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Orbis
For two thousand years, humankind has lived and prospered under the rule of the Benefactors, but now the truth about the Benefactors is about to be revealed, and three ordinary people hold the key to humankind's ultimate survival.
408 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published April 1, 2002
3 people are currently reading
45 people want to read
About the author
Scott Mackay
40 books8 followersAward-winning author Scott Mackay has over thirty-five published short stories to his credit and four novels: OUTPOST, THE MEEK, A FRIEND IN BARCELONA and COLD COMFORT, which was nominated for the 1999 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel. He lives in Toronto.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
July 18, 2011
Interesting ideas, amateurish execution. This book irritated me so much that I actually bothered to come onto goodreads and write a review, when i havent been around the site here in months.
I enjoy alternate history books. I also enjoy speculative fiction that discusses the meaning and impact of religion across history and culture. Thus when I read the blurb on this book I figured it was worth a look.
It was not. Half of the alternate history is fairly interesting (the effects a ruling, omniscent power with a religious bent would have on the development of our history), half of it (I wont describe here because of spoiler risk) was just arbitrarily declared with no reasons or explanations as to why it was so different. Look, this is how alternate history fiction works: 1) Take a given time in history. 2) Identify or add a *specific* event or feature that will change the history. 3) Analyze the effects this change has had throughout history and use to drive the story. You DO NOT just say, "Oh, this historical artifact was actually completely different simply because I said so." That's not historical fiction, that's fantasy, and while fantasy is perfectly valid, it drove me NUTS going back and forth between the stuff that was historically-reasonable and the stuff that was totally off the wall.
While there is a lot of Stuff that happens in the book, the writing approach is wooden and simplistic. It is the EPITOME of "tell not show." The author's approach seemed to have been, why describe something through the interaction of characters and detailed setting of the scene when you could simply say, "She was angry with him" or "The place was very old and pretty."
Urg, I could go on and on, but instead ill just rant about one more thing that might escape many people's notice but stuck out like a sore thumb to me: the author may have inserted his own sort of mary-sue wish fulfillment in the story, since by the end, not one but TWO older men end up with hot young women as wives. In one of the cases, the narration simply declared that the woman was in love with the guy, almost within the first day of meeting him, no reason given, and despite an almost 30 year age difference they get married and live happily ever after. W. T. F.
I enjoy alternate history books. I also enjoy speculative fiction that discusses the meaning and impact of religion across history and culture. Thus when I read the blurb on this book I figured it was worth a look.
It was not. Half of the alternate history is fairly interesting (the effects a ruling, omniscent power with a religious bent would have on the development of our history), half of it (I wont describe here because of spoiler risk) was just arbitrarily declared with no reasons or explanations as to why it was so different. Look, this is how alternate history fiction works: 1) Take a given time in history. 2) Identify or add a *specific* event or feature that will change the history. 3) Analyze the effects this change has had throughout history and use to drive the story. You DO NOT just say, "Oh, this historical artifact was actually completely different simply because I said so." That's not historical fiction, that's fantasy, and while fantasy is perfectly valid, it drove me NUTS going back and forth between the stuff that was historically-reasonable and the stuff that was totally off the wall.
While there is a lot of Stuff that happens in the book, the writing approach is wooden and simplistic. It is the EPITOME of "tell not show." The author's approach seemed to have been, why describe something through the interaction of characters and detailed setting of the scene when you could simply say, "She was angry with him" or "The place was very old and pretty."
Urg, I could go on and on, but instead ill just rant about one more thing that might escape many people's notice but stuck out like a sore thumb to me: the author may have inserted his own sort of mary-sue wish fulfillment in the story, since by the end, not one but TWO older men end up with hot young women as wives. In one of the cases, the narration simply declared that the woman was in love with the guy, almost within the first day of meeting him, no reason given, and despite an almost 30 year age difference they get married and live happily ever after. W. T. F.
August 3, 2007
Orbis, Scott Mackay, Roc Books, 2002
Several thousand years ago, bodiless beings called the Benefactors came to Earth. Having the ability to take over human bodies, they attached themselves to one of the religious sects operating in the area of the eastern Mediterranean Sea, a sect which became Christianity. Two thousand years ago, the Benefactors fought a major war against the Romans, the rulers at the time, forcing the Romans to flee to the stars.
In the mid-20th century, the Benefactors rule under a benevolent dictatorship (but still a dictatorship) on the North American continent. This book takes place in the Missouri-Arkansas Territory of the Papal States of America. Most of the continent is off limits to P.S.A. citizens. The mere possession of parts to build a radio, or a Latin-English dictionary, are hanging offenses. Two senior members of the "church" travel into the Restricted Zone, contact the Romans by radio, and ask for help. The Romans have started to spread radio beacons throughout the galaxy because they have lost the knowledge of their origin. The Romans return to Earth, and defeat the Benefactors.
If life under the Benefactors is bad, life under the Romans is much worse. All young people are sent north to work in the iron mines, to pay for the Roman occupation. Any mother who refuses to send her child gets both hands chopped off. Those who remain are virtual slaves. A new insurgency is started among those who are left, Plains indian tribes (who live in the Restricted Zone), a more "liberal" Roman general, and the last of the Benefactors, who has been very influenced by the person whose body was taken over. Can they succeed, especially when told that 50,000 Roman troops will be arriving within days?
This one has some good alternate history ideas, and it’s an interesting speculation about Christianity. It gets rather bloody by the end, but it certainly belongs in that large gray area of Pretty Good or Worth Reading.
Several thousand years ago, bodiless beings called the Benefactors came to Earth. Having the ability to take over human bodies, they attached themselves to one of the religious sects operating in the area of the eastern Mediterranean Sea, a sect which became Christianity. Two thousand years ago, the Benefactors fought a major war against the Romans, the rulers at the time, forcing the Romans to flee to the stars.
In the mid-20th century, the Benefactors rule under a benevolent dictatorship (but still a dictatorship) on the North American continent. This book takes place in the Missouri-Arkansas Territory of the Papal States of America. Most of the continent is off limits to P.S.A. citizens. The mere possession of parts to build a radio, or a Latin-English dictionary, are hanging offenses. Two senior members of the "church" travel into the Restricted Zone, contact the Romans by radio, and ask for help. The Romans have started to spread radio beacons throughout the galaxy because they have lost the knowledge of their origin. The Romans return to Earth, and defeat the Benefactors.
If life under the Benefactors is bad, life under the Romans is much worse. All young people are sent north to work in the iron mines, to pay for the Roman occupation. Any mother who refuses to send her child gets both hands chopped off. Those who remain are virtual slaves. A new insurgency is started among those who are left, Plains indian tribes (who live in the Restricted Zone), a more "liberal" Roman general, and the last of the Benefactors, who has been very influenced by the person whose body was taken over. Can they succeed, especially when told that 50,000 Roman troops will be arriving within days?
This one has some good alternate history ideas, and it’s an interesting speculation about Christianity. It gets rather bloody by the end, but it certainly belongs in that large gray area of Pretty Good or Worth Reading.
December 6, 2025
This was a WILD book. The blurb on the back did not prepare me at all. Highly recommend.
Was not expecting an alternate history book about "aliens pretending to be angels" to actually be about the indomitable human spirit, religion and spiritualism, slavery, Native Americans, and unrequited love.
Also, there are Romans. From space.
Was not expecting an alternate history book about "aliens pretending to be angels" to actually be about the indomitable human spirit, religion and spiritualism, slavery, Native Americans, and unrequited love.
Also, there are Romans. From space.
April 7, 2022
Engaging
This is an intriguing alienate history story—part sci-fi, part western, part military fiction. It weaves together some interesting themes including the nature of religious belief. I enjoyed it!
This is an intriguing alienate history story—part sci-fi, part western, part military fiction. It weaves together some interesting themes including the nature of religious belief. I enjoyed it!
December 4, 2023
Wild ride! From page one I was intrigued. It kept a fast pace and was exactly what I wanted in a book that contains: a Heavenly Host conspiracy, aliens, Romans, and a rebel group plotting against the status quo.
May 14, 2017
I wasn't sure about this when I started it but the story came together well and it was fast paced. Overall I really enjoyed this novel.
March 16, 2011
Orbis is an alternate history science fiction novel. In it the Benefactors, aliens posing as angelic beings, have set up a world wide theocracy with them in charge. In this alternate history, the earthly enemy of the Benefactors, the Romans, left earth on spaceships two thousand years ago.
I found the premise in the beginning of the novel to be quite intriguing and interesting. The novel is very much plot driven, however, and suffers slightly in the middle where it slowed down. Obviously since this is an alternate history, you have to suspend disbelief. Some of that disbelief involves the Catholic Church (which is the system the Benefactors use to control humans) and Native Americans (who are depicted as savages confined to the Restricted Zone). I'm hesitant to say Mackay is showing prejudice by these depictions. I think it was all a device, a tool, he used to highlight the alternate history. I'm not sure all of it was completely necessary, however. In the end I don't think the message was as much anti-Christian as it was aimed against blind faith in following an institution.
I would have rated this novel as highly recommended until the last quarter of it. At that point I felt Mackay was coming out as a bit too strongly opposed to organized religion, even though I understand the novel is fiction. It was interesting and I will read another Mackay novel. Recommended, with reservations. http://shetreadssoftly.blogspot.com/
I found the premise in the beginning of the novel to be quite intriguing and interesting. The novel is very much plot driven, however, and suffers slightly in the middle where it slowed down. Obviously since this is an alternate history, you have to suspend disbelief. Some of that disbelief involves the Catholic Church (which is the system the Benefactors use to control humans) and Native Americans (who are depicted as savages confined to the Restricted Zone). I'm hesitant to say Mackay is showing prejudice by these depictions. I think it was all a device, a tool, he used to highlight the alternate history. I'm not sure all of it was completely necessary, however. In the end I don't think the message was as much anti-Christian as it was aimed against blind faith in following an institution.
I would have rated this novel as highly recommended until the last quarter of it. At that point I felt Mackay was coming out as a bit too strongly opposed to organized religion, even though I understand the novel is fiction. It was interesting and I will read another Mackay novel. Recommended, with reservations. http://shetreadssoftly.blogspot.com/
January 21, 2008
One of the worst on my list because it sucked. Story was sloppy and goofy. Very little held me to the end of the book.
April 17, 2008
An intriguing alternative history where aliens were disguised as angels for thousands of years.
November 12, 2008
Predictable and irritating. Every time an interesting plot thread came up, it was either resolved over-quickly or just dropped.
September 23, 2016
Great blend of old history and sci-fi.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews