In this world, instead of preaching peace and forgiveness and being crucified, Jesus became a revolutionary agitator and assembled an army to overthrow the Roman Empire, establishing a theocracy before being killed by a crossbow, which becomes a religious symbol similar to the cross in our timeline.

The regime established by Jesus continues to the present day, having dominated the entire world and mingled with scientific ideas and advanced technology, including a Church led by an AI pope.

Fairweather II makes Haldane immortal and sends him on a mission to go back in time and kill Jesus under his new name, "Judas Iscariot".

Robert A. Heinlein said, "It belongs on the same shelf with 1984 and Brave New World," and the Los Angeles Times noted, "In the literate tradition of Huxley, Orwell, and Bradbury, it is a work of extraordinary impact."

"[1] Spider Robinson, however, praised the novel as "delightful, with a rigorously consistent internal logic that doesn't really become apparent until the very last chapter.