Penguins and Oxford Blues
Poor sailors and poor students parse the past Between the paper covers of poor Penguins Poor crumbling pages and crumbling civilizations Held together with rubber bands and Scotch tape And when in middle age The…
Tag: Literary Reviews
Springtime with Tolkien: A Seasonal Reflection on Stratford Caldecott’s “The Power of the Ring”
Springtime is finally here! With its arrival, so too come the gentle splendour of apple blossoms, the magnificence of creamy magnolia and the simple patchwork of a daisy-covered lawn. You may be startled this month…
C. S. Lewis and the Calormenes: A Critique of Narnia’s Arabesque Baddies
Stereotyping all things “other” has been something of a given in the history of humanity since the first concepts of tribal, religious, and territorial distinctions emerged. The East and West divide between Christians…
Elvish Outlaw: A Review of Nancy Springer’s “Tales of Rowan Hood” Series
As most of my loyal readers know by now, I have long had a love affair with Robin Hood since first watching the Disney cartoon at the tender age of six. This love…
Seven Wild Sisters: Celtic Faeries on American Soil
Sing to the pretty girl Take her by the hand, Else, she’ll go With the Apple Tree Man! Singing, pour me a cider, Like I never had me one, Pour me a cider, Give everybody…
Book Review: Stardust
Are you into fantasy creatures and unknown realms? Do you love a good romance? Well then this book is most certainly for you. Stardust, by Neil Gaiman, is a sweet, mystical journey throughout the fictional…
Tolkien’s Christianity: Not Incidental, but Central
Over the past fifteen years, an immense number of books dealing with J.R.R. Tolkien have appeared on the bookshelves. No doubt Peter Jackson’s movies has provided some rather mighty advertising for the former Oxford don. Sadly,…
“Song of Locke”: The Adventure You’ve Been Longing For
Have you ever felt a longing to be in Tolkien's Middle Earth? To be surrounded by that sort of myth and power? If you're familiar with the works of Tolkien's Inklings, you might know the…
“The Ring of Fantasy”: A Book Review
My first novel is a children’s fantasy adventure initially penned (literally) when I was 13, in a series of used copybooks lying on the garage roof. It was revised in 2012 and self-published. The official page…
Wolves in the Woods: A Review of “The Forest Lord Series” By Steven A. McKay
When you take such a well-known and well-loved tale as Robin Hood and his Merry Men, it would be only too easy to go down that well-trodden path so familiar to all who know the…