Review: Speaker to Aliens [Kindle Edition]
One of the most inspiring books that I have read.
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
There aren't too many authors who can write a book dealing with religious issues without having some sort of holy war called out against them. I think T. Jackson King may be the first author who has correctly dealt with religious issues in a way that both teaches you the good and the bad about the religion and culture, and also helps the characters rise above the issues.
Speaker to Aliens is set in the future with a radical group of religious fanatics have taken over most of the world. In this novel, it happens to be the Shia Islamic faith, but it could be any other religious group, since I've found that all religious have fanatics of some sort... some just happen to be quieter than others. The interesting thing is that when we normally think about the future and a one-government world (or in this case, one major government and some smaller alliances) we normally think of a COUNTRY taking over, not a religion. The author portrays the Shi'ite people well, providing both proof that he has researched the religion and the people, and also thought about how they would behave in the future, especially if they were in a leadership role.
The name character of the novel, Helen, is a linguist hired along with others of the Western and Asian Alliances to work the technical side of running a colony ship from Earth to their new planet to spread "The Call" of Islam. Even though the General Contract she was hired under provides protections and restrictions, she finds that once out of Earth's orbit, Sharia Law holds true and no one is safe. Now the only thing that she can hope for is to survive the trip and make it back to Earth.
I believe that this book was very well done. It's not easy to write about religion or politics, since both are touchy subjects for all people. Combining religion and politics in this novel was done flawlessly - the author is neither racist, nor does he hesitate to touch on the issues involved. If a country was taken over by religious fanatics of any religion, people who had the only access to FTL space travel, and people who are very strict on how their people behave... yes, I believe that they would act and react as written in this book.
But this novel doesn't just give us a religious lesson. You are introduced to characters with such depth that you still don't know the complete truths about them at the end of the novel. You are introduced to people who have the integrity to do what is right even if it is against their belief system - realizing that belief and truth are not always the same thing. And you have an interesting storyline to go along with it, with very little unanswered questions at the end of the book. In fact, the author left himself just enough leeway to perhaps expand on this universe and provide a sequel, though the novel is complete without one.
