Re: Joe Haldeman's The Coming

On Sun, 23 Mar 2025 12:22:50 -0400 (EDT), kludge@panix.com (Scott
Dorsey) wrote:

Paul S Person  <psperson@old.netcom.invalid> wrote:

On Sun, 23 Mar 2025 08:19:14 -0400 (EDT), kludge@panix.com (Scott
Dorsey) wrote:
>

This takes place in a corrupt near-future Florida after astronomers=20
have received a message from space.  Saying anything else is going
to spoil some part of the plot.  After all these years I suspect this
is probably my favorite alien first contact novel of all time.
>
This came out in 2000 and have just not got around to it.  No wonder=20
I never get to nominate anything for Hugos.

>
One of the many books from my grandfather's estate on Revelation
asserts that Space Aliens and Flying Saucers were and will be
involved.

>
You can speak to Guy Consolmagno about this.  He has some very interesting
and well-reasoned takes on SETI from a Christian perspective.
>
If we are all called into judgement, surely it should be expected that
whatever aliens may exist will be called in as well.

Not to the author I am thinking of.

Per this guy, had Jesus actually summoned an army of angels to defend
him, they would have been -- Space Aliens.

I should note that CS Lewis' Space Trilogy also has Sin afflicting our
planet. So the idea is not completely unknown elsewhere. Of course,
Lewis was writing fiction, not Biblical commentary.

The book itself is interesting -- it includes a full-color picture of
a "flying saucer". The content of the picture isn't the point;
full-color pictures in books normally produced on a slim budget is.

Myself, I would agree with you.
--
"Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"