The Enchanted Worlds of Alan Garner
by Peter J. LeithartAlan Garner has for a long, long time been plotting complex stories and achieving uncanny effects with matter-of-fact but densely allusive prose. Continue Reading »
Epic Failures
by Liel LeibovitzCan you believe that Halbrand insulted Miriel, queen regent of Númenor, by saying she was either blind or an elf-lover? What about all the drama at Princess Rhaenyra and Ser Laenor’s wedding? And how excited are you to meet Radovid, King Vizimir’s dastardly playboy of a brother? If you’ve . . . . Continue Reading »
Muddy Morals in The Rings of Power
by Leah Libresco SargeantThe set-up of The Rings of Power might be good for Twitter engagement, but it makes the stakes of the story unclear, and the drama of the characters' individual choices uncompelling. Continue Reading »
The Spiritual Stakes of The Rings of Power
by Alexi SargeantWhat I care most about, along with many other fans, is whether The Rings of Power fits with the spirit of Tolkien’s legendarium. My answer, so far, is a tentative yes. Continue Reading »
A Reality Novel
by Matthew WaltherThe Once and Future King by t. h. white penguin galaxy, 736 pages, $30 Terence Hanbury White died aboard ship in the port of Piraeus in 1964 on his way back from the United States, where he had been hoping to shore up his income with a lecture tour. His secretary found him alone in his cabin, and . . . . Continue Reading »
The Dream-Child's Progress
by David Bentley Hart“He’s dreaming now,” said Tweedledee: “and what do you think he’s dreaming about?”Alice said, “Nobody can guess that.”“Why, about you!” Tweedledee exclaimed, clapping his hands triumphantly. “And if he left off dreaming about you, where do you suppose you’d be?”“Where I . . . . Continue Reading »
God, Gods, and Fairies
by David Bentley HartOne of the strangest claims often made by purveyors and consumers of today’s popular atheism is that disbelief in God involves no particular positive philosophy of reality, much less any kind of religion or creed, but consists merely in neutral incredulity toward a certain kind of factual . . . . Continue Reading »
The Catholic Fantastic of Chesterton and Tolkien
by Ralph C. WoodIt is often assumed that G. K. Chesterton and J. R .R. Tolkien were reactionary, antimodern writers. In a certain sense they were. Tolkien regarded nearly everything worthy of praise in English culture to have ended in 1066. He scorned the imposition of Norman culture on a vibrant English tradition . . . . Continue Reading »
Imagining Narnia
by Dermot QuinnCS. Lewis is hard to like and easy to love. As a solitary, clever, and bookish child he was a study in precocity, a model prig. “I have a prejudice against the French,” he announced, a four year old, to his father. Why? “If I knew why it wouldn’t be a prejudice.” At the age of nine he was . . . . Continue Reading »
The End of Magic
by Sarah E. HinlickyOf a fair evening in the mythical but true world of Middle Earth, towards the end of the Third Age, a young hobbit named Frodo is holding private counsel with Galadriel. She is the queen and lady of Lothlórien, the most secret and beautiful reserve of the Elves. Frodo has been gazing into her . . . . Continue Reading »
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