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Colleen
R. Cahill
* Colleen Cahill's reviews have appeared in the
Washington Science Fiction Association and The
Baltimore Science Society's newsletters and on Fast
Forward, a TV show about contemporary science fiction.
Professionally, Colleen works at the Library of
Congress where one of her titles is Recommending
Officer for Science Fiction and Fantasy.
Heather Hunt
*Heather Hunt reviews for This Christian Life on the
internet (see Links page to check them out).
A review by Colleen R.
Cahill
The Roswell legend portrays aliens as small, grey
beings who look vaguely human. But some science
fiction has aliens with a common connection to humans
through intelligence, compassion and love, if not
physical shape. In J.C. Miller’s Worlds Apart, the
connections between aliens and humans shows that our
shape is not important, but our spirit is. As part of
the subgenre of Christian science fiction, Worlds
Apart deals not only with the relationship of
intelligent beings to each other, but also to their
creator.
In his society, Ellingsworth is not a normal plyth.
Rather than accept things as they are, he questions
everything and explores areas ignored by his people.
When he and companion Caraff are forced to leave the
tribe, they stumble into an alien. Appropriately
named Soloman, he is the last survivor of an Amera
colony that wanted a simpler life than their
technological society provided. Treachery is involved
in the mysterious deaths of the other colonists and
Soloman fears that a renegade scientist has been
tampering with the native plyths, as Ellingsworth’s
unusual curiosity seems to prove. Eventually Soloman
realizes he will have to tell the authorities of this
crime, as it is forbidden to interfere with the native
intelligent life. But he finds that a direct approach
is not the best solution, as divine forces are
involved. A side trip to Earth, a proscribed planet
due to its darkness and danger, leads the three aliens
to try to rescue an Ameran who is being held prisoner
by a somewhat-mad human scientist. This is a nice turn
on alien abduction stories with the human kidnapping
and experimenting on the alien.
Worlds Apart has action and adventure, combined with a
gentle message of the love and guidance of the
creator. Miller does not setup the Amera society as a
utopia: otherwise, why would Soloman want to leave
such a place? Nor are humans presented as having no
redeeming values. The message in the book is that
intelligence is not enough and higher guidance is
needed for aliens or humans to strive towards
perfection.
Miller shows some great world building skills and
gives her characters intelligence, strength and the
ability to make mistakes. The conclusion is
satisfying but still leaves room for a sequel, as not
all the ends are tied up. For those who enjoy a bit
of science fiction and philosophy, Worlds Apart is a
good choice.
A Review By Heather
Hunt
First-time author J.C. Miller has written an
action-packed science fiction novel with exotic
locales on three planets: Amera, Saldra, and Hydra;
three different species of intelligent aliens:
Amerans, plyths, and kilps; and three types of
fantastic travels: through space on a planet-hopper,
through time in time warps, and through solid matter
in Limbo. As you can see, Miller has an imagination
and creative capability up to the task of the science
fiction genre.
Yet "Worlds Apart" isn't just an exciting sci-fi romp.
In this same book, Miller has also written a
theological treatise on the sovereignty of the Creator
throughout the universe.
Her motivation behind this book is to counteract the
general godlessness in most science fiction and the
idea that life on other planets negates the Christian
God. I think she succeeds in this effort admirably
well, and I am looking forward to the purported sequel
to see how she further develops these ideas.
One way Miller accomplishes this task is to tell the
story from the aliens’ viewpoint. The four-footed
abnormally curious Saldran native plyth, Ellingsworth,
is asked to leave his kind because of his refusal to
stop asking questions. His friend Caraff, the kilp, a
tiny furball species with a symbiotic relationship to
plyths, reluctantly accompanies Ellingsworth as he
traverses the Wasteland to a mysterious hill that
draws him.
There he stumbles through a time warp and encounters
Soloman, a 4-foot tall, bipedal Ameran, who is the
last colonist of an experiment that went awry. Soloman
is initially appalled at his meeting with the Saldrans
because it violates the Ameran Code of Interstellar
Travel, a body of laws that restricts contact with
natives, much like Star Trek’s Prime Directive.
As time goes on, however, Soloman, a devout follower
of the Creator, comes to see their encounter as
providential. Events continue to unfold in a way that
confirms his growing convictions. These events include
erupting volcanoes, collapsing time warps, emergency
space travels, planetary rescues, kidnapping—or
alien-napping, laboratory experiments, miraculous
healings and resurrections, courtroom drama and a bit
of romance.
Humans take center stage only in the five-page
prologue, but late in the novel when our friendly
aliens wind up on the planet Hydra, readers will
recognize its familiar characteristics. In the
universe as envisioned by Miller, this planet is very
diverse and troubled, but hasn’t yet begun to follow
the Creator completely. The Amerans recognize the
Bible as this world’s Word from the Creator and try to
impress that fact on the native Hydrans (humans) they
encounter.
My one quibble with the novel is the use of the King
James Version for each chapter’s epigraph. If Miller’s
outreach is to the sci-fi marketplace, then a more
contemporary version of the Bible may be more readable
for this demographic, which is probably unfamiliar and
uncomfortable with Elizabethan English.
Miller’s other writing interests also sneak in
occasionally with, for example, her frequent use of
the screenwriting term “beat” where other novelists
would use “pause". But the science fiction genre also
stretches to the big screen, so most space enthusiasts
will understand the term.
I give this novel my highest TCL recommendation for
its unique approach to science fiction and its
admirable fulfillment of an ambitious goal. Miller is
to be commended for a fine first effort.
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