Quote:
Originally Posted by mr ploppy
Seriously though, what are they really about, preachers with guns blowing away sinners, avenging angels with chainsaws, that sort of thing? The only christain fiction I've ever read is Torment by Jeremy Bishop and the Narnia books.
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Seriously, check them out.
The summaries, if nothing else. Not hard to do. Plenty of freebies to sample.
I've only read a couple myself, out of curiosity, so I can't vouch for what may or not make up the bulk of the $500 million-a-year christian book business. What I've run into in the weekly Amazon freebies runs more along the lines of the old WB series, SEVENTH HEAVEN. Which, not coincidentally, was the most popular show on that network for ages, only exceeded by SMALLVILLE.
The majority of the books don't seem to be *about* religion, just about people who happen to be religious. So in that respect NARNIA doesn't fit.
In the summaries, I've seen historical dramas of the Roman Empire, Medieval allegories, pioneer adventures lots and lots of romance. The rom-coms are stuff you could safely give a nine or ten year old girl. Nary a hint of the sledgehammer proseletyzing in the LEFT BEHIND series and certainly no demonizing of unbelievers. If anything, I think a lot of it is more a subset of the ROMANTIC books business targetted at believers, than a religiously-focused business. Just family-friendly *entertainment*, rather than religious propaganda, which is what you'd expect of any business that hits a half-billion in annual sales.
Some may deride the genre, but the genre is big and growing at a steady 8% yearly clip. And it poses some interesting questions about who buys them and why:
http://danielsilliman.blogspot.com/2...roblem-of.html