What book are you reading?

**Montmorency** · 02-09-2015, 20:19

Writing Amish science-fiction is perhaps the ultimate vindication of the view of sci-fi as a consolatory genre.

Pennsylvania is a short story, 16,500 words (about forty five pages,) and it is the first in the Pennsylvania series.

Jedidiah Troyer is now a traveler. He has signed up for an emigration program that is colonizing the planet of New Pennsylvania. He just wants to start a farm and homestead on affordable land in a new Amish community. Space pioneering isn't as easy as it sounds when you're "plain." Things might work out for Jed... if he can ever get to his new home.

At the time of my posting, it seems to be free!

**Montmorency** · 02-09-2015, 20:22

^^^ @Philipvs Vallindervs Calicvla might like this sort of thing.

**Philippus Flavius Homovallumus** · 02-10-2015, 02:52

That's just weird...

How would you even justify that theologically - you're leaving the Earth God created for you and getting on this horrific spacecraft that's probably powered by a Nuclear Reactor and probably rips a dirty hole in space-time...

Not my kinda thing - much more a fan of Black Jack Geary giving the Syndic Worlds a bloody nose whilst coping with massive culture shock.

**Montmorency** · 02-10-2015, 05:01

In the story, it's justified by analogy to previous Amish colonization efforts within and from Europe, as well as the whole "God created all the other worlds" angle.

Actually, looking at the author's other work and biography, it seems this is more up @Rhyfelwyr's alley.

I find I enjoy well-written 'dialectical' fiction, even if it's totally wrong-headed. I'm just coming off a string of totally dry, sophomoric, and uninspired titles (I'm looking at you "Crimson Worlds")...

**AntiDamascus** · 02-19-2015, 00:27

The Stand by Stephen King. I made it about 700 pages in. It got weird, I rolled out.

**Visor** · 02-21-2015, 13:44

Originally Posted by AntiDamascus

The Stand by Stephen King. I made it about 700 pages in. It got weird, I rolled out.

Worth finishing IMO, at least if you got 700 pages in. I know IT is at least 1200.

Reading Peter Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy at the moment, I love sci-fi even though his main characters are always a little too impervious for my liking generally.