Rating: 
Summary: JESUITS IN SPACE!!!
Review: This was a refreshing science fiction book. Mary Doria Russell is an good writer. I was most pleased that Russell avoids the overuse of "techno babble," so often found in science fiction works. Instead, Russel builds up characters and constructs an extraterrestrial society, from the ground up.Relying on years of experience and expertise as an anthropologist, Russell constructs a believable and exciting narrative of what a first contact situation between humans and a new race of people would and could be like. She begins with the problems of communication which any first contact situation would obviously bring, and wisely chooses linguists to be main characters in this book. Nevertheless, there are some expected miscommunications, some with disasterous results! Father Emilio Sandoz, the hot Puerto-Rican Jesuit priest (aka Father "What a Waste!")is a brilliant character -- lovable and believable. The other characters are equally good. I especially liked the idea that Russell would choose to send a team of Jesuits and other social misfits off into space. Anyone familiar with the history of New World "discoveries" would especially appreciate the sweet irony of this choice, and revel in yet another failed attempt to successfully find some lost children of God. (But, for that, see her sequel!) Russell weaves into the story line subplots of the dangers and affects of so-called first contact encounters, reminding us how simple and subtle changes introduced to any society will always affect that society's political, economic, and social matrix. I appreciate that Russell relies on her own scientific background of anthropology and human evolution to reconstruct the evolutionary trajectory on Rakhat. It makes the book more believable. It will make a great novel to use as an accompanying text in an undergraduate anthropology class! If you are into hi-tech sci-fi, this is probably not the book for you. But, if you are interested in first contact scenarios, Jesuit relations, evolutionary biology, or just a good book to kick back with, this is a fun, roller-coaster of a ride! Sipaj!
Rating:
Summary: Amazing
Review: What a truly amazing book! I think it must be close to the best book I've ever read. Although it's classed as science fiction, it's better described as a book that examines the soul of man and the nature of faith, and I've never seen it done better. There will be people who don't "get" this book and will consider her writing juvenille in places but then again there are people who consider Picasso unskilled. Buy this book and enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing
Review: What a truly amazing book! I think it must be close to the best book I've ever read. Although it's classed as science fiction, it's better described as a book that examines the soul of man and the nature of faith, and I've never seen it done better. There will be people who don't "get" this book and will consider her writing juvenille in places but then again there are people who consider Picasso unskilled. Buy this book and enjoy.
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