I wanted to see what the hipe was about. I knew this is this author’s first book ever and he wrote it with a writing coach. It was at times interesting and intertaining, at times boring. If anything comes out of this story, it is that high tech is doing no good even to aliens. They are very very technologically advanced, come across the universe for the Catholic mass, misunderstanding the Catholic teaching, murder millions of Muslims. They make the same lame excuses as humans, and learn the same hard way by self-sacrifice. It makes no sence, that via reason and logic they deducted there is God. Via observation of the Earth, they witnessed Christ crucified and believed. But then acted like stupid genocidal maniacs after a 1K year journey through space.
The story educates the uneducated on the Catholic mass, the Eucharist and the Christ’s salvation. In those parts it sounds boring and unimaginative. The story will likely be popular for a while among Trad Cats, and young Christian, Catholic curious people. But it also lacks the gravitas to transcend generations and cultures. The fans will read it, talk about it excitedly and move on. The characters and the story are just too simplistic, a far far cry from Dostojewski or Solzhenitzin.
Mind you, this is not the first time Catholic Church and aliens have been put into one story. The current records indicate that storytellers have done so as soon as Galileo (a Catholic scientist paid by Catholic Church) discovered Jupiter’s satellites. The first concern then was, are aliens saved by Christ or do they need evangelization.