Posted on 10/27/2021 12:46:53 PM PDT by a.c.t.32
Hi. Can anyone recommend some good Christian authors and novels? Or even if not overtly Christian, just clean and well-written novels written by intelligent people? I really don't enjoy the romance-type books where everything wraps up perfectly at the end. I'm looking for realistic stories.
Thank you in advance.
not Christian, but if you like sci fi- Michael Crichton was pretty awesome to read- (Note, i can’t remember if he had any unsavory stuff- i don’t recall now-)
His book Prey was pretty cool, as was Andromeda Strain- He was a best selling author of sci fi-
Plot Summary
A military team is dispatched to recover a satellite that unexpectedly crashed to Earth near Piedmont, Arizona. Everyone in the small town has been mysteriously killed, including the recovery team. The military activates the Wildfire Project, a scientific initiative to deal with potential alien life appearing on Earth. The satellite was designed to collect samples from the upper atmosphere and bring them back to Earth to be studied.
The Wildfire team is led by Jeremy Stone. He worries that a deadly alien organism has returned to Earth with the satellite, killing everyone in Piedmont. Stone and another team member named Burton travel to Piedmont in sterilized suits. They find everyone dead except for an old man named Peter Jackson and a baby. They recover the satellite capsule and take it and the survivors back to their top-secret base.
The Wildfire laboratory is designed to study alien organisms without contaminating the outside world. The underground facility has five layers of increasingly strict contamination measures, as well as a nuclear bomb placed below the base and programmed to detonate in the case of contamination. Two more scientists—Hall and Leavitt—arrive at the base. Hall has been a part of Wildfire for a year, but he has never taken it seriously. He is the only unmarried member of the team, and he was chosen for this reason. A fictional theory named the Odd Man Hypothesis suggests that single men can be best trusted to make a life-or-death decision. Hall is given a key that can avert the automatic destruction of the facility. In such an event, he must decide between saving himself and his colleagues and potentially allowing the contamination to escape, thus threatening the entire world.
https://www.supersummary.com/the-andromeda-strain/summary/
[[I’m looking for realistic stories]]
Woops- didn’t see that when u recommended sci fi-
great, ty
Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger (?) has pleased everyone in the three book groups I belong to.
Not novels, but fascinating history:
Patrick K. O’Donnell
Washington’s Immortals: The Untold Story of an Elite Regiment Who Changed the Course of the Revolution
The Indispensables: The Diverse Soldier-Mariners Who Shaped the Country, Formed the Navy, and Rowed Washington Across the Delaware
He’s got other titles as well - these are the two I REALLY want to read.
Kristen Lavransdatter by Sigred Undset.
Mrs. Crusher and I love T. Davis Bunn. Great writer and yarn spinner, built on Christian foundations but not crushing your head with a sledge hammer.
Also, Andrew Klavan’s YA fiction is engaging and immensely enjoyable. OTOH his adult fiction is pretty dark hardboiled detective fare. Again, Christian themes gently woven throughout the stories without hysterics.
Ditto previous comments about Lewis, Chesterton, et al.
Henryk Sienkiewicz is a favorite of mine.
He was a late 19th, early 20th century Polish author who wrote historical fiction of eastern Europe during the middle ages, Roman empire, etc.
I believe he won a Nobel for writing.
Strangers and Sojourners
Book 1 of 6: Children of the Last Days | by Michael O’Brien
His books are naturalistic and depressing (Gissing hated Dickens's sentimentality), but extremely in insightful as to male/female interactions and the psychological and sociological impact of financial stress.
I recommend James W. Houston.
Start with “Balance of Power”.
Houston’s genre is political/military action thrillers. He presents his readers with some interesting ethical dilemmas.
Jeff Fields’ “A Cry of Angels,” a sorta cross between “Tom Sawyer” and “To Kill a Mockingbird.” One of the best novels I’ve read in the past three decades or so.
The Left Behind book series is compelling even though literary license was taken in its writing.
Amir Tsarfati just put out his first fictional novel, It is just being released, so I have not read it yet, but I love his other books!
Dean Koontz, especially the “Odd Thomas” series.
If the idea of a delightful town in the Carolinas, a country minister, his courtship and marriage, stormy but wonderful relationship with a foster son interests you, then all of Jan Karon’s books are enjoyable. She weaves some lovely tales and makes her characters lively, funny and like the people from your hometown. I read them all every few years just to get away from...it all.
The Wind Rider Chronicles
by Allison D Reid
this is a Christian fantasy series set in a fictional world. The author can really get you engrossed in the story and it all reflects Gods glory.
The Senses Novels
by K M Aul
these authors write well enough that I am not distracted by the writing stye.
You will not go wrong with Jane Austen, George Elliot, Dostoyevski (who is ultra Christian), Tolstoy, Alexander Dumas, Arthur Conan Doyle, Sir Walter Scott, Patrick O’Brien and dozens more. These classics are not all overtly Christian, but are good reads without lurid content (some novels by the Russkies have mature content in a moral context). Enough non-trashy material is out there for years of reading — much of it available online for free.
An American in the Gulag by Alexander Dolgun was one of the greatest adventure books I’ve ever read.
“I’d start with C.S Lewis, Chesterton”
Yep.
5.56mm
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