Empyrion

Empyrion #1-2

by Stephen R. Lawhead

Traveler, debt-dodger, itinerant critic, and writer of history books nobody buys, Orion Treet is astonished when he's invited to accompany a top-secret mission to observe and document an extraterrestrial colony on a newly discovered planet. But when Treet and his companions reach the paradise planet they have been promised, they find themselves enmeshed in an ancient and deadly conflict between two highly evolved civilizations. Can the free and perfect world of Fierra escape annihilation? Treet, with a handful of rebels, stands alone against the evil might of Dome, as events move inexorably towards a world-shaking climax.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Christian, Fantasy, Christian Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Faith

900 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1990

About the author

Stephen R. Lawhead is an internationally acclaimed author of mythic history and imaginative fiction. His works include Byzantium, Patrick, and the series The Pendragon Cycle, The Celtic Crusades, and The Song of Albion.

Also see his fanpage at Myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/stephenlawhead...

Stephen was born in 1950, in Nebraska in the USA. Most of his early life was spent in America where he earned a university degree in Fine Arts and attended theological college for two years. His first professional writing was done at Campus Life magazine in Chicago, where he was an editor and staff writer. During his five years at Campus Life he wrote hundreds of articles and several non-fiction books.

After a brief foray into the music business—as president of his own record company—he began full-time freelance writing in 1981. He moved to England in order to research Celtic legend and history. His first novel, In the Hall of the Dragon King, became the first in a series of three books (The Dragon King Trilogy) and was followed by the two-volume Empyrion saga, Dream Thief and then the Pendragon Cycle, now in five volumes: Taliesin, Merlin, Arthur, Pendragon, and Grail. This was followed by the award-winning Song of Albion series which consists of The Paradise War, The Silver Hand, and The Endless Knot.

He has written nine children's books, many of them originally offered to his two sons, Drake and Ross. He is married to Alice Slaikeu Lawhead, also a writer, with whom he has collaborated on some books and articles. They make their home in Oxford, England.

Stephen's non-fiction, fiction and children's titles have been published in twenty-one foreign languages. All of his novels have remained continuously in print in the United States and Britain since they were first published. He has won numereous industry awards for his novels and children's books, and in 2003 was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters by the University of Nebraska.

also write under the name Steve Lawhead

Reviews

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This sci fi pair were my first introduction to Stephen Lawhead. I enjoyed this journey to the stars and was sorry that he hasn't written anything else in this genre. I spoke to Mr. Lawhead last summer, and asked him why he didn't write anymore sci fi. He said that the market was flooded with good Science Fiction and his priority has been Historical Fiction and alternate realities since he wrote these books.

[Sheena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Empyrion is a fun science-fiction novel. However, like the better science-fiction novels, there's more to it than space travel, brand-new worlds, and cultures to understand. For one thing, there are no aliens. :)

Lawhead typically writes fantasy, based on legends and historical events. Empyrion is one of his two science-fiction projects. And while Lawhead is a master of fantasy, he's pretty good at science-fiction as well.

[Andrew Wilkes · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic read, a sci-fi goldmine if you like, I was fifteen when this book dropped into my lap and I could not put it down! I'm sure I lost two stone reading it.
Orion Treet, is the main protagonist, but the other characters were wonderfully written, I loved Jordan Talazac, excuse me if I spelt her name wrong, but it was twenty five years ago that I read it... I really adored her as a character!
The story is incredibly well-done. The story in itself, takes Orion to a colony that's lost contact with earth, the colony is on the other side of a wormhole, for you sci-fi junkies I'm you can shake a stick at why they lost contact and Stephen explains it in his own magical way.
At the time I was listening to a cd made by a group called (All About Eve) the songs drew some very strong parallels to the story and characters, even to this day Martha's harbour brings back memories of Jordan. If you haven't read it, please do and listen to that cd at the same time! Mind=blown.

Love

Drew

[Alien · Rating 4 out of 5]

durchs Wurmloch 3000 Jahre in die Zukunft. Die Kolonie auf dem fernen Planeten hat sich gespalten. In Dome wohnt eine Kasten-Dikatatur, die auf den Untergang zusteuert und ein gottgläubiges Utopia. Recht gut

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book (2 actually, back then) in high school & they were among my favorites ever to that point in time. Fantasy & sci-fi with a fun plot.

[Digger Dimond · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book. I especially love the allegories he uses in certain places, like when Yarden works out how surrender and trust and love work. Highly recommend it.

As a further note, while I really enjoy his later work (eg. the King Raven series etc) and the various Celtic-themed books/series’, I find the earlier works (like this one, and also Dream Thief) give incredible insights into faith and belief, and what these truly mean. Well worth the read!!

[Fin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book, but I just couldn't. The first 100 pages were actually good but after that I goes downhill. You are given a lot of terms and names at once with no explanation. I guess that's the point because the characters themselves don't know what these terms and names mean. But still some type of explanation was really needed. Because there was no explanation, it made alot of the scenes hard to follow and to understand. I really did want to like this book.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very long journey of a read, but I enjoyed it thoroughly

[David Lankshear · Rating 4 out of 5]

OK sci-fi with various Christian influenced parables and moral discussions.

[S.J. Saunders · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed the first entry over the second, but Lawhead's take on sci-fi is just as compelling to me as his fantasy!

4/5 If the pacing were more to my taste, a new favorite.

[Jon Gill · Rating 5 out of 5]

This two book series was a great example of good but accessible literature. I read it as a teen, and I expect I would get just as many things out of it as an adult. It's certainly sci-fi, but it's also a great exploration of civilization, the place our history has in our future, and what "dystopian" should even mean. When I say dystopian, these novels don't *quite* qualify, and they're not trying to; they're neither utopian nor dystopian, but find a great halfway contrast, especially in the highly metaphorical settlements of Dome and Fierra, as an exciting vehicle for moral and spiritual explorations.

The basic setting of a futuristic earthman traveling to a "new" settlement on an exoplanet, only to find it is, for reasons of space-time travel, now ancient and deeply evolved (or devolved, depending on your point of view) very much mirrors stories like Planet of the Apes, but not to its discredit. Like that story, this allows it to really explore what makes us human, what makes something "civilization", whether that's a problem, and ultimately, what we can or should do about it. There is no way to read this story, even shallowly, and not look in the mirror at some point. That's what makes it good literature. The multiple character arcs also allow for multiple mirrors through both books.

While this could be classified as "Christian fiction," it's more than that. Certainly there are great metaphors for earth, heaven, angels, resurrection/rebirth, apocalypse, and restoration - all distinctly Christian themes - but the overall explorations the books take the reader on are beyond one worldview. Lawhead's point, if there is only one, is that we humans are what we are (dare I say "all our base are belong to us"?), and we need divine intervention to live up to our ideals. That's Christian, sure, but it's also beyond labels, and the way he makes these points is an exciting adventure all on its own.

These books are a great and easy read for teenagers and adults alike, whether they plan to explore the implications of human civilizations, or just want a good sci-fi read with some underlying depth.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have what you might call a like/dislike relationship to Lawhead's work. Often I find him rather sterile and unengaging. This book (which is two books to create one overall story with an obvious break in the middle).

I actually got this book originally by mistake. A friend had been telling about a Lawhead book and I'd forgotten the name (It was Dream Thief) and my parents were going to a book shop in Oxford and asked if I wanted anything. As I couldn't remember the name, I asked for his latest. I don't know if Empyrion was his latest at the time or if it simply caught their attention.

I read it and enjoyed it. It wasn't a book I would usually pick up and read. I don't read a great deal of Sci-Fi.

I'd read Lawhead in the past. I'd first read Dragon King Trilogy back in the eighties and it was these that actually gave me an interest in writing myself. I also attended a lecture by the author at an arts festival in 86/87 and to be honest I found it incredibly boring.

I read some of the Pendragon Cycle and found Taliesin to be excellent and Merlin and the following books to be disappointing. I think a lot of the problem for me was the change from third to first person. Also, it didn't feel like there was any passion or drama to Lawhead's writing. It was as though he was listing a series of events without emotion.

Empyrion is an intriguing book that is fairly well written. There are some parts that are somewhat tedious, especially with the hierarchy of the Dome residents. But all in all I found it worthwhile and mainly enjoyable.

Lawhead is very much a gamble for me. I am reading this book for the second time, so that's encouraging, right? I first read it 1991-92.

[Kyle Pratt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Empyrion is an epic science fiction story by Christian writer Stephen Lawhead. Originally two books, The Search for Fierra and The Siege of Dome, the first book ends with too much unresolved and the second cannot stand on its own. The two books of this volume are in fact one story.

All too often Christian fiction is second-rate fiction but this is not the case with Stephen Lawhead and Empyrion. This story is excellent science fiction. However, Empyrion is not just the story of four travelers to an Earth colony in the Epsilon Eridani system; it is the spiritual journey that explores the eternal battle between good and evil.

While Empyrion investigates religious themes, it is not overtly Christian. Another reviewer stated that the story is rich with Allegory. I agree. Dome represents evil, an authoritarian society of demon worship and hate. Fierra, is a utopian paradise, a city populated by people who have either fled Dome or were thrown out. After years of wandering, they have come to know and love the Eternal Father. Even the air of Empyrion and Dome become allegories for purity and death.

The best fiction writers present their stories through setting, action, thoughts, and description. Many Science Fiction stories suffer from lengthy paragraphs of telling. While Empyrion does have some telling, it is blessed with ample setting details that allow you to visualize the alien environment, the bleakness of dome and beauty of Fierra.

As a Christian and a lifetime reader of Science Fiction, I recommend Empyrion to fans of the genre. Don't let the spirituality or length of the novel deter you from sharing the adventure.

[Stephen · Rating 2 out of 5]

This doorstep of a book is more commonly split into two. However I have the full 900 page version (with smallish print). As a story it's not so bad. Orion Treet - a historian - is paid handsomely to visit the new colony world of Empyrion, established a few years previously. On arrival though, things are not at all as expected and over the course of many pages it becomes clear that 3000 years of colony history have past, and that very early in the life of the colony there were disasters that almost destroyed them. What is more, there has been a split that saw rival fighting colonies, that throw the new visitors into a war.

This book failed to grip me though. It is to my knowledge Lawhead's only foray into science fiction. There are some nods to other works in the story - particularly to Dune by Frank Herbert, when Treet et al. are crossing a desert. In some ways this book is like Dune - but not, I am sorry to say, in depth of vision. Rather it is long winded with a tendency to get a little boring!

Ultimately the story is a good one, but I think it could have been delivered in a book one third the size of this one - then I would probably have enjoyed it.

[Á · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, some things age well. Other things don't hold the charm that time seems to imbue them with. The Empyrion Books were among my favorites growing up. I remember my sister getting me the first, The Search for Fierra, when I visited my father in Portland at age 11 or 12.

The first is an interesting concept and the plot moves quickly to get the characters to their destination. However, the investigations that our protagonist, Orion Treet, go through lacked the seeming immenseness that I attributed to them. When I read it again recently it seemed almost cursory investigations with an interesting, but two-dimensional society.

The Siege of Dome suffers from an in-your-face Christian message that you'd expect from a former editor of Campus Life Magazine, but Lawhead seems to be bludgeoning the reader with it, in sharp contrast to the first book wherein elements were there, but more subtle.

Still, it was worth a nostalgia trip to read them again.

[Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favourites book(s).
I remember picking these up originally as the separate novels back when I was 14. I had a gift voucher for a bookstore, but it was only enough for one of the books. I begged and pleaded with my mother that she get me the second one and I'm so glad it paid off. I love this book so much, that even when I loaned the books to someone and they moved away, I went out and re-bought them (although I had to get the omnibus version).
I am not normally a huge fan of sci-fi novels (I prefer my sci-fi as movies and my fantasy as novels) but this one engaged me right from the start. With its interesting characters, whose development over the course of the book(s) is striking in where they end up, it will keep you on the edge of your seat as you delve into the varying aspects of the world of Empyrion.

[Johan Haneveld · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not too shabby SF from an author who writes predominantly in the historical fantasy genre. It's been a while since I read it, but I liked the theologica speculation in this one, the rich description of an alien civilization, and the viewpoint character. I didn't like the ending too much, some of the idea's were not taken to their full potential, an issue I observe more often in Lawhéads books, especially his early ones, so the story did not leave a huge impression. I don't think Lawhead's strength is in the area of idea's. It's in creating richly textured worlds for his characters to travel around in, and experience another time, and another spirituality. That is why his genre of historical fantasy fits him like a glove, and excursions such as these do jar a little bit. Still, any Lawhead completist such as myself cannot go without reading these, if only just out of curiosity.

[Banner · Rating 4 out of 5]

This edition has both books. I would give a three star to The Search for Fierra and a four star to Siege of Dome. It's the story of the future exploration of space by powerful corporations. However, this is just more about setting up the story; once we get to Empyrion (which is pretty quick) the corporation plays only a small part. This is really about humanity's colonization of an alien plant after being cut off from earth. The contrast between good and evil is the predominate theme.

There's plenty of action and the story moves at a fast pace (especially in the second book). I like the alien wildlife and would have like to seen more of this.

Very entertaining and a must read for any Lawhead fans.

[Craig Becker · Rating 2 out of 5]

Still in progress on this one, a nice fat long story, looks like a standard good / evil space aliens book. We have met the space aliens, and they are US!

I finally finished this one and was disappointed in the ending yet again. Is a SCI/FI book, and this one is both novels massed together. The resulting book is rather heavy and difficult to hold for any length of time, at least it made my thumb tired.

Yes the space aliens were indeed us, and another space opera, good vs. evil, utopia vs. big brother type government, corrupt and evil. Butterflies vs. carnivorous wooly poison fanged cannibalistic bat creatures.

Whatever, never could get terribly excited about it.

Craig

[Alistair Archibald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although it takes a bit to get into, with a lot to get ones head around , the world of the dome is very rich and detailed, with some great ideas. Although the author doesn't follow through satisfactorily on a couple of them ie the evil/good mental presences, especially trabant wasn't followed through particularly well, should've been aliens, dammit. Also too much banging on about how great the Fieri were, on my re read, i skipped all the boating nonsense and stuck with Orion's adventures for the main. Also, more time in the archives would have been cool, more delving into the history of the colony etc. Still, altogether a great read, so can't really complain.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a Christian and sci-fi fan, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. While the characters didn't captivate me emotionally (as in, say, LOTR or HP ), the landscape of Empyrion was fascinating. Were I closed off to the Christian perspective, I could see how the second book might become a bit droll and cumbersome. However, fans of John Carter, Avatar, and Firefly alike should find enjoyment within the realm of Fierra and Dome. Not my favorite Lawhead, nonetheless. That title goes to the Songs of Albion books (with Dragon King a close second).

[Joshua · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'd say 2.5 stars, not 2, but I'm not sure how to do that.

I read this when I was a kid and loved it (it was my first foray into science fiction). I recently read it again and the writing is kind of choppy, but it's still a cool story. I don't think you should make a special effort to read it, but if you find yourself locked in a room with nothing but this book, you should read it.

It's a good, simplistic allegory.

[Piper Mejia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was recommended by a friend and like all recommendations I was eager to read. Though dated, which is to be expected, there was enough complexity to keep me reading. Set in the future this novel looks at how a society is forced to recreate itself when it is cut off for the world it knows best. I particularly enjoyed the fast paced beginning but was a bit disappointed in the almost too neatly tied up ending. A must read of all world builders.

[Michaela · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book I first read when i was14 years old, and have read again on several occasions since. An epic space tale that will keep you entertained from the first page to the last. A story told from the different perspectives of a cast of very interesting characters. Sci -fi is not usually my first choice of fictional genre, but this book will always be one of my favourites.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

It has been a while since I've read these, mostly on the strength of Lawhead's other works. This is a great book for Jr. High and up. This book is a strong commentary on mankind's tendancies toward destruction. Recommended (as are all of Lawhead's works).

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read several Lawhead books, but I've really enjoyed his Sci-Fi stuff more more than his historical fiction. Empyrion is his best, IMHO.

[Melina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two of Lawhead's earlier books. Good, but not as wonderful as his later writing.

[Julian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is amazing so far and it has that sort of a star wars feeling that gives it a spark of glory. I love it!

[Jonatron · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked these when I read them as a kid. Don't know if I still would.

[Erbegema · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it! Great Sci-fi and amazing dystopia!