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Various
Religions | Christian
| Jewish
| Science
Fiction/Fantasy
Selection Sources for Congregational Libraries:
Science Fiction and Fantasy
Scope note: included here are sites which review the science fiction and
fantasy genre from a religious perspecitve.
- Christian
Fandom Home Page.
- Christian Fandom began in 1982 as an "interdenominational fellowship
of S[cience]F[iction] fans interested in the courteous and accurate
representation of Christian viewpoints in the SF community." Their web
page contains interviews, original stories, and book, audio book, and
film reviews. Navigation is a bit cumbersome, but the persistent visitor
will find reviews hiding under "recommended reading." Following the
Shared Reading List created by many people link results in a
list of all the site's reviews arranged alphabetically by author. Bibliographic
information is provided, since Fandom is a Amazon.com purchasing
partner, and cover art accompanies most reviews. All reviews are signed,
although not all are dated. Descriptive reviews dominate, and clearly
contain Christian commentary. The attempt to provide audio book and
film reviews is a welcome, but the information is not current. An unfortunate
number of dead links plague the site, and the navigation buttons are
inconsistent on various pages. More useful for finding reviews of older
materials. Last visited: 03/2005.
- Christian
Speculative Fiction (CSF)
- A cluttered personal homepage with works divided into three categories:
Modern CSF, Classic CSF and Religious Fantasy. Admittedly the reviews
are the work of the site owner, vary in length and quality, and lack
bibliographic data. However the site's layout and extremely small font
distract visitors from the potentially interesting topic. Last visited:
03/2005.
- Xianworldview.
- Founded by a husband/wife team in 1998, the site is for "...that rare
breed of Christian who reads and loves the genres of science fiction
and fantasy. It looks at the literature of those genres from a Christian
worldview." Book reviews are easy to locate and are neatly arranged
by author, title, and genre. The total number of authors, titles, and
works per genre are indicated at the top of each section. Reviews are
dated, signed and include a link to the reviewer's credentials. Find
a reviewer who shares your reading tastes and click on the reviewer's
name to see all of their contributions, as well as their personal recommendations.
The primarily descriptive reviews vary in length, quality, and content,
since anyone may contribute their opinions, but most reviews average
50 words. Critical Christian analysis of a book is rare. All reviews
are rated on a 1-10 scale, and, refreshingly, the rating scale is explained
in the "How we review" section. A search feature rounds out this
very well organized site, which could be improved if the reviewers provided
more critical commentary. Recommended. Last visited: 03/2005.
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