Robert Don Hughes | |
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 Hughes in 2019 after his last service as Pastor. | |
| Born | 1949 |
| Occupation | Author and pastor |
| Nationality | American |
| Genre | Fantasy, science fiction, non-fiction |
Dr. Robert Don Hughes (born 1949), is an American educator, writer, and pastor. He has authored mainstream fantasy and science fiction and evangelical non-fiction.
Hughes received his B.A. from California Baptist College, his M.Div. from Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, and his Ph.D. from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, also studying at the University of Redlands.
Hughes was formerly employed at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, as associate vice president for external programs and associate professor of communication and mass media. Later he was a professor of missions and evangelism at Clear Creek Baptist Bible College. He retired from Pastoral ministry in 2019. His last pastorate was East Jellico Missionary Baptist Church in Pineville, Ky. He has also worked as a missionary in Africa.
Hughes' fiction tends to deal seriously with religious themes, particularly in The Fallen and its sequel The Eternity Gene . Of his non-fiction, Satan's Whispers has the distinction of having been adopted for use by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
Hughes' most extended body of work consists of his two fantasy sequences about a magical country split into three states by a two-headed dragon's occupation of the mountain pass linking each region with the others. As a result, the magical potential of each region has developed differently. The "Pelmen the Powershaper" trilogy tells of the end of the dragon's reign and its consequences; The unfinished "Wizard and Dragon" sequence, also projected as a trilogy, is set earlier in the country's history and deals with how the dragon was originally created.
Hughes' powerfully imagined dragon Vicia-Heinox with its two bickering heads has set a pattern for the portrayal of similar creatures in other media, including the animated film Quest for Camelot (1998) and the public television children's program Dragon Tales (1999-2005).
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A Wizard of Earthsea is a fantasy novel written by American author Ursula K. Le Guin and first published by the small press Parnassus in 1968. It is regarded as a classic of children's literature and of fantasy, within which it is widely influential. The story is set in the fictional archipelago of Earthsea and centers on a young mage named Ged, born in a village on the island of Gont. He displays great power while still a boy and joins a school of wizardry, where his prickly nature drives him into conflict with a fellow student. During a magical duel, Ged's spell goes awry and releases a shadow creature that attacks him. The novel follows Ged's journey as he seeks to be free of the creature.
Fantasy films are films that belong to the fantasy genre with fantastic themes, usually magic, supernatural events, mythology, folklore, or exotic fantasy worlds. The genre is considered a form of speculative fiction alongside science fiction films and horror films, although the genres do overlap. Fantasy films often have an element of magic, myth, wonder, escapism, and the extraordinary. Prevalent elements include fairies, angels, mermaids, witches, monsters, wizards, unicorns, dragons, talking animals, ogres, elves, trolls, white magic, gnomes, vampires, werewolves, ghosts, demons, dwarves, giants, goblins, anthropomorphic or magical objects, familiars, curses and other enchantments, worlds involving magic, and the Middle Ages.
Stephen R. Lawhead is a UK-based American writer known for his works of fantasy, science fiction, and historical fiction, particularly Celtic historical fiction. He has written over 28 novels and numerous children's and non-fiction books.
Contemporary fantasy, also known as modern fantasy or indigenous fantasy, is a subgenre of fantasy, set in the present day or, more accurately, the time period of the maker. It is perhaps most popular for its subgenre, urban fantasy.
Dragonlance is a shared universe created by Laura and Tracy Hickman, and expanded by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis under the direction of TSR, Inc. into a series of fantasy novels. The Hickmans conceived Dragonlance while driving in their car on the way to TSR for a job interview. Tracy Hickman met his future writing partner Margaret Weis at TSR, and they gathered a group of associates to play the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. The adventures during that game inspired a series of gaming modules, a series of novels, licensed products such as board games, and lead miniature figures.
Ed Greenwood is a Canadian fantasy writer and the original creator of the Forgotten Realms game world. He began writing articles about the Forgotten Realms for Dragon magazine beginning in 1979, and subsequently sold the rights to the setting to TSR, the creators of the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, in 1986. He has written many Forgotten Realms novels, as well as numerous articles and D&D game supplement books.
Tracy Raye Hickman is an American fantasy author. He wrote the Dragonlance novels with Margaret Weis. He also wrote role playing game material while working for TSR and has cowritten novels with his wife, Laura Hickman. He is the author or co-author of over 60 books.
Margaret Edith Weis is an American fantasy and science fiction writer and author of dozens of novels and short stories. Along with Tracy Hickman, Weis is one of the original creators of the Dragonlance game world.
Malazan Book of the Fallen is a series of epic fantasy novels written by the Canadian author Steven Erikson. The series, published by Bantam Books in the U.K. and Tor Books in the U.S., consists of ten volumes, beginning with Gardens of the Moon (1999) and concluding with The Crippled God (2011). Erikson's series is extremely complex with a wide scope, and presents the narratives of a large cast of characters spanning thousands of years across multiple continents.
Ian Irvine is an Australian fantasy and eco-thriller author and marine scientist. To date Irvine has written 27 novels, including fantasy, eco-thrillers and books for children. He has had books published in at least 12 countries and continues to write full-time.
Witch World is a speculative fiction project of American writer Andre Norton, inaugurated by her 1963 novel Witch World and continuing more than four decades. Beginning in the mid-1980s, when she was about 75 years old, Norton recruited other writers to the project, and some books were published only after her death in 2005. The Witch World is a planet in a parallel universe where magic long ago superseded science; early in the fictional history, it is performed exclusively by women. The series began as a hybrid of science fiction and sword and sorcery, but for the most part it combines the latter with high fantasy.
Douglas Niles is a fantasy author and game designer. Niles was one of the creators of the Dragonlance world and the author of the first three Forgotten Realms novels, the Star Frontiers space opera setting and the Top Secret S/I espionage role-playing game.
The Devil, appears frequently as a character in literature and various other media. In Abrahamic religions, the figure of the Devil, Satan personifies evil.
Christopher Rowley is an American writer specializing in the science fiction and fantasy genres. He is also a former journalist and television screenswriter.
A magician, also known as an enchanter/enchantress, mage, magic-user, sorcerer/sorceress, spell-caster, warlock, witch, or wizard, is someone who uses or practices magic derived from supernatural, occult, or arcane sources. Magicians are common figures in works of fantasy, such as fantasy literature and role-playing games, and enjoy a rich history in mythology, legends, fiction, and folklore.
Wizards: Magical Tales from the Masters of Modern Fantasy is a fantasy anthology edited by American writers Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois. It was first published in hardcover by Berkley Books in 2008 and in paperback by Ace Books in 2008.
The mythical wizard Merlin is featured as a character in numerous works of fiction, especially ones based on Arthurian legends.
Magic in fiction is the endowment of characters or objects in works of fiction with powers that do not naturally occur in the real world.
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and drama. From the twentieth century, it has expanded further into various media, including film, television, graphic novels, manga, animated movies and video games.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to fantasy:
