Arjay Books is the book division of Arjay Enterprises, a vehicle for the promotion and sale of non-fiction and Christian SF by Rick Sutcliffe. Arjay Books sells Rick Sutcliffe's non-fiction and has links to various bookstores where his fiction may be purchased, but is NOT a publisher.

Richard J. (Rick) Sutcliffe is a professor of computing science and mathematics at Trinity Western University in British Columbia, Canada. He is also a futurist, and has interests in programming, software engineering, ethics, science fiction, and his Irish roots. Naturally, in his alternate history, the Irish rule the worlds.

Christian fiction is, first of all, Christian. It has elements, even if allegorical, that deal with Christian themes and ideas such as the nature, attributes and actions of God, creation, the fall of humankind, the incarnation and historicity of Christ, the redemption He worked, and the struggle between good and evil. There is a clear line between the latter two.

Christian Fiction may have ambiguous, evil, and immoral characters, but does not graphically depict their actions (especially violence or sex). Moreover, it at least points toward the triumph of good over evil. The majority of what is sold as Christian fiction today is historical romance, with only tenuous connection to Christianity, or is apocalyptic (end-times) fantasy. Note that Rick Sutcliffe's Christian SF is neither of the latter, for it is set in an alternate history earth.

Rick Sutcliffe's science fiction has both Christian and science fiction themes. It could also be classified as alternate history fiction. More details can be found here along with a number of CSF and SF links.

Rick Sutcliffe was born in Calgary, Alberta, and still thinks it one of the best places on earth, except for the winters. He currently lives in Bradner, British Columbia (near Vancouver, and not in an igloo.) Although most scenes in the novels of the Interregnum take place on one or more of the alternate earths of the Timestream with their very different histories, some of the action takes place in our earth's (Tirdia's) Canada (around Cultus Lake, BC, and in the Gulf Islands of the Georgia Strait). Other connections are Edwardston (Ortho's version of Calgary) and Moody (Ortho's version of Port Moody, BC.) He also considers it a point of honour to spell words like neighbour, centre, and metre Canadian style, and to resist editors who want to change this. So, call it Canadian fiction, as well as Alternate History Irish Christian SF eh?

Rick Sutcliffe is of Irish extraction (Ryan, Tobin, McMullen) and always thought the Irish should rule the world. In his fiction, they run two of them, but are as fractious as they are on this earth. Ortho Earth, where The Interregnum series is set, is also called Greater Hibernia. In its alternate hioistory the Irish conquered England and eventually everything else on their planet. But they still fight among themselves. So, call it Irish fiction, if you like.

Celtic fiction has a strong emphasis on the heroic, especially in the battle between good and evil. More information on Celtic fiction and its relationship to Rick Sutcliffe's Irish Christian Sf (Alternate History) fiction may be found here.

In technological terms, there is a progression in human society, culture, and civilization from the hunter-gatherer (first civilization) through agricultural (second civilization) and industrial (third civilization) to an information-based fourth civilization. Much of what defines the latter depends on computing technology.

"The Fourth Civilization--Ethics, Society, and Technology" was written to examine questions of how to think and behave in an ethical manner under an entirely new set of social assumptions and in a new technological context. Such an examination is particularly important in a day when the "ethics" has been re-defined as a feeling rather than a choice of "right" over "wrong".

This book is a text suitable for a fourth-year course in the social implications of technology for computing and other science majors, and also as general reading. It is written from a Christian point of view and focuses on Christian integration of faith and discipline and across disciplines.

Rick Sutcliffe's alternate history Christian SF was written largely to examine some of the same issues in a fictional context where their implications can be explored at leisure.

Concinnity expresses the idea that all knowledge is an integrated whole-not because humankind is designing it that way, or because disparate bits and pieces are self-evolving into a well-designed tapestry (both aspects of Wilson's "consilience"), but because all truth is God's truth. He designed the universe and all its knowledge as a well-sculpted, good, pleasing, unified whole for his own glory. When we integrate knowledge, we discover design connections that already exist.

FAQ

Modula-2 is a computing language, or more properly a computing notation. It was designed by Niklaus Wirth in the early 1980s as a replacement for Pascal. It is small, teachable, highly readable, structured, modular, and suitable for software engineering very large projects. ISO standard Modula-2 has block-level exceptions, module-level termination, a standard I/O and utility library, coroutines, object oriented extensions and generic facilities. It is available and functions cross-platform, in part because the unambiguous ISO base standard is written in VDM-SL. This site has the Modula-2 FAQ and a shareware, standard-compliant Modula-2 textbook.

In the late 1970s when small computers were just becoming common, Rick Sutcliffe was a columnist for a variety of computing trade publications and newspapers. Fellow old crocs might remember The Northern Spy, Anodidacticus, The Dialectical Apple, Through a Glass, Darkly, or the many articles and papers he wrote in addition to those columns. During the same period, he also wrote several shareware programs in machine language for the Apple ][ computer. He later tried alternatives but soon switched to a Macintosh, where he has remained.