I’ve gotten into the bad habit of only reading non-fiction, so when author Brendan Lyons reached out to me about his Christian Fantasy Book, I was excited to remedy this.

I also got a chance to talk to the author

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Emberlain is described as follows:

Emberlain is the story of a king and queen, a lost boy, and a mysterious creature that threatens to turn the entire land into corrupted darkness. The king is pulled between the life he has known – a life where he is the arbiter of right and wrong – and the influence of his faithful wife, who puts her trust in a higher power.

As the wheels in the kingdom turn, the future rests on the king’s unsteady shoulders. And looming above all else is the shadow of the Emberlain. Can the king overcome this courtiers and their wicked allies or will the kingdom be overtaken by the power of darkness?

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. The action kicked off early in the book – there wasn’t excessive backstory, round-about adventures, etc. Though the timing in the book confused me a little bit in the beginning and the first chapters were average, the rest of the book was very entertaining; I read most of it one night and finished it the next day. There was some great imagery and creative language in this book, presenting morals and truths of our faiths in a unique and engaging way. Though some of it was a little obvious, there was so much creativity and twists in other aspects of the book to make up for it.

I liked that the author addressed immorality without being too graphic. Something I love about this book was how strong Idreasa (a female character) was. I can’t go into too much detail without spoiling the book, so I will leave it at I think Idreasa is one of the strongest fictional female characters I’ve encountered, and there were some other subtle details of strong Christian women while also recognizing how society presents women as empowered but actually objectifies them.

I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys fantasy books. There is some violence, but beyond that, I think this book would be great for middle schoolers, teenagers, and adults.

Author Interview

1) How did you start writing?

I was really young when I started creating stories. In second grade, I began making my crayon and printer paper Star Trek knock-offs and distributing them to my classmates. How on earth anyone followed those stories, I don’t know, but I think I wrote 12 of them.

More recently, I started writing my first real novel my freshman year of college at Villanova. I was just walking across a frozen field at maybe 11pm and thought the scene around me contained just the right mix of wonder and melancholy. Anyway, the story I began that day became The Book of Iden, a 4 part series that I’ve released 3 of so far.

Since then I’ve just kept at it. Things didn’t turn REALLY Catholic until 2 years ago when I was inspired to write a novel that was expressly pro-life and have the proceeds benefit my local Birthright, which is in West Chester PA. That one is called Single Candles.

2) What inspired you to write Emberlain?

My original interest was in writing fantasy, but my last couple projects were not in that vein. I was kind of drifting away from it until one night my wife really wanted to watch the movie Stardust, which is based on a book by Neil Gaiman and is also one of her favorite movies. So we watched it and the story was just so delightfully fantastical that I thought, ‘I have to go back to fantasy and see what comes of it.’

So I grabbed a notebook and started writing down some ideas. I took turns brainstorming and praying, because I got this inkling that whatever I did should be infused with my faith. Honestly, everything I do is, it’s just a matter of how overtly. I decided to go in the vein of C.S. Lewis and be allegorical but not overly mysterious about what the point was. And that was that – I had my idea, my tone, and I knew where I was going with it, so I went!

3) In the book, you explained that you took a unique approach to writing this book. Could you tell us more about how prayer aided you in the development of this story?

It was instrumental. This could not have happened without prayer. While I often pray about my work, this time I knew it had to be woven directly into the fabric of every line I wrote. From one end of my notebook, I started planning, plotting the story, and making an outline of each chapter, and from the other end I started writing down prayers.

Every time I started writing, I would write down a prayer first. If I felt stuck or if I was about to write something very important, I would stop and write down a prayer first. And each day when I was finished I would write a prayer thanking God for His inspiration and grace.

I really wanted to share that with people, hence the forward to the book, not to say ‘hey look at how pious I am’, but rather to convey to readers that this book is the best manifestation I could muster of the truth of God’s grace. Whatever is good in the book is good because He inspired me to write it.

4) Why do you think it is important to have good Christian Fiction books?

I think the speculative aspect of Christian Fiction is vital to the understanding of our faith, especially in young people, but in adults as well. Because fantasy especially is so engaging to the imagination, it throws open the gates of the mind to implications and applications of our faith that we might never have considered without it.

Take The Lord of the Rings, probably the most famous piece of Christian Fantasy ever. When Frodo is called to risk his life to destroy the ring, isn’t he accepting the premise that we owe something to this world that has been given to us, not just to our families (the Shire was well out of harm’s way – at least for the time being), but also to the wider communities around us. Our neighbor is all in need and Frodo is the Samaritan who goes out of his way to help people who never really cared about the Shire at all.

Would we have thought of that Bible verse in such a manner – looking at it as a call to not just help those we see in trouble, but also to seek out those who need our help – if we didn’t see fictional heroes like Frodo do just that? For some people, maybe, but for many, Christian Fiction is an opportunity to view our faith through a lens we couldn’t conceive of in our day to day lives.

5) One of the aspects I loved about your book was that Idreasa is such a strong female character. What went into shaping her as a character?

The short answer is, I took a look at my wife thought ‘man, I bet anything diabolical looking to tempt me would see that woman by my side and have second thoughts.’ I’m also a really big fan of the quote (I honestly don’t know who said it) that goes, “Be the type of woman that when your feet hit the floor each morning, the devil says ‘Oh, crap, she’s up.’” I wanted to write that character.

The strength of her character was also key to the spirit of the whole story. You get the impression that the king kind of ran wild before he met her, and while only Jesus can save us from temptation in the end, for a man sometimes the best start is an amazing woman. That is to say, when a man seeks Jesus in a woman he eventually finds Him in himself.

The way I see it, even the best Catholic man needs a strong, faithful woman to burst into the room in spiritual armor and tell temptation it’s got two choices: run back to hell or get beat back there. In this story, that’s presented as part of a faithful marriage. In my life, my wife has been there for me to do just that. Luckily for single folks, Mary is always ready to do battle as well.

About Brendan Lyons

Brendan and his wife Elisa live in the Philadelphia suburbs. A writer since the age of 9, Brendan has published 7 novels, including 3 from the fantasy adventure series The Book of Iden, the pro-life story collection  Single Candles, and most recently the Christian Fantasy novel Emberlain. He is also a freelance reporter for Catholic Philly and a former Volunteer Youth Minister. You can connect with him on Facebook or Twitter.