Introduction
Science fiction -- or "sci-fi" -- is a genre that I have been enjoying since I was
a kid.
My interest probably started with the early TV shows, such as Star Trek, Lost
in Space, and The Invaders ...
And it went on to other later shows like The Hulk, Quantum Leap,
UFO, and Space 1999.
Likewise, numerous sci-fi movies, such as Star Wars, the Star Trek
series of movies, Blade Runner, and Battlestar Galactica, sustained
the interest.
I have not, however, kept up with what sci-fi shows are available on the tube, simply because I have watched the goggle-box
rarely ... at least, since the early Eighties (1980's).
It's also unfortunate that, even though cable TV has reached Singapore, we don't have the Science Fiction Channel
... there is a lesson here somewhere, but I am not going to touch on THAT.
Anyway, besides the public media like TV and movies, magazines have also play a part in keeping my interest in sci-fi
alive. Again, until the Nineties or so, magazines of the sci-fi variety are not so easy to find in Singapore -- especially
in the public libraries. Perhaps my memory is playing tricks here ... but I can't recall the magazines that I have read before
the Nineties or thereabouts!
But it is only in sci-fi books -- including the movie "tie-ins" -- that I really got into the swing of things, as
it were. And here in Singapore, we do have sci-fi books -- but perhaps not as many as are available in the open Western countries.
Mission
One sci-fi book that I will always read and re-read, was written
by Patrick Tilley. The title of the book is Mission.
Here is what the backcover says
Easter Saturday. The naked body of a 35 year old man is rushed
to Manhattan General Hospital. He has a two-inch stab wound below his rib-cage and nail wounds in his feet and wrists. The impossible has happened: Jesus Christ has appeared 7000 miles and
20 centuries away from the Crucifixion -- dead on arrival.
The way the author, Patrick Tilley, wrote this sci-fi book,
is interesting ... It is only in the last chapter (Chapter 24) that we know that Tilley's book is one of the "finds" of the
Dead Sea Scrolls ... you know, those stuff found at or near to Qumran on the north-west shores of the Dead Sea.
And this particular scroll -- which is kept VERY SECRET, and is referred
to as the 'Resnick' Scroll, Catalogue No. Q-11-7 -- is a story narrated
by a smart-aleck lawyer named Leo Resnick, who apparently, according to the Scroll, hailed -- or will hail -- from Manhattan
Island (which is one of the five "boroughs" that make up "New York City") sometime in the Eighties.
Hence, Chapter 24 -- the 'Resnick' Scroll -- reads something
like this:
To: (a list of names, with New York City addresses and other USA
locations)
I write to you across the years. not knowing when this
message will be found. Perhaps you have yet to be born, or are already long dead. I can only pray that, by God's good fortune,
you are alive when this scroll is found and that the finder will send you news of my fate [now, that's a fat hope!].
I was chosen to bear witness to The Word and to The Man. It is for this reason that I believe my testimony is destined to
survive, although I am sure the experts will do their best to refute it. ...
Do not weep for me. I am among friends and, at last,
my life has meaning.
I send you my love and His.
Leo
In Chapter 1, we are told that Resnick, the lawyer, was late in getting to the Manhattan General Hospital, where he was
to meet his girlfriend Miriam, who's a doctor.
At the hospital, Miriam brought Resnick to see a body lying on a slab at the morgue. This is how Resnick narrated it:
I took a deep breath and looked at the body. Like Miriam had said, he hadn't been blown away but he was still a mess.
The man was about thirty to thirty-five years old, medium build, lean hard body. In general, his features were of the type
the police label Hispanic. He had a swarthy complexion and his skin was deeply tanned. He had a beard and straggly, shoulder-length
hair. Like a hippie who'd done time on a kibbutz. There was a gaping, two-inch wide stab-wound in his left side just
under his rib cage but the most unsettling thing was the bruises and lacerations. The guy had the shit beaten out of him,
then taken one hell of a whipping. The skin on his back had been cut through to the bone and there were deep raw stripes on
the backs of his thighs as well. It also looked as if his attackers had beaten him over the head with a nailed piece
of wood.
Miriam pointed to his feet. 'See that?'
I nodded. 'Yeah, what are they -- bullet wounds?'
'No,' replied Wallis [the pathologist]. 'Somebody drobe a metal spike through them. Through his wrists too.' He picked
up an arm and showed me.
I swallowed hard. 'Jeezuss! What kind of people would do something like this?'
'Animals,' said Wallis. 'New York's full of them.' He squinted at me through the smoke of his cigarette. 'You think
this is bad? You want to stay on my tail for a week.'
Reviews
Jim Kelly, from the publisher Little Brown, wrote that:
MISSION is probably the most original and unusual piece of fiction I
have read. Although it does take an open mind to read, much less to accept some of its attempts at rewriting history, MISSION's
appeal is so universal and its message so powerful ...
MISSION will attract readers of Tom Robbins, readers of Tom Wolfe, readers
of early Hunter Thompson and readers of the Bible. To "Which of the above four does not fit the pattern?", any reader will
instantly reply, "Bible readers." I know it doesn't look like it fits.
... MISSION is a very serious attempt to better understand the facts
of the life of The Man who is the central figure of the New Testament, who he was, how he got there and how his message has
been subtly and ever-so-slightly twisted over nearly two millennia.
Patrick Tilley, MISSION's author, has presented himself a huge challenge
in attempting to pull this story off. But pull it off he really does. Readers don't mind that MISSION's central character,
Leo Resnick, a Jewish New York City lawyer, is actually correcting some of the inaccuracies in the best-selling book of all
time, although that fact may cause MISSION to be banned in some strongholds of the moral majority.
The reader doesn't mid this audacity because Tilley's (Resnick's) attitude
is not pompous or preachy and he does not make anybody wrong. He's simply correcting some errors that have evolved over time.
It helps, too, that he has more and better answers to some of the perennial questions raised by bible reader than I was ever
exposed to when I minored in philosophy and theology.
Even more important, the story is compelling. Just how are things going
to develop for Leo and his friend Miriam Maxwell, M.D. after the Friday evening that they witness the corpse of a man who
arrived in Manhattan General Hospital with whip wounds on his back, a knife wound in his side, nail wounds in both feet and
both wrists and thorns stuck into his skull, revive before their eyes?
What kind of relaxed weekend is Leo going to have when the same Man appears
in the living room of his upstate retreat the next morning?
(adapted from http://www.patrick-tilley.com/mission/jim_kelly.asp)
A reviwer -- "Mathilde de Gardin", from the Netherlands -- wrote in the Amazon website:
I read Mission for the first time some 16 years ago, quite soon after it
was first published. Mission had me hooked up, right from the start.
What would you do if he (aka He) dropped by, fueling your doubts in the
old story, providing you with a new one?. Or if you were a docter (sic) in intensive care [actually, A&E], when
a patient is brought in with these remarkable, even typical, wounds?
There is a sense of wonder in this book, that's firmly based in our ancient
Lore and recent archeology. I'm sceptic at best when it comes to religion, but a very interested sceptic. This book set my
thoughts in motion and shifted my views. Somewhat.
Besides from all that, it's a very well written book, with well filled
out characters, a good plotline, attention to details, tension and thought intermingled handsomely, and oh, such a nice sting
in the tail.
It's too bad that there are so little [few?] people who have read
the book, and that there are so few new copies available to give away to my friends.
Please reprint this book! It's timeless.
The novel, Mission, by Patrick Tilley remains one of the most unforgettable reading experiences in my life.
The story in a nutshell: On the night before Easter Sunday,
a horribly beaten, naked body is rolled into the ER of a New York hospital. The man, who dies soon after, is in his early
30s, lean, bearded and is thought to be a victim of a mafia hit. Attending the case is a Jewish lady doctor who has to shelve
her plans for dinner with her 35 year old lawyer boyfriend. The lawyer, Leo Resnick, hangs around until his lady love returns
from the ER a few hours later. She comes back and tells explains the peculiarities of the case: how the victim showed no signs
of ever having worn shoes, how his teeth had no fillings or how the spikes stuck in his head turn out to be thorns –
the likes of which, a botanist colleague tells the doctor, can be found only in the Middle East. Soon after she finishes explaining,
they learn that the body is missing.
Neither Resnick nor his girlfriend are religious, but they
soon find themselves questioning their own beliefs. What if it was Him? The questions begin to mount and,
in an effort to get some lone time, they escape to Leo’s holiday home away from the city. There one afternoon, Leo sees
the same man standing outside his window with the most serene look on his face, a far cry from the horrible state that he
was in a few days back.
And so begins Leo’s extraordinary story. As a reader,
there are some books that are simply “unputdownable” – a clichéd term that is now marketing parlance in
the publishing industry. But Mission is unputdownable. It’s prose is rich, dealing in subjects as varied as
time, faith, science, theology and history. The characterization is wonderful with Leo’s voice as warm and easy to relate
to as fiction could ever allow. The dialogue is serious, but has warm humor that adds to the book’s engrossing readability.
When, for instance, Leo sees “the Man”, as he
calls him, outside his cottage, he approaches him with a mixture trepidation and wonder. How would you react if you saw Jesus
Christ standing outside your home, he asks the reader. He goes closer expecting Jesus to speak word after word of utter profundity.
Instead, Jesus glances at Leo’s sports car and says, “Nice car”. Leo is gobsmacked and you, the reader,
will find yourself smiling ear to ear.
The novel builds promising us an impossible climax. Throughout,
I kept guessing the novel’s path and throughout Tilley takes the plot into the unconventional. And when the climax did
come, it had me in awe, my hands shaking, staring into space trying to comprehend what Tilley had just achieved.
Patrick Tilley’s Mission was published almost
25 years ago and has since become a cult classic. During that period, it went out of print before the publisher decided to
reprint it again. Amazon has it occasionally in it’s stock, but I’ve been told that
the copies are second hand and damaged with some pages missing. I found my copy in British Council four years back and haven’t
seen it there since. The next time I see it, I am not going to return it. Instead, I’ll tell the council staff that
I had misplaced it and that I’d be more than happy to pay for the loss. A small
price to pay for the places this novel will eventually take you.
Beg, borrow or steal this
book. It really is that simple.
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