God's Fires [Mass Market Paperback]

Patricia Anthony (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1998

In Portugal, during the Inquisition, a ship falls to Earth. Could the creatures inside be angels...or devils sent to tempt?

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

God has fallen to the Earth. Angels are sleeping with women. There is an immaculate conception, and lights are seen in the heavens. Heady stuff for the small village of Quintas, located in Portugal about the time of the Inquisition. While the pragmatic Father Pessoa struggles to keep the strange goings-on hidden from the eyes of the inquistors, the simple King Alfonso has decided that the stricken alien ship is God Himself. And God has let Alfonso in on a secret: the Earth orbits the sun. Unfortunately, the inquisitor-general is on his way to straighten things out. There will be no easy answers. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

On sixteenth-century Portugal falls a star from heaven with three strange beings aboard. Are they angels or devils? That is the burning question--literally, for the Inquisition is active, and the lives and deaths of several people depend on the answer. The strange creatures are almost peripheral, however, and Anthony's story is one of faith and humanity and how the unknown is forced into the habiliments of the knowable. The childish king Alfonso, the Jesuit priest Pessoa, the inquisitor Monsignor Gomes, as well as the poor villagers who are the immediate witnesses to the star's falling--all have their lives changed, and in fantastic ways. Anthony's depiction of life, death, and legal procedure is nothing short of masterful in this superb book that departs far from the usual, well-trod trails of speculative fiction but deserves high praise in spite of that, or, perhaps, because of it. Dennis Winters --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 374 pages
• Publisher: Ace (July 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0441005373
• ISBN-13: 978-0441005376
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,070,285 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another wonderful work by Patricia Anthony, June 3, 2000

By 

Frank J. Konopka (Shamokin, PA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: God's Fires (Mass Market Paperback)

After reading "Flanders" by Patricia Anthony, and loving it, I decided to read another of her books, and "God's Fires" was the one I found at the bookstore. The decision to purchase it is one that I will not regret, for it is a wonderful, and well-written, work of fiction. The year is 1662, and a feeble-minded but good-natured teenager reigns in Portugal, but the Inquisition actually rules. In a remote village strange sights appear, and an "acorn" crashes to earth, leaving two live, and one dead, "creatures". But what exactly are these beings, and what about the other signs and wonders appearing in the area? The Holy Office of the Church will get to the bottom of the mystery, or people will burn. This book shows the fine line between faith and fanaticism, courage and foolishness, and love and lust. The language is all that I had expected from the author of "Flanders", and the pure emotion of this book practically leaps off of the page at you. The Church, and certain clergymen, do not fare well in their portrayal, but then, the Church has much to apologise for concerning the Inquisition. As I said when I reviewed "Flanders", read this book!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A look at Catholic religion when confronted with a miracle, August 19, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: God's Fires (Mass Market Paperback)

In reading this book I was struke with how much societies in Europe were bounded by the Catholic Church. No where did Rome hold more sway than in Spain and Portugal. The Inquisition stayed in business there until well into the 1800's. The problem the Portugese faced had to do with winning their freedom from Spain and trying to re-establish their dominate culture. The story opens six years after Portugese separtation from Spain.

Into this turmoil drops a spaceship. The computer onboard can speak to minds, but has been severely damaged. The aliens onboard have visited this small Portugese town before and raped some of the women. Or so it looks like. It could be atrificial incemination. It is never clear.

The King of Portugal at the time is retarded and childlike in his twenties. He sees the "acorn" fall and goes to see the wonder. He finds one of the aliens dead and two others unable to speak.

At the same time you find a circuit riding Inquisition Officer trying to keep the people in the villiage from being burned as heritics. The king says something to the effect that Galileo was correct and the Earth goes around the sun. This causes a high official from the Inquisition to hurry to the villiage to stamp on the king.

This is a Tragedy. Yet it reveals how people looked at the world up until just recently. The conflict here is between the Rule of Law, the power of unrestrained heirarchies, the Rule of Whim, and the Rule of the Church.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A tour de force of writing, imagination and research, June 21, 2004

By 

Avid Reader (Franklin, Tn) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: God's Fires (Mass Market Paperback)

This is the first book by Patricia Anthony I have ever read and it will not be the last. What is so atypical about this story is/are the many genres covered - history, mystery, science fiction, religion - and each and every one superb. The novel is a virtual time machine (reminiscent of Carr's "The Alienist" in that respect). To step into such a "foreign" time and place - Portugal, the Inquisition, the pre-Industrail Middle Ages, the budding of science and the Renaissance and the resistance by the Catholic Church - do "Become" a reporter of those times is a task that few will undertake and still fewer accomplish well.

The aliens remain at a distant, known through vague and illusive visitations and in the end, are in the end as mysterious as they were when first mentioned. The Jesuit hero, the man who assists the inquisition despite his own sins and inner thoughts, is as real as any character I have ever encountered. His lover is an altogether different person but incredibly attractive in her own right.

The portrayal of a society mired in mysticism, ruled by an Iron Fist of religious zealotry, is intimate and just - even fair. The lives of people below the surface, beyond the public utterances of loyalty and fealty and devotion, is what attracts one to the many varied characters. The young Father Bernardo becomes a foil for all that is right and wrong with the Church of that age.

The parallel story of the retarded King Alfonso and his brother Pedro meshes beautifully with the tale of aliens and unrelenting persecution by the Inquisition. In a brilliant move, the living machine of the aliens (the "acorn") imbues this retarded prince with advanced scientific ideas that he feels compelled to share. The ending finds one breathless with anticipation and dread, hopeful yet at the same time resigned to the inexorable chain of events that must happen. There is no intervention - either military, divine or alien. Things play out to a horrible but strangely satisfying conclusion. This is an incredibly vivid work, soaring and shocking and in the end, meditative.