The Moon Under Her Feet — Derwin Mak

Nominee for the Prix Aurora AwardFather Mark Wycliffe, a Roman Catholic priest and space engineer, flees from Earth's wars by serving aboard a Mars space station. Above Mars, he meets a mysterious woman who claims to be the Virgin Mary. He is skeptical of the vision; could it be an illusion created by asteroids called Siren Stones? Later, on the Moon, he meets Jessica, a teenaged girl in a Catholic school uniform. Jessica loves to shop in the Moon's largest shopping mall and hang out in its coolest nightclub. But Jessica also claims to be Jesus and uses her special powers to start a nuclear Armageddon on the Moon and the Earth. Father Wycliffe, the Virgin Mary, scientists, and clergy must stop Jessica from carrying out her Father's will. While the mortals and her immaculate mother try to foil her, Jessica happily splurges on designer clothes, luxuries she never had in first century Judea.The Moon Under Her Feet combines space opera, ghost story, and theology in a way seldom seen in science fiction and fantasy. It reveals both humor and tragedy as it traces the lives of its characters and their mission in space. From Derwin Mak, the author of "Transubstantiation," winner of the 2006 Prix Aurora Award, Canada's national science fiction award, for Best Short-Form Work in English."What follows is a clever, often brilliant, weaving of two story lines: as international tensions escalate, the mystery of the Marian Apparition deepens. Mak brings science and theology together in ways few other science fiction writers would even contemplate. That's because they're mostly complementary here rather than combative. Religion here is treated with respect and a depth of knowledge, instead of the contempt and shallow ignorance most SF writers heap upon it." - John-Allen Price, author of The Mutant Chronicles