Marlin Klingensmith is a systems administrator by day and a relentless analyst of stories by night. A lifelong reader shaped by homeschooling, he was raised on Tolkien, theology, and long-form arguments at the dinner table. He studied writing at Geneva College, a small Christian liberal arts college in Western Pennsylvania, where he began refining the literary convictions that continue to inform his work.
No More Than Pen and Ink is his attempt to engage stories—not just as entertainment, but as cultural artifacts, moral visions, and metaphysical test cases. Whether reviewing the transhumanist assumptions of modern sci-fi, weighing the theological echoes of epic fantasy, or crafting original fiction, Marlin explores how stories shape (and sometimes misshape) our understanding of truth, freedom, power, and personhood.
He has a particular fondness for Fantasy and Science Fiction, but his critical lens is broader: built on Reformed theology, sharpened by classical myth, and willing to challenge genre conventions when they obscure rather than reveal. He values strong worldbuilding, earned moral weight, and the courage to say something real.