4.8 KiB
The Salvation War
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Author: u/erwgv3g34 *
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URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/1u3k15/the_salvation_war/
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Score: 19
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Created: 2013-12-31T16:27:00
Post:
Once upon a time, in a message board called StarDestroyer.Net a man named Stravo asked an innocent question, "What would happen if God showed up and declared that anyone who died from this point on was going to hell?"
Now, from his posts, it's pretty obvious that he was thinking in terms of social ramifications (would the death penalty be abolished? Would murder become an even worse crime than it is now? Would people stop having children? Would humanity blow itself up?), but, this being StarDestroyer.Net, the commenters immediately decided that this was a problem in need of a military solution. Elaborate schemes were concocted to forge alliances with Satan or to secure the entry point to hell. And among all this discussion, a writer by the name of Stuart uttered the immortal line "you know Mike, there's a really good novel brewing up in my mind here."
Thus was born The Salvation War, a duology of web novels with the premise that God has delivered a message of utter despair; heaven is closed, full of souls, and all new arrivals will be going straight to hell, do not pass go, do not collect $200. To make it worse, these demons are not the patient type; far from simply waiting for humans to die, they are making preparations to invade Earth and take what is theirs by force of arms. The question is, what will humanity do?
The answer: something AWESOME.
Read it here. Armageddon??? is the first novel, Pantheocide the second. The relevance to /r/rational will become clear the first time the humans start munchkining, and then follow up by waxing poetic on the wonders of science and technology.
Comments:
u/None [+5] (3 hours later)
Unfortunately, part three- The Lords of War- looks like it'll never be written. But don't despair! There's more! Err, a page more. *Don't Wake Me While I'm Quiet has been canonized, but even then insanely tiny. Sigh.
ETA: They're also readable here and here, but they require a log-in.
u/Anakiri [+3] (23 hours later)
The two parts that are published form a complete story on their own, wrapping up almost every plot thread that was opened. There are a few hooks that part three would have picked up, but it would be easy to edit the story to remove them, and not much would be lost. So don't shy away from this one just because it's aborted!
u/Rheaeus [+1] (6 days later)
Does anyone know how to make an account, I don't seem to be able to make one
u/Anakiri [+7] (a day later)
I personally enjoyed this story quite a bit, but I know that lots of people found it to be dull and wanky. There isn't much conventional tension, and the conclusion is never in any doubt. The central conflict isn't the war between hell and earth; The central conflict is a civilization encountering and adapting to something completely outside its frame of reference.
The Salvation War shares some fundamental properties with Conquest, which was also recommended. They're both strategic, political stories with completely unbalanced factions. They don't really focus on character drama, but Salvation War does have more stronger characters, and is better written overall - but it's also much longer. If you enjoyed Conquest, you'll enjoy Salvation War. If you didn't, and you can't imagine how it could have been good without major rebalancing, you won't enjoy Salvation War. If you think Conquest could have been good, give Salvation War a shot.
u/celeritatis [+2] (a month later)
I would add that Salvation War has a very unique style: lots of snapshots, tiny bits of life, with a few characters popping up repeatedly. The characters serve the plot and the pacing.
u/mcgruntman [+1] (5 days later)
The Salvation War
How long is is, roughly? I couldn't find a word count so if you could provide a comparison to a few well know works that would be helpful (e.g. The Last Question, LotR, hpmor, Worm)
u/eaglejarl [+3] (5 days later)
Measuring very roughly, it looks like it's around 300,000 words.
u/None [+2] (3 months later)
It reminded me of a Tom Clancy book; albeit less well written. I really liked it though because really; if our modern military encounted the demons of Christian faith, what would you expect to happen?