I almost never respond to readers’ reviews, but I found yours interesting.
Though I have never read Heinlein’s book, and know nothing about it, you are correct that to a point I was inspired by Wool, and by Canticle for Liebowitz.
You might be surprised to learn that I am not at all religious, certainly as regards the standard Christian religion. But I’ve always been curious about how much of the Bible actually refers to real events, and with Black Heart I wanted to capture the idea that those events could be filtered over eons to become myth and even a religion.
I didn’t like casting Josh in sort of a Messianic role, but I couldn’t really think of another way to make the story work. I also took pains to imply that he’s really not any Messiah, when Matt jokes about his ‘followers’ and refuses to help him any more.
I encourage you to check out the following two books in the series: ‘Arrival’ and ‘Origin’. They have no ‘Messianic’ component, and in fact in Arrival, religious fanatics are basically the bad guys. I’m especially happy with ‘Origin’, which talks about how the Station came to be. Its protagonist is Carmine Cleary, a cynical, hard-drinking, former muck-raking journalist who eventually comes to be known as Saint Carmine.
I’d be happy to send you free e-copies of each, if you’re interested. Let me know.
I almost never respond to readers’ reviews, but I found yours interesting.
Though I have never read Heinlein’s book, and know nothing about it, you are correct that to a point I was inspired by Wool, and by Canticle for Liebowitz.
You might be surprised to learn that I am not at all religious, certainly as regards the standard Christian religion. But I’ve always been curious about how much of the Bible actually refers to real events, and with Black Heart I wanted to capture the idea that those events could be filtered over eons to become myth and even a religion.
I didn’t like casting Josh in sort of a Messianic role, but I couldn’t really think of another way to make the story work. I also took pains to imply that he’s really not any Messiah, when Matt jokes about his ‘followers’ and refuses to help him any more.
I encourage you to check out the following two books in the series: ‘Arrival’ and ‘Origin’. They have no ‘Messianic’ component, and in fact in Arrival, religious fanatics are basically the bad guys. I’m especially happy with ‘Origin’, which talks about how the Station came to be. Its protagonist is Carmine Cleary, a cynical, hard-drinking, former muck-raking journalist who eventually comes to be known as Saint Carmine.
I’d be happy to send you free e-copies of each, if you’re interested. Let me know.