G'day. I'm Adam Collings. Welcome to stories.
I'm kicking off the new year by talking about 
 Amish Vampires in Space by Kerry Nietz.
Now at first glance, with a title like this, you might be tempted 
 to think that this is a campy farce or parody of genres.
It isn't.
This is a serious dramatic novel.
but it does have its roots in a bit of a joke.
Go back a few years in our TARDIS and you'll notice a group of 
 Christian science fiction authors noticing the prevalence of Amish romances in the industry.
It seemed that it was all the Christian publishers were interested in.
Jeff Gerke, the editor at Marcher Lord press at the time came 
 up with an amusing idea for the ultimate Christian sci-fi novel...
Amish Vampires in Space. He even mocked up a cover.
It was all a bit of good-natured fun.
A few years on, author Kerry Nietz started thinking 
 about this title in a more serious light.
He realised, there was potential for quite an interesting story here.
Amish, space-farers, vampires. There was scope for some fascinating conflict.
This is the book he came up with.
A tribe of Amish are living on a 
 planet called Alabaster.They settled there generations ago.
With Earth becoming more technologically advanced
it must have seemed difficult to maintain their lifestyle.
The trouble is, there world is currently in danger.
Their sun is dying and they need to be evacuated.
Jebediah Miller knows what to do
His family has a long-kept secret.
a device that they can use to call for help.
He could save his people, but they may not thank him for it.
Using technology is strictly forbidden by their rules - the Ordnung.
Meanwhile, the starship raven is about to take on a dangerous cargo.
In it lies a terror that will threaten all of them.
I was drawn to this book right away. I really like 
 stories that combine things that don't normally belong together.
I think that's why I like time-travel so much.
I've often thought I'd like to see the Amish 
 used in some kind of science fiction setting.
This book is about the clash of cultures. Just having Amish 
 settled on their own world was interesting to begin with.
putting them on a space ship brought a whole lot of interesting conflict.
It was fascinating seeing each group of people from the other's perspective.
In a way, having lived on their own world away from any englisher influence
has made these Amish even more wary of our ways
and less accepting of outsiders than current day Amish would be.
The vampires in this story were handled in a very science fiction way.
I loved how they were portrayed.
Their origins were nicely foreshadowed.
These would have to be the coolest vampires I've come across.
but to say more would be to stray into spoiler territory.
This book examines a lot of issues, and asks plenty of questions.
while not imposing any answers.
How far would you go to stay true to your convictions?
Would you remain a pacifist event when blood-sucking monsters are 
 trying to kill you and everyone you love?
On the other hand, what if your refusal to take up arms 
 means somebody else has to risk their life on your behalf?
This book was also quite a thrill ride.
The tension keeps building up and up until it's finally released.
I love some of the characters that Nietz created in this book.
Jebediah comes across as a strong protagonist in the Amish camp.
He loves his community, but more and more he's finding himself 
 rejected by them, for actions he's taken to protect them.
At the other end of the scale is 
 Seal Drake - captain of the Rave.
His life centres around the job of running a starship
and fulfilling cargo orders.
To him, the Amish are a bit of an oddity
which he finds difficult to understand.
He begins to take a liking to one of the 
 female crew officers on his ship - Crewman Singer.
Singer is interesting. As a modern Christian she sits half-way 
 between these two cultures as a kind of bridge.
To the Amish she's just another englisher.
To Seal, her faith makes her little different than the Amish themselves.
Then there's Congi, the guy who can get you anything for a price
from his stash of items that have been "accidentally" lost from cargo shipments
and Greels, the loading supervisor who despises him.
Greels is a really interesting character to me.
he's the kind of guy who sees trouble 
 on the horizon before other people do
yet no one seems to want to listen to him.
This leads to some good drama.
I've heard people say this was quite a long book
I found this interesting.
I read this book on my Kindle so I didn't have 
 much of a feel for how thick it was
It didn't feel long to me
I do remember getting to the end and going "Oh, no more?"
So that more than anything I can say is a 
 testament to how much I enjoyed this book.
Amish Vampires in Space is a serious exploration of cultures, scientific ethics and faith.
None of these themes seemed heavy-handed but came naturally out of the plot.
I'm glad that Kerry Nietz decided to go the 
 serious route rather than making this a comedy
because this is the kind of book that I wanted to read.
I loved this book.
It was one of my highlights for 2013 
 and I give it my highest recommendation.
If you're looking for something different in the science fiction genre, 
 then check out Amish Vampires in Space by Kerry Nietz.
Thanks for watching. If you'd like to connect with me, you 
 can head over to the about page of my blog
at collingszone.wordpress.com
Catch you next time.
