Blish created a trilogy, each volume of which dealt with an aspect of the price of knowledge, & gave it the overall name of After Such Knowledge (from a T.S. Eliot quote). The 1st published, A Case of Conscience (winner of the '59 Hugo Award as well as 2004/1953 Retrospective Hugo for Best Novella), showed a Jesuit priest confronted with an intelligent alien species, apparently unfallen, which he eventually concludes must be a Satanic fabrication. The 2nd, Doctor Mirabilis, is a historical novel about the medieval proto-scientist Roger Bacon. The 3rd, actually two short novels, Black Easter & The Day After Judgment, was written using the assumption that the ritual magic for summoning demons as described in grimoires actually worked. In that book, a powerful industrialist & arms merchant arranges to call up demons in the midst of a modern world crisis, resulting in nuclear war & the destruction of civilization. Black Easter is devoted to that element of the plot; The Day After Judgment is devoted to exploring the consequences of the destruction of the world, with an extraordinary ending in both narrative & theological terms.
After Such Knowledge Series
This series delves into the darker aspects of the human psyche and ethical quandaries, often set within a dark fantasy and horror-tinged landscape. The narratives explore profound questions of faith, power, and the consequences of pacts with malevolent forces. Readers can expect a blend of intellectual depth, thrilling plot developments, and an unsettling atmosphere. It's a collection that prompts reflection on the nature of evil and the limits of human agency.
Recommended Reading Order
Black Easter
- 176 pages
- 7 hours of reading
A novel about a practitioner of witchcraft who is asked to use his powers to kill a powerful politician
The Day After Judgement
- 118 pages
- 5 hours of reading
The day after judgment follows Black Easter (1968) and the bedlam to follow is Screwtaped via arguments and computer-scanned via machinery. Some of the same characters appear, black magician Theron Ware and munitions maker Baines who speculate whether that other Maker will intervene and whether the world almost destroyed is overrun by demons. Philosophical and theological arcana in a sometimes hard-to-crack nutshell but excitingly projected.
A Case of Conscience
- 208 pages
- 8 hours of reading
Lithia -- an alien world and a biologist's paradise. A four man team of scientists were investigating, among them Ruiz-Sanchez. They were happy there at first -- all of them. But Ruiz-Sanchez: scientist was also Father Ruiz-Sanchez: Jesuit priest, and he was growing afraid. Afraid because he had realised that the extraordinary planet was more than a biologist's paradise. It was a Paradise in all other respects as well. He knew that this could only be a trap, but if he acknowledged that it was a trap, then he became a heretic, cast out and damned for eternity.
Related books
The Devil's Day
- 10 pages
- 1 hour of reading
A bored weapons entrepreneur enlists the greatest black magician of all time to perform a magical feat of stupendous proportions, and only one man--a simple Italian monk--feels the imminent danger. But the holy man must stand and watch helplessly as the magician unleashes the most powerful demons of Hell onto an unsuspecting world.