A Case of Conscience (Magill’s Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature)
At a glance:
- Author: James Blish
- First Published: 1953
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Science fiction—apocalypse
- Time of Work: 2049-2050
- Setting: Lithia, a planet 50 light-years from Earth; New York City; and Vatican City
- Genres: Long fiction, Science fiction, Apocalyptic and catastrophe fiction
- Subjects: New York, North America or North Americans, Northeast, U.S., United States or Americans, New York City, Extraterrestrial life, Future, Other worlds, Twenty-first century, Devils or demons, Jesuits, Satan or Satanism, Reptiles, Vatican City
- Locales: New York, NY, Space, Vatican City
The Plot
Ramon Ruiz-Sanchez is a Jesuit priest as well as a biologist with the United Nations (U.N.) survey team on the recently discovered planet of Lithia. Lithia, dominated by a species of intelligent reptilians, is an apparent utopia. The Lithians have no crime, no politics, and no religion, and their ethical code (otherwise identical to that of Christianity) is based on pure reason. Despite their planet’s iron-poor crust, the Lithians have developed advanced technologies, including a planetary communications web based on pulses emitted by the gigantic Message Tree, the...
[The entire page is 985 words long]
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