With Flaming Swords

by Cleve Cartmill

Unknown Binding

Reviews

[Benjamin Stahl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Far into the future, a select number of humans have developed a biological defense mechanism against radiation. This evolutionary attribute reveals itself as an aura surrounding the person, and it is passed through genes. In this distant future, where old religions have been abolished and forgotten, these privileged humans pass themselves off as gods ("Saints"), and codify their supposed divinity through a great religious boon called the Codex.

This fascinating story follows the adventure of one heretical Saint who learns the truth that his kind are just humans after all, and that they use their religion to subjugate the world. Though on the surface it might seem like an allegorical attack against religion - Christianity specifically, with its obvious parallels to the Inquisition and the Scientific Revolution - to my mind, it actually isn't that. Rather, as the "heretical" hero himself actually looks wistfully back on the "old religions," the story is a cautionary tale about what happens if we try to deny God, and replace Him with human gods. Take away all the organized religion, and Man, in his never-ending quest for meaning, will in some shape for form create their own god and religion to go with it.