Introduction
I have long enjoyed fantasy novels whose superhuman characters struggle with typical human problems. They typically possess values of honor, duty, protection of the weak or protection of family, group, their own species. Often, they are monsters with positive values. Certainly, they excite my admiration for superhuman fantasy characters.
Mercy Thompson’s Adam
Patricia Briggs has written a series of novels starring the coyote shape-shifter, Mercedes (Mercy) Thompson. Her neighbor/ lover/ husband, Adam Hauptman, is a Vietnam veteran- turned- werewolf. His high level of dominance makes him the alpha of the local werewolf pack and a control freak. He requires absolute obedience from those under his care. It also makes him highly protective of those underlings.
Adam’s 1950s upbringing molded into him the qualities of honor, duty, and tight control of his monstrous instincts. When situations require it, Adam can unleash violence to enforce loyalty and obedience. He would rather use persuasion and diplomacy, especially with his human daughter, Jessie, and his coyote- weak neighbor/ lover/ wife, Mercy. She has her own manipulative, devious ways of serving justice against their enemies for the sake of people at risk of being abused and destroyed.
Mercedes Lackey’s Heralds and Companions
The Heralds of Valdemar are honest, others- serving men and women with superhuman mind magic. Those qualities of honesty and self- sacrifice get them Chosen by their Companions.
These are horse- like creatures with strong, spiritual natures. They multiply each Herald’s honesty and self- sacrificing traits. In fact, kingdom law requires the man or woman on the throne and the heir to be already Chosen Heralds themselves. This keeps the throne out of the hands of self- serving people.
The Heralds are closely bonded to their Companions and their dangerous duties to the monarch and to justice for the weak and abused. This makes their off- duty relationships more casual than required for marriage.
They also uphold the kingdom- wide value of “no one way”. People live in loyalty to the god or gods and moral standards of their choice. They are not allowed to force their beliefs or morality on those who disagree. They are required only to not bring harm on others and to remain loyal to the people of Valdemar. Even the reigning monarch rules for the sake of the people of the kingdom. His or her Companion requires such self- sacrifice.
Charles W. Lamb’s AL:ICEs
The several Artificial Life: Intelligent Computing Environments were so much more than artificial intelligence. They came to life through the combination of human and extra- terrestrial components and programming. Alongside them, humans created stasis shields, bubbles that held and protected their contents from the passage of time and from physical and energy weapons. This included Captain Jake Thomas, USMC, a veteran of the Gulf wars and a skilled computer programmer.
Placed in an experimental stasis field, Jake was isolated by an earthquake that destroyed the military base around him. He and the several AL:ICEs were also stasis- protected when the empire- driven ETs bombarded the Earth and reduced the human populations worldwide. They also drove the surviving humans back to the technology of the late 1700s.
Two hundred years later, only the AL:ICEs’ need for Jake to father offspring forced them to bring him out of his stasis field isolation. AL:ICE 1 (or simply Alice) and her sisters across the U.S. agreed to help the 21st- century Marine bring modern technology to the mostly- agrarian society. He treated each AL:ICE as an individual, which led to a high level of individuality and disagreement among their members.
Meanwhile, Alice helped Jake rescue several young women from fates worse than death at the hands of marauding gangs. The women joined his vision for renewing civilization. They became the first commanders of different AL:ICE facilities across the old nation.
They also became the mothers of his genetic offspring, needed to keep the AL:ICEs in existence. This was not a moral problem for the women. Raised as excess females, they were used to the looser marriage standards of their agrarian society.
In the final book of the series, Alice spoke to an AI enemy about the value of living together and working toward common goals, despite individual differences and disagreements. This was in contrast to the several AIs’ value for conformity and the subjugation of the human race.
“Immoral”, Yet Positive Values
All these characters in their novels have “immoral” values and practices, according to Church or Kingdom teachings. However, they do live by service to higher authorities, self- sacrifice in that service, and the protection of weak and abused people. These are similar to the values of God’s Kingdom.
His faithful ones sacrifice themselves in their service to His highest authority (Deuteronomy 6:5, Romans 12:1). They protect and help widows, orphans, and foreigners among them. They live by and spread the values of God’s Kingdom. They trust and obey the Master above living by the morality of the Law. They use superhuman gifts from Holy Spirit.