The Church of Fear: Inside the Weird World of Scientology by John Sweeney

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the second book about Scientology that I’ve read recently. You can check out my review of Going Clear for my earlier impression.

Unlike Going Clear, Church Fear makes almost no attempt at objectivity and for understandable reason. During the course of filming a documentary about the Church of Scientology, John Sweeney engaged in a series of escalating confrontations with church spokesman, Tommy Davis. These culminated in a screaming match between the two, in which they both end up trading accusations about the other being brainwashed. The video of this argument became something of a YouTube sensation. Sweeney is very candid about losing his cool with Davis and admits that he behaved poorly, comparing his actions to an “exploding tomato.”

Church of Fear the chronicles adventures of Sweeney and his film crew as they travel around America, filming their documentary for the BBC. He describes interviews with critics and former members of the Church of Scientology. In almost all of these interviews, Davis, accompanied by a film crew, shows up to discredit the interviewee. He describes car rides in which they appear to have been followed. He also interviews celebrity members of the church, including Kirsti Alley, Anne Archer, and Leah Remini, all of whom give curiously rehearsed answers to his questions. Another highlight is Sweeney’s visit to Scientology’s exhibit on psychiatry, which they allege is behind many of the horrors in recent history, including the Holocaust. It was after this visit that Sweeney had his famous blow up with Davis.

As with Going Clear, Church of Fear documents numerous allegations of vicious physical and mental abuse committed by the church’s leader, David Miscavige. All of which, of course, the Church denies. But as allegation after allegation piles up, it’s hard not to see a pattern.

Sweeney writes in an accessible style, with British self-deprecating humor and humility over losing his temper. Which this explosion of tempers is not the highlight of his career, his willingness to frame this book around his mistake speaks highly of his character. In comparison with Going Clear, Church of Fear is much more readable. It’s more of a written documentary than compilation of research, but it does give some truly disturbing insights into this bizarre religion.

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Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief by Lawrence Wright

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Going Clear by Lawrence Wright

There has been a spate of recent books about the Church of Scientology published recently, most of which have not been complimentary to say the least. Everyone who has any dirt to dish on the Church of L. Ron Hubbard seems to have a book on the shelves these days. Lawrence Wright’s Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief takes the reader all the way back to Hubbard’s childhood. Wright attempts to dig through the various contradictory accounts of Hubbard’s education and military career. He finds many instances in which the official church account conflicts with government records and other reports. Piecing together the disparate stories about Hubbard’s life could not have been easy for Wright as he acknowledges the contradictory nature of what has been said and written about. For example, Hubbard has, at various times, claimed to have been an engineer, a physicist, and a plant physiologist while in reality, he never finished college. Hubbard has also made claims at having been a war hero, though the official record indicates that his one command of a patrol boat resulted in him accidentally bombing Mexico after claiming to have spotted a German U-boat.

In Going Clear, Wright presents a picture of Hubbard of a colorful figure with a dark, even abusive side. During World War II, Hubbard appears at once to have been eager to show he could be a great leader, yet always finding some health reason to get out of assignments that might result in him having to prove himself worthy of that ambition. Wright then takes the reader through Hubbard’s post-war life, detailing various failed marriages and relationships, his health problems in the late forties and his supposed discovery of a self-cure for all of his ailments through Dianetics, the forerunner of Scientology. The reader is presented with details of drug use, spousal abuse, and financial shenanigans as Hubbard founded his religion, all of which, of course, the Church of Scientology denies.

Throughout the book, however, Hubbard remains something of an enigma. Wright doesn’t assert whether Hubbard is an inveterate liar or a con man who fell victim to his own hype. Instead, he presents what he could document, either through records or witness accounts, and lets the readers draw their own conclusions. As the book reaches Hubbard’s final, paranoid, and reclusive years, the narrative shifts to his successor, David Miscavige. As with Hubbard, Stewart traces Miscavige’s life to his early childhood and how he quickly rose to be one of the most powerful leaders in the church while still in his twenties. There have been numerous allegations of abuse made against Miscavige over the years, and Stewart appears to document them all. Miscavige comes across as a psychopathic megalomaniac who dishes out physical and emotional abuse to his staff on a regular basis. Stewart describes sadistic games of musical chairs designed to pit executives against one another under threat of firing if they lose. The conditions under which members of the Sea Org (Scientology’s version of a monastic class) allegedly live boarder on slavery.

As the subtitle implies, Wright spends a lot of time focusing on the strange relationship between Hollywood and the Church of Scientology. He discusses the recruiting of celebrity scientologists like Tom Cruise and John Travolta, but if the book can be said to have a main protagonist, it’s writer/director Paul Haggis. Wright begins the book with Haggis’ recruitment into scientology and ends when he leaves it.

Stewart brings many allegations of abuse and criminal activity to life and he carefully names his sources, mostly ex-members of the Church, many of which once held high ranks in the organization. He describes the Church’s actions and history and explains many of the Church’s arcane words, with often a strange mixture of naval terminology and corporate buzzwords. Often, Scientology appears more like a never ending corporate pep rally than a religious organization. His descriptions of the abuse becomes so commonplace that the sentence, “The Church denies all of these allegations” becomes almost a standard coda for every page.

Going Clear is a gripping, well-research exploration of one of the world’s most bizarre religions and the strange hold it has on people. It is not an easy read, but anyone with an interest in Scientology should definitely pick this up before they attend their first “auditing” session.

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Redshirts by John Scalzi

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It’s the year 2456 and Ensign Andrew Dahl has just been assigned to the Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid. As a junior officer, he’s assigned at the bottom rung of the ladder in the biochemistry lab. His fellow low-ranking officers seem to be a nervous bunch who always find excuses to be away from the lab when one of the senior officers comes around. Lots of other suspicious things are happening on the ship that don’t quite add up. It sometimes appears that the laws of physics get suspended act strange and dramatic times.

It turns out, he has good reason to be suspicious. Despite the fact that the captain and the rest of the senior officers often act reckless, even criminally incompetent at times, they always manage to survive dangerous encounters. One astrogator, Lt. Kerentsky, seems particularly capable of defying the odds. The junior officers, however, aren’t as lucky. In fact, on nearly every away mission, at least one junior officer dies.

Okay, if you haven’t seen the obvious parallels to Star Trek, the title of “Redshirts” should give it away. John Scalzi’s novel is based on the idea that, what if the junior officers on an Enterprise-like ship starting noticing that they have such an unusually high mortality rate even as the senior officers seem indestructible. As they start asking questions, they come to a disturbing realization: They are extras in a Sci-Fi TV series and not a particularly good one. Pretty soon, Dahl and his friends concoct a plan to get out of this unfair cycle. Yes, there’s some familiar ground in that the characters find out that their lives are actually a sham set up for the entertainment of the others. This territory has been covered before in The Truman Show and an episode of The Twilight Zone, but the existential questions are given a greater weight given the life and death consequences at stake.

Redshirts is satire that is aimed squarely at the Star Trek canon, but like the movie Galaxy Quest, it’s satire done with love. John Scalzi pokes fun at the tropes, plot devices, and technobabble that have define the Trek universe. The story is great fun.

The novel includes three codas, one each written in first, second, and third person. The codas wrap up some details about the show behind the lives. The codas aren’t necessary for the main plot, but they are enjoyable character sketches in their own right.

Five stars.

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Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Saladin Ahmed is considered by many in the science fiction and fantasy community to be an up and coming new author. He’s been a finalist for the Nebula and the Campbell award. His highly anticipated debut novel, Throne of the Crescent Moon, came with high expectations in 2012. The books primary protagonist is Doctor Adoulla Makhslood , last of the ghul hunters. After spending a lifetime fighting undead monsters and evil sorcerers, Adoulla wants nothing more than to spend his remaining years drinking tea in comfort. But, when the relative of his former lover calls on him for help, he finds himself drawn into what may be the greatest threat to the crescent kingdoms.

Assisting Adoulla is Raseed bas Raseed, a young holy warrior. While Raseed is sworn to aid Adoulla, the rigid moral code of his order often makes him uncomfortable with the gray areas that Adoulla’s work often takes them into. Complicating matters further is Zamia Badawi, the last of her tribe. Gifted with the power to shapeshift into the form of a lion, Zamia is determined to avenge the death of her people. Adoulla must contend with dark prophecies, undead monsters, political corruption, and the growing romantic feelings between the stiff-necked Raseed and the wild Zamia.

Throne of the Crescent moon is an epic sword and sorcery tale steeped in the culture of the Arabian Nights. Ahmed is clearly drawing on his own cultural background, but he presents the novel in a way that won’t alienate western readers. The characters are interesting and flawed. They struggle with their own conflicts, both external and internal, but at the same time, draw the reader in and make them want to see the characters succeed.

This is an excellent first novel from a talent that I’m sure we’ll be seeing more from in the future. Throne of the Crescent Moon takes place in a rich world with plenty of potential for sequels, whether with the further adventures of Adoulla or with other characters.

Highly recommended.

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