Ship of Fools

Spectacular. Thinking man's Alien and Event Horizon in book form. Excellent characters. Unforgettable. Don't expect easy answers however.

Philip K. Dick Award winning author Russo spins an intriguing mystery in Ship of Fools. He delves deeply into what it means to be human. The crew of an intergenerational starship desperately seek a habitable planet. They are divided by class and religion. The ruins of a human colony lead them to an enormous alien vessel -- the first contact of humans with another intelligent species as far as they know. Will it save them or destroy them?

I first picked up this book years ago close to release, but the negative things said about it have persuaded me to defend it. This is by far one of the best sci fi books I have read, ever. It remains completely personal and never becomes a chore to read. You will find little to get bogged down by, as the writing moves incredibly fast. It's greatest stregnth is it's charecters, all held together by intertwining motives, ideals, and conflicts. Don't let some of the negative reviews fool you, this is magnificent. I've read quite a lot about the dissatisfaction with the ending, and I am baffled. Everything that needs to have an end, does. At the risk of spoilers, this novel is about these charecters and the ship they inhabit. At the end, that story is finished. The ship is gone, the threat of an alien race, gone. What charecters do make it out of the ship are going to a new chapter of their lives. Many of them have had their lives changed by an unforgettable experience, and now they are moving on to the next. While it is true that you never find out some things, they are hardly things that seem important. Do the aliens need a motive? Do we need to know more about the Church's plot to overthrow the current ruling body? Do we need to see the final fate of the captain? Do we need to see what's on those video moniters? Do we need to see the return to Antioch? I think not. Nearly every "unresolved" issue in this book are issues that the reader creates for themselves; not the author. Our own desire to know more, that hunger for knowledge and power, is the roots of our destruction and one of the mainy strong points of this book. That being said, none of these issues in question are necessary to the primary focus, and that's why I was surprised at the disdain for the ending. The conflicts that have been going on between the charecters and the primary plot lines of both the political uprisings and the alien ship ARE resolved at the end of the story. Even if by some chance you are unhappy with the brilliant end, you will still have read one of the most engaging and thought provoking novels in a long time. It is beautifully written, and you cannot go wrong. At the very least, pick it up and try it. You won't be dissapointed.

I'm disappointed to read some of the reviews of this book which state that it's a letdown and that it doesn't have a tidy resolution. Clearly these are the type of people who like Americanized versions of foreign movies, where all the loose ends are tied up for you nicely, instead of making you think. This book has great characters and is more suspenseful than any book I've read in a very long time. If you like your books compelling and thought provoking, give this a shot. If you want a fantasy sci-fi book that's the equivalent of a tv sitcom, go elsewhere.

I think the problem the "editorial review" had with this book is the fact that it raises a WHOLE LOT of questions and leaves the reader to mull things over for him/herself. If you're one of those people who like your sci-fi in an hour TV show where everything is wrapped up neatly for you at the end of the hour, so you don't have to bother to think very much, then this is probably NOT the book for you.That said, I loved this book for being brave enough to be unconventional. Bartolomeo, the narrator, paints a broad picture of life on the Argonos, a ship wandering the universe for centuries. History, sociology, and religion are all explored in his description of the society and bureaucracy on the Argonos. Bartolomeo wants to be devoted to his captain, embroiled in a power struggle with the church (who else?), but the social structure where the privileged few profit from the labor of the masses ultimately disturbs him. He is also distracted by his feelings (one couldn't really call it a romance) for Father Veronica, a female priest who ends up with him on the exploration team.All of this becomes moot as the Argonos comes across first a massacred colony and then an alien spaceship that may or may not be responsible for it. The editorial review quote demonstrates just a bit of the horror and shock of the exploration crew that finds the remains of the colony. For the most part, though, the suspense is the exploration of the alien ship: it appears to be deserted, yet it is constructed oddly and even threateningly, and strange "accidents" and "illnesses" keep occurring among the crew. Yet this book never descends to the "jump out and say boo" level of B-movie aliens. It is mostly subtlety, which will keep you guessing until the end, and maybe even after.A final word: one of the reviews below that says it won't give away too much about the story TELLS YOU ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS THAT HAPPENS!!! I am sad that I read the review before reading the book, so then I knew what was coming. Just thought I'd warn you.

This book starts off slow and conventional. Everyone's on a spaceship bound for nowhere, nobody knows where it came from or why its going on. The Roman Catholic church (why are science fiction authors obsessed with the RC church, think of Dan Simmons's Hyperion/Endymion books? Is it the ceremonial nature and centuries of hidden intrigues of established Christianity?)is up to no good and, although it has finally gotten around to allowing women to become priests, is running an alternative power structure to that of the existing "government" of the space ship, which is a government of privileged occupants living on the fruits of the labor of a wretched and resentful underclass of inhabitants.Everything gets called into question when the spaceship encounters signs of nonhuman life and an alien spaceship that is either a deserted wreck or a deadly trap. How the ship's people and institutions respond to the challenge is a fascinating story and the way events unfold is riveting in Russo's narrative.The final quarter of this book is unforgettably riveting and terrifying. I couldn't put it down and doubt that any reasonably attentive reader would be able to.The end is more of a stop than a conclusion, but this is common in the genre. Perhaps there is a sequel on the way.This is a superb book. Anyone willing to read speculative fiction will enjoy it.