God, superstition and Spider Robinson: books read

I’ve often reflected how much Christianity moves in the same cycles time after time: radicals push back against an ossified, ritual-heavy church in favor of something simpler and more Biblical, then a generation or two later it’s rinse-and-repeat (that’s one example of several). THE HISTORY OF GOD: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judasim, Christianity and Islam by Karen Armstrong shows how all the monotheist religions likewise repeat similar patterns and grapple with similar issues: logical analysis vs. mysticism and inspiration, analysis of the text vs. metaphor, church authority vs. individual seeking and what to do about everyone who doesn’t think the same way. Armstrong underplays the role of politics and power at times (the Fourth Crusade’s sack of Byzantium was about more than religious issues) but no question she delivers on her impressive scope.

SUPERSTITION by David Ambrose has a parapsychologist try to replicate an experiment in which a team of researchers unlocked their own mental powers by imagining a ghost (a real case — read Conjuring Up Philip for details). In this case, the researcher, his skeptical journalist lover and his team imagine a Revolutionary War hero who journeyed to France with Lafayette — hmm, wouldn’t it be interesting if we made him an intimate of Cagliostro and Count St. Germaine as well? When members of the team start dropping dead it becomes clear their creation wants to be real and intends to eliminate them before he can be unmade.

This was a solid thriller though it gets a bit heavy on quantum technobabble, to the effect quantum mechanics shows the universe is incomprehensible so who’s to say this is impossible.

BY ANY OTHER NAME is a collection of Spider Robinson’s short stories, reminding me why I enjoy his stuff but also why I don’t seek it out actively (this one turned up at a book sale). He’s very good at keeping me entertained with characters sitting around and talking about ideas (e.g. “Melancholy Elephants” about the pitfalls of copyright law) and he comes up with more off-the-wall stories than I’d have expected from past reading, such as the Runyonesque time-travel tale “Chronic Offender.” But we also have stories such as “Satan’s Children” which feels almost parodic (if we could just force people to lighten up and be honest, everything would be groovy, man!) and the title work which is way too Heinlein-influenced to work for me (Robinson’s a huge fan of REH whereas I have little use for him). Overall, though, worth reading.

#SFWApro. Cover by George Perez, all rights to image remain with current holder.