On its surface and basic plot description, Worth Dying For will sound like an on-the-nose preachy Catholic novel and perhaps it is so open about its Catholicism you’ll have a hard time convincing a non-christian to read it. But in fact Keiser does such a great job in immersing you into the viewpoint of her characters that not once does it feel pedantic but only honest and thoughtful. The characters in Worth Dying For remind me a lot of the Jewish characters in Mary Doria Russell’s The Sparrow come off or the Mormon characters in The Expanse. Their faith is important to them and affects their decisions but the tone of the book does not require the reader to agree in order to enjoy the story. So while this would be a hard sell to a non-Catholic it certainly wouldn’t disappoint any but the most vitriolic anti-Catholic.

Mark is convinced he is done with God. He is done with the secret church meetings that do nothing but fill him with dread of a God who will punish and reject him for the slightest infraction. So when he realizes that signing a contract with the powerful Intera company will give him the cash to pay for his paralyzed sister’s surgery, he does it, even though doing so means turning his back on everything his parents taught him about right and wrong. Intera, as his father reminds him, is the main power that pushed for the laws that have made their religion illegal.

And yet, Mark still loves his family and doesn’t want them thrown in prison just for being Catholic, so he does his best to hide his past associations with the Catholic Church, the galaxy’s most notorious illegal organization. When he is paired to work with Evan he finds a steady friend who has his own reasons for not wanting to discuss his past. The two forge an alliance and respect each other’s need for privacy. 

But when the mining facility where they work is attacked by space pirates, they’ll need to get to know each other a lot better if they are each going to survive. And as the need for survival pushes Mark to do increasingly questionable things, he begins to wonder if God might have more to offer him than condemnation. 

For his part, Evan has never met someone quite like Mark. Evan is a survivor. Growing up on a crime ridden planet, he had to be. He’s not bitter but he’s not naive about what it takes to survive either. Evan admires Mark for his intelligence, but he is surprised that the man doesn’t put his own survival first. It’s almost as if Mark is living for more than his own self interest, as if he is searching for something out there actually worth dying for. But nothing could be worth that… right? Despite his better judgment, Evan can’t help trying to figure these weirdo Catholics out. 

And then something happens that forces Mark to make a choice- his survival or the lives of innocents. This propels them along a series of similarly impossible choices until things escalate and the two find themselves planning to heist a heavily guarded government facility in the cause of a God they aren’t even sure they believe in. 

Worth Dying For is a thought-provoking sci-fi adventure. The driving question throughout the whole story is, “how should we live?” Evan lives for survival. The space pirate captain who whisks them away lives for an extreme form of capitalistic independence. Later on they find themselves in a small colony where they are trying to achieve a highly interdependent utopia that has no money or official leadership but is united through the bonds of love only. Each of these influences teach Mark something valuable about the nature of humanity and morality. 

Great for readers who like a bit of philosophical dilemma alongside their escapist literature, Worth Dying For is a bit like the world of Joss Wheden’s Firefly mixed with Star Wars’ Andor. Much like Star Wars, it will appeal to teen and adult readers alike.

Although this is the second book following Heaven’s Hunter, it can be read as a standalone story. The main character from book one does appear in this book as well but not in a way that requires you to have read book 1 to understand the plot. It does however whet my appetite for the next volume in this universe. 

Regarding the persecuted-Church-against-the-world angle, Keiser has some unique insights into the way that persecution can sometimes bring out the worst in ourselves if we are not careful. This thoughtful criticism of the more toxic tendencies in Catholic culture is what keeps the book from straying into sounding preachy and will vindicate the secular reader even as it might encourage them to reexamine past assumptions. 

In a conversation Mark has with a priest about how overly strict his parents were, the priest talks about the time when the government made all Catholics sign oaths of loyalty to the State over the Church and drove those who didn’t underground. 

“They made the right choice, (those who chose not to sign) but I think some of them did it more because they were stubborn rather than virtuous…some very humanly– ended up applying that strong determination to things that didn’t deserve it. They made determination the virtue, rather than faith or love of God.” 

This tension between ideals and their practical application is a theme that runs through Mark’s reconversion, and I’m reminded once again about how deftly Keiser handles such conversions in a manner that feels entirely natural and honest. 

Although the topic of the book might make non-Christians choose not to read this series, I think Keiser has once again pulled off a story that would appeal to all types of readers, religious and not, young and old. That said, cradle Catholics might especially relate to Mark’s struggles and take encouragement from this story. 

Perfect for fans of scifi, the technobabble is actually quite minimal, so I can see this appealing to fans of adventure fiction in general as well. 

Science fiction is about the future of humanity and that includes all of us. Increasingly I do see in secular science fiction a willingness to enjoy the futuristic space adventures of people from diverse faith and ethnic backgrounds. Once the most hostile genre to people of faith the winds are changing, making way for authors like Marie C. Keiser.