What's the Name of That Book??? discussion
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A Case of Conscience
SOLVED: Adult Fiction
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SOLVED. Looking for book sci-fi book I read over 40 years ago; philosophical twist, what constitutes evil? [s]
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Flo
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Sep 25, 2017 11:18PM
I read a science fiction novel many years ago that had a philosophical twist or what i considered philosophical in my 20s. The cover showed a planet and it was a discussion of what constitutes evil. I don't remember author or name and this is after I read it twice--I liked it so much. I know this is a difficult request but maybe one of you read it too.
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Flo do you have any more specific details? Sometimes it's the tiny details rather than the big ones that sparks someone's memory and gets the book found.It was a discussion of what constitutes evil, how was that played out in the story?
Was this set on Earth or another planet?
Male or female protagonist?
All human cast of characters, or were there aliens too?
I don't remember aliens. It was on another world/planet. Male protagonists. The question of "evil" was the main plot and I remembered it because it was so different from other books I had read. Something about the question of evil and destruction of a planet seems to somewhere in my memory. I thought it was by John Wyndham but I have looked at his books and none of them ring a bell. It was a well known writer of sci fi and I think I even came across it a few years ago being sold by Amazon. Thank you for your interest. I'm really bothered by this, ha ha. My memory is not what it once was!
Hi again, I managed to find it. I thought if you are willing to look for a book for me, I can do a little more research. I knew he was a famous writer and I knew I had read it a long time agao. So I checked writers up to 1970 and found James Blish. As soon as I saw his name, I knew he was the writer. Here's the Wikipedia entry:A Case of Conscience is a science fiction novel by American writer James Blish, first published in 1958. It is the story of a Jesuit who investigates an alien race that has no religion yet has a perfect, innate sense of morality, a situation which conflicts with Catholic teaching. The story was originally published as a novella in 1953, and later extended to novel-length, of which the first part is the original novella. The novel is the third part of Blish's thematic After Such Knowledge trilogy: it thus follows Doctor Mirabilis and Black Easter and The Day After Judgment (two short novels that Blish viewed as forming the second volume of the trilogy).
Few science fiction stories of the time attempted religious themes, and still fewer did this with Catholicism; another exception was Walter M. Miller, Jr.'s Hugo Award-winning post-apocalypticscience fiction novel A Canticle for Leibowitz.
Thank for for the "nudge." I want to read it again so I will check Amazon and see if they have it as an ebook.
Best regards,
Flo
Question: How do I put this in the Solved section? Thanks.
by James Blish link for Flo's found book.You can edit the subject and there will be a drop down and you can change folders. A moderator will likely come across this and do the finishing touches I believe.
P.s. Congrats and did you see it's the 4th book in a series? https://www.goodreads.com/series/5118... (nvmd you must of because you posted that above. left link for curious folk)
