"A Case of Conscience" by James Blish

This novel was originally published in 1958. It was different for its time, because it was a science fiction novel that dealt with religious characters and perspectives. This wasn't something that had been done in science fiction very much at the time.


Originally a novella, the novel is an expansion of the original work. The first part is the original novella, with a second part of the story added. At least, that's what I've found out with a little bit of Internet-surfing, hopefully the sources I've looked at are correct.


Father Ramon Ruiz-Sanchez is a Jesuit and a scientist, and one of a four-member team exploring a planet called Lithia. They have had some interaction with the Lithians, intelligent, bipedial reptilian creatures.

Ruiz-Sanchez and his group have the task of making recommendations about how Lithia is to be dealt with - how openly should Earth trade with Lithia, or should they not have formal relations with this planet at all, is something the characters have to discuss.

The first part of the novel doesn't actually have a lot of action - what plot there is seemed, to me, like more of a backdrop for the characters to have discussions. I'm not sure if that's common within the subgenre of science fiction crossed with religion, but you I could make similar comments about other such books I've read, like Robert J. Sawyer's "Calculating God" or Mary Doria Russell's "The Sparrow." These books have some action, but quite a lot of pages consist of long discussions - which isn't a bad thing. Far from it, I think it's wonderful when an author writes a novel that's very compelling and a good read, even without a lot of action or violence or anything. Heh, in my own attempts to write, I've often been given comments that my stories need more action, which I've tried to provide - my stories are much more brutally violent and action-packed than they used to be.

Anyway, back to "A Case of Conscience" -

Ruiz-Sanchez and his colleagues discuss the various options. Ruiz-Sanchez has had a unique opportunity to enter the home of a Lithian, and has learned more about the Lithians than anyone else. The Lithians are actually a very peaceful species, apparently without crime, violence, war - or religion. They have no concept of a God or creation at all, apparently never developed it.

Now, I don't want to give away exactly what happens or what Ruiz-Sanchez recommends, since that's one of the main points that's supposed to be a surprise for the reader.

But it's not what you might have guessed.

Or maybe you would, who knows?

Anyway, the second part of the novel focuses on what happens when Egtverchi, a Lithian born and raised on Earth, becomes a well-known public figure. Not being raised on Lithia, Egtverchi turns out to be a very different sort of character, and actually encourages violence and rioting. The story becomes increasingly violent as it continues.

In the end, Ruiz-Sanchez witnesses events that bring the action back to Lithia - well, he indirectly witnesses what happens. The climax, right at the very end of the story, brings several characters together and combines the scientific with the religious, in a way that could be seen as mere coincidence, or not - I suspect Blish meant for that question to be left open for the reader to wonder about.

Which I think is good, I often like it when a story resolves some points, but leaves ideas and questions in the reader's mind afterwards, and this novel does plenty of that.

It's a little hard to say just who I'd recommend this book to, because the first and second halves are quite different, so some people might prefer one or the other. Taken together, though, they make a whole that presents a fascinating contrast - seeing what happens to the characters in different situations allows the story to explore different sides of ideas.

Some things seemed, to me, to be clearly influenced by the times the story was written in, like how Earth has a culture in which people are used to living in underground shelters. The fifties was the era of bomb shelters, after all, and I guess it was the early sixties when the Cuban missile crisis happened.

Despite, that, though, I'd say this book stands up well over time, and is still a good read today.

"Forever Peace" by Joe Haldeman (Military Science Fiction, Spoiler Warning)

This book won the Nebula and Hugo awards for best novel in 1998. That's quite an impressive accomplishment.

Joe Haldeman was already a well-known figure in science fiction publishing, mainly for having published "The Forever War" in 1974, which also won the Nebula award in 1975 and the Hugo award in 1976. Despite what you might think from the title, though, "Forever Peace" is not a direct sequel to "The Forever War." It does, however, explore issues about war and its effects on soldiers from a different perspective.

In "Forever Peace," Julian Class is one of a group of soldiers who fight by operating "soldierboys." These are remote controlled battle machines, which allow the war to be fought by soldiers who remain safely in their homeland, hundreds of miles away from where the action is taking place.

The nanotechnology and other advances that make this possible are, however, not shared by everyone. Some countries have it, and fight against less technologically advanced nations whose people have to confront the soldierboys the old fashioned way, and fight and die themselves.

The soldiers who use the soldierboys are able to see what's happening during a battle as if they were really there, and the experiences they go through can still take an emotional toll. These experiences also tend to make soldiers bond closely between themselves, in a way that civilians can't understand.

War is also depicted as a form of entertainment. Video taken from battles is distributed for people's viewing pleasure. Some groups of soldiers even have fans who closely follow all of their battles.

In order to be able to connect to a soldierboy and work with a squad of soldiers, each individual soldier has to undergo an operation on their brain so they can "jack in." The procedure doesn't always work, though, with potentially serious consequences if it goes wrong.

(I'm going to re-iterate my spoiler warning here).

This technology, which enables one to jack in, turns out to have an ironic effect. Julian and some of his friends discover that, while it allows soldiers to communicate and literally be inside each other's heads, prolonged exposure to this linking with others can permanently make one more empathetic. And that could make it harder for a person to harm another human being. That makes them realize they may have found a tool that could bring about peace and end war at last.

That makes it a good example of a theme that runs through much of the science fiction genre. A lot ot scientific discoveries and technological innovations aren't necessarily good or evil all by themselves, but how human beings choose to use them is always the vital question.

There's another, parallel plot involving some physics experiments and an attempt to re-create the big bang, but which might have hugely destructive consequences. This threat adds more ugency to the characters' quest to change the world.

Many of the issues Haldeman brings in to this story are very real and relevant today, even though this novel is set in the future. It's a nice example of the way science fiction can show what can happen if we continue on the course we're on. The stark difference between have and have-not nations, highlighted by the way wars are fought is one example. War as a form of entertainment is something all too true - how many people are glued to their T.V. sets when a war is on? It's been that way since the Vietnam war, hasn't it? And the fact is, there is technology available today that is coming closer to making remote control war possible. Or even beyond that, automated war - there have been stories in the news recently about the use of armed robot drones in Iraq.

That's the sign of a good novel - no matter where or when it takes place, it shows us something relevant to the world today.