"Killing the Imposter God" by Donna Freitas & Jason King
© Jossey-Bass, Inc.
Killing the Imposter God
By: Pat FerraraDate: Monday, September 17, 2007
Since the dawn of speculative literature, fiction has held the power to exemplify facets of our world and shed light on the complexities of human nature. Orchestrating truth through lies, SF, fantasy, and horror have become some of the strongest vessels for commentary on world religion; and in the realm of Christian belief few perspectives are more polarized than those found in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy.
Top o’ the Monday to you Maniac readers and welcome to the Weekly Book Buzz. After a hiatus lasting quite a few weeks, powerhouse genre publisher Tor Books is back with a solid bounty of new sci-fi and fantasy novels in this slim but focused middle-September release schedule. Get your pen and paper out and jot down some publisher info, because the bookshelves tomorrow will be chock-full of several must-reads.
Amongst those chief new releases from Tor are the hardcover debuts of Worldbinder, the sixth volume of the Runelords series by David Farland, the interim tome of Stephen R. Lawhead’s Robin Hood King Raven Trilogy, and the debut of fantasy guru Ed Greenwood’s Niflheim series opener Dark Warrior Rising.
The sequel to 2005’s Hugo Award-winning sci-fi epic Spin, Robert Charles Wilson is back with the direct follow-up novel, Axis, on hardcover to divulge more of the secrets of the Hypotheticals and their Arch bridge spanning from Earth to a mysteriously new and engineered world.
In light of last week’s announcement that director Wolfgang Petersen has been attached to Strieber’s THE GRAYS project, Whitley is at it again with the hardback release of 2012: The War for Souls. As the Earth once again approaches the central-Universe ‘equinox’ on its 26,000 year cycle, the unknown alien presence which has shaped mankind’s past is back with a far more sinister intent.
One of only two paperback publications this week, Steven Erikson’s highly praised Malazan Book of the Fallen series is becoming a little more widely available here in the States with the softcover release of the sixth installment, The Bonehunters. Though still hard to find in some bookstores across the country, I’m glad to see that Tor is at least beginning to make an effort to release this awesome high fantasy epic in-step with its UK, Canadian, and Australian debuts.
Also of note before this Buzz’s main discussion is Highbridge Audio’s release of the most popular orated series of all time: George Lucas’ Star Wars: The Complete Trilogy. Adapted by writer Brian Daley and narrated by a full cast of voice professionals, this CD version of the famous SF saga is uncut and unaltered from the original recording that aired on NPR in 1981.
Though actress Nicole Kidman has mentioned that the weighty, anti-Catholic themes won’t be translated to the big screen along with the rest of Pullman’s masterpiece THE GOLDEN COMPASS this winter, I find it hard to believe that, given the plot’s main story elements, all traces of such sentiments could be completely effaced.
The yin to C.S. Lewis’ yang, Philip Pullman penned His Dark Materials with clear objections to Christianity as an institutionalized religion and to the role the Church plays in everyday life. While some view Pullman’s series as a direct response to (as the author himself puts it) the “religious propaganda” of Lewis’ Narnia Chronicles, others have contended that the Materials series highlights the threats not of Christianity itself, but rather the dangers of using religion as a means to oppress.
Despite Pullman’s professed atheism, scholars of religion and popular culture Donna Freitas and Jason King set out to prove this week in the paperback expose Killing the Imposter God that Pullman’s universe is actually very much “permeated with divinity and rich with the Christian tradition Pullman himself so publicly rejects.” Are such contradictory extrapolations of Pullman’s work heresy and a slap in the face to the author’s work? Or are the thematic meanings of His Dark Materials impervious to the bounds of the author’s intent? I’d love to hear your comments Maniacs.
New in Hardcover:
Worldbinder, David Farland (Tor Books)
Certain works of fantasy are immediately recognizable as monuments, towering above the rest of the category. Authors of those works, such as George R.R. Martin, Robert Jordan, and Terry Goodkind, come immediately to mind. Add to that list David Farland, whose epic Runelords series continues now in Worldbinder. After the events of Sons of the Oak, Fallion and Jaz, the sons of the great Earth King Gaborn, are now living as fugitives in their own kingdom. Their former home has been invaded and secretly controlled by supernatural beings of ultimate evil. The sons are biding their time until they can regain their rightful places in the land. Fallion seems destined to heal the world, and feels the calling to act. When he attempts to do so though, two entire worlds collapse into one, and nothing will ever be the same again. The sixth installment in the Runelords series.
Scarlet, Stephen R. Lawhead (Thomas Nelson Publishing)
After losing everything he owns, forester Will Scarlet embarks on a search for none other than King Raven, whose exploits have already become legendary. After fulfilling his quest, and proving himself a skilled and loyal companion, Will joins the heroic archer and his men. Now, however, Will is in prison for a crime he did not commit. His sentence is death by hanging, unless he delivers King Raven and his band of cohorts. That, of course, he will never do. Wales is slowly falling under the control of the invading Normans, and King William the Red has given his ruthless barons control of the land. In desperation, the people turn to King Raven and his men for justice and survival in the face of the ever-growing onslaught. From deep in the forest they form a daring plan for deliverance, knowing that failure means death for them all. Scarletcontinues Stephen R. Lawhead's riveting saga that began with the novel Hood, which relocated the legend of Robin Hood to the Welsh countryside and its dark forests. Steeped in Celtic mythology and the political intrigue of medieval Britain, Lawhead's trilogy conjures up an ancient past and holds a mirror to contemporary realities. Prepare for an epic tale that dares to shatter everything you thought you knew about Robin Hood. The second volume in the King Raven Trilogy.
Natural Ordermage, L.E. Modesitt, Jr. (Tor Books)
L. E. Modesitt, Jr. begins a new Recluce story in The Natural Ordermage, the first of two volumes set mostly on the continent of Hamor, far across the sea from Recluce where the story begins, a new setting for this series that fans will be eager to explore. Rahl, a young apprentice scrivener on the island of Recluce, likes life to work out in his favor. To make sure things go his way, he uses a small amount of order magic in opportunistic moments, but his abilities are starting to get the attention of the Council magisters. He's not like other ordermages, the same rules don't seem to apply to his magic. And he has a bad attitude too. It gets him sent to the mages' training school for testing, and then banishment to Hamor, where his learning continues under dangerous circumstances. During Rahl's exile in Hamor, working in the Ordermage Council's import and export business, his powers increase… and so does the amount of trouble he can get into. Welcome to the fantasy world of L. E. Modesitt, where the adventure is just beginning. The 14th volume in the Recluse series.
Making Money, Terry Pratchett (HarperCollins)
Moist von Lipwig, condemned prisoner turned postal worker extraordinaire (see Pratchett's Going Postal) is back! Except this time he's been put in charge of a different branch of the government: he's responsible for overseeing the printing of Ankh-Morpork's first paper currency. Filled with Pratchett's usual sharp wit, keen social commentary, and sagacious observations, Making Money is another highly anticipated volume in the internationally bestselling Discworld canon. And ‘sagacious’ is my new word of the day (it means ‘keen in sense perception’).
Dark Warrior Rising, Ed Greenwood (Tor Books)
Orivon Firefist was captured as a six-year-old child by the Nilfghar—the dark elves—who attacked his village by night on one of their surface raids. Fifteen years later, he is a moon-pale, scarred, muscular giant of a man, who has spent his days at forgework for a dark elf family. He is also forced to use his great strength to shift furniture in the grand rooms of their castle. He has been trained (and flogged and ordered about) by the beautiful Tsarnarra, a lash-wielding matron who is icily cruel, but proud of the slaves that she has trained. Through all of this, Orivon’s spirit has never been broken. He longs to return to the surface world, even if that means destroying the entire dark elf empire along the way! The new Niflheim series opener.
Invasive Procedures, Orson Scott Card & Aaron Johnston (Tor Books)
George Galen is a brilliant scientist, a pioneer in gene therapy. But Galen is dangerously insane – he has created a method to alter human DNA, not just to heal diseases, but to “improve” people – make them stronger, make them able to heal more quickly, and make them compliant to his will.
Frank Hartman is also a brilliant virologist, working for the government’s ultra-secret biohazard agency. He has discovered how to neutralize Galen’s DNA-changing virus, making him the one man who stands in the way of Galen’s plan to "improve" the entire human race. This taut thriller takes the reader a few years into the future, and shows the promise and danger of new genetic medicine techniques.
Frank Hartman is also a brilliant virologist, working for the government’s ultra-secret biohazard agency. He has discovered how to neutralize Galen’s DNA-changing virus, making him the one man who stands in the way of Galen’s plan to "improve" the entire human race. This taut thriller takes the reader a few years into the future, and shows the promise and danger of new genetic medicine techniques.
2012: The War for Souls, Whitley Strieber (Tor Books)
December 21, 2012, may be one of the most watched dates in history. Every 26,000 years, earth lines up with the exact center of our galaxy. At 11:11 on December 21, 2012, this event happens again, and the ancient Maya calculated that it would mark the end, not only of this age, but of human consciousness as we know it. But what will actually happen? The end of the world? A new age for mankind? Nothing? The last time this happened, Cro-Magnon man suddenly began creating great art in the caves of southern France, which to this day remains one of the most inexplicable changes in human history. Now Whitley Strieber explores 2012 in a towering work of fiction that will astound readers with its truly new insights and a riveting roller-coaster ride of a story. A mysterious alien presence unexpectedly bursts out of sacred sites all over the world and begins to rip human souls from their bodies, plunging the world into chaos it has never before known. Courage meets cowardice, loyalty meets betrayal as an entire world struggles to survive this incredible end-all war. Heroes emerge, villains reveal themselves, and in the end something completely new and unexpected happens that at once lifts the fictional characters into a new life, and sounds a haunting real-world warning for the future.
Axis, Robert Charles Wilson (Tor Books)
Wildly praised by readers and critics alike, Robert Charles Wilson’s Spin won science fiction’s highest honor, the Hugo Award for Best Novel. Now, in Spin’s direct sequel, Wilson takes us to the "world next door,” the planet engineered by the mysterious Hypotheticals to support human life, and connected to Earth by way of the Arch that towers hundreds of miles over the Indian Ocean. Humans are colonizing this new world, and, predictably, fiercely exploiting its resources, chiefly large deposits of oil in the western deserts of the continent of Equatoria. Lise Adams is a young woman attempting to uncover the mystery of her father's disappearance ten years earlier. Turk Findley is an ex-sailor and sometimes-drifter. They come together when an infall of cometary dust seeds the planet with tiny remnants of Hypothetical machines. Soon, this seemingly hospitable world will become very alien indeed, as the nature of time is once again twisted by entities unknown.
New in Paperback:
Killing the Imposter God, Donna Freitas & Jason King (Jossey-Bass, Inc.)
Killing the Imposter God: Philip Pullman’s Spiritual Imagination in His Dark Materials, explores the complex religious and spiritual dimensions of the best-selling fantasy series. Donna Freitas and Jason King—scholars of religion and popular culture—reveal how humanity's moral and religious issues play out in Pullman’s literary phenomenon, showing that the trilogy—far from preaching atheism, as many have suggested—actually presents a vision of a universe permeated with divinity and rich with the Christian tradition Pullman himself so publicly rejects. Weaving together critical theory that spans the disciplines of theology, ethics, feminist studies, and philosophy, the authors examine the questions His Dark Materials raises about destruction and salvation, love and redemption, the abuse of power, and the divine—making the case that Pullman, the self-professed atheist, has created a Christian classic of our times.
The Bonehunters, Steven Erikson (Tor Books)
The Seven Cities Rebellion has been crushed. Sha’ik is dead. One last rebel force remains, holed up in the city of Y’Ghatan and under the fanatical command of Leoman of the Flails. The prospect of laying siege to this ancient fortress makes the battle-weary Malaz 14th Army uneasy. For it was here that the Empire’s greatest champion Dassem Ultor was slain and a tide of Malazan blood spilled. A place of foreboding, its smell is of death… But elsewhere, agents of a far greater conflict have made their opening moves. The Crippled God has been granted a place in the pantheon, a schism threatens and sides must be chosen. Whatever each god decides, the ground rules have changed, irrevocably, terrifyingly, and the first blood spilled will be in the mortal world. A world which contains a host of characters, familiar and new, including Heboric Ghost Hands, the god-possessed Apsalar, Cutter, once a thief now a killer, the extraordinary warrior called Karsa Orlong and the two wanderers Icarium and Mappo — each searching for such a fate as they might fashion with their own hands, guided by their own will. If only the gods would leave them alone. But now that knives have been unsheathed, the gods are disinclined to be kind. There shall be war, war in the heavens. And the prize? Nothing less than existence itself… Here is the stunning sixth chapter in Steven Erikson’s magnificent Malazan Book of the Fallen — hailed as an epic of the imagination and acknowledged as a fantasy classic in the making.
New in Audiobook:
Star Wars: The Complete Trilogy, George Lucas (Highbridge)
Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi, slipcased. When this series was first broadcast on National Public Radio in 1981, it generated the largest response in the network's history: 50,000 letters and phone calls in a single week, an audience of 750,000 per episode, and a subsequent 40-percent jump in NPR listenership. This landmark production, perhaps the most ambitious radio project ever attempted, began when Star Wars creator George Lucas donated the story rights to NPR an affiliate. Writer Brian Daley adapted the film's highly visual script to the special demands and unique possibilities of radio, creating a more richly textured tale with greater emphasis on character development. Director John Madden guided a splendid cast, including Mark Hamill and Anthony Daniels, reprising their film roles as Luke Skywalker and the persnickety robot See Threepio, through an intense 10 day dialogue recording session. Then came months of painstaking work for virtuoso sound engineer Tom Voegeli, whose brilliant blending of the actors' voices, the music, and hundreds of sound effects takes this intergalactic adventure into a realm of imagination that is beyond the reach of cinema.
