In the Land of the Unbelievers

High concept science fiction with the air of religion and metaphysics

A collection of eight early short stories by Jacek Dukaj: Ruch Generała (The Iron General), IACTE, Irrehaare, Muchobójca (Flykiller), Ziemia Chrystusa (Christ’s Earth), Katedra (The Cathedral), Medjugorje, and In Partibus Infidelium.

The famous Katedra has inspired Tomasz Bagiński to create an animation which was nominated to the Oscars. Irreehaare, created a long time before Matrix, presents humankind imprisoned in the VR multiverse. Christ’s Earth describes an attempt to conquer an alternative reality in which Christ didn’t die on the cross, didn’t resurrect, but started the Kingdom of God on Earth.

The common denominator of most of the stories are religious themes presented in the context of technological progress.

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What is fascinating about Dukaj's works is how they show how, under the pressure of cosmic, technologically altered realities, attitudes towards God and metaphysical issues are reformed. In Dukaj's work, we see how a new, man-made reality deforms and transforms its creator, causing him problems, pain and dilemmas that are completely unknown today. Dukaj treats his worlds as a vision of the future that may one day, somewhere, come true. I find the slogan from the opposite end of the semantic spectrum more fitting here: ‘In the land of the faithful’. This applies both to the religious themes, as Dukaj understands and presents them, and to his approach to science fiction.

Marek Oramus, Dziennik Polski

Dukaj is a writer gifted with an incredible talent for inventing fantastic worlds. [...] He is capable of creating an extremely rich picture of the world for just a short story (The Iron General, Christ's Earth), then carelessly abandons these worlds and sets about creating new ones, as if the goal of his writing were to empirically refute the thesis that everything has already been done in fantasy and nothing new can be invented.

Wojciech Orliński, Gazeta Wyborcza