Inclination

by William Shunn

“Outstanding. . . . It’s a fascinating future, and Jude’s personal story is involving.” —Rich Horton, Locus Magazine Jude Plane is not your typical teenage boy, even among the other kids in his cloistered religious enclave. He belongs to the Machinist Guild, a group that forbids the use of any technology more advanced than a doorknob. But advanced technology can be hard to avoid when you live in an overlooked corner of Netherview Station—a giant wheel in space, twelve light-years from earth. Jude wants to live an obedient life, whatever that means, but his resolve is put to the test when his abusive father sends him to work outside the enclave, unloading freight at the station’s hub. There Jude will make friends stranger than any he’s ever known, and will find himself confronted by choices he never imagined. But will he solve the biggest mystery of all—the mystery of who he is? Nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, and Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Awards for best novella.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

64 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 1, 2006

About the author

William Shunn was born in Los Angeles and raised in Utah, the eldest of eight children in a devout Mormon family. A writer from a young age, he attended the Clarion Writers Workshop at Michigan State University in 1985, when he was 17. As was expected, he departed on a proselytizing mission for the LDS Church at the age of 19. He was assigned to preach in Alberta, Canada, but after six months he was convicted of felony mischief in connection with a false bomb threat and expelled from the country. The complete story is recounted in his memoir The Accidental Terrorist: Confessions of a Reluctant Missionary, available November 10, 2015.

In 1991, Shunn graduated from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City with a degree in computer science. Soon thereafter he began finding success as a science fiction writer. His short fiction has appeared in Salon, Asimov's Science Fiction, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Science Fiction Age, Realms of Fantasy, Electric Velocipede, Storyteller, Newtown Literary, and various anthologies, including year's-best collections. His work has been nominated for the Hugo Award and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, and twice for the Nebula Award.

A small collection of his stories, An Alternate History of the 21st Century, was published by Spilt Milk Press in 2007, with an introduction by Cory Doctorow. Cast a Cold Eye, a short horror novel co-written with Derryl Murphy, appeared from PS Publishing in 2009.

Shunn served three years as a national juror for the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, and for three years hosted and produced the acclaimed Tuesday Funk literary reading series in Chicago. He has long worked as a software developer, notably for WordPerfect Corporation and Sesame Workshop, and on September 11, 2001, he created what may have been the first online "survivor registry," a database that allowed people in affected cities a way to report their status and allowed friends and families to see if their loved ones were okay.

William Shunn left the Mormon Church in 1995 and developed one of the earliest ex-Mormon web sites. He lives in New York City.

Reviews

[Johnna Cornett · Rating 5 out of 5]

coming of age story, set in future society on a space station, religious community within a larger community. Though the religious society is fictional--with a clever reader-satisfying theology, the issues about what it's like to negotiate your own place from a relatively closed subcommunity into the larger community were very true. It's not so much that I learned something, as that some things about these situations are so true I felt it very keenly as a reader, and it's quite amazing to see that outside one own context and in print.

There are bonus details(easter eggs) for the mormon/postmormon reader.

For all that, it's not therapy, it's a story, and quite entertaining. Enjoy.

[Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome novella. Honor the inclined plane!

[Karen Roth · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read!
This Novella has a Sci Fi futuristic look at how religion can torment the spirit, segregate and hamper knowledge and yet the ones that do break away find it is within themselves that all can be....!