Author Christopher Lansdown writes:

I’m a catholic convert (from Greek Orthodoxy, granted, but I was actually raised in the Anglican church) with a long-time atheist friend, who suggested that I write a story about a priest in space, which I did. It’s a somewhat older-style science fiction, where the future is more or less an analog for the past. A six month journey to a new planet in one sense might as well have been a several month journey from europe to the americas in the 1700s, and so while the technology is futuristic, the story is about the people. I tried, at least, to take advantage of the futuristic setting to focus the story on what is eternally human.

You might find it interesting because I posit that the general culture will have become explicitly pagan, though in a more genuine sense and not merely in rebelling against one’s parents. Part of why I think you might find this is interesting is that one of the things you’ve written which has especially struck me was a paraphrase you made of Chesterton: that the last thing we know for certain about the ancient pagans is that they sought baptism.

The plot description, preface, and first chapter are available on the book’s website.

(The first review is from a friend who majored in the philosophy of religions in college, and the second from a friend I met at the Western PA Chesterton Society.)

Two things. First, anything that is about PREEEEEESTS IIIIIIN SPAAAAAAACE is okay in my book. Second, you might also be interest in Michael Flynn’s world-building exercise his series The January Dancer, Up Jim River, In the Lion’s Mouth, and On The Razor’s Edge. He too envisions a sort of Wild West future in which humans have spread out across space and have lapsed into real (not boutique neo-) paganism. He’s a fine, fine writer. You guys might enjoy talking shop, Mr. Lansdown. His website is The TOF Spot.

All y’all, if you are looking for sci-fi goodness to give somebody for Christmas, check these guys out!