Review: Age of X - Gameboard of the Gods

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One of my favorite authors is Richelle Mead, who is also the best selling author of the Vampire Academy book series. Mead writes a lot of young adult books, but also has a range of more adult books, like her Age of X series. I finished the first book in this series, Gameboard of the Gods, a while back and loved it.  The story takes place in a future world where technology has advanced quite a bit in computing and genetic science, and everyone in the country of RUNA, the Republic of United North America, is tracked and monitored by an implanted chip.

In RUNA, the story follows the characters Justin March and Mea Koskinen.  These two characters are thrust together to find the individual responsible for the recent string of criminal acts that seem almost supernatural.  With their world completely rejecting religion and all things supernatural, Justin is the only one with the experience to capture the criminal. He soon finds himself wrapped in a battle between Gods as they try fill the vacuum of religion in RUNA, and claim their place as the "top God".  He also soon finds out that one such God is especially interested in him, and can no longer ignore the world of Gods.

This series has a lot of interesting factors, especially when you find out which God is interested in Justin, though those who know a bit about religious studies may be able to determine who this is much earlier on by the many religious symbols and characters placed throughout the story .  Mead does an amazing job, as in many of her other books, incorporating many different mythological and religious symbolisms that are important to those religions, really making for an educated read.  I recently started the second book, The Immortal Crown and love everything about this series so far.

Mead does many other books, but I have to say the Age of X series has a really modern feel and seems like something that could happen in the not too distant future.  In most of her books, if not all, she invokes thought and reflection on the troubles that plague our societies today and bring to attention the many ways technology and our continuing rejection of religion could affect our society as a whole.  I recommend this for anyone looking for a book that will leave you thinking about it long after the book is over.

An Organic Universe

We live in an organic universe.  In a way, we are the universe gaining consciousness. When observing the universe, everything from the smallest to the largest scale is ruled by certain laws of physics.  Now, at the quantum level some of those laws break down but our understanding of that is increasing every day.  The one law that is never broken is the law of attraction, "like attracts like".  This idea is that the universe attracts similar things to each other.  A recent school of thought also believes, as do I, that you attract to yourself what you project.

When you look at the universe you see that nothing in the universe is alone.  Atoms have other atoms, stars have planets and other stars, and galaxies have other galaxies.  If we continue that train of thought, it would stand to reason that our universe is not unique and that, in fact, there are other universes.  This is an idea widely held by many scientist.  As you start to observe the disbursement of galaxies it looks like cellular structures or veins running through a body.  When I see this I can't help but believe the universe is alive.

One of science's greatest faults is not viewing the universe as an organic, living thing just on a much larger scale.  I am not saying that the universe is the inside of some huge organism, just that it is alive and has a consciousness though it may be far beyond human comprehension.

When you view the universe in this way, I think it is fairly obvious that there is a higher level of consciousness and thus some sort of higher power.  What if we are just the universe gaining consciousness of itself and likewise so are all living things, and at different levels of consciousness?  We are just one level of awareness that universe has achieved.  I often think about what it must be like for the stars and their vast time scales.

Science and religion are often forced headlong into battles over which one is more true.  In my opinion both can be.  Both answer different question and deal with different things.  Science explains how things came to be and how they behave, whereas religion deals with what our purpose and place in the universe is.  Until we stop pitting them against each other our understanding of both will remain flawed as will our ability to truly understand our place in the universe.