sawyl | The Stars Do Not Lie

Next in the novella category, Jay Lake's The Stars Do Not Lie. Set on a somewhat steampunk alternate Earth — it took me an embarrassingly long time to realise this, despite some of the more obvious hits — it tells the tale of a Gallileo-like scientist who has discovered scientific evidence for a particularly radical heresy.

The story opens with Morgan Abotti presenting his radical thesis to the Planetary Society in Highpassage: that despite the Lateran Church, which claims that humanity was created in eight different gardens by the spirits of the Increate a few thousand years ago, humanity actually came from the stars. Needless to say, this does not go down well with the Church and Inquisitor Bilious Quinx dispatches himself to go and track down the truth. Arriving in Highpassage slightly too late, Quinx discovers that Morgan has seized by the secular authorities and whisked off in an airship to a mysterious island. Not meaning to let his prey get away Quinx sets off in pursuit.

There's a lot to like about this story, from the way that it re-imagines Earth's history to the way it subverts and re-tells the story of Genesis using the scientist to argue for rather than against the abrupt arrival of humanity on Earth. There are echoes of Gallileo throughout, especially the idea that scientific evidence will come out if it exists regardless of how hard the priests might try to believe it away.