Doctor Mirabilis

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. Genre : Science-Fiction Formats : EPUB, MOBI ABC : 11 Pages : 612 This Is The Strange, Compelling Story Of Roger Bacon. Ambitious, Impatient, Mutinous, Bacon Was A Man Of His Times With A Vision Reaching Far Beyond Even Our Own Day. Subject To The Harsh, Narrow Confines Of Church-dominated 'science', Bacon Dared To Venture Into The Deep Waters Of Theory, Risking Deadly Accusations Of Heresy And Black Magic. Set Against A Vividly Realised Backdrop Of Thirteenth-century England, Paris And Rome, This Is An Engrossing Account Of This Lonely Prophet And Suspected Sorcerer. Roger Bacon: heretic, occultist -- genius. In a Europe dominated by the narrow doctrines of Catholicism, Bacon was a man whose vision reached far beyond even our own day, a man who risked deadly accusations of heresy and black magic in his search for scientific truth. In this brilliant novel, set against a vividly realized backdrop of thirteenth-century England, Paris and Rome, James Blish recreates the life of this lonely prophet and suspected sorcerer.