Conference noted::sf

905.0. "O'Neal's An Abyss of Light" by TINCUP::KOLBE (The dilettante debutante) Mon Aug 27 1990 16:04

    Well, I've finished Yet Another Book that ends with an obvious sequel
    waiting in the wings. You know that terrible feeling as you near the
    end of the book and there's no way that the few pages left can answer
    the problems left hanging. Other than that Mrs. Lincoln? Well, I liked
    it. It's by, if I can rememeber right, Kathleen O'Neal.

    This book has a lot going for it. Spaceships, religion, aliens, god,
    angels, planet scorching, love, tourture. The main theme is "the nature
    of evil" and it's not so much talked about directly as it is exhibited
    in the actions of the players and their interactions with god. While
    the action often takes over the story it always reverts to questions of
    faith and whether the creator will protect his chosen people or keep on
    testing them. 

    There are lots of spies and traitors and you (and the characters) can't
    quite decide who is, and who isn't. And there is no saftey in
    innocence or faith.

    In the galaxy human's are pretty much run by a group of aliens known as
    Magistrates. A religious group known as the Gamants refuses to buckle
    under and they are persecuted. The characters names and general
    theology harkened back to old earth Judaism with the sort of twists and
    flips you'd expect after several thousands of years. The aliens never
    really appear in the book. All their dealings with the Gamants are
    handled through their human military force. Some of whom are beginning
    to doubt what they are doing.

    By the means of a special jewel, called a mea, the possesor can talk
    directly to god. There used to be thousands of them but now only one is
    left. Somehow, it's connected with the aliens and may be the key to the
    only weakness they have, but this is setup only as something that may
    come up in a later book.

    The characters were interesting and well developed. I'd recommend it as
    a good read even though I'd have prefered a more definitive ending.
    liesl

    Possible spoiler
    

    It looks like the key theme of the second book will concern what you do
    when you get a chance to ask god why he allows pain and suffering when
    he could easily stop it. And how you decide what to do when his answer
    isn't what you want to hear.