The God of Planet 607

by Edward Pohlman

extremely rare,very good condition

123 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1972

Reviews

[Frankie · Rating 1 out of 5]

The ethical questions this raised did make the novel interesting and there is also much to be said about the destruction caused by colonialism, interference, and white saviorism. However, the overall composition of this book left so much to be desired. There was little to no exposition and every shred of potential conflict was either ignored or shoved under the rug in favor for the main character’s ideals regarding God. Whereas I appreciated the argument that if God could speak to us, he would, an entire novel dedicated to that idea being reiterated page after page was..... exhausting.

[Roxy Van · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a weird book that I found at a Little Free Library. Science fiction doesn't come softer than this - Edward Pohlman says directly in his introduction "I am not a novelist or science-fiction writer" in a line that comes after about a paragraph ruminating on the true topic of the novel, which is theology. Characters are given less than a sentence of physical description on average, mostly being defined by religious denomination or lack thereof and area of technical or scientific expertise. In this sense, the book is a bit like an original series episode of Star Trek, with a shoestring sci-fi backdrop framing a discussion of philosophy. In this case, the debate is over the existence of God, and the framing device is a planet that will be destroyed in four years time, on purpose, by members of a religion who believe their goddess wills this.

The comparison to Star Trek is in some ways a generous one, however. The characters are bare-bones and dialogue starts acceptably but dries out fast as it becomes apparent that these people actually do nothing but argue over religion. The misogyny is disappointing - two female characters appear for more than one scene, one of whom is sexually attractive to the main character but "rather dull," and another who is NOT attractive to the main character and whose character is just a 1970's conservative man's stereotype of a woman anxious over her own unattractiveness.

A really disappointing feature is that this mostly-plotless book actually contains 2 whole plots in it, both related to crew members who go rogue on Planet 607 for their own reasons. Okay, spoilers: One is a Southern Baptist who starts telling the aliens about Jesus and starts a small-scale religious war, the other is a barely-defined character who falls in love with an alien woman. Both stories are rushed through with little exploration because Pohlman didn't want to write a science fiction novel, he wanted to write a socratic dialogue about agnosticism with some set dressing.

As someone who has wrestled mightily with the question of faith, as it seems Pohlman surely has, I can appreciate the socractic dialogue of this book for what it is, but it's a shame to me that so much of it is repeated over and over while some really interesting sci-fi elements appear once or twice as set dressing but are never explored. One exception I did enjoy was the concept of "eating chastity" - the aliens of Planet 607 have extreme cultural taboos around eating in company, but no cultural taboos around sex (except after the age of 30, apparently.) This gets some fun exploration through a couple angles and doesn't turn into the author's self-insert banging all the hot alien babes which is nice at least. I have to wonder if Pohlman ever read Olaf Stapledon's "Last And First Men."