A Case of Conscience (Del Rey Impact)
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Father Ruiz-Sanchez is a dedicated man--a priest who is also a scientist, and a scientist who is also a human being. He has found no insoluble conflicts in his beliefs or his ethics . . . until he is sent to Lithia. There he comes upon a race of aliens who are admirable in every way except for their total reliance on cold reason; they are incapable of faith or belief.
Confronted with a profound scientific riddle and ethical quandary, Father Ruiz-Sanchez soon finds himself torn between the teachings of his faith, the teachings of his science, and the inner promptings of his humanity. There is only one solution: He must accept an ancient and unforgivable heresy--and risk the futures of both worlds . . .
The citizens of the planet Lithia are some of the most ethical sentient beings Father Ramon Ruiz-Sanchez has ever encountered. True, they have no literature, no fine arts, and don't understand the concept of recreation, but neither do they understand the concepts of greed, envy, lust, or any of the sins and vices that plague humankind. Their world seems darned near perfect. And that is just what disturbs the good Father.
First published in 1959, James Blish's Hugo Award-winning A Case of Conscience is science fiction at its very best: a fast-paced, intelligent story that offers plenty of action while at the same time explores complex questions of values and ethics. In this case, Blish has taken on the age-old battle of good vs. evil. Lithia poses a theological question that lies at the heart of this book: is God necessary for a moral society? The Lithians are nothing if not moral. Not only do they lack the seven deadly sins, they also lack original sin. And without any sort of religious framework, they have created the Christian ideal world, one that humans would be eager to study and emulate. But is it too perfect? Is it in fact, as Father Ruiz-Sanchez suspects, the work of The Adversary? And what role does Egtverchi, the young Lithian raised on Earth, play? Is he an innocent victim of circumstance, or will he bring about the Dies Irae, the day of the wrath of God, upon the earth? The fate of two worlds hinges on the answers to these questions, and will lead to an ancient earth heresy that shakes the Jesuit priest's beliefs to their very core.
A Case of Conscience is a brilliant piece of storytelling, and it packs a lot into a scant 242 pages. Most readers will probably finish the book in one sitting, unable to stop until the spectacular denouement. But the questions posed by this little-known gem will stay with you for days afterward. --P.M. Atterberry
Customer Reviews
An Interesting Failure
I like a good novel of ideas now and again and can become annoyed with books that are devoid of ideas.The novel of ideas tends to suffer from certain problems.Most are not especially well written .Novelists of ideas tend to think of their ideas as being so important that literary style doesn't matter.Characters tend to be paper thin projections rather than live beings.Even plots tend to be subordinate to the message.A Case of Conscience suffers from all these problems.The style is to use a reviewer cliche ,workman like, at best.The characters are implausible and thinly drawn.The plot is a little hard to follow at points.I'll admit I'm not sure what happens at the end .
There is a very revealing dialogue at one point in the novel between the four scientists who are pivotal characters.Two of these men sound like complete idiots. One can not imagine these men being assigned to an interplanetary mission whose purpose is to decide a planets future.I realize not all scientists are cultural sophisticates but these two sound like they just fell off the turnip truck.One is a low rent Dr.Stangelove who has no curiousity about the fascinating creatures they have found on the planet, he just wants to get on with bulding bombs.The man is a cretin.Then there is a great mathemetician, who announces that outside his speciality he don't know from nothing.So what is he doing on this mission?Sorry but this is ridiculous.The other two scientists are a little more plausible in that they don't sound stupid or completly nuts.It's Ruiz-Sanchez who becomes the focal point of the novel.Sanchez is a Catholic priest and all around intellectual.Unfortunately he is also an extremely unsophisticated thinker.So while this dialoguge winds up raising any number of intersting issues, it doesn't do them justice because the characters are so superficial and muddled.
One might have expected Sanchez to be a serious exponent of Catholic thought.Instead he sounds like someone who might teach biology at Oral Roberts University.That is he sounds like a not especially learned creationist - fundamentalist.The notion that he's Jesuit intellectual is a joke.Someone of his training and background would likely have responded to what the men find on Lithia in two ways.One he could conclude that his Christian prejudices are basically bunk and the Lithians high moral strandards are proof that say John Stuart Mill had it right, you don't need to be a Christian to act like one.Two,more likely ,that the Lithians are proof of the existence of natural law which exists even where the incarnation has not taken place.Thus the Lithians are akin to virtuous pagans.Why he comes up with the cockamamie notion that these creatures are Satans spawn is not satisfactorily addressed.
The virtue of this novel is that it does get you thinking.The key problem is you wish James Blish had given you better food for thought.
2009-12-28
| jk (nj) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 2
Like a movie with a promising trailer
Father Ruiz Sanchez is catholic priest 50 light years away from Earth. He and his companions have discovered a utopian planet with no violence, no money, no slavery and no God. A case of Eden on the surface, but... what is really lurking underneath? Don't miss Case of Conscience coming soon from Sony Pictures.
Promising ah?
But no. Despite the Hugo, despite the introduction by Greg Bear, despite the good intentions, Case of Conscience does not deliver. This starts from a very basic fact, that religion and science fiction are like water and oil. They don't mix well, and they never will. Even in this case, however, I'd appreciate reading about Father's Sanchez internal struggle against what he believes is the Adversary on the planet Lithia, which makes the book interesting for 60 to 70 pages. But suddenly, we are off to Earth, to get directions from headquarters at Rome. At the same time, some new characters are introduced, some old, dull characters are given more pages and after a description of a bleak Earth and a weird party, the novel ends not with a whimper, but with a real bang.
Had it ended with a whimper, it might have been something else.
2009-10-12
(Athens, Greece) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 2
Reads More Like an Intellectual Exercise than a Novel
I wanted to like A CASE OF CONSCIENCE, which attempts to tackle a lot of interesting theological issues in an SF context. Unfortunately, after a decent beginning, this novel stumbles badly in its second half as Blish forgets his obligations as a storyteller. As another reviewer pointed out, this novel ultimately goes into too many different directions at once, and it eventually loses narrative coherence. It also doesn't help that all of the book's characters are dry as sawdust, and for the most part talk as philosophers and intellectuals, rather than real people.
A CASE OF CONSCIENCE won the 1959 Hugo Award, which is why I read it. I'm guessing it won because of its provocative subject matter (religion v. science, one-world government, etc.) as opposed to the quality of the plotting and characterization. While the novel is indeed thematically cutting edge, a good novel requires more than interesting themes -- it requires a good story as well. Since this novel lacks that essential ingredient, I can't recommend it.
2009-09-29
(Las Vegas, Nevada) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 2
Awful
For those interested in the intersection between Christianity and the science fiction of the late 1950s, this novel makes an intriguing companion piece to A Canticle for Leibowitz. On its own terms, considered as an SF novel, I found it simply dreadful, with no sufficient excuses to be found on the basis of its age.
The story begins as follows: Ramon Ruiz-Sanchez, a Jesuit priest and biologist, is one of a party of four scientists investigating a newly discovered planet and its race of technologically advanced, though pre-spaceflight, aliens. The aliens are the first intelligent beings to be found in man's travels through the galaxy. The first howler in the novel is that these four men, none of them educated in the possibilities of communicating with intelligent aliens, are charged with deciding whether the planet should be opened to further investigation. It's only because the four end up tied in their decision that the planet isn't declared "closed" forever. Apparently the planet is being treated like any other prospect for a "way-station" or for mining exploitation: If the plant and animal life isn't too dangerous, and if the environment and mining prospects are favorable, the planet will be opened. If not, -- whadevah --we'll go find another planet. The existence of the first known alien civilization isn't reason enough to treat this planet any differently from a lifeless asteroid.
Sanchez would like to see the planet closed, because he believes it's a construction of the devil. Literally. The native aliens have no crime or war or apparent misbehavior of any kind, and neither do they have any religion or supernatural beliefs whatsoever. So obviously, Sanchez deduces, they must be a trick, created by Satan to convince mankind that goodness is possible without God.
This is actually one of the more consistent and rational pieces of human motivation in the novel. If one accepts that a future scientist could believe, literally and utterly and unquestioningly, all of the tenets of Christianity, complete with Adam & Eve, the garden of eden and a devil with a pointy tail, then his arguments that the planet must be a construction or illusion (the distinction is important within the story) of the devil are quite logical. Infinitely more logical and believable, for example, than the notion that a religious nut-job like this would be given 1/4 of the deciding power as to whether the planet and race should be open to human study.
Meanwhile, one of the alien race is sent back to Earth as an egg. He quickly grows to adulthood, and thanks to his somewhat Stranger in a Strange Land personality, becomes a TV celebrity, a popular voice among the many disaffected of Earth's citizens. And there are many disaffected citizens, because most of the population are forced to live underground in dreary and unnatural conditions. During the Cold War, the human race abandoned the surface and rebuilt its cities underground in hopes of surviving an imminent nuclear war that never happened. Thanks to a world-government, the threat of war has been gone for many decades, but still mankind lives in its underground "shelter state" because... um... because... because the plot calls for it, that's why. This is perhaps the second biggest howler of irrationality in the book, but there are countless others. In the behavior of individuals, of groups, of crowds, of the government, of the culture as a whole, it's an exception for any of them to do anything that makes the slightest sense.
In the end, Sanchez performs an exorcism on the entire alien planet via telescope. It's a hallmark of this book that this supremely irrational and downright goofy performance is one of the more logical and understandable acts in the novel.
James Blish is generally considered one the "greats" of early SF. Based on this novel, and the short stories of his that I've read, I don't understand why.
2009-08-18
| KBunker (Boston, MA USA) | Helpful Votes: 3 | Rating: 1
Great Beginning
This classic starts off strong, with thought provoking ideas about a peaceful alien culture that may or may not need a dose of human religion. The latter part of the story wanders in different directions though. I couldn't tell if it wanted to be about the gap between science and religion, stability of future society, real devils, imaginary devils, cults of personality, the noble savage dilemma, alienation, Catholic dogma, or perils of the arms race. I'll give it a mild recommendation for its award winning status and big ideas, but for me it lost focus and ended on a very confusing note.
2009-07-14
(Colorado Springs, CO) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 3
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