Lord Roland of the Solar Guard
Friend of the blog Bradford C. Walker has put up a crowdfund for his novel project, Star Knight Saga to pay for all the necessary editing and artwork. Star Knight Saga is a tale of Lord Roland of the Solar Guard, a knight of the future who fights the dread pirate Red Eyes for the hand of Countess Gabriella Robin, the songbird of the Milky Way.
Now what sets this apart from the typical sci-fi setting is that the galactic order is an explicitly Christian one, a loose confederation governed by a single church. There are no republics or empires here — only traditional political institutions like kingdoms, principalities, and the like.
Think for a moment how unusual this is.
Commonly in popular sci-fi, spacefaring societies are governed by secular globalist ideologies. Most famously, the Earth of the Star Trek universe is entirely atheist since the people of that world feel that reason and science alone are enough to guide them. In the Universal Century continuity of the Gundam metaseries, religion goes largely unmentioned, the Earth Federation rules the planet, and all political units are proposition-based rather than nation-based, including mighty Zeon (all nations were dissolved in the founding of the Earth Federation.) Iain M. Banks books about “The Culture” focus on a unified humanity free of things like money or traditional social inhibitions due to a post-scarcity economy. I say these things not to criticize the above series, but to point out well-known examples of series that assume secular globalism as the inevitable end point of human politics.
Galactic Christendom turns that idea on its head. Instead of a humanity governed largely by Enlightenment liberalism or its socialist variant, we have a humanity governed by the ideals of Christianity. They’re not even united politically; just as the different factions in Gundam nonetheless share core Enlightenment beliefs that disregard religion or nation, the different kingdoms in Galactic Christendom all share a belief in the Christian God and His morality. Thus Galactic Christendom presents a truly unique take on the space opera genre, one that goes against the prevailing trend in sci-fi and presents a perspective underrepresented in the genre today.
I, for one, look forward to seeing what Brad does with this series. It sounds like it’ll be quite an interesting ride, and that this ride will go on for a long time to come. Back his project now and help make this idea a reality. If you’re still unsure, read this amazing excerpt he has released.
About the time I was introduced to science fiction (in high school and college) there were a lot of books, it seemed, that featured a specifically and deliberately atheist future. This is different from a novel that just “isn’t about that” and has various religions and belief in God as part of an assumed background. On the contrary, the background was often specifically that we’d advanced beyond superstition and didn’t have those hangups anymore.
I was never convinced that it made any sense. Not with human nature what it is. I’m convinced that in the absence of religion people will generally make one up or behave in religious ways about whatever other ideologies they have. (ie., environmentalism, socialism, etc.,)
It’s more common now it seems to have some sort of religious belief, some sects or churches, in most future sci-fi settings. Not usually Christianity, though. But even if the main characters aren’t part of it, there’s always a monk in robes causing trouble. That seems far more realistic to me.
But there’s no reason at all that people wouldn’t be primarily some variation of Christian, and I agree that it’s uncommon enough in science fiction to be fresh and new.
(The other common thing that I never found convincing was the “galactic empire”… people are fractious. It would require not having a future with people in it.)
Yes, I’ve noticed much the same. And as for galactic empires, it looks like you and Brad are of the same mind.
Rafle,
Thanks for this post. It’seems a great analysis of Bradford’s originality. I’ve backed the novel and look forward to it and Brian’s
My own take is put in time-frame similar to Charles V which has always attracted me and combine it with the military techno thriller with elements of James Bond.
The excerpt Bradford posted sold it — this is going to be a great series! Thanks for promoting it, Rawle!
Yeah. I’m hyped for it!
Rafle,
Thanks for this post. You highlight Bradford’s originality.
My take is a time frame similar to Charles V which has always attracted me and combine it with military techothriller with James Bond elements. The century will be different.
I look forward to reading it and I backed it. I also can’take wait for Brian’s
xavier
Rawle,
Sorry stupid autocorrect
I look forward to it as well. It truly looks exciting, along with Brian Niemeier’s XSeed.
Rawle,
Agreed. I hope they inspires others to try with their stories. I’m slowly working on mine. As I noted previously mine’s similar to the Charles V’s time but with some elements of other time periods to give it some flavour.
Anyways, we live in exciting times
xavier
Let’s see what you come up with. It’ll likely be vastly different from me, Brian, or Brad.
Rawle,
It is as the biggest difference is I’m writing it in Catalan; it’s both a challenge and a lot of fun.
But there’ll be points of similarity: i.e. the good guys are good, the bad are bad; the women beautiful, smart and feminine and the men smart, manly and brave. The bad guys much less. The good guys will be pious like in the 11-16th centuries while the bad guys will be SJWs.
xavier
Sounds like you’ve got it figured out. I hope you succeed — and translate the book eventually.
Rawle,
Thanks. And I look forward to your take as well.
Yes and no. I have clear ideas of my main characters but not yet the bad guy. I’m still gestating him. And I still want to do some further research.
I forgot to point out that I’m familiar with Gundam and mechas but I’ve never really watch any full episodes or followed any series.
So I’m a newbie who’ll write stories I want to read and share them with others who in turn will be entertained.
Thanks again for the encouragement.
xavier
You’re welcome. Good luck in your endeavor.