Cestus Dei

by John Maddox Roberts

The Church of Rome becomes disturbed by the extreme corruption of the upper classes of the planet Charun and sends Father Miles as a missionary to Charun

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

286 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

aka Mark Ramsay

John Maddox Roberts is the author of numerous works of science fiction and fantasy, in addition to his successful historical SPQR mystery series. The first two books in the series have recently been re-released in trade paperback.

Reviews

[Timothy Olson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Man has colonized the stars. Those who live across the galaxy are no longer tied to earth by political ties, but religious. This has left the world's great religions as the governing authorities in the galaxy.

Cestus Dei follows the re-discovery of a planet whose inhabitants have been cut off from the rest of civilization for centuries, and the work of the Roman Church emissaries to re-convert them by political machination, service to the poor, military action, and martyrdom.

Also, since it was written in the 70s/80s, it also has space pirates.

Much of the book seems to be ramping up to a climax, which just doesn't quite arrive.

Recommended for those who are fans of sci-fi along with the Catholic Church. If you only like sci-fi, or only like the Catholic Church, you won't like this book. Not much appeal for a wider audience.

[Robert (NurseBob) · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Maddox Roberts spins a grand Space Opera which borrows quite heavily from the Crusades, the Fall of Rome, and the book of Exodus (his main protagonist standing in for a latter day Moses complete with a high tech rod). The writing is crisp, the pace is fast, and his use of descriptors sparse yet effective. But the story, at least for me, falters on a few points. First of all the idea of a virtually indestructible swashbuckling kick-ass ninja warrior priesthood sporting shields and surcoats borders on cartoonish...is there anything his fanatical hero, Father Miles, CAN'T do? Furthermore I found the idea of a highly advanced star-faring race still clinging to iron age mythologies---and all the blind faith and magical thinking which that entails---hard to swallow. There's also an assumption that a society cut off from the grand moral beacon of faith will eventually sink into decadent barbarism unless redeemed once more, or as one pious Franciscan monk put it upon landing on a pagan planet, "We've come to replace superstition with religion!" Or is there a vein of satire running through all the pageantry and proselytizing? With names like "Malatesta", "Mangiapane", "Cato", and "Achillia" being thrown out you only need a rudimentary familiarity with Greco-Roman mythology and highschool Latin to appreciate the joke. At least there is a brief footnote suggesting that the universe may indeed be bigger than any one single belief can encompass and that point alone would be worthy of a sequel.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cestus Dei starts out with solid world building that establishes a galactic empire run by the religious powers of old earth who are vying for political and theological control of humanity.

The story itself then centers on a crisis/opportunity arises for the galactic church of Rome to manipulate the recently re-discovered planetary system of Charun. For this to happen, Charun must willingly cast aside its decadence and lust for gladitorial games and return to its Roman roots and values. A cast of characters is assembled by father Miles of the secret sect of the Church Militant, known as Cestus Dei, and through a series of carefully calculated gambits attempt to change the course of Charun's destiny.

Cestus Dei is pure space opera, interlaced with a love of military history, gladiatorial combat and genetically engineered monsters. It has space pirates (all space operas must have space pirates), heroes who are nigh indestructible, and a bit of honest character development.

If anything the real problem Cestus Dei has is that it wants to be a much longer story than it is printed as. About 20 pages from the end of the novel you will be asking yourself "Is there a sequel? Surely there is a sequel....there is no way Maddox can wrap up all these plot lines in next few pages." And in all honesty there should have been a second book, and maybe a third. The final 20 pages does wrap up the story but it doesn't feel satisfying. I want more not less of the church and of Cestus Dei. I want Father Miles to show us more of his world.