THE HALLELUJAH CHAOS

Part science fiction spoof, part non-sectarian parable, this latest offering by author and award-winning journalist John Allen Small combines humor and heart to examine the question of denominational discord and strike a blow for the cause of universal brotherhood.

The year is 2427. The terraformed world of Glyfada-84 has become a source of growing concern for the Unified Synod of the Terran Concord. Originally colonized over a century before as a spiritual retreat for pilgrims from various faiths, Glyfada-84 has since fractured into hundreds of micro-denominations, cults, and rogue meditative AI monasteries; the resulting theological and technological tangle has become a focal point of much tension in the region, threatening the fragile peace upheld by the Aldebaran Ecumenical Treaty of 2386. To mediate the crisis, the Concord has dispatched a peculiar but highly respected envoy duo - Rev. R. Theophilus Grantham, a robotic minister of unknown original programming; and Sister Elara M. Thorne, a young and somewhat rebellious member of the Order of the Cosmic Veil - who are tasked with a seemingly impossible mission: negotiating peace between denominational factions that include the Neo-Zen Algorithmic Choir, the Church of the Generic Whatever, the Quantum Calvinist Apostolate, and a rogue faction of retired cargo drones who've declared themselves the "True Prophets of the Circuit."

Whether they succeed, or accidentally spark a holy software war, remains to be seen...