"SPAWN OF A JEWISH CARPENTER: CINDY SMITH" wrote: >Thanks for the reply. I'm familiar with Russell and Blish and Simmons >but not O'Leary or Card, and I have also read some Dick. Can you >supply in specific titles by Dick? Also, are PERPETUAL LIGHT and >AFTERLIVES anthologies, and, if so, who are the editors? Thanks. Card's "Speaker for the Dead" works out a religious view of the afterlife for the piggies. It strongly echoes the LDS belief in the progession of man into deity. (I've long believed that many of Card's books were his attempt to tell the story of Joseph Smith in an SF setting. The Alvin Maker series is quite obviously so, but many of the others focus on a young person, very gifted, whose gifts are misunderstood if not condemned by the society, who performs a great task, and often becomes a great leader--sometimes, as in the case of Ender, a religious leader. Granted, this is pretty much an archetype, but its appearance so often in Card's writing seems more than happenstance.) Be sure also to read Dick's last books, "Radio Free Albemuth," "VALIS," "The Divine Invasion," and "Transmigration of Timothy Archer." Perpetual Light was edited by Alan Ryan. John www.History-Alive.net _________________________________________________________________ Help STOP SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail