Project Pope

Robot believers at the far end of the galaxy endeavor to create a true religion, but their efforts could be shattered by a shocking revelation. Far in the future, on the remote planet End of Nothing, sentient robots are engaged in a remarkable enterprise. They call their project Vatican-17: an endeavor to create a truly universal religion presided over by a pope, whose extreme godliness and infallible artificial intelligence are fed by telepathic human Listeners who psychically delve into the mysteries of the universe. But the great and holy mission could be compromised by one shocking revelation that threatens to inspire serious crises of faith among the spiritual, truth-seeking robotic acolytes while tearing them into warring religious factions; for the Listener Mary is claiming that she has just discovered Heaven.

There are those among the Clifford D. Simak faithful who consider Project Pope his masterpiece. But whether the crowning literary achievement of a multiple Hugo and Nebula Award-winning science-fiction Grand Master or merely another brilliant novel of speculative fiction to stand among his many, Simak's breathtaking search for God in the machine ingeniously blends science and spirituality in a truly miraculous way that few science fiction writers, if any, have been able to accomplish.

Clifford Donald Simak (* August 3, 1904 in Milville, Wisconsin, USA / † April 25, 1988 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA) was a journalist and a science fiction writer. Simak was considered as one of the “Grandmasters” of science fiction and he was honoured several times with awards for his contribution to science fiction literature.

Clifford D. Simak wrote continuously science fiction and fantasy for over 55 years (only few other writers worked as long as he did). He never was such a prolific writer like Isak Asimov or Robert Silverberg. Anyhow he managed to publish in these 55 years 28 novels and more than 120 short stories in the genres science fiction and fantasy – and that avocational until his retirement in 1976. He earned his living as a reporter and editor of big newspapers in the American middle west.

There was a time when Simak was considered as one of the most valued SF-writers and there was hardly any standard literature on the history of science fiction which has not dedicate him a separate paragraph or even an own chapter even though he was never in fashion. He stood mostly in the shadow of his more famous colleagues