Ship of Fools by Richard Paul Russo

Ship of Fools (Unto Leviathan) by Richard Paul Russo
Publication date: December 31st 2001
Publisher: Orbit Books
Format: Kindle eBook
Buy it here: Amazon, The Book Depository

Goodreads Description

On a ship without a mission ... No one remembers where they came from or where they're going. For hundreds of years, the starship Argonos, home to generations of humans, has wandered throughout the galaxy, searching for other signs of life. Now, a steady, unidentified transmission lures them toward a nearby planet. On a planet without inhabitants ... The colony has vanished. But deep within the planet's steamy jungles, the exploration team find horrible evidence of its fate: a cavernous chamber neatly filled with rows of skeletons, each one hanging on its own hook.

On a collision course with the unknown ... Once more, a signal lures the crew of the Argonos. Haunted by what they have seen, they have no choice but to follow - deep into space, where an alien mystery waits.

I should start by saying that for many years I had searched fruitlessly for a true modern sci-fi horror novel that was actually set in the future, in space. With this book, I thought that I had found it. Well... I have, but not in the way I anticipated.

Ship of Fools or Unto Leviathan, (I personally prefer the latter title) is beautifully written and Russo did a fantastic job at building steady tension throughout the book. This book encompasses many themes such as religion, politics, society and progression, but none of them were ever really elaborated on which is a shame because they added some weight to the story and saved it from becoming another Alien/Event Horizon knock-off which genuinely helped flesh out a society the readers know very little about.

I had listened and reflected all this time without interrupting, and I finally questioned her - "Does God know everything that will happen?" 

Moving on to the aliens. You should know that they are very much a background piece in the civil war aboard the Argonos (the archetypal giant spaceship carrying the remnants of humanity through the void of space) and are never fully revealed to the audience (except once, very fleetingly), although the grisly fates of their victims leave little room for speculation as to their motives.

This brings me on to the main problem I had with this book: it gave me far more questions than answers. This is fine, but why go to the effort of constructing such an intricate socio-political system, lace it with reference and satire to ultimately have it amount to nothing but an echo of something that could have been a modern epic. This made it fall short.

Perhaps if the ending answered some questions, perhaps if the aliens were revealed or there was at least a satisfying conclusion to the story I would forgive it. But unfortunately the attempt to leave it open to reader interpretation fell flat for me. Why do so many authors do this? It's very lazy and makes the book feel unfinished, especially after such a masterful build up of tension and suspense.

This book tries to be character-driven and succeeds on some levels, although they never truly feel like real people. They disappointingly fall into clichés such as the over zealous bishop, the stressed ship captain struggling with the burden of responsibility, and the priest who holds unorthodox views about God. I also struggled identifying with the protagonist, whose moral and logic seem very questionable at times, and I often found myself wondering, “why the hell would you do that?”

Although the characters aren’t the best realised, their interactions are often insightful and believable. Their musings on philosophy, the universe and the very nature of God are often poignant and well thought out, which makes the gaping plot holes and damp squib ending so much more upsetting. This is an intelligent book and creates a vivid and interesting (if not a little bleak) universe, yet does not answer any of the questions the readers are screaming to be answered.

The overall pacing of the book is a riveting slow burn laden with tension ending with nothing in particular. It feels like 300 pages or so are missing, but this is still a good read and one I’d recommend to sci-fi/horror lovers. Just don’t expect the story to payoff.

Perhaps like the inhabitants of the Argonos it’s all about the journey... Or maybe, just maybe, Richard Paul Russo will bless us with a sequel!