Karen Hancock truly hits the daily double with Arena, her first novel. Not only is it a fantastic story of exciting science fiction, it is also a powerful allegory for the Christian experience. I would urge prospective readers not to dismiss this book out of hand just because of its spiritual dimension, however - Arena tells a wonderful, exciting, and gripping story that any lover of good fantasy will greatly enjoy. The novel's allegorical depth is rich and complex, but it is by no means overpowering. You needn't fear that Karen Hancock will be pushing Christianity down your throat. You don't even have to judge the main character's incredible growth in a Christian sense; it's certainly there, but you can enjoy this story for its own sake and still take a seed of something very powerful away from it.
The book's protagonist, Callie, is a young woman in her mid-twenties who has yet to find her place in life. She has a low-paying job but yearns to be a painter, and her family is all in the business of trying to find her a man. She is trapped, frustrated, and floundering. In need of money, she accompanies her friend to a psychology experiment promising to help her get more out of life. Unable to back out at the last minute, she finds herself transported to the Arena, a whole world that cannot yet does exist - the mother of all obstacle courses. About all she has to guide her is a suggestion to stay on the white road and a manual, most of which is gibberish to her. She gets off to a bad start, quickly discovering just how dangerous a place the Arena can be. Exotic plant life and hideous animal creatures are a danger to life and limb, malevolent beings called the Watchers turn up all over the place to tempt and dishearten her, and the fellow human beings she eventually meets up with pose the biggest danger of all. Luckily, Callie first encounters a guy named Pierce, who saves her life and takes her into the confines of a small community. Some of these people have been in the Arena for years, searching for the exit that is supposedly easy to find. The answers are all in the manual, but the manual is soon ignored or forgotten.
Callie thus finds herself in a fight for survival in an alien world. Friction among her compatriots leads to dissension and separation, as everyone seems to have their own ideas for getting out; many eventually fall prey to the seductive dangers of the Arena. You really get an exciting adventure story in these pages, full of ambushes, encounters with wild creatures of malevolent power, and a mental struggle to keep going when everything seems to be lost. Callie has to conquer her many fears if she is to survive, and every step is a struggle. As time goes on, Callie gets an understanding of the place and the purpose behind it, and it is the link she establishes with the master of the Arena that sustains her. The closer she gets to the final exit, the more dangerous the journey becomes, and the more she has to depend on her spiritual link with the Arena's overseer. The men and women of the Arena are vividly human characters with their own flaws and problems, including the man seemingly chosen to lead the community back home. No one has the power to return home on his/her own; the true test comes in putting your faith in another, greater power.
Some will say that the allegorical nature of this story is too obvious, but I thought the Christian nature of Callie's journey through the Arena was subtly yet powerfully done. As I said, you don't have to read the story in this allegorical way if you do not want to. I think you should, though, as it makes this novel something extraordinarily special. I won't go into the parallels between Callie's journey and the Christian's journey here, but the one greatly reinforces the other. As a Christian, I was deeply impressed by some of the insights embedded in Arena; in this fantastical setting, Hancock helps you look at your own spiritual journey in entirely new and instructive ways, drawing connections that surprise, exhilarate, and inspire you. From this perspective, the whole journey seems so simple; it is only man's nature, fears, and limitations that make the journey such a needlessly hard and difficult one. If you're looking for a work of Christian science fiction that really and truly works, Arena is the book you've been waiting for.
