The Final Planet

by Andrew M. Greeley

For the men and women of the battered pilgrim vessel Iona, members of the Holy Order of St. Brigid and St. Brendan, it was the last chance.

Even with survival at stake, they must obey their holy order's they cannot invade, they must be invited to land. And they don't know enough to be sure of wangling a welcome.

The Holy Captain Abbess Dierdre Cardinal Fitzgerald sends Seamus O'Neil as a spy. A spy? Seamus is a crack soldier, a second-rate bard, and a young man looking for love, but a diplomat he isn't.

The land is beautiful, and the women are lovely and loving-except for gorgeous, chilly Marjetta-but a paradise it isn't.

In fact, the land is more dangerous than Seamus could have imagined. It will be a miracle if he and Marjetta keep their skins intact-much less pull off a landing for the Iona.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Religion

320 pages, Paperback

First published June 28, 1987

About the author

Andrew Greeley was a Roman Catholic priest, sociologist, journalist, and author of 50 best-selling novels and more than 100 works of nonfiction. For decades, Greeley entertained readers with such popular characters as the mystery-solving priest Blackie Ryan and the fey, amateur sleuth Nuala Anne McGrail. His books typically center on Irish-American Roman Catholics living or working in Chicago.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/andrew...

Reviews

[Marko]

I have the german edition: Planet der Verheissung

[David Ivester · Rating 3 out of 5]

I barely gave this one three stars, and I am a notoriously liberal rater and an inveterate lover of science fiction. I thought at first that this was a terrible book, but I had to revise my thinking somewhat. Upon reflection I decided it fits into a sub-genre you might call "Religious SF", and I mean it as sincere, Christian proselytizing SF, and not something like the wonderful A Canticle for Leibowitz. This book is written from the standpoint of a Catholic missionary in a sense, and carries that flavor through to the end. Yes, it has some ham-fisted sexual descriptions (well, the author is after all a priest) but even then the hero "marries" the girl in his heart since there is no one around to officiate their union.

I look at it as in the same category as, say, Christian romance, or Christian western, and with that proviso, I have to judge it a little more leniently.

[Karmen]

A great novel about a religious order, St. Brigid, who are travelers and sometimes missionaries. Having traveled for centuries on their current vessel, they find they're in trouble. They have to find a planet to settle on but be asked to first.
A messenger is sent ahead and gets involved with the struggle for freedom on the planet. He falls in love with a girl already betrothed to another. It then turns into an adventure about the overthrow of the oppressive government.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read through the first twenty pages and make up your mind, because its a lot more of the same the rest of the way through.

The lead character is named Seamus Finbar O'Neil, and his name is the subtlest thing about him.

No quiet, delicate subtext here - just a wee mite of a hero's tale laid on with a thick brogue.

I thought it was fun, but it's likely an acquired taste :-)

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little uneven, but it's one of his first books so that's not surprising. You can see the threads of characters that he develops more fully in his later books, as he sticks pretty close to type. I love his books, they gave me a new outlook on religion in general and Catholicism in particular. I'm really going to miss Andrew Greeley as an author.