Author Interview: Steve Pillinger

**Steve Pillinger** is a linguist, translator and typesetter who has lived in a number of different cross-cultural settings in Africa, the UK and the USA. He has been a missionary with Wycliffe Bible Translators for over 36 years. His love of language, history and geography comes through in his novels, together with the longing to see God’s truth revealed with fresh impact through the eyes of a different culture.

What inspired you to write the Mindruler series?

The stories developed out of a fantasy role-playing game my wife and I enjoyed with our son and daughter during their teens. My wife and daughter both suffered from chronic fatigue, so we couldn’t easily get out for family outings. Instead, on Sunday afternoons we would all sit around the dining room table and play “the Family Game”, as we called it.

The game had a Christian worldview, and I would set up quests for the rest of the family to pursue within the growing fantasy world we were creating. I kept a diary of our sessions, and when eventually we had to stop due to our teenagers’ increasing school commitments, the story had given us all so much pleasure that we thought, We can’t let this go to waste! Why not share it with others?

Hence the books—which have now gone way beyond the family game, but that’s where they had their origin. All along it’s been very much a family project, with my wife and children (now adults) helping with ideas, proofreading, artwork and promotion.

**Who is your favorite character from the Mindrulers series?**

Haha, that’s a hard one! Seeing as the characters were originally based on the members of our family, I have to be careful what I say!

But actually the characters have developed separate personalities of their own during the many years the books were being written and revised—and I know my family would agree. So if I had to choose one favourite, I think it would be Danîsha, the retired school teacher whose lifelong dream of being able to share God’s love with those in distant lands who have never known it, finally comes true in the unimaginably distant land of Dûrion. Despite her age she’s a fiery lady, determined to follow God in every situation, and she plays a crucial rôle in the battle against the Mindruler and his minions.

You currently have 3 books in the Mindruler series. Is this it or do you have more planned?

I’m planning on writing a novella this year, telling the story of Prince Orrénne, the central person in the Lightist religion of that world, which mirrors Christianity on ours.

Further down the line I hope to write a series of prequels about the Founders—the historical visitors from our world who defeated the tyrants of the time. They founded the Dûrian theocracy, centred on the church and its ruling Bishop, and embodying Christian principles of justice, mercy, and welfare for all. Their story includes the origin of the Ambon of Sûrilane, an instrument that plays a fundamental rôle in the Mindrulers series.

What is your current work in progress?

None right now! I hope to start on the Prince Orrénne novella in a few weeks, daytime job permitting!

If you could recommend a book for my fantasy readers to read, what would it be and why?

My immediate reaction to this question is to recommend J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings—the foundational fantasy story of modern times which opened the gates for the vast flood of fantasy literature that has followed since. All I can say is, if you’re a fan of fantasy fiction and you haven’t read Lord of the Rings yet, I so envy you! Because you have an utterly absorbing and unforgettable experience lying ahead of you. I read the theme poem of Lord of the Rings in my second year of university, and missed lectures the rest of the week. One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, / One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them / In the Land of Mordor, where the Shadows lie. It still sends shivers down my spine.

But for a more modern book I would like to recommend Sean Elliot Russell’s book The Jesus Boy. Though not strictly fantasy fiction, this is a moving and delightful story of all that flows from a young boy’s total surrender to Jesus Christ at the age of 14. It is not a YA book: it is a challenge to Christians of all ages to give themselves fully and without reservation to the God Who died for them.

Russell depicts Joshua Phillips with sympathy and understanding as a normal teenager, with all a normal teenager’s pressures and struggles, who is far from perfect but has made a radical commitment and stands by it. His unquestioning obedience to God’s leading in his life brings him into hard and heart-breaking situations as well as moments of great joy as the Holy Spirit reaches out through him to others in his school and family.

The Jesus Boy, for any Christian of any age, is an encouraging and uplifting example of a life lived in full, unreserved commitment to Jesus Christ.

Finally, since M.H. has kindly allowed me to recommend three books (!), I’d like to bring to your attention Lauren H. Salisbury’s Biblical fantasy Courage, the first of her Legacy Chronicles series. This a re-telling of the story of Moses set in a completely different historical, geographical and technological context.

Salisbury has created an entirely credible alternate world with fresh, believable characters whose background and story does not immediately recall the Biblical narrative. Yes, it’s a slave society with harsh alien overlords—but within that framework the whole setup is quite different. Which has one wondering from the beginning, OK, so how will Moses fit into this? What will trigger the catastrophic events that cause him to be hidden? And above all, how will Pharaoh’s daughter find him? Her identity is clear from the moment she’s introduced, but she moves in a totally different world. As the story built up I found myself fascinated by the problem of how their paths would ever cross. And when they did, it happened in a totally believable, natural way that flowed organically out of the two storylines up to that point.

In conclusion: If you’re a Christian who enjoys speculative fiction, read this book! It’ll throw a completely fresh light on one of our best-loved Bible stories, and enable you to appreciate it in a new and enduring way.