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Title: The God Engines
Author: John Scalzi
Genre: Fantastical science fiction
Thingummies: 5
Synopsis: The captain of a spaceship powered by a defeated god must convert a planet to help his own deity in a war of faith.
Thoughts: Hoo, boy, this is dark. It's not that Scalzi is usually nothing but sweetness and light, but most of his writing is laced with humor and a shot of optimism. Not this--don't expect this to feel anything like Old Man's War or Agent to the Stars.
It's also brilliant.
I don't want to talk much more about this, since it's difficult to do so without spoilers. It's a novella, so there's not a lot of set-up before you're in too deep anyway. There are some concepts you've seen before--the idea that gods are powered by the faith of their followers, the inevitable space-sacred-hookers--but there are some twists and some following of things to their logical conclusions that keep them from being total cliches.
This is very much a departure for Scalzi, but I wouldn't mind seeing more in this vein.
Author: John Scalzi
Genre: Fantastical science fiction
Thingummies: 5
Synopsis: The captain of a spaceship powered by a defeated god must convert a planet to help his own deity in a war of faith.
Thoughts: Hoo, boy, this is dark. It's not that Scalzi is usually nothing but sweetness and light, but most of his writing is laced with humor and a shot of optimism. Not this--don't expect this to feel anything like Old Man's War or Agent to the Stars.
It's also brilliant.
I don't want to talk much more about this, since it's difficult to do so without spoilers. It's a novella, so there's not a lot of set-up before you're in too deep anyway. There are some concepts you've seen before--the idea that gods are powered by the faith of their followers, the inevitable space-sacred-hookers--but there are some twists and some following of things to their logical conclusions that keep them from being total cliches.
This is very much a departure for Scalzi, but I wouldn't mind seeing more in this vein.
