NEW JERSEY
Spiritual Politics
Mark Silk | May 17, 2013
Newark Archbishop John J. Myers got back from his trip to Poland this week and, according to his spokesman, will shortly make his first public statement on the latest revelations about Michael Fugee, the molester-priest who, in contravention of a court order, was permitted to minister to minors at two New Jersey parishes. While Myers was away, I figured it might be interesting to read Space Vulture, the sci-fi novel he wrote with Gary K. Wolf five years ago. It’s a pretty good read, and a revealing one.
Myers and Wolf grew up together in the north-central Illinois hamlet of Earlville, where they learned to love science fiction from Space Hawk, a collection of stories about interplanetary gunslinger Hawk Carse, written in the early 1930s by Harry Bates and Desmond W. Hall under the pseudonym of Anthony Gilmore. Wolf went on to be a writer, most famously inventing the title character in the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Myers went into the priesthood, ascending first to the diocese of Peoria and thence to Newark. Space Vulture pays homage to their youthful enthusiasm and lifelong friendship.
The novel pits a galactic Lone Ranger named Victor Corsair against brilliant arch-villain Space Vulture, but the psychological drama at its core has to do with Gil Terry, a physically impaired space outlaw who cares only about himself. Abused as a child by his father, Terry achieves redemption by learning to love a seven-year-old boy and his adolescent older brother after their father has died and their beautiful mother is stolen away by Space Vulture.
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