Shivering World

January 26, 2004
General market sci-fi author Tyers, who revamped Firebird
for a Christian audience, now tries her hand at rewriting Shivering World
(1991) with stronger faith themes. The results are competent. In the year 2134, Dr. Graysha Brady-Phillips comes to Goddard, humanity's newest habitable world. An inherited genetic disorder promises that she will die an early death, and although her stated purpose on Goddard is to work as a soils microbiology specialist, Graysha's secret goal is to seek out the reported gene-healers known as the Lwuites for assistance. But human gene tampering is illegal, and her search for healing is soon twisted by those who would prosecute the Lwuites. As she searches for health for her body, Graysha becomes romantically involved with a Christian on the planet, who has "revectored the orbit of her heart" and helped her find healing for her soul. Someone wants Graysha dead, however, and the planet itself is in danger of destruction. The conclusion of the novel is open-ended. Casual sci-fi fans will find this no simple read; Tyers has a degree in microbiology, and her affinity for it shows ("Streptomycetes, almost all of them, were notorious antibiotic synthesizers"). She handles the expansion of the faith content with a light but sure touch. The detailed world she crafts on Goddard is an oft-complicated but also absorbing one. Evangelical Christians are famously a hard sell for science fiction, but Karen Hancock's Arena
has helped pave the way for offerings such as this, which are sorely needed.