Comments on: Frank Peretti, under-appreciated pioneer of Christian literature?

By: Myk

Myk — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 14:06:01 +0000

I’ve only read This Present Darkness, Piercing the Darkness, and The Oath and I must say with the first two books I’ve fallen in love with Peretti’s writing style and grown to actually want to be mentored by him as I am an aspiring novelist. I wanted to be an intercessor while reading the first two books and I understood more about spiritual warfare through them than through other mediums of teaching. There is, without a doubt, power in his writing.

By: Barbara Roberts

Barbara Roberts — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 02:44:20 +0000

Frank Peretti is oh, so defendable. His “This Present Darkness” taught me more about what “powers and principalities” meant than I ever learned in church. His “The Visitation” was one of the most delightful, tongue in cheek dissertations on the vagaries of Christian understanding ever! And it was impacting. We glaze over reading all those twelve steps books on building faith,but Peretti’s message we get…and keep.
One thing more: his youth series (Hangman’s Curse comes to mind)is so relevant in our drug riddled schools it should be required reading. If it’s on video, what a great Sunday night teaching tool.

I believe we’re in for even darker times ahead. Which is why I write Christian fiction that leans toward humor. It’s hard to be frightened when you’re laughing.

By: Andy

Andy — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:47:27 +0000

I never read Visitation, although I remember it looking interesting. The last Peretti novel I read was “The Oath,” which was pitched as a Christian horror novel (and, I must say, one of the first novels I remember to be marketed as such). At the time I was reading a lot of Stephen King and the like and was really intrigued by the idea of a Christian take on the horror genre. However, I was disappointed — The Oath started out great, but petered out and IMO, ruined its clever moral message by getting preachy and overstating it. But still a decent novel.

But anyway — yeah, agreed that CS Lewis has some great fantastic literature too. Well worth checking out.

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:54:48 +0000

The only Peretti book I ever read was Visitation back in high school. I remember it being the first work of overtly Christian fiction that actually felt genuine. Not sure if it would stand the test of time, but his characters felt quite a bit more real than other Christian fiction. He definitely set the bar a bit higher in the contemporary Christian fiction realm.

It’s almost cliche to bring him up in conversations like this, but C.S. Lewis did a lot for Christian fantasy and science fiction as well. His space trilogy is well written and quite compelling.