I admit that I was prepared to not like this book. It concerns a Christian pastor being sent to the first inhabitable planet found by humankind so that he can minister to the alien species already living there, but I quickly discovered that that was an extremely simplistic view of the story. What I had expected to be a boring read, or an annoying read, or perhaps a non-read if I put it down and never picked it up again, quickly turned into an I’m interested read. This is a book very much about people – their personalities, their relationships, their abilities to encompass certain amounts and types of information, and also their frailties. There were several unexpected heart-wrenching turns to the story, and while this is most definitely a science fiction novel, it’s one that deals with the ramifications of science as it relates to human (and alien) existence, and not just thrusters on full.
Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders by Samuel R. Delany
The Secret Life of Pronouns: What Our Words Say About Us by James W Pennebaker
Jan 04 2015
The Book of Strange New Things: A Novel by Michel Faber
- By Laura Eilers in Laura, Religion, Review, Science Fiction
-
January 4, 2015
Laura Eilers
Laura is Louisiana born and raised, and now lives in the Greater Washington DC Metropolitan area, where she landed after forays to Hawaii, Florida, Texas, and Colorado. She has a BA in Political Science, an MS in Project Management, and an MS in Information Systems Security, but that's only because she failed to find a program in Voracious Book Consumption.
She dreams of writing a terrible paranormal romance one day, but knows that chances are slim she'll actually get there. Meanwhile she works in Cybersecurity and enhances her crazy cat lady skillz.
She is still not a robot. But then a robot would say that, right?
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3 comments
Any comparison to A Case of Conscience by James Blish?
Author
Unfortunately, I haven’t read that book and I don’t see that it’s available in digital format yet. The paperback copy alone runs from $16 to $75, so it must be out of print. I’d be willing to give it a shot, probably, if it were more easily available. I’m actually not so good with the religion thing.
Hmm. Amazon was showing me that a Kindle version was available for under $10. Public library?
I think I read it when I still lived in BR, or possibly later in DC, but in any event going on two decades ago so my recollection is fuzzy at best.