Catholic Science Fiction

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Do you mean works that have Catholicism or Catholic characters in them, or works that have Catholic/Christian themes, or works written by/directed by/starring Catholics?
 
Mary Doria Russell’s* The Sparrow *and *Children of God *should be on the list. The main character, Emilio Sandoz, was a Jesuit who went to another populated planet, and the Church plays a major role in his coming to terms with what transpired on that planet.
 
I always think of Lewis as an honorary Catholic, but yeah, he’s Anglican. And Gene Wolfe I love to death, actually. 🙂
 
christofirst said:
Mary Doria Russell’s* The Sparrow *and *Children of God *should be on the list. The main character, Emilio Sandoz, was a Jesuit who went to another populated planet, and the Church plays a major role in his coming to terms with what transpired on that planet.
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Thanks, that author and those novels are both new to me. 🙂 I’m going to look for them on Amazon in a few minutes.
 
Exiled_Child said:
Can we get a thread going on Catholic science fiction book and film recommendations? The first ones that pop into my head are The Space Trilogy and A Canticle for Leibowitz. Are there others?
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Speaker for the Dead is a sci-fi novel about Catholic missionaries in outer space. Written by a Mormon though. It has an awesome chapter where a missionary is held captive and starved to death by a group of alien heretics who think their blood contains an incarnation of the Holy Spirit. While he starves, he spends his last weeks engaging in a theological argument for why they should let him go and why the Holy Spirit isn’t incarnate in their blood. Yeah, it’s weird, but it makes sense if you read the book.

Jimmy Akin reviews it here: jimmyakin.com/2008/08/speaker-for-the.html
 
dmar198 said:
Speaker for the Dead is a sci-fi novel about Catholic missionaries in outer space. Written by a Mormon though. It has an awesome chapter where a missionary is held captive and starved to death by a group of alien heretics who think their blood contains an incarnation of the Holy Spirit. While he starves, he spends his last weeks engaging in a theological argument for why they should let him go and why the Holy Spirit isn’t incarnate in their blood. Yeah, it’s weird, but it makes sense if you read the book.

Jimmy Akin reviews it here: jimmyakin.com/2008/08/speaker-for-the.html
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Oops, I think it is actually Xenocide that has that cool chapter. It’s a sequel to Speaker for the Dead. Jimmy Akin reviews it here: jimmyakin.com/2008/08/xenocide.html
 
Read and loved The Space Trilogy.
Just ordered " A Voyage to Alpha Centauri" by Michael Brown excited to read it!
I have read some science fiction, by evangelical author Michael S. Heiser, " The Façade" and it’s sequel " The Portent", both quite good.
I would like to hear of more.
 
Eifelheim by Michael Flynn:
In 1349, Eifelheim, a small town in the Black Forest of Germany, vanished: it ceased to appear on any maps or in any documents, having apparently been abandoned and never resettled by its community. The disappearance is no mystery — the Black Death devastated Europe. But why was the area never resettled, unlike most other depopulated areas? The mystery intrigues cliometric historian Tom Schwoerin, who sets out to solve the puzzle with the help of his partner, theoretical physicist Sharon Nagy. They gradually uncover evidence of an alien crash-landing in the area.
The village was originally called Oberhochwald, and then afterwards renamed Teufelheim (Devil home in German), which was eventually distorted to Eifelheim. They also learn of the town’s priest, Father Dietrich, an educated man who served the town in 1348, as the Black Death was beginning to strengthen its grip on medieval Europe. Dietrich, it appears, acted as humanity’s first ambassador, and was the primary liaison between Eifelheim and the aliens who happened to wreck their starship in the woods outside the village.
The novel concentrates primarily on the alien encounter in the 14th century, paying special attention to the interplay between Dietrich, a Christian scholar who is fond of Aristotle and metaphor, and the technologically advanced, post-Einsteinian band of otherworldly travelers. The interplay includes two theological questions. The first, “can aliens become Christians?” is answered in the affirmative, as some of them become converts. The second, “where is God when things go wrong?” is more difficult to answer, for both the Germans and the alien Krenken. The Germans are stricken by the Black Death, and the Krenken, who are immune to the disease, but cannot return to their home, require an amino acid not found in earthly organisms. The answer is two-fold: there is always hope, and God’s love is expressed to us in the unselfish love of fellow creatures. Dietrich’s attempts to understand the science of the Krenken (their view of the solar system, and gravity, is quite different from his) and their attempts to explain it to him, are also an important theme.
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Great book, I can’t recommend it highly enough.
 
didymus said:
Eifelheim by Michael Flynn:

Great book, I can’t recommend it highly enough.
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I just ordered a paperback copy from Amazon a minute ago; it’s supposed to arrive Tuesday. 👍

Thanks, didymus, that looks like just the kind of novel I was hoping to find. 🙂
 
I, also, am on the hunt for quality Catholic literature. If posters would kindly add age rages for whom their recommendations might especially hold appeal, it would be much appreciated.
May God bless all who visit our thread.
Amen.
 
Father Elijah, An Apocalypse, is a great book that anyone who enjoys Catholic science fiction should read.
It’s about a priest assigned to attempt conversion of the man suspected of being the anti-Christ.
For adults due to complex theological issues and reading level.

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Rod Bennet is a Catholic apologist whose interest lies in history. He wrote a fictional book called “The Christus Experiment” in which a team of time-traveling scientists capture Jesus and bring him to our time to interview him and record his answers to some questions. Apparently, the book deals with common arguments against the divinity of Jesus from academic circles. For example, in the first chapter a scientist says there is “some measure of truth” to the idea that Jesus was “a political figure at first” who had a “tremendous and rather volatile personality cult.” So if you’d like a fictional apologetics book that answers modern skepticism, you might give it a look. More info here: wonderboss.wix.com/christus#!more-about-christus/c521

Also:
Arizona_Mike said:
P.D. James “The Children of Men” (made into a good movie) about the sanctity of life and the value of children.

Brian Moore’s novel “Catholics” - a near-future SF novel about the Latin Mass and faith. Also made into a good movie with Martin Sheen.

Flannery O’Connor’s novels and stories were intensely Catholic, even though they were largely set in the southern Protestant milieu. Her “Wise Blood” was an attempt to portray the conversion process of a Catholic saint in a modern evangelical setting. Also made into a good movie by John Huston. Walker Percy was another southern Catholic who worked some of the same spiritual territory.

Jerry Pournelle, a Catholic convert, wrote “Inferno” with Larry Niven, an interesting SF novel which supposed that Dante’s description of Hell was literally accurate, and follows a skeptical SF writer and his mysterious companion as they attempt to escape. Touches on aspects of universalism and sin as viewed in a modern context. The sequel is pretty good, too.

Gene Wolfe, another Catholic SF and fantasy author is generally considered to be one of the finest living literary figures working in any genre, and his Catholicism is always working, often subtly, in the background of anything he writes. There is always a lot more going on under the surface in his plots, which often reward re-reading. His short story “The Detective of Dreams” is explicitly Catholic, as are a lot of his short stories. His recent novel “Pirate Freedom”, is a meditation on violence and grace, told from the perspective of a priest in the near future who also lived a life as a pirate on the Spanish Main. Hard to describe the plot, but fascinating.
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According to this review, Msgr. Robert Hugh Benson invented the genre of “the historical/apologetic/thriller novel.” His book Come Rack, Come Rope! tells the story of two star-crossed Catholic lovers who are caught in the grip of the English Reformation in the 1500s. Crisis Magazine calls it a Catholic classic and Whiskey Catholic says it “is fast paced and riveting…with heavy doses of apologetic material throughout.”

The book is old enough to be in the public domain. Here is the full text: gutenberg.org/cache/epub/15992/pg15992-images.html and here is a free audiobook version: librivox.org/come-rack-come-rope-by-robert-hugh-benson/

And:
Dandelion_Wine said:
Try the Father Dowling ysteries Ralph Mcinerny. If you haven’t heard of them, they are murder mysteries. Father Dowling is friends with a cop and due to his understanding of human nature, he ends up usually figuring out who the murderer is.

I’ve always loved reading murder mysteries by Agatha Christie. So when I found these, they fit right in PLUS they’re written by a Catholic with a Catholic bent.
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Gene Wolfe. Generally agreed to be the finest literary stylist working in science fiction today, and some would say one of the best living writers, period.

Very orthodox practicing Catholic, which informs his work.

Also check out James Blish’s A Case of Conscience.
 
The latest: “Discovery” by Karina Fabian.

Synopsis: Sisters Ann, Tommie and Rita are part of a classified mission to explore an alien ship that has crash landed on an asteroid three billion miles from earth. Humanity’s first contact with beings from beyond the solar system is bound to unlock the mystery of life in the universe, but the crew have their own secrets; hidden fears, desires, horrible sins - and a mission to kill. Researchers discover something unique about the third arm of the ship: something wonderful, something terrifying. Something holy. This discovery challenges Rita and Ann to confront their own pasts in order to secure the safety of the mission and the very souls of the crew.
 
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