And God steppped out on space,
And He looked around and said,
"I'm lonely --
I'll make me a world."

-- James Weldon Johnson, The Creation

One of the most impressive things a writer of speculative fiction can achieve is building a world that resonates as 'real' with her readers. Sharon Shinn has accomplished that worthy goal in her Samaria series, which now includes four books. At this point, readers who eschew speculative fiction, or perhaps fiction altogether, may be thinking, 'In other words, she writes escapism. She provides pabulum that helps people avoid thinking about the troubled world we live in.' I disagree. Writers who create believable fictional worlds usually model them on our own. They are often more interested in what it means to be that horribly flawed thing called human than writers who focus on the world as we know it. Shinn is that kind of writer.

As I write this entry, I am reading the last of Shinn's novels about Samaria, The Allelulia Files. But, to understand why the series is a fine achievement, one must return to the source, the first book in it, Archangel. Background? The Harmonic Christers left their previous world because it was about to self-destruct as a result of human hatred and advanced technology. They chose to colonize the planet Samaria. The greatest challenge of living on that world is its mercurial weather. So, refugee scientists created beings — angels who are able to fine tune the computerized weather controls to make the planet livable. The angels do so by 'singing' to the spaceship the Christers arrived on, Jehovah, which continues to orbit the planet. They fly 'heavenward,' and sing to end storms or bring rain, along with other antidotes to the problems of Samarians. Another indispensable purpose the angels serve is the maintenance of harmony among the diverse inhabitants of the planet. Representatives of the groups must gather, with the elite of the angels leading them, and sing to 'Jovah,' yearly or the computer will follow commands to destroy Samaria. The Christers decided better no world than a world as filled with viciousness as the one they emigrated to escape.

But, forget most of that. The inhabitants of Samaria have. They gave up the religion of the Harmonic Christers within a few generations of settling the planet. Now, they believe Jovah is the spirit who rules the world — that he is the God and Samaria the only dwelling place of humans anywhere. What hasn't fallen away is the belief that Jovah will destroy the planet unless his wishes are carried out. But, it has become subject to doubt.