Rating: 
Summary: The 1-star reviews have more wit than this book
Review: The initial plot and hook to the book is appealing and intriguing; it seems most, even the bad reviews, agree on this.
However, this is destroyed by other flaws. First, the pacing of the book is terrible. Pages upon pages have no apparent purpose as they do not advance the plot, deepen the characters, add to the theme, or describe setting in any meaningful way. Halfway into the book, I found myself scanning sections (skipping the dialogue, more on that in a moment) and would read again where the writing became relevant again, only to be abruptly, and after a while, predictably, cut off with a cliff hanger. This is a good device, but occassionally. I see this as a fault of the editors, rather than the writer, but it remains a fault of the book.
Second, the dialogue is juvenile, one dimensional, whiny, and often pointless beyond saying, "This is a group of fun, irreverent, and witty individuals." Time after time, "[Name] says, '[inappropriate comment].' and everyone [whooped and laughed/booed and moaned/etc." I don't mind inappropriate comments, cussing, sexual humor, just be more creative, the laughs are too cheap and repetitive.
Third, the themes were heavy handed and pedantic, not well developed or subtly drawn out by believable characters, events, and situations. She has a clever turn of phrase here and there, but these seemed to be highlighted, obvious insertions of herself, MDR, into the text, where she did not belong.
Finally, and my largest complaint, a few characters approach 3 dimensionality - Emilio, perhaps; and the rest stand firmly in 2D. Sure, you need 2D characters in a story, but with the amount of ink contributed to Anne, for example, you would think she could have acheived more complexity than a bipolar who seems to relish making people feel at home and accepted by being opinionated and offensive.
Rating: 
Summary: Jesuits in Space...
Review: This is a solid first novel for Russell. Although at times the characterizations bottom out, the novel is at its best when Russell's earthlings ask the big questions in life. I'm anxious to read the sequel.
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