The Space Empire Saga: City on a Hill / Sojourner / Humiliation / Repentance / Sanctification by Michael J. Findley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really liked the book. It is actually five very short books put together into one decent-sized book, which would make a good part one of a trilogy. I had read “City On A Hill” a while back and liked it. The basic idea is that when the anti-christian persecution gets really heavy the church escapes off-planet with the Lord’s blessing. You can read about the prophecies pointing to that in Hezekiah 6 & 7. The saga starts with that book, adds Sojourner, and the three parts of the Empire Trilogy. I had started with part one of the empire trilogy, but I never really got it going in my head. Then I found out that “Empire One: Redemption” was part three of the Saga, so I dumped parts 2 and 3 and bought the saga instead.

It’s an intriguing tale with the rapidly degenerating true church as an Empire in space, a Fourth empire of 20th-century-type scientists in hiding, while the Church stands in the despicable splendor of dead religion on the earth. The true believers in the story seem to be on earth, as we see in part one (which is part three of the saga). Of course, there’s non-believers on earth too, but I don’t think I met any of them except for some soldiers and the hidden 4th empire. I would guess that the earth’s corrupt government is empire two, or something like that. There is a lot of truth covered in the story, and it’s well done. Yes, it is all confusing, but then it really is, isn’t it? Have you taken a look at the US in the 21st century?

The people are interesting and well-developed. The problems and issues are realistic, given the shape of civilization at that time. I was sad to discover that the author is a man who believes that it is acceptable to leave the end of a book hanging with little or nothing resolved. I’m hoping there will be a part two of the Saga to tie things up.

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