Ditto.
As a result, I'm always delighted by writers who go into detail with the story-behind-the-story in tales told by Tolkien and even C. S. Lewis. Most folks tend to think of those men in the same breath anyhow. And they both had the hard-to-come-by writer's gift of telling a story well, but even more so, telling something even richer if the reader will just look closer.
Mr. Ware gives an introduction which is delightful in and of itself. He looks into Tolkien's beliefs, and uses personal bits of the writer's life to draw in the reader, and it works. And in the following chapters, Ware shares stories from The Hobbit using many quotes and follows up with Scripture and a verse to size up what he's shared.
My favorite chapter, 'On Eagles Wings', is about the eagles that "Time after time, in crisis after crisis....'save the day' by appearing over the horizon at precisely the right moment." And here's more: "This pattern points to a certain wonderful and startling conclusion. It suggests that we might be justified in seeing these majestic birds as a beautiful and powerful image of divine grace, Free and sovereign grace." The verse at the end of this chapter is so fitting as well. It says, "God reserves the right to intervene in our lives as He chooses."
Ware says in the book's beginning that he was tempted to preach in this little book, and he does, and does it delightfully, if preaching can be considered delightful. Now I wish he'd try his own hand at fiction. I'd read it.
(i received this book free to review from tyndale publishers)
