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The Starman Series is not your ordinary, run-of-the-mill series of books. When we began the project we, like other authors, started it because we had something to say. Our message can be found expressed throughout the books in subtle and obvious ways, and it is constant: there is good and evil in the world, and in the end good will triumph and evil will die. While this message could be called religious, it's not the authors intention to make the series a subtle tool for “preaching.” We want the books to be enjoyable to people across a spectrum of belief, but we do have something to share. We believe that by putting philosophical and religious matters into the series instead of ignoring them our stories come closer to reality and take on additional depth. We're are well aware that these books build upon a venerable history and depend upon the giants who have preceded us, but at the same time we do not hesitate to break new ground or set new precedents. It has been made clear from the first advertisements for the Starman series that the writer, David Baumann, is an Episcopal priest. Jon Cooper and Mike Dodd (the other two members of the Starman team) are also Christians. It should not be a surprise that there are some Christian images in the books, but they haven’t been placed furtively to sneak Christianity into the story. They’re there because, as any author should who cares about producing a good book, the writer draws upon what he knows best and uses the images and symbols with which he is most familiar. If he wrote about something of which he was ignorant, the book wouldn’t be realistic or convincing. Like Hal Goodwin (who wrote the Rick Brant series) and Sam Epstein (who wrote the Ken Holt series), David draws upon his own skills and experiences to produce the Starman books in a conscious choice to aim for good quality. Although his work as a priest and pastor is definitely done in a Christian milieu, it also involves just a lot of experience with people in the various crises of their lives and how they relate to one another, solve problems, reason, and feel. The images are there for the same reason that Hal wrote about New Caledonia and Sam wrote about journalism: writing is at its best when the author writes about what he knows. Long experience has helped David to gain insight into how people reason, feel, and act in times of struggle, challenge, depression, anger, etc. These are the things the reader will find in the Starman series—in Mutiny On Mars, there are flippant but dependable and courageous Steve, analytical and occasionally depressed Zip, Joe who uses humor to hide uncertainty, open-minded Mark leaning toward credulity. In The Runaway Asteroid, there are treacherous Zimbardo, fearful Gene, simple but good-hearted St. George, independent and principled Vly. In Journey to the Tenth Planet, there is the brilliant but unbalanced O. The ways in which these persons handle life is not solely a religious matter, but because of David’s profession he discerns and understands them in people, and describes them in the terms most familiar to him. Overall, the Starman series is about personalities, relationships, and choices which are developed through the telling of an adventure story. The subtlety of the religious side is not out of duplicity but because it is natural to the writer’s imagery—as Hal Goodwin wrote of science and travel, and Fran Striker wrote of respect for primitive peoples. David uses images and symbols. Some of the villainous names in Runaway Asteroid are obviously symbolic: Slant, Gebbeth, Withers, Tartarus, Crass, etc. The name O in Journey to the Tenth Planet symbolizes a person who is both complete and empty. We think such use of symbolism adds to the tale rather than distracts from it. In more than a few cases, the characters in the books are based on real people. Many of the places are real places. Hal Goodwin used the same techniques and it brought terrific verisimilitude to the Rick Brants. In Starman, there are insights into people’s way of thinking and feeling. In The Runaway Asteroid, there is a minor character named Jesus. It should be obvious that the name is to be pronounced Hay-soos, and he is also based on a real person—a guileless and confident individual. At one level in the story he is a Christ-figure, but we think not in any way that would interrupt the story, offend the unbeliever, or make the unwary feel that he has been waylaid. The broad-stroke message in the Starman books is that light will always conquer darkness, good will conquer evil. The message is stated several times in different ways in each of the books. It is a message common to all people of good will. The fine-stroke theme of the books is to extol basic virtue—true pleasure, honor, integrity, loyalty, patience, respect, endurance, resourcefulness, etc. We express these things in Christian terms because that’s how we know them best, but these virtues are common to good people of various faiths or none. After reading the first Starman book, one correspondent shared with us his reaction to the religious issues: “The writers, clearly alive to potential controversy, have
gone out of their way to address this issue with care and sensitivity.
None of the religious allusions that I found affected the plot in any
way, and they were sufficiently infrequent as to pose no more than an
occasional minor annoyance to one who might find such an agenda
distasteful. And although I most definitely count myself among the
latter audience, I feel compelled to applaud the writers’ approach,
which took such pains to emphasize the STORY, and which never, not
even once, ever compromised the plot in order to point a moral.” |
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