The Sundering: A 4 Book Sci-Fi Baha’i-Inspired Series

Donna Rae Price has authored a four-book science fiction series for teens and adults called The Sundering! The books take place nine hundred years in the future, where “a peaceful but struggling humanity reaches out from Earth, looking for planets, looking for people, looking for their place in the galaxy.”

A couple of years ago, I interviewed Donna about her wholesome collection of stories for the entire family called What You Win, and it’s exciting to hear from her now about this new book series!

Can you please tell us a little bit about yourself?

I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. I’ve been a Baha’i since I was 8, so I grew up with religion, as well as science, nature, and a lot of Star Trek. I started writing in third grade after reading a book called The Limerick Trick.

I majored in astronomy, but I ended up working in the magazine business. I’ve been excited to work for Brilliant Star Magazine for many years. Constantly thinking about the education and potential of children gives me so much hope for the future.

Can you please tell us a little bit about your science-fiction series?

The Sundering series takes place about 900 years in the future, far from Earth. Humanity is peaceful, but struggling. Even in a future golden age, I believe we’ll always have challenges. We can’t grow if we don’t struggle.

The story follows a lonely cargo-ship captain and a runaway teenager who get tangled up in humanity’s first contact with aliens. There is no evil in the book. People battle their dangerous environment, their own flaws, and the challenges of communication and understanding new species. Some of the main themes are honesty, trust, obedience, loyalty, and family.

What inspired you to write them? 

I wanted to write about a future that wasn’t about advanced technology, but instead about people striving to be better. I don’t think the characters are actually advanced enough for their time, but they have to be relatable to current readers. We’re so inundated by dystopian fiction that I wanted to write something hopeful. We know humanity has an amazing future, so it’s fun to think about how it might be.

Who is their audience?

Although the books are written for a general audience, I really wanted something Baha’i teens and adults could identify with. The characters live in a future administrative order where being a Baha’i is normal and doesn’t need explaining. Humanity is one people even though they are spread out in space. It’s a space adventure story within the background of the Baha’i Faith.

What’s something you’ve learned in the process of making this series?

Trying to predict what would happen if even just one of the virtues was universally practiced is really hard! And imagine if all of the virtues were practiced. Our society would be so different. I tried to think of the small ways it would be different, like we wouldn’t have all that plastic anti-theft packaging that no one can open. In the Sundering, society is not quite there yet, but they are actively working on it.

What do you hope readers will take away with them?

I hope people will feel that they’ve taken a journey—a journey where we faced a great test and how ordinary, humble people had huge parts to play in humanity’s fate.

What is some advice you’d give to anyone pursuing Baha’i-inspired creative work?

We’re just taking the first steps on the road of Baha’i art and literature. I hope Baha’is will be inspired to make our own art in our own way and not feel like we have to do the same things everyone else does or that everyone says we have to do to be successful.

It took me thirty years to write this series, so my other advice is don’t give up!

Here are a couple of my favourite space quotes:

O Son of Man!
Wert thou to speed through the immensity of space and traverse the expanse of heaven, yet thou wouldst find no rest save in submission to Our command and humbleness before Our Face.¹

Know thou that every fixed star hath its own planets, and every planet its own creatures, whose number no man can compute.²

Thank you so much for taking the time to share this with us and congratulations on writing this series!!

You can purchase the books in The Sundering series from Amazon or find out more from Donna’s website.

1. Baha’u’llah, The Hidden Words [↩]
2. Baha’u’llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah [↩]

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Sonjel Vreeland

In her innermost heart, Sonjel is a stay-at-home parent and a bookworm with a maxed out library card but professionally she is a museologist with a background in English Literature. She currently lives on Prince Edward Island, an isle in the shape of a smile on the eastern Canadian coast. Sonjel is a writer who loves to listen to jazz when she's driving at night.