This review was also posted here - https://cavetothecross.com/blog/thing-in-the-attic/

This short story by Blish does a great job of quickly building a world and mystery and slowly reveal what's actually going on. I would not read the GoodReads summary so as not to have anything spoiled and just let the story unfold.

Blish is known to have religious themes in his work and there is no subtly to it here. Religious texts, heretics banished from society, and gnostic elements provide a launching point for a quick adventure story with a very popular science fiction backdrop.

Blish does a good job of dropping small hints along the way and then making full revelation to some larger points. There is nothing hidden at the end when all is revealed to a satisfying conclusion. Like all good short stories, the reader would have fun providing their own story of what would happen next.

I plan on reading Blish's commentary work soon but I want to have more of his writing under my belt before I take a peak behind the scenes. Like his popular Star Dwellers, Blish's storytelling with religious elements in a sci-fi genre of the 1950s is a good read.

Final Grade - B+

In a primitive subhuman culture, a group of four heretics are exiled from their treetop habitat to live in Hell (the surface of their world). After struggling to survive in an unknown and treacherous territory replete with dinosaurs (considered “demons” by their people), the group encounters the truth behind the origins of their society and the religious beliefs they questioned. ( )