The Princess and Curdie by George MacDonaldMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I love George MacDonald. I especially like his fairy tale and fantasy books. Like C.S. Lewis, I love the theology in the stories, and I always find something that speaks to me, or causes me to think more deeply. For example, "It is always dangerous to do things you don't know about." What a simple phrase, but how many times don't I rush in to "fix" something without knowing all there is to know about a situation.
But I digress from the story itself, which is the story of how Curdie, a miner's boy, is to go on a quest. He doesn't really know what the quest is when he starts out, but he is to find out as he goes along . . . "you have orders enough to start with, and you will find, as you go on, and as you need to know, what you have to do. But I warn you that perhaps it will not look the least like what you may have been fancying I require of you." That's a nice little piece of theology that most of us can relate to!
Along the way, Curdie is given a gift of discernment. He will be able to discern whether a man is turning into a beast. "Now listen. Since it is always what they do, whether in their minds or their bodies, that makes men go down to be less than men, that is beasts . . . they do not know it of course, for a beast does not know that he is a beast, and the nearer a man gets to being a beast, the less he knows it." So true! It seems like in our society we are always choosing to be less of the men or women God created us to be.
At any rate, I liked this old-fashioned story and the old-fashioned message.
For more grown up fantasy, I highly recommend MacDonald's "Lilith". I think it rivals "Lord of the Rings" in many ways. You can get it free for your kindle :-).
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