“Lucifer son of the morning, I'm gonna chase you out of Earth
I'm gonna put on a iron shirt and chase Satan out of Earth
I'm gonna put on a iron shirt and chase the devil out of Earth
I'm gonna send him to outa space to find another race”
Chasing the devil out of earth might seem like a good idea - let’s have him find another race. But what if the devil is already out there and just waiting for us to find him? That is the question in Lake of Darkness, a new (April 2024) novel by Adam Roberts that presents a nice blend of hard science fiction (at least if his science about black holes checks out), a thorough exploration of evil, and a hart-hitting satirical commentary on influencer culture and fandom.
Set a few thousand years in the future, humanity has conquered the galaxy and overcome all scarcity. Devoid of other intelligent life, planets and space habitats have become a playground for all sorts of cultural tribes coexisting peacefully in a near-perfect utopia. Want to try something new or engage in exploration? With FTL travel a reality, you can just hop over to a different planet to immerse yourself in a totally different culture or experience a new reality in near-perfect simulations. If you think there is a dark secret here, I have to disappoint you. This isn’t Huxley’s Brave New World. Most people are genuinely happy and those that aren’t receive all the love and support they can dream of from their community.
Against this background, two groups of “scientists” go on a mission to explore a black hole. Circling the singularity in two ships, one crew member, Raine, believes that he has received a signal from behind the event horizon (which of course should be impossible - nothing escapes the event horizon) and - to the disbelieve of his crew who think he might be suffering from hallucinations caused by their faster than light journey - appears to begin a dialogue with the “Gentleman”, an apparent inhabitant of the black hole. Raine quickly falls to the Gentleman and turns into a serial killer, killing all his crew mates and the crew of their companionship in a blood gushing eruption of violence.
When Raine is finally apprehended, he is put into stasis and locked into a virtual simulation - future humanity does not only not know what to do with this particular form of evil, we also learn that in general violent crime (and any crime for that matter) is a thing of the past and society has no real concept for dealing with criminals anymore. That, however, doesn’t stop the madness: As Raine is virtually visited by Saccade, a young woman with an interest in 20th century serial killer stories, his murderous instincts appear to spread. When Saccade manages to bring a gravity-bending device under her control that might blow up the black hole and either free or destroy whoever is inside, another mission is launched to intercept her at the black hole and the rest of the story focuses mostly on Joyns, an actual female physicist (as opposed to somebody just pretending to be an expert by virtue of being fascinated by a subject) trying to keep her calm amidst a journey that is quickly spinning out of control.
There is a lot of madness in this story - actual Satan imprisoned by god in a black hole after his fall from grace, but still able to infect the minds of unsuspecting humans to start with. And with a lot of the physics described in the book it isn’t always clear if this is a clever piece of hard scifi or a lot of pseudo scientific gibberish. But that is not the point: Roberts’ story is both a fascinating space sage and more importantly manages to weave in a searing critique of many aspects of today’s life: From mansplaining but ultimately clueless “scientists” (who happen to be female in this case) to excited celebrities building tribes around their niche interests without ever understanding the subjects of their “fandom”, in the eyes of “The Gentleman” future humans have built a “hobbytopia”, a “place without true work” where people have “reverted to infancy”. While this is an in-story critique of future humans, it also rings true (and is clearly articulated) as a criticism of today’s celebrity and influencer culture and of an over-reliance on artificial intelligence running our lives: As much as Roberts describes a true utopian world where all material needs are easily fulfilled and health and happiness are taken care of, as an extrapolation of today’s world he also describes a world were human’s capacity for critical thinking has shriveled away - a happy playground for people reverted to infancy where opinion matters more than facts: “Whatever the actual name of the first individual to walk on the Earth’s moon, it was clearly not Arm-Strong. That’s a title, not a name.” as a character firmly insists in the book.
I have to admit that even now I am not certain about the true nature of the Gentleman. Is he real? And is he inside the black hole, outside of it, or is there really no difference between the two? Smarter readers that Futureboy might be able to figure things out fully, but for everybody else, Lake of Darkness is still an entertaining and engaging read.
More about religion in science fiction:
Where Lake of Darkness features the devil himself, James Blish’s 1958 book A Case of Conscience looks at religion (and the devil) through the eyes of a Jesuit priest. After Father Ramon Ruiz-Sanchez is sent to the planet Lithia to find a peaceful intelligent society of reptile-like beings, he comes to believe that the planet must be the work of the devil: A place created to show peace, logic, and understanding in the complete absence of God!
Independently, in Sparrow (1996) and Sparrow’s sequel Children of God (1998), Mary Doria Russell also brings to life a space-faring Jesuit priest: Returning to earth after a 40-year mission to a far-away planet, Father Sandoz’ faith has turned into anger at the god that sent him into space only to have him witness unbearable pain and suffering. Sheltered away in Italy by his order, Sandoz is both interrogated about his trip and supported in his recovery and slowly reveals what really happened in space.