The God Engines

Glynn Stewart has a popular series of space operas in which starships are powered by magic. It is not a benign society, but the protagonist mage has a strong moral compass.

In The God Engines, Scalzi abandons his usual snidely comic space opera voice to describe a theocracy in which slaves called gods power a spaceship by suffering. The gods are powerful, but they are not kind. As in Terry Pratchett’s Small Gods, gods achieve power through their believers. In Scalzi’s world, this fact justifies a church militant bent on conquest.

A story so different from his usual fare demonstrates that Scalzi is a master of all the sci-fi and fantasy tropes. You want grimdark with a heavy dose of schadenfreude? Here you go.

Some gods are slaves who show more are whipped to run starships. Other gods eat their followers. Take your pick. show less

From the
review on my blog.

This is a story that fires on all cylinders. The magic system is tied to religious imagery. All the elements expected in a space opera have analogs in this system. Space ships, faster than light travel, communication at a distance, etc. Religion has replaced science and we’re shown repeatedly that the standard metaphors employed by this religion’s texts are NOT metaphors, but truth. It’s all delightfully twisted and wrapped around some interesting characters.

As the story progresses, it becomes less and less clear who we should be rooting for. Everyone is telling the truth as they see it … except when they’re lying. The religious intrigue feels like religious intrigue, the magic rituals feel like show more magic rituals, the first contact scenario feels like a first contact scenario. Nothing is what it seems.

Scalzi deftly writes what initially seems to be a transparent commentary on the excesses of religion but settles into a solid speculative fiction yarn. Scalzi doesn’t shy away from the horror and gore. He doesn’t shy away from a crazy dark ending. Awesome. The moral if there is one would go something like religion isn’t evil, but twisted people can use religion to do some insane evil. show less

Rating: 4.5 horrified, terrified, vindicated stars of five

The Book Report: The Power of God...the Power of Faith...these are concrete, actual things, not powerless mouthings, in John Scalzi's 136-page gut-punch and goolie-kick of a novella. Captain Ean Tephe, commanding the Righteous, is fresh from a stinging defeat (in his mind) that, in the view of his superiors, is a victory so signal that he's summoned to HQ and given the most astonishing order: Go to a planet of those who have not heard of Our Lord, convert them, and offer the nourishment of their worship to Our Lord in this difficult war we're waging against the gods whose brother-gods are enslaved as the star drives of the Faithful.

He does. The scene that follows is so revolting, show more so truly disturbing, and so exactly what I believe to be the case regarding religion, that I wasn't at all sure which of my equally strong emotional responses to give pride of place to.

The last words on p136 are: "Pray," he said.

Excellent advice. Won't help, but it's still excellent advice.

My Review: It took about three hours for this book to enthrall, fascinate, frighten, and disgust me. I'm left, here at the end of the experience, wondering what is to become of me now. How will I find a story that will help me feel clean and whole in my bruised and abused mind again? What balm can be applied to a beaten psyche? I was never the most chirpily sanguine of men, I truly always believed that humanity was made up of scum, pond scum, and scum-sucking pond scum, then below that conservatives.

And now that seems the most giddily upbeat and Pollyanna-ish codswallop. Scalzi has stared unflinchingly into the black heart of reality, the place that Lovecraft was scared to go, and brought back this eyewitness account.

Lift your snouts from the trough, humans! This is exactly where you're headed if you don't side-step now!

How lonely John Scalzi must be, having that one eye in this kingdom of the blind. show less

"It was time to whip the god."

Now that's an opening line! It grabs hold of the reader (this one anyway) and immediately begs the question: What the hell is going on here? Aspiring authors should take note. Actually, I've noticed that some established authors should make note of it as well.

Being just a novella, the pace feels a bit rushed. Backstory for the characters is hard to come by, so every tidbit that Scalzi shares is valuable. If the page count had been doubled, Scalzi could've gone into more detail about this strange universe where captured gods are used to power starships across the galaxy, maybe revealed more detail about how things work and the setting. But maybe that's all a good thing as Scalzi just sticks to the molten show more core of this story and more detail might slow things down too much.

The conflict between Captain Tephe and Priest Andso is well done. The two are locked in a power struggle and clash often to see who will come out ahead. All the while, the aforementioned god taunts Tephe, assailing his faith. Both interpersonal relationships maintain the tension until the first contact meeting with a heathen people, when Scalzi reveals his hand (I must say, I was caught off guard). From there it's a mad dash to the book's bloody conclusion.

It was nice to see Scalzi break from his established style and go dark. I can see why the novella was nominated for a Hugo. 4.5 stars. show less

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1458641.html

Well, it has happened: I have finally read a John Scalzi story that I actually liked. The God Engines is a very tight story about a future spacefaring humanity which relies on harnessing the powers of captive gods for spaceflight; there are a number of very good set-pieces as Ean Tephe, the central character, deals with shipboard crises, confronts his own ecclesiastical hierarchy, takes on a colonial mission, and finally particiaptes in a battle where the stakes are much larger than he at first realises. There are strong elements of horror and some nasty violence; and while Scalzi doesn't turn it into a polemic on religion, he does pick around the edges of religious belief and obediance in a way show more that I found satisfying rather than undergraduate show less

The God Engines is an amazing short novella. I read this a few days ago and was rather stunned. Then, like a penitent with a need to scourge myself I read it again. This is science fiction, horror and fantasy all in one small package. It is a dark story that may offend some. No, actually, I am sure it will offend some people. Scalzi's imagination knocked this one out of the park. How do people dream up stories like this? Imagine a future civilization so devout in the worship, faith and belief in their God that they have the power to subdue and torture other gods, and the power of these subdued gods is used to drive their starships across the universe and spread their own true religion. Sounds crazy, I know, but this is only part of the show more story.. It may take only two or three hours to read this but it will haunt you for many hours more. It begins with one of the best opening lines I have read in years ... "It was time to whip the god."

Subterranean Press books seem overly prone to typo/typesetter/editor errors and this one is no exception. They make beautiful books (the cover on this is stunning) but seem to mess up the proofreading time and again. show less

A very unusual book - unusual for Scalzi's style, that is.

It's not just that he went outside of his established (?) genre, creating a strange mix of fantasy, horror and science fiction; the whole concept about "gods" (or rather non-human creatures possessed of weird powers) made for an interesting read, if an unsettling one - especially considering the ending.

The writing felt different too: again, it might be that the medium Scalzi chose required the convoluted, almost stilted dialogue, but I missed the quick, humor-intensive narrative that I've come to associate with his works. And the light-hearted approach, as well: the story is quite dark, and devoid of hope.

What connects The God Engines with the other Scalzi books I read are the show more thought-provoking issues on the meaning of freedom, choice and what makes us human. I suspect that a re-read will reveal more insights, and further possibilities for exploration.

A different experience, granted, but a fascinating one. show less