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I read this book probably in the late 1990s. I assume the intended audience is teenagers/youth because I checked it out of my junior high library.

In the book there is a boy on a plane and the plane crashes, but right before it does he is transported off somehow and onto another planet. The planet he's on, he finds out, is the home of the being that owns and runs the earth. This being is very advanced and is part of a civilization that basically runs the universe. They believe in order and not allowing any bad things to happen, so all the known worlds (except a few) are perfect paradises where nothing bad ever happens. But this guy, he values freedom of choice over order, which is why the earth has so many problems, he lets people make choices.

In addition to the boy from earth, I also remember there being a wild, Amazonian-type woman that the planet-owning guy took from one of his other planets right before she died. I don't really remember much about her except that she killed a bird at one point because she was hungry and the advanced alien guy got ticked, because his civilization values life very highly. He then brings the bird back to life.

He's allowed to continue his "experiment" for a while, but his political opponents constantly threaten to take away his planets. Eventually, they do take away his planets, saying that he has been negligent and allowed things to get out of hand (because on earth there's about to be a nuclear war). He gets exiled and his civilization sends a fleet of battleships to basically subdue the earth and force humanity to be good from that point on.

At the end, his biggest political opponent realizes (too late) that her own progression as an individual is now going to be halted because she will no longer have anyone to fight/disagree with and that her growth will now be stagnant. Before, she grew a lot as a person as she struggled to find a way to take out the guy who ran the earth, but now that he's gone she doesn't grow anymore, and she realizes he was right: people need diversity of thought to help them grow and become better.

That's about all I remember.

Cooper
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    I don't know if the story, but maybe you will have some luck looking through works by Orson Scott Card? The theme of "bad actions being allowed to be taken by humans because God values choice" is actually a huge foundation of Mormon doctrine. Especially if it ends, as you say, with the prot/antagonist coming to the conclusion that allowing choice was right, either the author is actually a mormon or philosophically a mormon and doesn't know it :). – msouth Oct 02 '14 at 08:03
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    The doctrine of free will is fundamental to all Judeo-Christian-Islamic faiths, and most other religions as well. It's certainly not a strictly Mormon belief. – Joe L. Dec 17 '14 at 13:15
  • I've looked over everything Card has written and haven't found anything. I'm still on the look out for what this book was called. Thanks for the suggestion though. – Cooper Jan 30 '15 at 18:06
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    I've spent a considerable amount of time digging through literature to try to find this book. Are there any other details you can remember? Even vague recollections might help. – lswank Jun 22 '15 at 07:33
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    Have you tried asking on other sites? E.g. I've found the BookSleuth Forum at Abebooks.com to be quite good at answering story-id questions, and I've gotten some answers there that I couldn't get here. – user14111 Jun 22 '15 at 07:42
  • to lswank - I've been thinking about it alot and I think I remember a couple of other details. I think that in the civilization of the beings that control everything, most of the characters are basically humans (immortal and really advanced, though), but the author suggests that their society is open to all species that share their values. I also remember that, at the end, when the guy gets exiled, the kid from earth and the "Amazonian" woman have to be exiled with him and they are sent to some planet that's outside of the galaxy or something, far from the light of any other stars. That's it – Cooper Jun 29 '15 at 15:18
  • to user14111 - thanks for the idea, I'll try abebooks next – Cooper Jun 29 '15 at 15:19
  • Happen to remember the names of any of the characters or races? – bowlturner Aug 06 '15 at 13:59
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    There are definitely elements of Robert Heinlein's Job: A Comedy of Justice in your description. Its also far enough off that it probably isn't what you're looking for. – Erik Nov 03 '15 at 19:58
  • to bowlturner - sadly, I don't remember any of the characters names. Other non-human races were only mentioned in passing, so I'm not sure if names were even there. All of the main characters were basically humans whether they were from Earth or somewhere else. – Cooper Nov 11 '15 at 04:51
  • to Erik - I looked into Job: A Comedy of Justice and I don't think that's it. Thanks for trying though. And thanks for the suggestion, I'll probably add that to my list of books to read. – Cooper Nov 11 '15 at 04:53
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    I highly doubt it's The Transall Saga but it does contain a boy transporting to another world and meeting up with a tribe. – user35594 Nov 15 '15 at 23:48
  • to user35594 - I checked it out and it's not The Transall Saga. Thanks for the attempt, though. – Cooper Nov 23 '15 at 03:00
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    This isn't the Choose Your Own Adventure book Inside UFO 54-40, is it? It's a reach, but the abduction from the plane triggered it, and there's the UTY Masters. Not sure if there were any Amazons. – Todd Wilcox Nov 24 '15 at 21:43
  • to Todd Wilcox - I did read the occasional Choose Your Own Adventure as a kid, but I don't think that's the book I'm looking for. Thanks though. – Cooper Jan 11 '16 at 05:24
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    @Cooper Instead of writing "to user", if you prepend a @ to the username (like I just did) they'll actually get a notification for your comment. – Martin Ender Feb 29 '16 at 10:48
  • @MartinBüttner - thanks for the tip – Cooper Mar 06 '16 at 12:56
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    Could it be Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon? "Star Maker is a science fiction novel by Olaf Stapledon, published in 1937. The book describes a history of life in the universe, dwarfing in scale Stapledon's previous book, Last and First Men (1930), a history of the human species over two billion years. Star Maker tackles philosophical themes such as the essence of life, of birth, decay and death, and the relationship between creation and creator. A pervading theme is that of progressive unity within and between different civilizations" – Imperator Helvetica Apr 16 '16 at 18:31
  • @ImperatorHelvetica - It's not Star Maker, though that's a good book too. – Cooper May 09 '16 at 07:07
  • Bit of a stretch but perhaps The Stars My Destination? – user35594 Jun 20 '16 at 23:23
  • @user35594 - it is not "The Stars My Destination." Thanks for the attempt. – Cooper Jun 27 '16 at 23:58
  • Mystery solved! Someone finally discovered the answer. It's called Keeper of the Universe by Louise Lawrence. See the full answer below for links. – Cooper Jul 14 '16 at 17:25

1 Answers1

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Keeper of the Universe by Louise Lawrence

Also called Ben-Harran's Castle.

I posted this question to Goodread's "What's the name of that book???" group and it was answered in 10 hours by Tab, who quoted from the School Library Journal:

Gr 7-12-- Christopher is an English teenager on board a flight to Athens, heading for a hotel job that he hopes will help him escape the tedium of school and family. A sudden explosion cuts the flight short; he wakes up some time later in a barren room within a strange castle, accompanied only by a barbarian queen and the Erg Unit, an introspective and occasionally too conscientious robot.

Christopher gradually learns that Ben-Harran, the owner of the castle, is one of a race of Galactic Controllers, highly evolved beings who have taken on responsibility for maintaining peace and harmony throughout the known universe. Ben-Harran is responsible for the galaxy that includes Earth, and is presently in deep trouble with the rest of the Council for his refusal to use the Overseers and mind-control methods that guarantee peace.

Because his insistence on free will allows his "subjects" to determine their own fates, Ben-Harran's foes are holding him responsible for the deaths of all the inhabitants of Zeeda, an Earthlike planet recently wiped out in a self-induced conflagration of total warfare.

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browly
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  • Good find. There are some substantial elements of similarity here. Now let's see if the OP agrees :-) – Valorum Jul 06 '16 at 15:58
  • This review from School Library Journal is quoted on a few sites, but I didn't see it on slj.com itself so I haven't linked to anything except Tab's answer on Goodreads. If someone can find a link for the original review on slj.com please add it. – browly Jul 06 '16 at 15:59
  • It would appear that that review was published in hard copy only since it's not on the SLJ website. – Valorum Jul 06 '16 at 16:00
  • Tab at Goodreads clarified that you can access the School Library Journal review through a book database called "Novelist Plus", which he has access to through his local library. – browly Jul 07 '16 at 02:40
  • If it's behind a paywall, then acknowledging it is sufficient – Valorum Jul 07 '16 at 08:44
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    @browly - That's it! Thanks so much for finding it, I have been looking for this book for a long time. Pass along my thanks to whoever got you the information on Goodreads. – Cooper Jul 14 '16 at 17:22