Download the Book - Islam and Science Fiction
Download the Book - Islam and Science Fiction
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terraformed largely by Baha’i colonists. “For a Little Price” is <strong>the</strong><br />
background story for <strong>the</strong> two published works.<br />
The printer was evidently barely cool after sending off “Devil” when I<br />
began work on “For A Little Price.” My earliest dated manuscript bears a<br />
date of 1986, <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong>re is one earlier than that. I wanted to tell <strong>the</strong> backstory,<br />
<strong>the</strong> attempted hijacking of a starship, a device so powerful that it could<br />
easily destroy a world. But I didn’t want this to simply be some space-opera<br />
adaptation of an airline hijacking. From <strong>the</strong> start, I wanted it to be from <strong>the</strong><br />
hijacker’s point of view. This would make my central character possibly <strong>the</strong><br />
most unlikable fellow ever to tell a science fiction story first-person. This, I<br />
knew, was going to be a very difficult story to tell well, <strong>the</strong> most challenging<br />
thing I had ever attempted to write. And to do it, I was going to have to both<br />
learn more about <strong>Islam</strong>, <strong>and</strong> figure out what was in <strong>the</strong> terrorist’s head, two<br />
very different things.<br />
I was raised a Christian, but I knew, from <strong>the</strong> start, that <strong>Islam</strong> does not<br />
support terrorism. So I intended, from <strong>the</strong> start, to write <strong>the</strong> story to show<br />
that <strong>the</strong> terrorist had made a horrible mistake, <strong>and</strong> knows it in <strong>the</strong> end. I had<br />
also recently read a story by Charles Harness, “Summer Solstice”, in which<br />
<strong>the</strong> ending of <strong>the</strong> story was obvious almost from <strong>the</strong> start, yet <strong>the</strong> story was<br />
still compelling. And so I decided to start <strong>the</strong> story by revealing <strong>the</strong> ending.<br />
I spent a couple of months digging up reference works <strong>and</strong> reviewing<br />
<strong>the</strong>m, including two versions of <strong>the</strong> Koran. As I expected, I saw nothing in<br />
<strong>the</strong> Koran to support terrorism, but plenty to condemn it. The same was true<br />
of <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r background material. As <strong>the</strong> “<strong>Islam</strong>ic Revolution” unfolded in<br />
Iran, I had been disgusted to see how much that was going on fit better with<br />
studies I’d read of Hitler’s tactics, or with Machiavelli’s recommendations to<br />
his prince. After reading <strong>the</strong> Koran, I started to wonder if <strong>the</strong> leaders of <strong>the</strong><br />
revolution ever had.<br />
I wrote four versions of “For a Little Price” between 1986 <strong>and</strong> 1994,<br />
three of which were submitted to Analog. The basic story from <strong>the</strong> point of<br />
view of <strong>the</strong> terrorist changes very little in <strong>the</strong> successive versions, but <strong>the</strong> two<br />
later versions attempt to moderate his darkness by interspersing sections<br />
from <strong>the</strong> points of view of investigators or <strong>the</strong> starship crew, at <strong>the</strong><br />
suggestion of Analog’s editor Stan Schmidt. With his rejection of “Price 4”<br />
(1994), he suggested I eliminate <strong>the</strong> terrorist’s point of view entirely. At that<br />
point, I simply slid <strong>the</strong> drawer shut on <strong>the</strong> story, assuming it would never be<br />
published.<br />
Finally, Ahmed Khan announced this anthology on <strong>the</strong> Analog forum,<br />
<strong>and</strong> I offered version four for his consideration. To my total amazement, he<br />
said he actually liked it, but requested I make a few relatively minor changes<br />
to make <strong>the</strong> story comply with <strong>the</strong> basic premise of <strong>the</strong> anthology. To this<br />
end, I changed one of <strong>the</strong> starship crewmembers to a Muslim, which required<br />
replacing one section, changing several paragraphs of ano<strong>the</strong>r, <strong>and</strong> a global<br />
name change. O<strong>the</strong>r than that, <strong>the</strong> story is little changed from <strong>the</strong> 1994<br />
version, <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> part of Shahid is extremely close to <strong>the</strong> original.<br />
I think it is important that readers realize this story was not written in<br />
reaction to <strong>the</strong> sad events of September 11, 2001. Instead, having written it,<br />
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