As promised, the funny, satirical and completely irreverent take on humanity's undying need for religion and an explanation; which it never, ever believes.

At the end of the first book, Barion was taken home to stand trial and then imprisoned.  Coyul was left to deal with the Earth problem of post-life energy aka Afterlife.  Barion, who had presided over Topside aka Heaven-as-humans-expect-it, had predicted that Coyul would have a hard time of it.  He was so right…

Coyul thought it would be a simple matter; all he needed to do was to inform the Topside residents that Earth had been a badly-thought-out experiment done when he and Barion were adolescents.  He just needed to make them see that he and Barion weren't God or Satan, had never been God, and there was not, so far as he knew, any God whatsoever. You would've thought that after a millennium of grooming and consorting with humans he could've seen what was coming.

What is so hysterical about this story is how dead people expect certain considerations and comforts that are exactly in line with how they thought they should have lived when still alive.  Few of them are able to consider any other post-existence than the banal promises made by their respective religions.  And those who can…are actually just as frustrated as Coyul.  There are no answers, only more hate and bigotry and vengeance when Coyul yanks the metaphorical rug out from under the most entitled of them.  Shakes head…he really should have anticipated the response.

The author really has a heyday when Coyul is put on trial in a misguided attempt to prove he is God. I rather imagine Godwin chuckling maniacally at comparisons to the Scopes trial.  He parades his own conceits and beliefs but does it so comically and smoothly that we swallow the whole thing, happily. Now I'm not saying we shouldn't display the foibles and fallacies of religion at every opportunity; but this story left a gaping hole in logic.  Why on Earth (you'll forgive the pun) do people experience post-existence energy?  If there was no Design involved, what natural purpose does it serve?  What would have happened to any sentient primate species (and one was inevitable) if someone like Coyul or Barion wasn't there to direct these poor discorporate "souls"?

But it was funny.  And any thinking agnostic will find much to appreciate in the irony and satire.  Believers will still hate.  And it was funny… ~~ Catherine Book

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