Summary from GoodReads:

If he fixes the robot, will he break his world?
In a future ruled by sharia law machines are managed by debuggers, who in turn are owned by masters. Sandfly is a level-12 debugger. He is sent into Earth orbit to repair a robot-a robot that went on an experimental flight into deep space… And tore itself apart.
As Sandfly digs into the mystery aboard the space station, he discovers what the bot heard around that distant star. He discovers that the bot heard…singing. As Sandfly pieces together the clues, the masters spread the trap before his feet. Everyone is racing to the same conclusion, but only one side welcomes what the singing represents.
My Review:

This book was not available for me to check out from my library.  It’s not available on the bookshelves in Barnes and Noble for me to look through – so without the INSPY awards, I can guarantee you I would have never purchased this book and taken a chance on it.

So thank you INSPYs for putting this book on my radar and for forcing me to take that leap and read a book that totally blew me away.

Christian Sci-Fi – what does that label make you do?  Does it make you wince and imagine some hokey story with a message that’s dumbed down and beat into your head?  And can you tell I’ve read quite a bit of .. just plain bad Christian fiction?  So if any of this sounds familiar, then you are exactly where I was before I began reading  A Star Curiously Singing by Kerry Neitz.  In fact – I put this book off until last because I was afraid of just how bad it was going to be.

How wrong was I?

Seriously, this book was like the sci-fi, Christian version of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale.  And when I say sci-fi, I mean hardcore sci-fi – not some wimpy fantasy/sci-fi hybrid.  This is a look at the world once it’s been dominated by a version of the Islamic faith – pushing the boundaries of “what-if” women were concealed at all times and children were taken from their parents to become living “computers”.

I was blown away by the story, by the message of faith (which did not come across as preachy, but rather “sang” the glorification of God).  Although A Star Curiously Singing did not win the INSPY award, it was one of my favorites to win and I’m here to tell you that as a Christian and a sci-fi fan, this is a book worth owning.

Check out these review(s):

Wordlily