The Gospel According to Science Fiction
© Westminster John Knox Press
Science Fiction Meets Religion…Round One
By: Pat FerraraDate: Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Mordred maneuvers for power in Douglas Clegg’s darkly reimagined Arthurian saga, Stephen Baxter unleashes his new time-shifting alternate history thriller with Emperor, and Pamela Sargent’s beloved Ship is back to sow the seeds of humanity’s future in the re-printed classic Earthseed.
Happy New Year everyone! As your mind clears from Sunday night’s festivities and begins to reel at the vengeful return of the monotonous work week, chances are you’re in the mood for some good old-fashioned escapism provided by 2007’s first batch of new sci fi, fantasy, and horror fiction.
A former journalist for such publications as SFX, the Daily Mirror, and Rolling Stone magazine, Stan Nicholls is best known for the internationally acclaimed Orcs: First Blood series. After a short hiatus Nicholls returned to the world of fantasy with the Dreamtime series and continues the tale this week with the third book, The Diamond Isle, on paperback.
Husband and wife duo Barb & J.C. Hendee continue their Noble Dead Saga series with the release of the fourth and fifth books of the series. Book four, Traitor to the Blood, is out on paperback today while book five, Rebel Fay, gets its hardcover debut.
Gabriel McKee, author of the acclaimed Pink Beams of Light from the God in the Gutter: The Science-Fictional Religion of Philip K. Dick musters up her vast SF and theological knowledge to churn out another thought-provoking look at the parallels, aims, and social functions of SF lit and religion in The Gospel According to Science Fiction: From the Twilight Zone to the Final Frontier. The highlight of this week’s Book Buzz, McKee’s newest look at religion and sci fi illustrates an ever-growing (and increasingly legitimized) field of theological and cultural study.
Last but not least Tor Books debuts Andre Norton’s last novel, Three Hands for Scorpio, on paperback today. Norton, a longtime fantasy writer who began her literary career in 1934 with the novel The Prince Commands, died in March of 2005 but not before seeing this, her last solo work, rushed to print.
Other books to check out: Fledgling, Wings in the Night, Mordred: Bastard’s Son, Earthseed, & Time Twisters
New in Hardcover:
Rebel Fay of the Noble Dead Saga © Penguin Group USA
Desperate to free his mother from a caste of ruthless elven assassins, Leesil joins his beloved Magiere, the sage Wynn, and their canine protector, Chap, on a difficult journey through mountains and harsh winter. Should they survive the hardships of wilderness, they still face the perils of the mysterious Elven Territories. Unbeknownst to them, they've been united at the command of Chap's Fay kin to forge an alliance against the forces of dark magic. But now Chap must guard his companions from enemies and allies-not always certain which is which. And as they uncover the truth, they discover just how close the enemy has always been.
Tales From the Town of Widows, James Canon (HarperCollins Publishers)
In the small Colombian mountain village of Mariquita, a band of guerrillas storms in to protest the country's ruling government. They arrive with propaganda and guns, and when they depart they have forcibly recruited all the town's men, leaving behind only a few—the priest and a young, fair-skinned boy disguised as a little girl. In their wake, Mariquita becomes a sinking wasteland filled with women who quickly resign themselves to food shortages, littered streets, and mourning. Without men, life is hopeless, and getting along, nearly impossible. But, Rosalba viuda de Patiño, wife of the former police sergeant, sees a different fate for the town of widows. She declares herself magistrate and promises to instill law and order while restoring the failing economy and infrastructure. Reluctantly, the women agree to join forces. A utopia emerges, one that ironically resembles the ideal society the guerrilla group claims to promote. Deft, rich, and darkly humorous, Tales from the Town of Widows is a captivating exploration of gender and sexuality that uses the ongoing conflict in Colombia as a backdrop. It presents a fascinating portrait of ill-fated wives and the war that helped them build a peaceful, equality-based society.
The Gospel According to Science Fiction © Westminster John Knox Press
Interspersed with quotes from sci fi shows and literature as far back as the 1930s, Harvard writer Gabriel McKee mixes everything from early genre shorts to contemporary SF and fantasy films. By using her exhaustive (and well-versed) knowledge of science fiction, McKee weaves media, culture, and religion into a thoughtful, theological perspective on these two seemingly unrelated institutions. Reminiscent of the ‘Earthseed’ philosophy that God is change, McKee’s newest book goes above and beyond merely cataloguing American science fiction to express the genre’s dynamics and their impact on our society’s melting pot religious identity.
Emperor, Stephen Baxter (Penguin Group USA)
Inscribed in Latin, The Prophecy has resided in the hands of a single family for generations, revealing secrets about the world that is to come, and guiding them to wealth and power... It begins when a Celtic noble betrays his people at the behest of his mother's belief in The Prophecy and sides with the conquering Roman legions. For the next 400 years, Britannia thrives-as does the family that contributed to Rome's reign over the island with the construction of Emperor Hadrian's Wall and the protection of Emperor Constantine from a coup d'etat. And even when the sun begins to set on the Roman Empire, The Prophecy remains. For those capable of deciphering its signs and portents, the future of Earth is in their hands. Book one in the Time’s Tapestry series.
Plants of Middle Earth: Botany and Sub-Creation, Dinah Hazell (Kent State University Press)
A new path for exploring the culture and values of Tolkien’s Middle-earth. Beautifully illustrated with dozens of original full-color and black-and-white drawings, The Plants of Middle Earth connects readers visually to the world of Middle-earth, its cultures and characters and the scenes of their adventures. Tolkien’s use of flowers, herbs, trees, and other flora creates verisimilitude in Middle-earth, with the flora serving important narrative functions. This botanical tour through Middle-earth increases appreciation of Tolkien’s contribution as preserver and transmitter of English cultural expression, provides a refreshing and enlivening perspective for approaching and experiencing Tolkien’s text, and allows readers to observe his artistry as sub-creator and his imaginative life as medievalist, philologist, scholar, and gardener. The Plants of Middle Earth draws on biography, literary sources, and cultural history and is unique in using botany as the focal point for examining the complex network of elements that comprise Tolkien’s creation. Each chapter includes the plants’ description, uses, history, and lore, which frequently lead to their thematic and interpretive implications. The book will appeal to general readers, students, and teachers of Tolkien as well as to those with an interest in plant lore and botanical illustration. Well, if you’re going to buy a book about fictitious plants it might as well be set in Tolkien’s complex and colorful universe.
Feast of Souls, C.S. Friedman (Penguin Group USA)
At the end of her bestselling Coldfire trilogy, C.S. Friedman challenged readers to imagine what a world would be like if sorcery required the ultimate sacrifice… that of life itself. Now, in Feast of Souls, she introduces us to a terrifying world in which the cost of magic is just that...in which the fuel for sorcery is the very fire of the human spirit, and those who hunger for magical power must pay for it with their lives. In this epic tale of nightmarish shadows and desperate hope, the greatest threat of all may not be that of ancient enemies returned, or ancient wars resumed, but of the darkness that lies within the hearts of men. The first book of the Magister trilogy.
New in Paperback:
The Story of General Dann and Mara’s Daughter, Griot and the Snow Dog, Doris Lessing (HarperCollins Publishers)
In her visionary novel Mara and Dann (1999), Doris Lessing introduced us to a brother and sister battling through a future landscape where the climate is much changed—colder than ever before in the north and unbearably dry and hot in the south. In this new novel the odyssey continues. Dann is grown up now, hunting for knowledge and despondent over the inadequacies of his civilization, traveling with his friend, a snow dog who brings him back from the depths of despair. And we meet Mara's daughter and Griot with the green eyes, an abandoned child-soldier who, in this strange and captivating adventure, discovers the meaning of love and the ability to sing stories. Like its predecessor, this new novel explains as much about the world we now live in as it does about the future we may be heading toward.
Fledgling, Octavia E. Butler (Warner Books, Inc)
Fledgling, Octavia Butler's first new novel in seven years, is the story of an apparently young, amnesiac girl whose alarmingly un-human needs and abilities lead her to a startling conclusion: she is in fact a genetically modified, 53-year-old vampire. Forced to discover what she can about her stolen former life, she must at the same time learn who wanted-and still wants-to destroy her and those she cares for, and how she can save herself. Fledgling is a captivating novel that tests the limits of "otherness" and questions what it means to be truly human. Positive critic reviews and a high rating among fans suggest that vampire aficionados should give this book a second glance.
Shadows of Destiny, Rachel Lee (Luna Books)
They have liberated Anahar, but for Tess Birdsong and Archer Blackcloak the war has only begun. Anari slaves are rebelling in Bozandar, and the streets of that sparkling city are wet with blood.
Tess and Archer must forge a peace between the warring races, for only together will their combined armies have the strength to move against the dark forces gathering to the west. As the scars of old wounds are ripped open, pitting brother against brother and the Ilduin sisterhood against itself, Tess and Archer march into a battle that will determine the world's fate. Guided by snow wolves, moving under the dark cloud of a bitter prophecy, they ready themselves to strike at the enemy's seat of power, a mountain fortress that has never been taken. But their greatest danger comes from within, for Archer carries a dark secret that may doom them all…
Wings In The Night of The Weird Works of Robert E. Howard Series © Wildside Press
Wings in the Night collects Robert E. Howard's fiction and prose published in Weird Tales Magazine from July 1932 to May 1933. These works represent literary stepping-stones to Howard's infamous Cthulhu mythos stories and his most famous character of all - Conan the Cimmerian - and ably demonstrate that each of Howard's stories improved and added to his formidable skills as a master of fantasy and adventure. The fourth volume of The Weird Works of Robert E. Howard anthology series, this collection illuminates some of the earliest forms of American fantasy and presents the literature that ignited the sword-and-sorcery genre.
Mordred: Bastard’s Son, Douglas Clegg (Alyson Publications)
Stoker Award-winning novelist Douglas Clegg (Afterlife, The Hour Before Dark, and over a dozen other best-selling novels of contemporary horror) sets his rich imagination to the task of reinventing Arthurian legend, and the results are spectacular. A young monk becomes enthralled by the story a mysterious prisoner begins to tell as he tends to his wounds. The prisoner is Mordred, bastard son of King Arthur Pendragon and his half sister Morgan Le Fay, who has been arrested for murder and treason. His story is one of ambition, power, and betrayal, and it will change the monk's life forever. In Clegg's ambitious reimagining of Camelot, Mordred, the traditional villain of Arthurian legend, emerges as a heroic and romantic figure, torn between his powerful mother's desire for revenge against Arthur, his own conflicted feelings toward the father who betrayed him, and his passionate love affair with a knight in King Arthur's court: Lancelot. The first of a trilogy, Mordred, Bastard Son sets the stage for an epic adventure of love, friendship, magic, war, and betrayal… a fresh, dazzling chapter in the Arthurian canon. Okay now this could be interesting: an established horror writer putting a dark and chilling spin on the legend of Camelot. This sounds like the most inventive retelling of Arthurian saga since Mary Steward’s The Merlin Trilogy.
Wolf Star, R.M. Meluch (Daw Books)
In the long war with the Palatine Empire, the pride of the Terran space fleet are its sister starships, the U.S.S. Merrimack and the U.S.S. Monitor. Now that the Palatine forces have secretly captured the Monitor and its codes, they can remotely seize control of the Merrimack-leaving her almost helpless. But as both sides struggle for supremacy, they are about to be attacked by an alien life-form: the Hive, a biological force with only one imperative: to seek and devour. The second book of the Tour of the Merrimack series, Wolf Star follows 2005’s The Myriad.
The Diamond Isle of the Dreamtime Series © Eos Books
Internationally acclaimed author Stan Nicholls delivers the dramatic conclusion to The Dreamtime! Desperate to find a cure for the curse of immortality and debilitating visions that torment him, Reeth Caldason has traded his fighting skills for potential access to powerful ancient magic. But now Reeth is trapped on the Diamond Isle, fending off the pirates who plague the surrounding waters as he struggles to understand his true nature. And the specter of war looms… Book three of The Dreamtime series, The Diamond Isle follows The Covenant Rising (2005) and The Righteous Blade (2005).
Wolf Hunting, Jane Lindskold (Tor Books)
In Through Wolf's Eyes (2002), Jane Lindskold introduced Firekeeper, the young girl raised by intelligent, language-using wolves. Abducted back into human society, Firekeeper found that, in the world of deadly human political intrigues, her training as a pack animal served her well. Later, in Wolf Captured (2005), Firekeeper and her lupine companion Blind Seer found themselves kidnapped and dragged overseas, to the unfamiliar land of Liglimon, where humans have a different relationship to intelligent animals. Now, still in Liglimon, Firekeeper and Blind Seer respond to a request for assistance from Truth, the soothsayer-jaguar. Then, while helping Truth, Firekeeper and her companion come across evidence of elaborate investigations into kinds of ancient magics taboo in Liglimoshti culture. It appears more people in Liglimon are willing to flout this taboo than anyone cares to admit, and Firekeeper and Blind Seer decide their duty is to find out more. But Truth knows more than she's telling. She can see and trace future timelines for particular individuals, which in the past has led her into madness. Since then, the Voice that guided her out of that madness has continued to speak to her, and it's not her friend. Eventually Truth realizes that her Voice may well be a person the Liglimoshti call "The Meddler"—a dangerous trickster figure. But Truth doesn't own up to this until far too late…
The Quantum Connection, Travis Taylor (Baen Books)
Steven Montana, computer whiz and hacker extraordinaire, was attending college in Ohio when his world fell apart. A swarm of huge meteors fell all over the world, on Europe, on the United States, and in particular on Steven’s hometown in California. In an instant, his family and all his friends were gone. Eventually, he learned that the “meteor” onslaught that had orphaned him had actually been a brief and still secret war between the U.S and its enemies (as told in 2004’s Warp Speed) using a new warp drive technology that was more secret than top secret. Another secret was that U.S. had been sending faster-than-light ships to other star systems. Most secret of all was that unfriendly aliens were observing the Earth, and while U.S. spaceships were not quite in a war with the unknown aliens, they were shooting at the intruders. Whether any of these answers would do Steven any good was an open question because he learned them only after he was abducted by those very same aliens and was held prisoner on one of their ships orbiting Saturn. At first, he was one of three human prisoners, but he had just seen the aliens completely dissect one of the three, and it looked like either Steven, or a Russian girl who was his fellow prisoner, were scheduled to be the next alien lab experiment…
Traitor to the Blood, Barb & J.C. Hendee (Penguin Group USA)
The series tells the story of Magiere, who is a dhampir (a vampire/human hybrid), and Leesil, who is a half-elf. Magiere is unaware of her ancestry, the discovery of which comes as a considerable shock. Leesil is only too aware of his, which is the reason he left home in the first place. At the start of the story the two half-breeds, together with Leesil's dog Chap, make a reasonable living pretending to be vampire-hunters. Eventually the inevitable happens and they cross paths with some genuine vampires. Hoisted by their own petard, they are plunged unwillingly into what amounts to a small war. In this fourth installment of the Noble Dead Saga, following 2003’s Dhampir, 2004’s Thief of Lives, and 2005’s Sister of the Dead, the adventures of Magiere and Leesil continue as they journey into Leesil's savage homeland seeking the family, and secret burden, he abandoned long ago.
Earthseed of the Seed Trilogy © Tor Books
Ship hurtles through space. Deep within its core, it carries the seed of humankind. Launched by the people of a dying Earth over a century ago, its mission is to find a habitable world for the children—fifteen-year-old Zoheret and her shipmates—whom it has created from its genetic banks. To Zoheret and her shipmates, Ship has been mother, father, and loving teacher, preparing them for their biggest challenge: to survive on their own on an uninhabited planet, without Ship’s protection. Now that day is almost upon them...but are they ready to leave Ship? Ship devises a test and suddenly, instincts that have been latent for over a hundred years take over. Zoheret watches as friends become strangers—and enemies. Can Zoheret and her companions overcome the biggest obstacle to the survival of the human race—themselves? A classic SF novel, Earthseed has garnered several young adult and teen book awards back when it was first published in 1983. Anyone who missed out on the Earthseed trilogy or knows a young sci fi fan will be happy this book is back in print. The sequel, Farseed is due out on hardback this March.
Three Hands for Scorpio, Andre Norton (Tor Books)
Andre Norton, the celebrated author of Witch World and many other fantasy adventures, offers a new novel unique among her works, set in a realm not dissimilar to northern England in the sixteenth century: also, the Dismals of Northern Alabama are the model for part of the exotic setting. Drucilla, Sabina, and Tamara, identical sisters born to Desmond, Earl of Skorpys, understand the price of being princesses in a realm bordered by fractious neighbors. For generations their land has been plagued by incursions, raiding parties, and more serious conflicts with Gurlyon, the land to their North. But when these three plucky young ladies are kidnapped as part of a plot to undermine their father's domain, they are taken to a mysterious realm where they experience terrors unlike anything they could imagine. Their captors, fearing pursuit, thrust the princesses into a deep recess in a bizarre underworld called the Dismals. Once there, they must fend off hideous creatures, and a young man who claims to be lord of this dark, forbidding realm. Not sure whether he is friend or foe, they must depend on their wits, on each other, and on the mind-link that binds them together. Only thus can they escape the bizarre nether-realm they must roam in search of a way home. Their travails test them in ways they cannot foresee, both physically and magically. Powerful forces work against them, but together they may yet escape, and help right the wrong that brought them to the strange realm in the first place.
Solstice Wood, Patricia A. McKillip (Penguin Group USA)
No stranger to the realms of myth and magic, World Fantasy Award winning author Patricia A. McKillip presents her first contemporary fantasy in years. Solstice Wood is a tale of the tangled lives we mere mortals lead, when we turn our eyes from the beauty and mystery that lie just outside of the everyday. When her beloved grandfather dies, bookstore owner Sylvia Lynn knows she must finally return to her childhood home in upstate New York and face the grandmother who raised her and the woods which so beguiled- and frightened-her. But it's not until she meets the Fiber Guild-a group of local women who meet to knit, embroider, and sew-that Sylvia learns why her grandmother watches her so. A primitive power exists in the forest, a force the Fiber Guild seeks to bind in its stitches and weavings. And Sylvia is no stranger to the woods.
Time Twisters © Daw Books
A new anthology by some of the top names in the genre. Time travel and the dangers of altering the time stream continue to fascinate readers. This book offers 17 new stories of daring adventurers who meddle with time including: a science fiction fan who warded off an alien invasion of Earth through contemporary culture... Joan of Arc's training in future history... and an FBI hunt for a Mafia don who found his way back to the age of knighthood.
Crown of Stars, Kate Elliott (Penguin Group USA)
In the wake of the cataclysm many new alliances are forming even as old ones dissolve. As Sanglant struggles to legitimize his own leadership, the Aoi are carrying out random attacks—while implicating him as their leader. Stronghand has begun a march of conquest into the heart of Sanglant's realm. Adelheid and Antonia have made an unholy alliance and Sabella and Duke Conrad are moving to seize Sanglant's crown. Cultures, religions, and races are clashing in what will be the ultimate struggle for control of this strange new world. Following 2005’s In the Ruins, (book six of the Crown of Stars series) Elliott concludes her seven-volume epic with this solid, action-packed finisher.
The Wave, Walter Mosley (Warner Books, Inc.)
The New York Times bestselling author returns to science fiction with an eerie, transcendent novel of the near future. Errol's father has been dead for several years. Yet lately Errol has been awakened in the middle of the night by a caller claiming to be his father. Is it a prank, or a message from the grave? When he hears the unmistakable sound of a handset being put down on a table, he decides to investigate. Curious and not a little unnerved, Errol sneaks into the graveyard where his father is buried. What he finds there changes his life forever. Caught up in a war between a secret government security agency and an alien presence infecting our world, touched by the Wave, he knows that nothing will ever be the same again.
Plague of Memory: A Stardoc Novel, S.L. Viehl (Penguin Group USA)
Dr. Cherijo Torin is not herself. With no memory of her past-or even of the man she loved-she sees herself as a different person and has no desire to remember who she once was. But Cherijo must remember if she's to develop a cure for the Hsktskt plague before their race becomes extinct.
That’s it for this week guys. Check back next Tuesday for all the latest on new sci fi, fantasy, and horror book releases. Questions or comments? Hit me up at PFerrara@mania.com.
