You might bend the laws of physics, but Jebediah Miller was always taught never to break the Ordnung rules. But he feared even more the destruction of his world. That’s why he pushed the button. That’s why he summoned those outsiders to the Amish settlement on Alabaster—a contingency plan to rescue the technologically impaired community and relocate them to a less supernova-prone system.

Alas, this act still brings condemnation. Jeb and his wife Sara can still evacuate with the others aboard the Delivery Guild vessel Raven. But they’ll need to stay in a cabin separate from their people. Once beyond orbit, however, it seems an old-fashioned shunning is no match for new-fashioned techno-horrors lurking in the corridors.

Kerry Nietz fetches laughs with the premise, title, and original cover image of his 2013 sci-fi thriller Amish Vampires in Space. But please don’t point and stare. After a slow start, this story gains momentum until Nietz rights the ship into a classic-feeling outer-space creature feature, complete with secret labs, strange alliances, and the constant threat that innocent victims could turn into vamping predators.

This horror, however, doesn’t jump-scare for its own sake. Yes, a genuine threat of vampirism stalks this community for whom we have come to care. But we also find real clashes between pacifism vs. self-defense as well as genetic engineering. By the end, Nietz with his serviceable style lands the story quickly and resolutely. Crewmen do their duty. Wicked vampirism is vanquished. And the Amish heroes show their resilience—belying potential complaints about their original cover-art presentation.

After its original publication, AVIS gained some infamy. One paperback featured for fifteen minutes on nationwide late-night comedy; host Jimmy Kimmel queried: “Do we need yet another Amish/vampire space book? Yes, we might, though Nietz set his sights on other monsters, going on to release Amish Zombies from Space and Amish Werewolves of Space. Sci-fi and especially horror tales continue to fight for Christian fantasy-fan attentions, yet perhaps this genetic splicing marks an exception to the lab rules. This serious novel with a comical name ends up a barn-raising success.

Best for: Adults and older teen readers un-spooked by sci-fi vampirism.

Discern: Creature violence, horror and other thematic elements, disputes between Amish and others over topics such as cultural participation and self-defense, scant descriptions of vampirism-afflicted Amish persons acting in provocative ways, ethical challenges related to human genetics tampering.