Black Easter

1968 *

James Blish is a science-fiction author who should be idolized by true Trek fans. He wrote the original adaptations of the original television show, and published the first original Star Trek novel, Spock Must Die! Hundreds of published authors have followed in his footsteps and thousands of fans as well. It's a shame that Blish passed away before The Motion Picture came out and Star Trek actually hit it's prime.

The TOS adaptations are god-awful. They are basically drawn-out summaries of each episode's plots. They remain remarkable primarily because they've never been re-done to my knowledge, and because they were printed at a time when Star Trek had no commercial support and no organized fan-base. Spock Must Die! is a much better piece of literature in comparison to Blish's other Trek work, but is still a thin novellette on a par with an episode of the television show. I love them all nonetheless.

But because of their quality, it never occurred to me to read anything else James Blish wrote, until his name popped up when I was reading up on Aleister Crowley. Black Easter's focal point, the dark wizard Theron Ware, is apparently one of many fictional characters modeled after the real-world Crowley, although the name originates from a more literary reference. And although Ware is a vile villian who (SPOILER!) releases enough demons on mankind to actually kill God, he is still portrayed in a somewhat more sympathetic manner than what the historical Crowley generally warrents- A businessman with a lack of moral compass as opposed to someone relishing in evil for the sake of evil.

I read this at the same time as Frank Herbert's 'The Heavenmakers' and it was interesting to compare Herbert's (arguably) worst book against Blish's (arguably) best. Where Herbert was known for sweeping sagas of great depth in detail and philosophy, Blish had his most commercial success in those awful Star Trek adaptations. But in Black Easter Blish truly suprised me with a rich story full of great characters and a plot that truly kept you guessing, all steeped in a very authentic (and researched) world of historical magic in the 'modern' world.

The theme and commentary of good versus evil set in a nuclear age setting has been very thoughtfully commented on in a way that is very prevelent online for an out-of-print and hard-to-find book (Hugo winner though it may be). The sequel is even harder to track down, but I understand it elaborates much farther on the premise of how Satan handles stepping back into the void left by God. Both books, I imagine, handle superficial silliness like wizards, demons and the Devil with a seriousness and eloquence that leave you feeling as though you've been ingesting much headier subject matter.

Nonetheless, readers who find magic silly in any form will be turned off by the cartoonish presence of demons and wizards as advertised so clearly on the cover. Those who are drawn to arcane incantations and perhaps a marginally veiled reincarnation of Aleister Crowley should move this book to the top of their reading list.

* I am aware that the cover shown above mentions a futuristic setting, and I can see that an apocolyptic ending may warrant the dystopian future label, but I found nothing in the book to dissuade me from thinking that Blish intended the story to take place in his current timeframe of the late sixties.