I’ve mentioned the Four Centuries of Mormon Stories Contest a few times.  Everyday Mormon Writer has just posted the first of the 22nd-Century finalists, “Release” by Wm Morris. I’ve been asked to host a discussion of the story. It’s short, so you can go read it there.

For the most part, I tend to be an optimist about the future of humanity and the gospel.  My story “That Leviathan, Whom Thou Hast Made” posits a future in which Mormonism has literally spread to the stars in a high-tech society where people are basically free to worship as they please.  So it was an interesting contrast to read “Release,” set in an extreme totalitarian future society under which everything is well-organized and everyone is monitored via implants. Religion has apparently been banned, but the Church has found an imaginative way to continue its service below the threshold of detection.

Feel free to discuss the story below.