EDITOR’S NOTE: In Episode 1 — the pilot episode — of the “A Log by the Fire” podcast, we talk to Chris Walley, a geologist and author of the “Lamb Among the Stars” trilogy. Walley discusses writing science fiction from a Christian worldview. We also talk about the ethics of technology (was it ethical to re-create actor Peter Cushing as the Grand Moff Tarkin in “Rogue One?”), so-called “trans-humanism,” and evidence for Creation in science.
The Lamb Among the Stars trilogy consists of “The Shadow and Night,” “The Dark Foundations” and “The Infinite Day.”
Imagine it’s the year 13851.
Mankind has come a long way, not just technologically and intellectually, but spiritually. In fact, there has been a worldwide revival. The human species, as a whole, has made its peace with God. Humanity has poured out the cup of moral poison – greed, racism, violence and lust – and exchanged it for the grace and mercy Christ has to offer.
Now, the human race is free to get about the business of exploration and discovery. For millennia, humanity has been sending colonists to hitherto unknown planets at the furthest reaches of our galaxy.
Merral D’Avanos is one such colonist. A forrester on Stellar Object NWQ-15AZ (the newly terraformed baby planet Farholme), he enjoys caring for the fields, lava flows, plants and forests on a new world on the outskirts of known space. And with evil all but banished, he is free to live in peace with his neighbors and enjoy his intellectual pursuits in a utopia that has never before been experienced.
But all of that is about to change.
One night, Merral and his young nephew see a shooting star steak across the night sky over his uncle’s farm.
Only it’s not a meteor. And it’s not too long before Merral realizes something is lurking in the woods near his uncle’s home. Something that’s not human. Something that frightens Merral’s little nice so badly that when she sees it during a walk through the woods she almost goes mad. And it’s something that’s about to start an apocalyptic war.
That’s the setup for the “The Lamb Among the Stars” trilogy by author Chris Walley. (The trilogy consists of “The Shadow and Night,” “The Dark Foundations” and “The Infinite Day.”) Hailed as a science fiction / fantasy trilogy “in the tradition of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien,” the series is a space opera, written by a geologist who also happens to be a Christian.
You know how Lord of the Rings begins as an intimate little story in Hobbiton and ends with Armageddon? That’s how this story progresses. At first it’s all about Farholme, a frontier planet on the outer edge of explored space – but it ends in climactic battle that spans the known galaxy.
There is space travel. Monsters. Robots. Angels. Demons. Satellite surveillance. Along the way, we look at the ethics of man’s relationship with technology. But most frightening enemy is something Merral has never had to face before: and that’s sin.
In the pilot episode of the “A Log by the Fire” podcast, I had the opportunity to interview Walley – a native of Wales currently living in Lorges, France — about his trilogy. We talk about how he became a Christian, what drew him to geology and what it’s like to write a mammoth space opera. Along the way, we also discuss man’s relationship with technology, the ethics of recreating deceased artists (including actor Peter Cushing in “Star Wars: Rogue One”), the future of the space program and humanity’s ultimate destiny.
I hope you enjoy the program. And future episodes are planned.
To purchase Book 1: The Shadow and Night, click here.
To purchase Book 2: The Dark Foundations, click here.
To purchase Book 3: The Infinite Day, click here.
Copyright 2021 by Travis K. Kircher. All rights reserved.
A Log by the Fire 