The Hot Marble
by Rosemary B. Althoff

My rating: 2 / 5
Genre: Christian sci-fi

When 10-year-old Patrick and his 8-year-old sister Gracie watch something fall from the sky and find a hot marble. Patrick asks his physicist brother Lewis to analyze the otherworldly marble, and that leads to all three siblings, plus Lewis’s engineer friend Fred to another world. Lanthra has two moons, a near-total ban on electricity, and heavy conflict between two sides—those who follow Earth’s Jesus and those who follow earthly demons.

I was intrigued by the melding of sci-fi and Christianity when I decided to read this book. The author does have some interesting ideas here, particularly on the sci-fi side of things. The ban on electricity and also on traveling to Earth makes this a medieval-type world, but with pockets of technology that come across like magic. But the Christianity side is underwhelming, if not downright confusing at times. First and foremost, the theology of creation, the fall, and the redemption provided through Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection is questionable here. God created the entire universe, and when Adam and Eve sinned, the entirety of the creation was cursed. This means there can’t be planets out there with people who are not under the curse, but that is what Althoff is presenting here. The people of Lanthra have observed Earth enough to know about the curse (which they say affects only people from Earth, though I guess it can spread to people of Lanthra via demons that travel there?) and the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus. I guess all of this means that people of Lanthra aren’t under the curse of sin (not that they refer to sin or even creation or the fall at all, just a vague curse), so it really don’t matter if they worship Jesus or not, though it still seems to be a bad thing that some worship Satan/demons. Beyond that, one character from Lanthra seems to be a sort of prophet, in direct communication with God in some form. And characters are said to have inner “dragons” that could be seen to simply be their consciences or inner desires, but one character’s inner dragon talks to him? And it’s all presented as if this is some well-known concept that shouldn’t seem unusual to the reader, but I was really lost.

I understand that, even when a book is written with a Christian worldview, unbelievers will have sinful, fallen natures. Fred and Lewis want nothing to do with Christianity, and their character arcs seem to be the driving force behind the religious aspects in this book. But Fred, in particular, made me really uncomfortable ogling women all the time. And there was a line that really stood out to me as a red flag, which involved one character telling Fred that the “Master” wants to enjoy various things about him, including his “taste for busty women.” Um…no…just no.

There truly are some great allegorical moments in this book, and I think I can see what the author was going for. But in the end, I think there was too much going on in too many different directions for me to be able to pick out one cohesive story to enjoy. And the book ends on a cliffhanger that I was fortunately able to see coming. As for recommendations, the book is marketed, at least on Amazon, in teen and children’s categories, but I would not recommend it to those ages at all. All 4 of the characters mentioned in the synopsis have POV sections, but he older brother and his friend are in their 30s, and they are larger characters than the 10- and 8-year-old. There’s also a fair amount of language in the book. (In fact, now that I think about it more, it bugs me A LOT that this book is listed in the categories of “Children’s Action & Adventure Sci-Fi Books” and “Children’s Science Fiction Books” on Amazon with the amount of language and discussion of women’s bosoms that is included in it!) If you’re interested in the premise of spiritual warfare crossed with physics and aren’t bothered by the issues I had with it, you might be interested in this book.

I received a copy of this book for free from the author in exchange for an honest review.

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