Episode Details

Secular science fiction often explores darker themes such as gene-editing and consciousness-uploading. Christian-made sci-fi, however, tends to lean on the softer side, emphasizing worlds without Earth or its cultures. How might this leave an opening for more complex futuristic tales that dare to engage with controversial themes? Novelist Kerry Nietz, who is no stranger to bold sci-fi themes, joins us to discuss how edgier science fiction can challenge Christian readers.

Introducing Kerry Nietz

Kerry Nietz is an award-winning science fiction author. He has over a half dozen speculative novels in print, along with a novella, a couple short stories, and a non-fiction book, FoxTales.

Kerry’s novel A Star Curiously Singing won the Readers Favorite Gold Medal Award for Christian Science Fiction and is notable for its dystopian, cyberpunk vibe in a world under sharia law. It  is often mentioned on “Best of” lists.

Among his writings, Kerry’s most talked about is the genre-bending Amish Vampires in Space. AViS was mentioned on the Tonight Show and in the Washington Post, Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly. Newsweek called it “a welcome departure from the typical Amish fare.”

Kerry is a refugee of the software industry. He spent more than a decade of his life flipping bits, first as one of the principal developers for the now mythical Fox Software, and then as one of Bill Gates’s minions at Microsoft. He is a husband, a father, a technophile and a movie buff.

Concession stand

• This topic opens many others, like definitions of sci-fi, male/female readers
• Yes, we emphasize a certain sci-fi here. But we enjoy all fantastical stories.
• “Edgy” doesn’t mean sex, violence, cusswords. We mean edgier ideas.

1. What edgier themes tend to appear in Kerry Nietz’s sci-fi stories?

• Such as: explicitly religious groups in futuristic worlds, creatures, oppression
• Stephen can say some about how this differs even from “liter” Christian sci-fi
• Stephen: mention his intro to The DarkTrench Saga and early nervousness!

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