The Child Goddess

Rating:
Summary: Beautifully realized and executed
Review: In the distant future energy is needed to keep the expansion of the human race into the galaxy going. Power parks on uninhabited planets are built to supply that need. On the planet Virmund, a colony of lost children is discovered but nowhere on that orb are any adults. The Extra Solar Corporation, responsible for the building of the power park, takes back one of the children, keeps her in isolation, and runs medical tests for fourteen months.

Isabel Burke, a priest in the order of Magdalene, is appointed as guardian for the child. However from the time she makes contact with the child, she is also put in isolation, unable to communicate in person with anyone from the outside. Thanks to the help of a gentle worker in the complex, Isabel is able to make contact with her ex-lover. Simon who has a lot of political clout is also a highly regarded physician. He discovers that Oa is over hundred years old but acts and thinks like a child and the powers that be want the secret of her inability to grow old. A group flies to Virmund to find out what is keeping the children young and killing the adults on the planet.

Louise Marley has written a very entertaining science fiction novel that deals with current social issues such as women becoming priests in the Catholic Church. The mystery of the children on Virmund is handled in a believable way using scientific methods based on research used today. The children who have no desire to be Peter Pans want to experience the wonders of aging. The tale belongs to the heroine facing adversity but determined to do the right thing.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: very entertaining look at a futuristic outer space society
Review: In the distant future energy is needed to keep the expansion of the human race into the galaxy going. Power parks on uninhabited planets are built to supply that need. On the planet Virmund, a colony of lost children is discovered but nowhere on that orb are any adults. The Extra Solar Corporation, responsible for the building of the power park, takes back one of the children, keeps her in isolation, and runs medical tests for fourteen months.

Isabel Burke, a priest in the order of Magdalene, is appointed as guardian for the child. However from the time she makes contact with the child, she is also put in isolation, unable to communicate in person with anyone from the outside. Thanks to the help of a gentle worker in the complex, Isabel is able to make contact with her ex-lover. Simon who has a lot of political clout is also a highly regarded physician. He discovers that Oa is over hundred years old but acts and thinks like a child and the powers that be want the secret of her inability to grow old. A group flies to Virmund to find out what is keeping the children young and killing the adults on the planet.

Louise Marley has written a very entertaining science fiction novel that deals with current social issues such as women becoming priests in the Catholic Church. The mystery of the children on Virmund is handled in a believable way using scientific methods based on research used today. The children who have no desire to be Peter Pans want to experience the wonders of aging. The tale belongs to the heroine facing adversity but determined to do the right thing.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Beautifully realized and executed
Review: Marley's meditation on age, faith, and humanity is at once universal and very, very personal. My personal favorite of her books so far, The Child Goddess manages to deal with many different issues but at the same time retain direction and feeling. In particular, the character of Oa is one who has stuck with me long after I finished the novel. All in all, a wonderful read.

Rating:
Summary: Unusual treatment of a sci-fi classic subject; begs a sequel
Review: The plot behind "Child Goddess" is probably familiar to you if you are a Trekkie; without giving a spoiler here, suffice it to say the "The Child Goddess" has something in common with an Original Star Trek's episode. However, the treatment of the subject has Marley's originality and ability to create entire worlds and societies in a few deft strokes.

Mother Burke, a member of the Magdalenes, a female Catholic priesthood, is tapped to investigate the finding of a survivor of an old colony on a planet being used for Earth expansion and enterprise. After a tragic first contact, a child is brought back to Earth. But she is not all she seems to be. An alien (in which case, the planet is rendered useless for colonization) or is she the descendent of an ill-fated settlement from centuries ago? And why is she being kept in quarantine far longer than the six-month mandatory period, and by a very shady doctor.

Isabel Burke is a fascinating character. She is doing penance as a Magadalene as well as fulfilling a vocation. She is also a scientist and a sympathetic character with a mix of backbone and tenderness. One wants to learn more about her, hence my feeling that "Child Goddess" could be worthy of a sequel. Her order of woman priests is also interesting; imagine the history that was behind a church finally granting disciple status to Mary Magdalene and validating the Gospel of Mary.

Oa, the child, is interesting. Marley borrows from Australian aborigine customs as well as African to create her alien, and Oa is cast well in the role of a naive, yet sophisticated person.

Though I found the plot entirely predictable, I still raced through the book with enjoyment and hope for more from this author.

Rating:
Summary: Story of love and faith
Review: This is really a novel of love, love between a man and a woman, love for a child, love of God. Isabel Burke's journey is one of self-discovery as well as courage, and Oa of Virimund, the old child, makes her own journey of devotion, in the face of terrible struggles. These characters will catch you up in their story, and stay with you long after you turn the last page. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Thoughtful, and out of the ordinary . . . .
Review: When I first picked up and examined this book, I very much doubted I would find it interesting enough to get through it. Finally, I applied a test that I've used many times. I just opened the book and read the first paragraph. I finally decided to acquire the book and to see if it would interest me.

In truth, I could not put the book down and finished it in two days.

The investigator in this detective-like novel is Mother Isabel, a Catholic sister of a religious order that "attempts to shine light into dark places." She begins by trying to protect a child who has been the victim of exploitation by a money-hungry corporation. But as she pursues justice, she encounters mystery after mystery.

The story also involves a love theme -- and she is forced to cross paths with the great love of her life.

As the mystery draws her in and the stakes rise beyond the welfare of a single child to the welfare of many children, Mother Isabel travels to a distant planet, where she continues to wage a brave but unequal battle against corporate greed and the cold pursuit of wealth.

This book excellently depicts a crossed web of feelings -- love between a man and a woman, love of a motherly woman for an abandoned child, and the love of a child for her ersatz mother and protector.

This novel could be compared with the works of Rosemary Kirstein -- books such as THE STEERSWOMAN'S ROAD. Here too, a woman protagonist is a member of a sisterhood, or religious order if you will, dedicated to the pursuit of truth -- that is, "to shed light into dark places." This is to take nothing away, and I do not mean to imply that Ms. Marley and Ms. Kirstein even know each other's work. But the excellence of these two authors shows considerable parallel.