Log in to track your reading progress.
Overview
In Portugal, where the Inquisition protects the true word of God, Father Manoel Pessoa has begun to hear strange confessions from the villagers of Quintas. Glowing lights in the sky. Angels who lie with village women. A virgin birth. Father Pessoa would like to keep all of this quiet, for he loves his simple people, and he knows the path events could take. Afonso, by God's grace King of Portugal, and also by God's grace having the mind of a child, has seen God Himself fall to Earth in a ship, round like an acorn. When Afonso went into the damaged ship to explore, God spoke to him there. God told him of the voyages of the acorn through the stars, and assured him that the Earth is round. The inquisitor-general is eager to speak to Afonso about this heresy. Strangest of all, from the ship came three creatures - slight of build, wide-eyed, amazing in their silence. They could be angels, or devils sent to tempt people from the true faith. The inquisitor-general will certainly learn the truth, as is his divine mission. And all the while, the smell of burning grows stronger in the air.In Portugal, during the Inquisition, a spaceship crash lands. Three creatures emerge from the ship and are captured and imprisoned by the Jesuits. Are they angels or devils? Should they be worshipped or burned at the stake? All of society is divided in this unforgettable novel that asks what we should do in the face of the truly unknown. 320 pp.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
In the village of Quintas in Portugal, they tell tales of spirits and mysterious lights in the sky. One young woman claims to have been impregnated by an angel. Another has seen a vision of the Blessed Virgin. A potato field is found to have grown to maturity in a single night. Father Manoel Pessoa, Jesuit and itinerant Inquisitor, hopes to get to the bottom of this mystery before it becomes necessary to conduct an auto-da-fé and consign some poor soul to the flames. It's too late, however. Things are already out of control. Pessoa himself sees the strange lights in the sky, one of which-a spaceship of course-crashes into a nearby hillside, leaving its crew of child-sized aliens marooned. Worse still, these events have attracted the attention of Afonso, the mentally retarded king of Portugal, who rides to Quintas and enters the disabled spaceship. There he mistakes the ship's artificial intelligence for God and, after it shows him a view of the heavens, proclaims that the Earth circles around the Sun, Galileo's dangerous heresy. The king's arrival is soon followed by that of the Inquisitor-General, a man eager to find heresy and punish it with fire. Anthony (Cradle of Splendor) has created a beautifully written speculative historical full of complex characters and difficult moral dilemmas. She offers no simple or pulpy solutions, no last-minute rescues. The aliens, silent and passive throughout, serve essentially as mirrors to the soul, the means by which Father Pessoa and his fellow human characters-as well as the readers of this powerful novel-discover important truths about themselves.Publishers Weekly -
In the village of Quintas in Portugal, they tell tales of spirits and mysterious lights in the sky. One young woman claims to have been impregnated by an angel. Another has seen a vision of the Blessed Virgin. A potato field is found to have grown to maturity in a single night. Father Manoel Pessoa, Jesuit and itinerant Inquisitor, hopes to get to the bottom of this mystery before it becomes necessary to conduct an auto-da-f and consign some poor soul to the flames. It's too late, however. Things are already out of control. Pessoa himself sees the strange lights in the sky, one of whicha spaceship of coursecrashes into a nearby hillside, leaving its crew of child-sized aliens marooned. Worse still, these events have attracted the attention of Afonso, the mentally retarded king of Portugal, who rides to Quintas and enters the disabled spaceship. There he mistakes the ship's artificial intelligence for God and, after it shows him a view of the heavens, proclaims that the Earth circles around the Sun, Galileo's dangerous heresy. The king's arrival is soon followed by that of the Inquisitor-General, a man eager to find heresy and punish it with fire. Anthony (Cradle of Splendor) has created a beautifully written speculative historical full of complex characters and difficult moral dilemmas. She offers no simple or pulpy solutions, no last-minute rescues. The aliens, silent and passive throughout, serve essentially as mirrors to the soul, the means by which Father Pessoa and his fellow human charactersas well as the readers of this powerful noveldiscover important truths about themselves. (Apr.)Book Details
Published
June 1, 1997
Publisher
New York : Ace Books, 1997.
Pages
384
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780441004072