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Summary: Stupidity abounds
Review: ... I don't know. This book contained a lot of stupid rambling The plot could have been great but there were no explanations for a lot of things happening... blame it on aliens and just say since they are aliens, we are not going to understand the motives...
Rating: 
Summary: When bad things happen to good starships
Review: After tearing through this book and staying up late last night to finish it, I have to disagree strongly with the professional review here. This book was a knock out. It was very easy to imagine these events occurring in our future. The writing is definitely a fat notch above the usual sci fi fare. Good writing, a great story, depth of characterization, and a lot to ponder...a five star book, in my book. Unresolved issues? Did the professional reviewer expect an answer to why God allows pain? The theology here is not cut and dried. Great science fiction takes a fundamental question and builds an interesting story around it. And leaves the questions unanswered. I wouldn't change a thing about this story, except maybe the Bishop. He was a bit too shallow, undefined. Maybe there was a reason for that, though. Hmm. I'll have to think about it. Don't you think twice, though: buy this book!
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Summary: So many questions...
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: What An Odd Novel -- But Very Good!
Review: Russo's Carlucci novels aren't "hard sci-fi," so I wasn't sure what to expect from this, a 'deep-space saga.' What it turned out to be, primarily, is Russo working against all expectations of the genre. He breaks several defacto rules, and presents some very unusual twists. Without giving away too much of the story: * The narrator is imprisoned for 7 months, and misses everything that happens during his absence * The main love interest is left unconsummated, and ends in a death * Several major plot directions just evaporate, halfway developed (just like real life...) * The ending leaves more questions unanswered than not Russo's short stories in "Terminal Visions" were highly developed and fully consistent, which makes all the more inexplicable the errors of scale here, a sort of "Star Trek" myopia: * The Argonos has visited a number of star systems within the lifetime of the narrator, which completely ignores the distances involved * Although set is a far-distant future of interstellar travel, telephones, video screens and ship controls are present-day * The population of the ship is "several thousand" which isn't enough for a true breeding colony * The ship is listed as self-sufficient, but the infrastructure for self-sufficiency isn't evident * For a ship/colony large enough to be self-sufficient, there are only a handful of characters who figure in the plot But these concerns didn't really detract from the novel. Russo's strength, throughout all of his books, is his characterizations and "Ship of Fools" is no exception. He creates 3-dimensional people you can believe in, and runs them through a storyline that is unpredictable, generates some genuine feelings of dread and uncertainty, and does it with page-turning intensity. Despite breaking all the conventions of the genre -- or perhaps because of it -- this novel is a worthy addition to the pantheon.
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Summary: Terrifying
Review: This is one scary book. The world Russo builds is so realistic, and the aliens so mysterious, that you can't help but be drawn into the suspense, fear, and confusion the characters feel as they try to understand the strange and gruesome artifacts they discover, and as they disagree on how to interpret and react to events. Top notch fiction, but if you are prone to nightmares you'll want to read this during the daytime. Russo's Carlucci novels are also very good (though very different as well).
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Summary: Conventional title - unconventional novel
Review: Don't let the "professional" review above fool you. This book is about as good as non-hard science fiction gets. I've been following Russo since his first novel "Destroying Angel", up to the last of the Carlucci books. Each one was more riveting than the first, with a definate emerging style of his own. In this novel, his style finally comes into fruition. Details details - every death has weight and is treated as a tragedy. Every character (except for a few PIVOTAL characters...minor problem there)has depth. The main characters view point consistant. The plot always moving. I don't want to give any more of the plot away than already has been said. If you like brooding, dark, obsessive tales that make you think and give hope to us SciFi lovers, this is your book. Read it.
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Summary: Superbly crafted
Review: 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.
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Summary: Top-of-the-line generational spaceship novel.
Review: I'm always interested in sci fi novels that involve generations living and dying on a spaceship bound for who knows where. Often, however, after the author has expended a lot of energy detailing the society that has evolved onboard, he or she doesn't know where to go with the plot. "Ship of Fools" avoids this, and almost every other pitfall of the genre. Russo has thought up an interesting social structure, and has delved into its political and religious ramifications. He's come up with a crisis involving an alien civilization that is both sobering and scary. He's got a narrator who is interesting, with a real point of view. And he's managed to end his story without disppointing the reader. This book hooks you from the opening paragraph, and never lets up for a moment. It's probably the best sci fi I've read in a couple of years.
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Summary: Extremely exciting sci-fi
Review: The Argonas is a gigantic spaceship that houses thousands of people while visiting different galaxies. The residents on board have lived on the ship for generations and have lost sight of their original mission or who even built the craft. Inside the ship, is a city structure with two classes of people: the ruling oligarchy and the downsiders who provide forced manual labor. The latter have no rights or freedoms. The travelers have not touched down in a planet in twelve years, but now receive a signal from a place capable of sustaining life. The leaders decide to explore the planet. Humans once colonized Antioch, but when the visitors arrive they find the horrible site of numerous skeletons hanging from hooks in an alien-like chamber. They flee rather quickly, but soon stumble across an alien space ship as big as their own. No one seems aboard as members of the Argonas explore the vessel, unaware of that they have let loose on their own population. Space opera was never quite like this tale. Anyone who were enthralled by the aliens from the movie Alien will love Richard Paul Russo's latest masterpiece, SHIP OF FOOLS. The title is appropriate. The author creates a shocker of an ending that no one could have predicted, probably not even the author when he was drafting the novel. Even the day-to-day details of life on the spaceship seem fascinating as readers are simply hooked by a wonderful plot that would make a powerful movie. Harriet Klausner
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Summary: Excellent Science Fiction Novel
Review: The story is told through the eyes of Bartolomeo, a prickly fellow born deformed and raised by adults who he assumes knew his parents. He lives on a starship that has been wandering throughout the galaxy for centuries. All those on board had been born there. The purpose of their voyage remains elusive, and the archives that would give the passengers a sense of their past have been destroyed. It has been 14 years since the ship, called the Argonos, has visited a human habitation.
As the story begins a signal is detected from a nearby planet. Bartolomeo leads a team to explore an area of the planet that looks to have once held a human colony. Now, though, it appears deserted. In a deep cavern beneath an odd star shaped building the team discovers the remains of the colonists and are sickened by the hideous manner of their deaths. Hours later the Argonos intercepts another signal, this one coming from deep space. The source is a barren, alien spaceship at once fascinating and frightening.
I read this book about 3 years ago and the story stayed with me. I recently read it again, and the last hundred pages held me enthralled even though I knew what was going to happen. The characters and plot are very well developed. Yes, there are unresolved issues as some critics have pointed out. The aliens remain an elusive mystery, but that is part of what makes this novel ring true. Like real life some questions are never answered.
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