Let's Talk About Dion
Several readers have told me that Dion was their surprise favorite in Hand of Isis -- that they had expected to like Charmian, but Dion stole the show for them.



Dion fascinated me from the beginning because he embodies something that we moderns think of as a contradiction -- a man of science who is a man of faith. We tend to think of these as incompatible beliefs. I don't think this is necessarily true, and certainly the ancients did not hold it to be so. My father was a scientist and a man of faith, and he put it this way, "Science explains how things happen. Religion explains why." There's no contradiction between those things, and certainly Dion would not see one.

Dion also takes a lot of roles that we might consider contradictory -- the devoted partner who has an open relationship, the father of his best friend's child who is not her biological parent, and not the least in his culture, a Hellenized Jew.

What do you guys think of Dion? What surprised you?