A sometimes-inaccessible collection; the metaphysical tales shine when they stick to allegory.
Rahal offers a collection of short stories and spiritual contemplations addressing God, creation, and the day-to-day distractions that distance people from these ideas.
In another galaxy, the company U-Dream Inc., develops photon-based computers—mind-reading machines that blur the lines between games and dreams and make any fantasy seem real. But NIAM, the artificial intelligence that U-Dream employs, has been infected with a virus that snares its users in a nightmarish world while stealing their memories. The only hope is the company’s specially trained group of operatives, who seek to reveal the falsehoods of NIAM’s parasitic fantasies and awaken those trapped. The collection’s eponymous story is accompanied by others depicting those who fail to challenge perceived truths, including “A Pit Stop,” which features a lone seeker trapped in a hellish, absurdist pit reminiscent of The Divine Comedy(“As you reflected on your situation, your ears picked up the reverberations of wailing howls and piercing shrieks. These seemed to come from the far depths of the tenebrous cavities of the pit”). The fantastical explorations of the concepts of God, creation, fear, and self-control focus on the importance of questioning those in power who maintain illusory systems around themselves and others. Along with these original stories are retellings of parables about figures both real and fictional, including Bar Daysan and Baba Yaga, as well as essays, letters, and a hymn. Rahal uses simple stories with straightforward morals, often set in timeless places, and the characters and settings are mostly archetypal, presented in an ethereal manner. The result is a collection of stories structured like basic, effective fables, which remains true even when the pieces follow SF plotting tropes (imagine Philip K. Dick as part of the oral tradition). In comparison, the sermon-like essays are at times overwhelming with the sheer number of ideas they introduce, although they still fit well in the collection by virtue of their shared themes.
A sometimes-inaccessible collection; the metaphysical tales shine when they stick to allegory.Pub Date: Jan. 4, 2023
ISBN: 9798765237205
Page Count: 174
Publisher: Balboa Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An illuminating read for anyone interested in the inner workings of the Catholic Church; for prelate-fiction superfans, it...
Harris, creator of grand, symphonic thrillers from Fatherland (1992) to An Officer and a Spy (2014), scores with a chamber piece of a novel set in the Vatican in the days after a fictional pope dies.
Fictional, yes, but the nameless pontiff has a lot in common with our own Francis: he’s famously humble, shunning the lavish Apostolic Palace for a small apartment, and he is committed to leading a church that engages with the world and its problems. In the aftermath of his sudden death, rumors circulate about the pope’s intention to fire certain cardinals. At the center of the action is Cardinal Lomeli, Dean of the College of Cardinals, whose job it is to manage the conclave that will elect a new pope. He believes it is also his duty to uncover what the pope knew before he died because some of the cardinals in question are in the running to succeed him. “In the running” is an apt phrase because, as described by Harris, the papal conclave is the ultimate political backroom—albeit a room, the Sistine Chapel, covered with Michelangelo frescoes. Vying for the papal crown are an African cardinal whom many want to see as the first black pope, a press-savvy Canadian, an Italian arch-conservative (think Cardinal Scalia), and an Italian liberal who wants to continue the late pope’s campaign to modernize the church. The novel glories in the ancient rituals that constitute the election process while still grounding that process in the real world: the Sistine Chapel is fitted with jamming devices to thwart electronic eavesdropping, and the pressure to act quickly is increased because “rumours that the pope is dead are already trending on social media.”
An illuminating read for anyone interested in the inner workings of the Catholic Church; for prelate-fiction superfans, it is pure temptation.Pub Date: Nov. 22, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-451-49344-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 6, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2016
These letters from some important executive Down Below, to one of the junior devils here on earth, whose job is to corrupt mortals, are witty and written in a breezy style seldom found in religious literature. The author quotes Luther, who said: "The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." This the author does most successfully, for by presenting some of our modern and not-so-modern beliefs as emanating from the devil's headquarters, he succeeds in making his reader feel like an ass for ever having believed in such ideas. This kind of presentation gives the author a tremendous advantage over the reader, however, for the more timid reader may feel a sense of guilt after putting down this book. It is a clever book, and for the clever reader, rather than the too-earnest soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1942
ISBN: 0060652934
Page Count: 53
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1943
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