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“We are stewards of something in humankind that our civilization no longer fosters: the awareness that we are more than our bodies, that the human mind and spirit is a tangible force that is no less real for being nonphysical. This awareness is a flame that must not be allowed to die.”
New! Now available as an ebook as well as in its print edition. (More info and sample chapters below.)
Please note that unlike Sylvia Louise Engdahl's award-winning Enchantress from the Stars and other previous novels, this one is for adults only. It is not appropriate for children.
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New! - Stewards of the Flame has won an Independent Publishers (IPPY) Book Award bronze medal in the Visionary Fiction category.
Part science fiction, part what’s sometimes called “visionary fiction,” this controversial novel deals with government-imposed health care, with end-of-life issues, and with the so-called “paranormal” powers of the human mind. Despite being set in the distant future on another world, it will appeal to a wide range of readers who question the dominant medical philosophy of today’s society, or who value personal freedom of choice. (If you're wondering what visionary fiction is, or why this novel is unsuitable for YA readers, visit Sylvia Engdahl’s blog and read the archive for September.)
“Grips the attention with the raw immediacy of the problems. . . . An inquiry and commentary on the nature of what it is to be human, and where evolution can take us from here. It asks the sort of questions only SF can pose, and paints a vivid picture of where failing to answer those questions might lead. . . . Stewards is the kind of SF I've been craving!”
 —Jacqueline Lichtenberg, Monthly Aspectarian, June 2008
“A taut, well-paced science fiction work . . . that transcends the genre's traditional subdivisions and leads us into a world as relevant as today but as enthralling as tomorrow.”
—Paul H. Smith, author of Reading the Enemy’s Mind: Inside Star Gate—America’s Psychic Espionage Program,
Amazon.com
“A suspenseful and thought-provoking novel that seems so plausible that it sends chills up my spine . . . truly a masterpiece of parapsychological science fiction.”
—Robin Witte, Rebecca’s Reads
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“Stewards of the Flame is a brave book, and the numbers of those holding to the sentiments it conveys are growing. . . . It can’t be faulted for challenging our comfort zone, when after all, that is one sure measure of worthwhile fiction.
” —Carlos Aranaga, ScifiDimensions, February 2008
“A brilliant twist on dystopianism. . . . The book builds just the right amount of tension, and shows the stark reality of benevolent tyranny, one that any so-called democracy could creep towards quite easily. . . . Stewards of the Flame manages to speak strongly for our rights to choose our own destinies.
” —Anders Monsen, Prometheus, Winter 2008
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Read more review excerpts
New! Discussion guide for book clubs
-- get a free book!
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When burned-out starship captain Jesse Sanders is seized by a dictatorial medical regime and detained on the colony planet Undine, he has no idea that he is about to be plunged into a bewildering new life that will involve ordeals and joys beyond anything he has ever imagined, as well as the love of a woman with powers that seem superhuman. Still less does he suspect that he must soon take responsibility for the lives of people he has come to care about and the preservation of their hopes for the future of humankind.
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Whether or not you plan to read the book, be sure to see the background information
at this site: comments, links, books and videos about compulsory medical care, remote health monitoring, implanted microchips, harmful psychiatric treatment, the mind's influence on health, ESP and other psi powers, and more!
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But first, he learns that under the law he’s involved in murder. . . .
“You mean everyone—everyone on this world who’s not killed outright—dies slowly in that damned hospital, hooked to machines?” Jesse persisted.
“I wish that were what we meant,” Bernie said. There was an uneasy silence. Then, with irony, he went on, “But you see, we have the galaxy’s finest medical facility in this colony—”
“And,” Kwame declared, “the galaxy’s finest medical facility can’t let people die.”
“Till they’ve disintegrated from old age, you mean.” God. It might take years, with unlimited forced treatment. . . .
“No, Jesse. It can’t let them die at all. At least not according to the Meds’ criteria.”
He stared at Kwame. “I guess I don’t quite see.”
“Our medical facility,” Bernie told him, “really is an advanced one. From the technological standpoint it’s superb. It has developed sophisticated techniques not common elsewhere, and as you know, its funds are unlimited. The law says everyone must be treated for everything. So you see, bodies are just—maintained. Indefinitely.”
“Even after they’re brain-dead?” Jesse asked in a low voice.
“Yes—like bodies from which organs for transplant were taken, back in the days before cloned organs were perfected.”
“But aren’t they going to run out of bed space someday?”
“Well, they don’t use regular rooms,” Carla said painfully. “The bodies are kept in stasis units, like those that were once used on slow starships. Besides the treatment floors there are maintenance floors. That’s a euphemism. The more accurate term is vaults.”
Peter put in quickly, “Jess, we need you to be aware that what you saw tonight was a crime involving all of us—even you, should it ever become known that you witnessed it. According to the law you’re now an accessory to murder.”
“Murder? All I got a glimpse of was a wrapped body, already dead. That’s all any of you saw.”
“But officially, you see, there is no death from natural causes here. This world has no cemeteries. To bury a body is murder.”
Think it couldn’t happen? We’re not quite to the stage of stasis vaults, but a lot of other things in the story are all too close to reality. In fact, some of them aren’t science fiction anymore. This site has lots of background information on implanted microchips, remote health monitoring technologies, moves toward compulsory medical care, and more -- including links, booklists, and even some videos, plus Sylvia Engdahl's comments.
“Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government’s purposes are beneficent.”
—Louis Brandeis, Olmstead v. United States, 1928
“Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.”
—C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock, 1970
“Formerly, people rushed to embrace totalitarian states. Now they rush to embrace the therapeutic state. When they discover that the therapeutic state is about tyranny, not therapy, it will be too late.”
—Thomas Szasz, Pharmacracy, 2001
Fortunately ESP, self-healing, and other powers of the mind are also real (read about them in the background information). And perhaps more people will gain the use of them in future centuries.
“You may not believe in ESP, but Sylvia Engdahl knows it is real, and has drawn it in for a pivotal role in her sobering new futuristic tale of a health-care system gone very badly wrong. The antidote to this frighteningly-plausible hyper-spun Great Society turns out to be today’s most under-recognized human capacity, the ability of our minds to transcend our physical bodies.”
—Paul H. Smith, author of Reading the Enemy’s Mind: Inside Star Gate—America’s Psychic Espionage Program and former intelligence officer in that program.
Read the first 6 chapters online.
(Copyright 2007 by Sylvia Engdahl)
These are not the same format as the ebook. They're short -- there are are 68 chapters in the book.
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Buy the ebook from
Mobipocket.com -- only $7.99! The free Mobipocket reader, which is compatible with Windows PCs and many mobile devices, can be downloaded from a link on the book's page.
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