Star Chosen: A Science Fiction Space Opera for the Whole Family [Paperback]

Joe Chiappetta (Author, Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 2010

Silly Daddy dares to write apocalyptic science fiction for the whole family! Think "Star Trek" meets the Bible.
Deleting history was just the beginning. Blast off with STAR CHOSEN, a space opera of post-biblical proportions! After war, heartbreak, attacks to your faith, and the erasure of all history and culture, whose side will you fight on: the Proud or the Chosen?

Xeric Award winner and Ignatz Award nominee Joe Chiappetta crafts "Star Chosen," a sci-fi epic for all ages. In a time yet to come, the high-tech Faith War threatens to destroy all religions across the universe. The term "Christian" has been completely eradicated from all culture in a war-torn galaxy.

One small yet bold group, known as "the Chosen," survives due to a miraculous favor from a mysterious military man. In intergalactic combat and matters of destruction, this military man knows no equal. Yet on the home front, his family is falling apart. Unlike most families of the future, torn to bits by addiction to virtual reality game products, this man's family crumbles under his terrible involvement with weapons of experimental technology.

As the man continues to cross paths with the kind-hearted Chosen people, he dreams for a chance at redemption with his wife and daughter, who have disappeared to an unknown planet. He's all too aware that his journey may be shattered by a futuristic conspiracy full of intrigue and high-tech secrecy.

About the Author
Joe Chiappetta is an American author and cartoonist, grateful to be living with his wife and three children in North Riverside, Illinois. He is best known as the man behind one of the longest running autobiographical comics, "Silly Daddy," which has been a rewarding creative endeavor since 1991.
The series has received the following professional recognition:
- Xeric Award Winner
- Ignatz Award Nominee for Outstanding Story
- Harvey Award Nominee for Best New Series

From his work, one can tell that Joe enjoys spending time with God, family, sci-fi adventures, and corny jokes. Also, at a moment's notice, he's usually up for a good game of chess, bike riding, building forts in the woods, and finding a big "score" of free samples while grocery shopping.

Joe's 2010 work, "Star Chosen," was originally envisioned as a television screenplay of hour-long Christian science fiction episodes.

Product Details

• Paperback: 126 pages
• Publisher: Joe Chiappetta (March 15, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0964432323
• ISBN-13: 978-0964432321
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 7.4 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,608,419 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Starships and Aliens Review, July 29, 2011

By 

S. J. MacDonald (Wales) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Star Chosen: A Science Fiction Space Opera for the Whole Family (Paperback)

Concept/World
This tells you straight out that it's going to be a Christian sci-fi, which is fine. (I'm not a Christian myself but open to reading about other people's beliefs.) It is also very strongly evangelising which I don't have a problem with in itself since the writer is entirely up front about that, as he says "Think Star Trek meets the Bible". I love the C S Lewis Narnia series which is also, though rather more subtly, evangelical. However, there is an aspect to Star Chosen which I did not like at all - the fact that the only other religious leader of a "rival faith" turned out to be a terrorist suicide bomber. Regardless of whether this character is meant to be Muslim, Jewish or of any other faith, that just isn't something I find acceptable. Evangelising your own faith is fine, but demonising that of others crosses a line for me into being offensive.

Story
The sci-fi element to the story starts off very well with dramatic events written in a very lively, "Ka-Boom!" cartoon style. It does then become very directly evangelical for the rest of the book, following the process of conversion to The Chosen by two of the villain characters. The sci-fi element is not sustained strongly enough for readers with little interest in the religious aspect. Towards the end of the book there is a lecture on the "specialty" of the Bible which also names Mormons as a "false religious group".

Characters
The characters are well drawn.

Presentation
The front cover is eye-catching. Spelling, grammar and formatting are excellent and the book is of a high professional standard.

Overall
The quality of the writing and presentation are unquestionably a 5. However, the offensive nature of the attitude towards other beliefs does mean that I have to rate this, honestly, with a 1 star review, because I could not in good conscience recommend this book.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars from http://ChristianSciFiAndFantasyReview.webs.com, February 15, 2011

By 

Rev. Steve Wilson - See all my reviews

This review is from: Star Chosen: A Science Fiction Space Opera for the Whole Family (Paperback)

Recommendation: Excellent

Originality - 5/5
Writing Style - 4/5
Plot - 5/5
Characters - 5/5
Aesthetics - 5/5

Fantastic!

This book comes with a rich backstory, believable characters, zany humor, and a lot of good spiritual stuff to chew on.

Imagine a future where every religion is outlawed and every work of literature, including the Bible, has been virtually eradicated. Could such a thing ever happen? Could such a thing ever stop the true believers from spreading the message of God's love?

Joe Chiappetta has delivered a truly thought-provoking and adventurous tale of courage, faith, church conflict, hypocrisy, forgiveness, and redemption. Joe's writing is natural and it is clear that he is writing from the experience of a deep faith.

The only "problem" is that the story does feature quite a bit Baptist theology when it comes to the meaning of baptism and the role of women. This isn't a problem per se, but be warned that if you are a Christian of non-Baptist flavoring, you may find yourself at odds with the author at some points.

Still, there is plenty here for every Christian to agree with and I would heartily recommend this novel to any Christian reader, whether you normally enjoy science-fiction or not. It is well-worth the read.

I give Star Chosen a well-deserved recommendation of Excellent and will be eagerly looking forward to the follow-up volume.

Star Chosen is available in Print and E-book formats from Amazon.com.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing quality, December 11, 2011

By 

Noah Arsenault (Washington, US) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Star Chosen: A Science Fiction Space Opera for the Whole Family (Paperback)

I must be frank. This book bored me to death. Firstly, the page layout made me work twice as hard to read it, and one page had two page's worth of words in it. Secondly, the writing was really underdeveloped. Dialogue, narration, and description all seemed starved of imagination and quality. I'm sorry to say that I read half of it, but couldn't finish.In what I did struggle through, the Gospel message was put forth very boldly, if not cheesily at times. A large part of the book (from what I can tell) takes place in a church, its youth group, and its mission group. Thus, the reader is "preached at" often, which could put off potential secular readers.

This book was provided free by the author. I was not required to write a positive review, and the opinions expressed are my own.