Galactic Rapture [Paperback]

Tom Flynn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2000

If Thomas Pynchon wrote science fiction, "Galactic Rapture" might be the result. Earth in the year 2344 is a small player in a galaxy of some highly advanced planets - and some incredibly backward ones. A breathtakingly wealthy and sophisticated people, the Galactics keep 40,000 of their 42,000 planets in permanent quarantine, or 'Enclave', so their primitive inhabitants can serve as sources of entertainment. Now, called 'Terra', Earth has two lucrative exports: a perversely engaging mass entertainment medium known as 'senso' and Earth religions, of which the jaded Galactics can't get enough. Terra's greatest success story, the Universal (Roman) Catholic Church, has left its birth planet to thrive on one of its own, fittingly called Vatican, where priestly sex abuse and imperial corruption take on astonishing new forms. A theology called 'serial incarnation' teaches that God incarnates his son over and over, sending him to planet after planet. The Church has grown rich from this doctrine by charging huge fees to reveal to individual planets who their Messiah is and whether or not their historic religious leaders are genuine. All is well until celebrated mathematician and recent convert Fram Galbior is overheard telling the pope that his new formula can predict where God will send his son next - an Enclave planet where most Galactics, even those in power, are forbidden. Attention centres on the rumoured new Christ, named Arn Parek, a con-man who becomes hotly sought by the Galactics. This novel is an iconoclastic, darkly hilarious epic, packed with hypocritical cardinals, scheming Mormons, religious bunco artists, and cynical media manipulators. Called a landmark in the new alternative science fiction, "Galactic Rapture" is an engaging satire on the power of religion, worship, and 'infotainment' in the future.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...delightful, brilliant, and in my 'top ten' of all time! Read it!" -- Humanist in Canada #145, Summer 2003

"...delightful, entertaining reading..." -- The Ulster Humanist, November-December 2000

"Endlessly thought-provoking. Tremendous fun. Conceptually challenging. Moving. Impassioned. Richly written. Deliciously imaginative." -- Infinity Plus

"The twining yarns of the multiple plots weave seductively and the reader cares about the characters and their conditions..." -- San Diego Union-Tribune

"This 'alternative sci-fi' novel is delightful, brilliant, and in my top ten of all time! Read it!" -- Humanist in Canada, Summer 2003

Product Details

• Paperback: 500 pages
• Publisher: Prometheus Books (January 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1573927546
• ISBN-13: 978-1573927543
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,174,961 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Provocative, Outrageous ... A Must-Read Thriller!, April 29, 2000

By 

Darshan Dellson (Vail, Colo.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Galactic Rapture (Paperback)

It isn't every day you discover a black comedy about philosophy, religion, and media ethics that is also a kick-butt thriller. Galactic Rapture, which I think is secular humanist radical Tom Flynn's first novel, succeeds on all counts. Devout Catholics or Mormons with blood pressure problems should avoid this book; everyone else should read it at once!

The plot in a snapshot: Earth (now called Terra) is part of a future galaxy-wide Confectory in which only a handful of planets are voting members. Most of the more than 40,000 worlds are colonies, protectorates, or "Enclave" planets which the elite have decided must never know that the rest of galactic civilization is out there. For entertainment, the elites watch "sensos," an updated version of Orwell's feelies, which are shot on the primitive Enclave worlds by Spectators, members of the galactic elite who pose as natives but whose sensory fields are recorded and transmitted around the galaxy. Think of "Mad Max" meets "The Truman Show."

Terra was so primitive it might have been one of these voteless, exploited worlds, if the galactics hadn't been so impressed with earth religions. The Catholics have a planet of their own now, called (of course) Vatican, and they're raking in fortunes by going from world to world and telling the natives which (if any) of their historic holy men was a genuine incarnation of Christ. The elites believe God sends his son to one world after another. But they've never had any advance notice where he'd appear next. A math genius gives such a prediction to the pope; the next incarnation of Jesus will occur on Jaremi 4, one of the most twisted and horrible of all the Enclave worlds. In short order churchmen, con men, and fast-buck artists from around the galaxy are all running their own schemes to get onto the forbidden planet and get a piece of the new Christ (who is actually a huckster the galactics have mis-identified as the new Jesus).

The plot resolves with the fury of a high-speed crash at a six-way intersection. Along the way there's vicious satire of TV news morality, Catholic piety, and everything having to do with Mormonism. Oh, and I almost forgot the lesbian nun shower rape scene (on page 300-and-something).

If you like sci-fi, sharp satire, and plotty thrillers, you gotta read this book.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Forjeling great fun!, November 17, 2003

By 

Kevin Freeman (Pacifica, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Galactic Rapture (Paperback)

Flynn's current opus is, obviously, one man's pet literary project gone amazingly right. The reader is confronted at every turn with novel sci-fi themes, technologies, and premises. The characterizations and physical descriptions are vivid and lasting. That said, there is some bumpiness in the narrative.

Readers may be disturbed to find that the Skeptical Inquirer/Free Inquiry obsession with debunking magician and "mentalist" tricks is alive and well in the 24th century, though in an era with subvocalized commands, no-vis fliers, vanisher valises, and implants, you'd imagine that fakery could take a whole new form beyond "cold reading".

Some of the subject matter is innovative and refreshing. Some of Flynn's setups are so old they have white whiskers...religious traditions have their origin in the ritual ingestion of hallucinogens? Never heard that one before.

Also, non-Mormons beware...there's no Joseph Smith fan like an ex-Mormon. Though the rest of us tend to see all religious con men as more or less similar, the present or former citizens of Deseret see something special and unique in their founder, whether or not they accord him Prophet status.

Still, with so much of the science fiction literature awash in tepid religious themes, it is nice to encounter some freethinker futurist writing, colored as it is by a philosophical diatribe.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars entertaining and informative, October 3, 2003

By 

James J. Lippard "skeptic" (Phoenix, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Galactic Rapture (Paperback)

This book depicts a future in which the Vatican has its own planet and has recognized the existence of Christs on other planets, reality television has evolved to three-dimensional, recordings of experience called "senso," and a con man native to a backward planet is passing himself off as a divine figure. The story follows multiple convoluted threads which ultimately connect back in a cohesive whole; along the way are some historical details of Christianity, Catholicism, and Mormonism, and amusing and interesting extrapolations. I'm looking forward to the sequel.