Ship of Fools by Richard Paul RussoMy rating: 93 of 100 stars
Pages : 384
Year : 2001
Genre : Sci-Fi, Space Opera, Horror
Series : Solo
This book is flag as Sci-Fi Horror. After finishing the novel I think the Tags my mislead you thinking this is a Alien-alike book but it's not. The Horror here is not visceral or monsters that will make you fear the night. No. The Horror is more psychological that anything else. There are a couple of situations that you feel horrible situation but not horror per se.
In this tale we follow Bartolomeu which follows the captain of a generation ship, giving him hints, advices and such. Bartolomeu is not a well like person, first because he has some handicapped problems (to be honest, they are mention from time to time but I didn't see anything that really made me think, well that's because he is handicapped or something like that. No it's handicapped but in the end is more "capped" that "regular" people. It was a bit strange and a missed opportunity. We also have other interesting characters like the Bishop , the Captain, Par - the dwarf and Father Veronica. Yes a woman, not trans or something like. They just call the clergy woman as Father (don't know if it's normal in protestant religion but I will check later).
So, this tale , we follow a generation ship that has been traveling through space for hundreds of years, so much that nobody knows how long. There was a revolution two hundreds years before and much history was destroyed. In this "day" of age, the ship is divided in the higher deck and lower decks. The lower decks work on maintaining the ship while the higher are just "nobles" and lead the ship and important stuff. We also have a religion, Christian religion and the Bishop and the Captain are always frightening to get the higher hand. To be honest the first 150 pages is basically politics and getting to know the characters and don't get me wrong, probably my favourite part. The second part of the tale is their investigation of a strange ship that appear form nowhere. And here lays some of the horror stuff they talk about it and there is BUT not that much. Some are just hinted...
So what's good about this? Well, in terms of characters I really love it. I love reading about our main protagonist and his ways within the echelons that hate him and his interest on the lower decks and also his love for Father Veronica. The investigations on the ship is also interesting and the last 50/60 pages just fly by. To be honest I was a bit sad about one character but alas, not going to tell you about it.
What's also good? Well the philosophy and theologian debates that we have between almost all characters... One of the best is chapter 40 where Father Veronica & Bartolomeo talk about god and the debate of free will and\or maybe not. One of the most interesting was the Christ Crucification explanation where Father explains the "official" view and her view - god's own guilt.
"He create us. He gave us Free Will. Therefore He is in some real way ultimately responsible for the suffering we inflict upon one another. He Has His own Guilt. And sacrificing His Son, Himself, was a way to help expiate that guilt."
So that's it.. It's an interesting tale about discover, about theology where the main character is atheist and in love with the most pious of women. It's much more. If you enjoy books that deal with Generation Ships then this book is for you. You love books that deal with discover of a truly alien species and not humans in other shapes then this book is for you.
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