calimac

Subtitle: A Short History of the Holy Spirit in the Church.

But is it? I suppose Williams certainly thought it was, but there are long passages where the Spirit is not mentioned once.

The book begins by stating that the beginning of Christendom was something that "is, strictly, a point out of time." (It must be remembered that Williams was writing as a committed member of the Church of England. That point of view will be respected throughout this review.) The history of Christendom, further, is "the history of an operation ... of the Holy Ghost towards Christ, under the conditions of our humanity; and it ws our humanity which gave the signal, as it were, for that operation. The visible beginning of the Church is at Pentecost, but that is only a result of its actual beginning - and ending - in heaven. Thus, in his first two paragraphs, he states the theme of the entire 236 pages of his book.

In those pages, he proposes to give us a history of the Church: not the "churches," nor of any particular church, but of the Church Invisible, the body of all believers in Christ, no matter what particular visible church they may belong to. It is true that, after the Great Schism, he spends far more ink on the Western than the Eastern churches; perhaps that is simply because more literature about the Western churches was available to him in English as he did his research.

I will not attempt to summarize his long and detailed argument; nor will I speak more than glancingly of his erudition. Suffice to say that I was, several times, compelled to set the book aside and use the modern wonders of the Internet to learn what he was talking about -- and in one case, even Google was stymied.

Williams seems to treat each bit of history with fairness in two senses: in that he gives an honest account of both sides' arguments, and in that he gives roughly the same amount of space to roughly the same amount of time -- with the exception that a bit of extra space is spent on the earliest years of the Church, when the fundamentals were being established.

In the end, I believe he makes this case: that the Church throughout history wanders this way and that, and wanders too far in one direction or another; and that the Holy Ghost inevitably inspires sufficient Christians with sufficient energy to act as a corrective. The Church being composed of human people, this pushes the Church in a new direction in which, inevitably it again wanders too far, requiring a new correction, leading to another wandering in a new direction.

This is not, by the way, to be taken as a suggestion that Williams was indulging in the Hegelian practice of "thesis, antithesis, and synthesis:" for several reasons, of which the greatest is that Hegel was busily inventing dialectical materialism. Perhaps Williams was, here, busily inventing dialectical spiritualism.

It's only been twelve hours since I finished the book. Honestly, it will be quite a while before I can say I've fully digested it -- if I ever do.

Ten out of ten heretical views.

Subtitled "Tales from the Earliest Days of the Star Kingdom;" and being the eighth "Worlds of Honor" anthology of stories set in the Honor Harrington future history: but, as the subtitle suggests, deliberately set centuries before the birth of said character, with one sorta exception. There are only five stories, so let's look at them individually...

Marissa Wolf: "One Controllable Step." A medical drama set in the earliest days of the Star Kingdom of Manticore, shortly after it has become a Kingdom. The protagonist is Sofia Agbayani-Reyes, a brilliant young doctor from the planet Beowulf (a planet noted for its medical and biological facilities) who is part of a mission sent to Manticore to help out with a virus that has jumped from the local biosphere to humans: only the second time in the history of the explored Galaxy this has happened. The virus in question is highly contagious and very deadly, so the visiting medics are set up in an isolated, sterile lab where they can process samples without coming into contact with them.

This is a race against time, not only to save the people of Manticore, but also because another mission will arrive in eight months, headed by Sofia's professional nemesis, the one doctor of her generation whose genius has repeatedly overshadowed her own; by the time he does arrive, she is grateful to have his help.

It's a story intended to inspire us with the heroism of the doctors; due to Wolf's rather flat writing, it tends towards bathos, which is a pity, because with better line-editing it could have been a dynamite story.

Jane Lindskold: "Deadly Delusions." Set on Sphinx in the time of Stephanie Harrington, this is a clash between four main characters, whom Linskold depicts rather deftly. The first is an ex-policeman named Arvin Erhardt, now a mechanic at an experimental station on Sphinx, Manticore's high-gravity companion world. The station is basically grinding up a lot of trees to figure out what makes them tick.

Arvin, and the station, are being observed by True Stalker of the Bright Heart Clan of treecats, who want to know what is going on here and why they are destroying all these perfectly good trees. (If you don't know: an arboreal species of small, six-legged, telepathic sentients.) He has been cautioned to keep himself from being seen.

A young woman named Jennie Beauship, who sees herself as a guardian of nature, disapproves of the station, and believes that the station is damaging the environment of a clan of treecats. She convinces her older sister, Erica, to help her on a mission to observe, then sabotage, the station's machinery.

Things get tangled up in all sorts of interesting ways.

Jacob Holo with Thomas Pope: "The Great Condiment Caper." Ensign Edward Saganami (whose name any fan of the Harrington series will recognize; he later becomes a great hero and martyr of the Manticore Space Navy), on his first tour of duty on a real starship, is assigned to the ship's Stores Division. His first real assignment? A crate of Dempsey's Sweet and Spicey Barbeque Sauce has gone missing. It is critically important, because reasons, that it be found, and Saganami gets to go find it.

Some writers would use this as a scenario upon which to build boffo yoks, either of a slapstick, Three Stooges, variety; or of a more verbally clever, Marx Brothers, sort. Holo (with Pope) does neither; he takes the situation with complete seriousness, as a sort of mystery to be solved, and turns Saganami -- with the assistance of CPO Caroline Sykes -- loose to solve it. The story follows a pretty standard set of false leads and red herrings, to a conclusion as satisfying as it is unexpected.

The writing, while not not as smooth as Lindskold's, is nowhere near as flat as Wolf's: it serves.

Daniel Allen Butler: "XO." The only story in this book to feature a space battle is, oddly, not by Weber, but this one. Lt. Commander Ellen D'Orville, Executive Officer of the HMS Ulysses (an ill-fated name), is awakened from her sleep shift by an emergency call for, first, the ship's medical officer, and, then, herself to the bridge. The Captain has suffered an extreme medical condition, and D'Orville must take command.

Herrick, the medical officer, determines that the Captain must be returned to base if he is to survive. D'Orville is surprised to be appointed commanding officer of the Ulysses for purposes of completing the ship's mission -- which is to "visit" the Torgau System, rather stealthily, staying outside its hyper limit, and simply observe traffic for a while: then return to base and report. This borders on, but does not quite cross the border into espionage.

Meanwhile, on Torgau itself, we meet some Government officials who are frustrated because they know darned well that other officials are involved in the import and (ab)use of genetic slaves in the System's asteroid mines and refineries, but unable to do anything about it.

I can't say much more without getting into something really spoily, so I won't.

David Weber: "Crystal Singer's Song." In Honor Harrington's time, a treecat, a "memory singer" from an extremely isolated clan, comes to the Commission on Sphinx where human/treecat relationships are worked out, because she has something that belongs to Honor's "clan" and will tell no one else about it.

The main body of the story, then, is a flashback four hundred and thirty years, to a pilot carrying badly needed supplies to an isolated holding. Her plane is struck by lightning, disabling both her communications and her navigation. She crashlands by luck on an island capable of supporting life.

In fact, as she eventually learns, the island is home to a clan of what she comes to think of as "tree-foxes," a long-isolated and slightly genetically drifted group of treecats. Again, no spoilers here, so I'll shut up.

None of the writers of these stories is what you'd call a "brilliant stylist," but, with the exception of Wolf, all write serviceable, readable prose that gets the story across; and the saga of the Star Kingdom reaches its fortieth volume.

Six out of ten dead pirates.