by nissa_amas_katoj

Created on: December 31, 2008

Science fiction is a wonderful and imaginative genre. In bookstores you can find shelf after shelf of science fiction books published by the mainstream publishers. But one thing you will not find in these mainstream works is the presence of positive Christian characters, Christian ideas, and openly Christian writers. Since the US population is 80% Christian, this creates a big gap, which is beginning to be filled by Christian publishers.

Some science fiction fans may question how Christian science fiction can exist. Aren't religion and science at war? Actually, not so much. Many historians believe that the adoption of Christianity in the Western world opened the way for science, and it is true that the Church kept learning and science alive during the fall of the Roman empire to barbarians.

To find today's cutting edge Christian science fiction, you may not have much luck looking at your local Christian bookstore. Christian science fiction is considered somewhat risky and many stores won't carry it, though the best selling 'Left Behind' apocalyptic series has opened the way for speculative fiction to some extend. But there are some web sites you can visit that showcase the best in Christian science fiction- as well as Christian fantasy and horror.

The Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog tour (http://csffblogtour.com/) is a monthly event in which bloggers blog about a chosen work of Christian speculative fiction. Among other things, their web site gives a list of books featured in the past months and years of the tour. One book on the list is Chris Walley's "The Shadow and Night", a science fiction book set on the Made World of Farholme, a part of the Assembly of a thousand worlds on which war and other evils are only a memory from the historic past. Yet evil has set foot on Farholme....

The Lost Genre Guild (http://www.lostgenreguild.com/) is a group of writers working in Christian science fiction, fantasy and horror. Their web site among other resources gives a list of recommended books. One that I found particularly intriguing is "infinite Space, Infinite God", a short story collection by Karina and Robert Fabian. The stories are Catholic science fiction, featuring such ideas as whether genetically altered humans have souls and nuns in space. Another book is "Faith Awakened" by Grace Bridges. It tells the story of life after a genetically engineered virus wipes out most of Earth's population.

These links will help the science fiction reader begin to explore the world of Christian science fiction. It will also be of help to aspiring science fiction writers who are intrigued by the possibility of combining science fiction and faith in their writing.

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