by Joseph Loconte

A Mini Book Review by Jackie Houchin

This is a non-fiction book, showing how the horrors of war – while personally devastating to the famous authors C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien – were nevertheless experiences that prompted them to write their popular fantasy and allegoric books.

In the first chapters, there are some hard-to-read WWI scenes and statistics. (I almost stopped reading because they left me sickened.) But as the book went on, I saw how the misery and loss these authors experienced in the trenches gave depth to their writing. If you’ve read The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Chronicles of Narnia, this book will make some aspects of the plots, settings, and characters come alive and be more understandable.

For mature and thoughtful readers.

**** Four stars