This episode covers two quite different science fiction novels by two quite different writers, published more than a decade apart. What links them is their emphasis on religious themes. Let the Fire Fall by Kate Wilhelm was published in 1969, and is largely forgotten. Set in a near-contemporary world, it deals with alien visitation and a manipulative religious cult.Strength of Stones is an early novel by Greg Bear, published in 1981. It has a far-future setting on a planet colonised by religi...