A review by circularcubes
Ship of Fools by Richard Paul Russo
4.0
3.5 stars
Space horror! How could it not be fun? This was a bit uneven, some of the unanswered questions frustrated me, and I didn't really buy the setting of the generational ship Argonos, but if you look past those flaws, it's a fun book in a genre that sorely needs more attention.
The middle third of this book was sublime - I felt a genuine sense of unease once the alien ship was discovered, and I loved the wrongness of it, the feeling that the characters were transgressing in spaces not meant for them.
The first third was a bit slow, but the politics & society of the Argonos were fun. Unfortunately, while I got a clear sense of the setting of the alien ship, the Argonos never managed to feel like a real place to me. I couldn't wrap my head around how large it was, or how many people lived on it, or how they managed to be on one spaceship for generations and still find hidden, undiscovered corners. The idea of the nature rooms were fun, but I didn't buy how one could hide out in a desert that's actually just one big room on a spaceship. This is maybe me just being picky, but it was something that bothered me throughout the book.
I also have mixed feelings about the way that evil and religion are discussed in the book. They're interesting topics, but maybe just not entirely my thing.
Finally, I wish the book gave us a clearer sense of what the aliens looked like, or what their motivations were. I don't always mind when books are open-ended, but I had a hard time buying that the aliens were just lil clawed gremlins that liked to torture people and freeze their remains for fun. And what was up with the old woman? Was she ever a real person, or did aliens inhabit her body for fun, and if so, how, and why? Lots of questions.
Space horror! How could it not be fun? This was a bit uneven, some of the unanswered questions frustrated me, and I didn't really buy the setting of the generational ship Argonos, but if you look past those flaws, it's a fun book in a genre that sorely needs more attention.
The middle third of this book was sublime - I felt a genuine sense of unease once the alien ship was discovered, and I loved the wrongness of it, the feeling that the characters were transgressing in spaces not meant for them.
The first third was a bit slow, but the politics & society of the Argonos were fun. Unfortunately, while I got a clear sense of the setting of the alien ship, the Argonos never managed to feel like a real place to me. I couldn't wrap my head around how large it was, or how many people lived on it, or how they managed to be on one spaceship for generations and still find hidden, undiscovered corners. The idea of the nature rooms were fun, but I didn't buy how one could hide out in a desert that's actually just one big room on a spaceship. This is maybe me just being picky, but it was something that bothered me throughout the book.
I also have mixed feelings about the way that evil and religion are discussed in the book. They're interesting topics, but maybe just not entirely my thing.
Finally, I wish the book gave us a clearer sense of what the aliens looked like, or what their motivations were. I don't always mind when books are open-ended, but I had a hard time buying that the aliens were just lil clawed gremlins that liked to torture people and freeze their remains for fun. And what was up with the old woman? Was she ever a real person, or did aliens inhabit her body for fun, and if so, how, and why? Lots of questions.