's Weekly went so far as to call him the most important writer of fantastic fiction to appear so far in this century. One of his novels, Orphans of Chaos, was a nominee for a Nebula award for 2005. (It didn't win -- Camouflage, by long-time author Joe Haldeman, took that honor.)

What drew my attention to Wright was an essay on the literary quality of the space trilogy, Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength, by C. S. Lewis. I thank Claw of the Conciliator for posting on Wright's essay. Lewis, I suppose, is currently best known as the author of the Narnia books. If you aren't familiar with his other works, including Mere Christianity -- apologetic, one of several such by Lewis -- and Till We Have Faces (more or less historical fiction), you should be. I won't name any of his works on literature, which were also pretty good.

Lewis, himself, wrote about science fiction writing. Several such essays were collected into Of Other Worlds, edited by Walter Hooper. So it's only fair that others write about Lewis, and Wright isn't the first, and won't be the last.

Wright's conclusion is that Lewis's trilogy is pretty good literature, although not of the first rank. I agree with that conclusion. (Wright, like most, puts Tolkien, Lewis's friend, ahead of him in literary merit.)

I was particularly intrigued by this statement about the space trilogy from Wright: "When I was a reader who disagreed with the message, I [reread] them for their artistic merit alone. One need not be a Christian to appreciate these books." The Wikipedia article says that Wright, like Lewis, started as an atheist, but became a Christian in adulthood. I look forward to reading some of Wright's work. Thanks, Claw of the Conciliator!

I don't think that there is a necessary connection between being a Christian and being attracted to, or authoring, fantastic literature. Many Christians (and others) are repelled by it, and certainly wouldn't write it. But I am pleased that there are now, and have been, prominent authors of such fiction who were believers.

Thanks for reading.