The Shadow and Night by Chris Walley Published by: Tyndale House Publishers (2006) 613 pages Rating: 9/10 Buy it Now:    Also by Chris Walley: The Dark Foundations The Infinite Day

Christian science-fiction is a genre that is very scant. While I can point to dozens of Christian fantasy novels on my shelves, it takes some searching to find the very few sci-fi stories. I assume there are publishing reasons for this. Are too many Christian readers suspicious of science? Or has the blatant humanism of most secular sci-fi turned them off?

Whatever the reason, it's a delight when something like The Shadow and Night comes along. Originally published in two volumes, Tyndale has re-released this as one large hardback tome since the next book in the series (The Dark Foundations) has just come out (and is very large).

Imagine a world almost totally devoid of sin, where the effects of the Fall have been greatly diminished. Imagine a peace that reigns across the galaxy... since humanity has now spread to 1600+ terraformed worlds beyond Earth. Imagine you live on the furthest of those worlds in perfect contentment, as humans have done for the last 12,000 years. And then imagine you just heard someone tell a LIE.

Thus The Lamb Among the Stars series begins. Forester Merral D'Avanos must slowly come to grips with the fact that evil does still exist... and that it's invading Farholme, his home planet. It begins with a simple lie, but before it's over, there is so much more.

Like any good sci-fi writers, Chris Walley intersperses the story with vivid descriptions of a world not quite our own, as well as technology extrapolated greatly off our current levels. The trick is in not letting such "geeky" details detract from the story, and Walley handles it admirably. By making his central protagonist a forester, Walley puts him in the forefront of the terraforming process, which is key to the "science" part of the fiction.

Some readers might be a bit puzzled by some of the theology in this series, such as a basis in post-Millennialism and easy acceptance of theistic evolution. But what is science-fiction if not a giant "what if"?

Because the concept of a mostly sinless people slowly discovering evil makes for a very fascinating study - as well as a compelling story. What does it feel like if you've lived your whole life without ever encountering blatant sin and you suddenly realize someone has lied to you? Merral's journey of discovery of evil, both outside and within himself, is one that we all can learn from.

As vast as this story is, we get only the beginnings in these first 600+ pages. It's clear that there is much, much more to come in the next two books. I'm very interested in seeing where it goes from here. Highly Recommended.

(As an interesting aside, Chris Walley wrote back in the 1980s under the pen name of John Haworth. I have both of the novels he wrote back then.)