My point is this:
Though I have always lived by these regulations, I would be willing to throw it
all away to save the people on this ship.”
“Very admirable,”
Samuel said. “You would doubtless find that much of what you do is a chasing
after the wind. Meaningless to what is truly important.”
Seal would give
him that one, “Undoubtedly, that’s true. However, I ask asking a similar
sacrifice of you. That for this present crisis, you would close your rulebook,
as well.:
Mark leaned
forward, placing both elbows on his knees. “You are asking us to forsake our
Ordnung, correct? To commit violence. Even against our own.”
“They’re not your
own anymore, I don’t think.”
Genre: Sci-Fi, Amish, Fantasy
Target Audience: Boys and Girls 16+
Subjects: Vampires, Amish lifestyle,
Salvation, Sacrifice
Summary: He’s been entrusted with a
terrible secret. For generations this knowledge has been passed down with
instructions of how to use this knowledge if it ever became necessary. As much
as he would wish otherwise, the necessary time has come during the lifetime of
Jebediah Miller. What was not entrusted to him though, was what would happen if
he did use this knowledge. No one said anything about Englishers coming down
from the sky and hauling the Amish to a new planet because their sun was
changing and was about to destroy their current planet. No one said that to be
a hero and save his people he would need to violate the Ordnung and be placed
under the ban. And no one could have known that the ship sent to rescue them
had something profoundly evil on it, something powerful enough to destroy every
living thing on the ship.
Notes: The back story is that this
book started as a joke. Author friends observing that vampire books and Amish
books were selling like crazy said they, as science fiction authors, should
write a book about both subjects and set it in space. However, one author
actually took it as a serious challenge and wrote a book dealing with some very
weighty subject matters. The book definitely does not read like a joke. It
takes all the aspects of it very seriously.
The
vampire part comes from scientific genetic research, trying to give humans some
of the characteristics of vampire bats in order to more quickly colonize new
worlds. The research goes wrong and the humans become more bat than human and
after an explosion, one intern scientist is put into cryomatrix and is being
sent to another planet for medical care and briefing to find out what happened
with the explosion. The scientist manages to awake and infect another who
infects another and on it goes until most of the ship has turned into vampire
bat type creatures. This aspect of the book is not pretty. There are very vivid
descriptions of the vampires’ actions.
The
Amish part comes as Jebediah and the bishop both wrestle with their faith,
trying to figure out what is/should be forbidden and how to make the best
decisions with the knowledge they have.
The
sci-fi part comes as they travel through space and use futuristic technology.
This
book is also supposed to be Christian fiction though. That comes in one single
character who is a Christian in the book. We find that out about halfway
through the book when she’s invited to start co-habitating with a man and
expresses her views a little bit. She also has a conversation with one of the
Amish about works based salvation.
The
trouble is that the book doesn’t conclude much of anything. The vampire part is
resolved and the government system in the book is dealing with the group that
was doing the genetic research. The Amish part is left very unsettled. Both
Jebediah and the bishop fail to come to any positive conclusions. They still
feel they destroyed their people and continue to try to measure up to God
through good works. The Christian character seems to have accepted a
relationship with the guy who pursued her, but there’s no indication that he
even understood, let alone embraced Christianity. It’s more just a matter of a
number of worldviews being presented. The vampire/scientists worldview is that
survival of the fittest is the most important thing in life and any genetic
alterations should be accepted if it increases man’s chance to survive
physically – even if it means he becomes more animal than human. The Amish
worldview is presented as trying to be good enough to please God and being good
enough means blind obedience to authority, even if that authority is clearly
leading you to your death. It also portrays a hypocrisy. They refuse to do anything to help save themselves or their people because that would require violence, but they have no problem with someone else doing it for them. They don't refuse to have their lives saved. The captain of the ship represents the government
system’s worldview which seems to be similar to the Amish – have a huge
rulebook and follow it explicitly. The difference is that he is doing it to
gain rewards in this life, rather than after death. And the Christian worldview
is presented as rare and a bit strange. Their view is that we can’t be good
enough for God and that’s why He sent His Son to take our punishment. This of
course is the Biblically correct worldview, but it’s not presented as such.
It’s just yet another viewpoint that’s tossed out there for consideration. At
the end of the book you don’t really know who is right other than Jebediah, the
disobedient Amish man who fully believes in the Amish worldview, just sets it
aside long enough to save his people.
Spiritual Content
Recommendation Scale: 2/5
Reviewer: J:-)mi
James 2:10 – For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles
at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.
Ephesians 2:8-9 – For it is by grace you have been
saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves,
it is the gift of God-- not by works, so that no one can boast.
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