Richard Paul RussoAnmeldelser
Forfatter af Ship of Fools
Anmeldelser
Carlucci's Heart af Richard Paul Russo
The set-up of Ship of Fools is amazing and most of the novel is quite intriguing. We follow Bartholomeo, resident of the upper levels of the generation starship Argonos, which is where the more privileged citizens of the ship reside (government officials, ship crew, etc.), while the bottom levels are reserved for the lower classes. It's pretty much a city in space. The ship has been traveling through the galaxy for so long in search of a habitable planet that no one really knows the ship's origin. Some, like the ship's bishop, believe it has always existed. Finally the ship lands on an unknown planet. There the crew finds a Dante-esque scene in a chamber located deep within a jungle: ""There were hundreds of bones scattered about the floor, strips of decayed flesh, pools and smears of viscous fluid. Just as it was impossible to avoid brushing against the hanging skeletons, so was it impossible to avoid stepping on bone or in thick, sticky liquid as I moved through the room."" A mutiny follows. Bartolomeo is imprisoned, but when a mysterious ship, seemingly imbued with evil, shows up, he is released and named leader of an exploration team. Terror ensues. As well as philosophical and moral debates.
Ship of Fools is a fast-paced novel that deals with the tension of interpersonal and societal conflicts on a space ship whose mission seems futile and whose discovery mandates a response. It also deals with issues of faith. Its horror comes not from the unknown alien ship necessarily but from what this discovery does to the inhabitants of Argonos. The horror also comes from the existential fear of abandonment that Russo puts within the novel. Since Bartholomeo has only ever known the starship he lives on, why should he believe in a God that has seemed to abandon him and those on Argonos and allow evil to exist, even when his friend, Father Veronica is so convincing in her arguments about the existence of God?
While the end of the novel does appear to be a bit abrupt, I thought Russo gave us a hopeful conclusion to the plight of the Argonos and its inhabitants. It might not have been the payoff we were expecting but I liked it. The crux of this story is about humans trying to survive in space and find a new home for themselves amidst the realization that the problem of evil will follow us wherever we may roam. And the evil can manifest itself in various ways. With that knowledge, we have to choose life in the end. The Argonos after years of drifting in space, has found a path forward.
As Batholomeo states: "Life. That, at least, is something I believe in."
recenzie pe larg: https://bloguldesefe.ro/2021/09/12/cand-uiti-incotro-te-indreptai-in-intuneric-d...
I enjoyed the first 2/3 of the book, which seemed to be setting up interesting questions, political power dynamics, and mysterious locations. Ultimately, these feel under-explored, with the rest of the time being filled with Christian-specific bible study, and waxing religious on the virtues of prayer, faith, the concept of Evil. Perhaps you might enjoy these topics, but personally I enjoy more science in my science fiction.
The characters are interesting and easy to sympathize with. You can feel they were written with care. There are no outright evil villains, but there are clear antagonists and protagonists. There are big themes explored - stuff like community, being a part of a group, there's also a bit of religion in there, but not too much. I think it was handled in a manner that wasn't annoying.
Overall, it was a good read. I particularly liked the exploration parts. It's nice to see that character assume that certain role. I will be reading more books of this type. Next one is Blindsight by Peter Watts.
I read this as part of a November Ship Them Fools read hosted by Red Star Reviews. Horror is a new genre for me, so one set in space seemed just my sort.
This was creepy - less because of the monster (who is alluded to more than shown) but creepy because of the characters and the volatile nature of humans when we are afraid. Often, it was the characters who scared me more than the monster. The idea of being trapped on the Argonos for generations, the unknown, the inability to escape, the darkness inside the people who live there – that is the true terror to me.
Russo did an excellent job of creating a creepy, suspenseful world.
LibraryThing is telling me I’ve had this book in my library since March of 2012, so I’ve owned it for at least four and a half years now (assuming I logged it right after purchase, which I’m not certain I did back then). Damn! I’m slightly ashamed to admit that Ship of Fools is probably not alone in this category.
At any rate, I finally picked this up thanks to a readalong and I’m so glad I did! The idea of a wandering ship with a crew that has no idea of what their purpose is or when they might be able to colonize, scares the shit out of me, but in the best way. Thinking about being stuck on a ship, even one as large as the Argonos seemed, makes me feel helpless, but it’s exciting to read about because it’s not happening to me.
This is primarily a plot-driven novel, though I did like our main character and I think he showed some growth and gave enough hints about his past to keep me satisfied. Plus, the main draw for me was finding out what happened to the colony and what the hell was going on with the ship they discovered. I also enjoyed one character’s perspective on religion – I didn’t really agree with her view, however it was well spoken and gave me something to think about (which I do enjoy now and then.)
My only real complaint is that the book ended and I still had questions – I want to know all the things!
The plot just lost cohesiveness and got very trite with Blackburn following them to where they were to resurrect the Jaaprana. Some silliness with things like "Fifteen minutes later .. Preliminary analysis indicates a breathable atmosphere". Really? On an advanced starship?
Why the Jaaprana went into hibernation would have been a lot more interesting to read at the end than all the great rumbling and swirling lights that came about with their revivification.
Symbolism aside, the plot is fairly standard, padded out by a lot of political infighting amongst the crew of the Argonos, a generation ship that has been trolling space for centuries. And then the kick! I don't know whether I was half asleep, but the swift reversal in the action, told by bionic man Bartolomeo, really took me by surprise. Or perhaps I just really need to watch Alien. I didn't feel any sort of connection to the characters, though - I trusted Bartolomeo's narration, but when the climax came, couldn't muster an ounce of concern for the fate of the crew.
Ah, well. Readable, but ill-paced and hardly worth the effort of downloading in the end.
Destroying Angel
In a gritty, modern San Francisco, an ex-cop and a teenage girl separately look out for a serial killer. There is an SF element to the book, but it's largely a crime story. As SF, it does a fair job describing a depressing near future San Francisco that's separated by class and inhabited by interesting characters. Unfortunately, Russo works a little too hard on painting the picture. Pretty much every time the protagonists turn around, there's another description of a new category of characters. After a while, it's just too much - we get the picture, it's gritty. I don't need to see the details of each particular kind of grit.
Rather than just running description, I would have preferred to see more about how this stratified society actually works. For example, Russo sets up the Tenderloin as a special sector that's hard to get in and out of. But after the first time, characters seem to get in and out with no trouble at all. And with so much of the city seemingly given over to vice and violence, it's hard to see why a special district is needed.
The story itself is a fairly straightforward crime story. It's reasonably well done, but nothing special. The characters are interesting, and the book stays readable, but not hard to put down. At some points, I was reluctant to pick it back up, but that may be because I'm more interested in SF than crime.
All in all, probably worth a read if you're a crime fan who can tolerate SF. Less worthy for SF fans who can tolerate crime.
Carlucci's Edge
The problem with describing a depraved society is that the violations need to be even more depraved to be credible. I found Carlucci's Edge to be less satisfying than its prequel. The plot, for one thing, hinged on a situation that was completely unsurprising in the milieu as described. The denouement left me wanting, thinking isn't there more?, even though it had been clear for some time that there wasn't.
The characters themselves were mildly interesting, but not deeply. Russo sets up several close relationships, but they were largely described in a cursory manner, and it was difficult to feel much about them.
The first novel had the benefit of (over-)describing a new and interesting environment. This story, though more involved, is less interesting, and neither engages our interest in the environment, nor sets out a sufficiently intriguing mystery to carry itself.
If you really liked Destroying Angel, or really like crime stories, this is worth a read, but otherwise, pass.
Carlucci's Heart
I found this story to be similar to its immediate predecessor, Carlucci's Edge, though with a bit more emotion to it. Russo completes several cycles, in a sense, by finally going further into the Core, and by tying up some loose ends about New Hong Kong.
Fundamentally, however, Edge and Heart were similar - Carlucci chances on a case, encounters resistance, deals with 'slugs', and spends a lot of time in the Tenderloin. His wife and family play a slightly larger role in this book, but while they play a nominally central role, they feel much more like adjuncts than key players.
Overall, a decent police story with a mild SF edge. Russo continues to rely heavily on pass-by descriptions of strange characters than on a fully developed economy or environment, and it shows.
Trilogy as a whole
As I noted at the beginning, I'm an SF reader, not a crime reader. These books are written for the converse audience. For me, they weren't satisfying. The SF trimmings are exactly that - trimmings. While the plot does depend on them in some way, an only slightly modified plot could have taken place in 1850. Russo depends quite a lot on description of outre types and a modern-noir feel, but I never had the feeling that his San Francisco could be a real place. For one thing, despite all the dropping of familiar street names, there's never a sense of the city as a whole, and how it functions on an economic and social level. The focus is always on the bizarre Tenderloin district, but Russo undercuts himself in selling it as isolated but showing that there is virtually unlimited access to it. If it's unclear how the city operates, the same is true of the Tenderloin, and, at the opposite end, of the nation as a whole - it's not even clear what the nation is.
As crime fiction, the stories seem acceptable, though I'm not the best judge. As science fiction, they don't work well. As literature in general, they're passable. It's clear from The Rosetta Codex that Mr. Russo can write fairly well. I don't believe he's done it here.
Destroying Angel
The first book in the Carlucci trilogy doesn't really feature him as a main character. This one has retired cop Louis Tanner realising he'll have to deal with some unfinished business before he'll be at peace with himself. Set in a future San Francisco, this is very much a cyberpunk detective story. Tanner watches as two bodies chained together are pulled from the lake and realises that his past has come to pay its respects. Two years earlier Tanner was one of the cops helping to investigate the serial killer known as the Chain Killer. He'd just received a tip-off but the source, Rattan, was not a nice man and he wanted an awful lot. But as suddenly as the began, the killings stopped and other things happened in Tanner's life and he never followed up on the lead. Now, even though he's no longer a cop, he might have to and that would mean going back into them# most disreputable part of the city, the Tenderloin and perhaps even worse, into the Core.
This short novel tries to marry up the best elements of cyberpunk to a noir thriller but doesn't really succeed that well. The story is okay but nothing special and I lost count of the number of bad cups of coffee that were drunk but the atmosphere and a couple of quite likeable characters go a long way to redeeming what would otherwise be an instantly forgettable effort. Hopefully book 2 will be better. 3½★'s
Carlucci's Edge
This is the second book of the trilogy and is set three years after the events of the first (see Msg108 for that review) and not much has changed. Lt. Frank Carlucci knew he'd reached as high as he was ever going to get in the police force, he'd rubbed too many people up the wrong way to go any higher and had only made it this far because of what he knew about the Chain Killer case. His latest investigation was giving him a lot of heat from above but that's something to be expected when the Mayor's nephew ends up on the wrong end of a meat hook. Then a friend of Mixer's (someone he knew from the Chain Killer case) asks him to look into why nothing is being done about the murder of her lover, a fellow musician that would get involved in low-level dodgy dealings who expired due to the three extra holes in his head. Intrigued as to why he hadn't even been aware of the killing, Carlucci agrees to take a look only to find that the case is being officially buried and that the officers in charge of it are also being screwed because of it. As that doesn't sit too well with him, Carlucci starts an unofficial investigation all of his own and when links begin to emerge with this and the other case then things only get more complicated.
Once again we get the fusion of murder/mystery with cyberpunk only this time the two parts are melded much more cohesively. I'm sure the world building from the previous story having already set the scene allowing this one to just build upon it made a difference but there are also less generic elements to how the story unfolded. Still only a fairly short novel but there is more space for the character's to breathe and for the story to be pieced together. The mystery element isn't too hard to untangle as the hints aren't exactly subtly dropped into the reader's lap but you want to follow this to the conclusion to see if those responsible get their just desserts Still copious amounts of bad coffee getting drunk but this time around there's also some bad scotch to accompany it with. 4★'s.
Carlucci's Heart
Lt. Frank Carlucci is a rarity in a future version of San Francisco. He's an honest cop who's still trying to make a difference in a world that's increasingly less so. In this, the third of the trilogy, he's investigating the murder of Naomi Katsuda, daughter of New Hong Kong's representative on Earth, while also looking into the death of a friend of his own daughter. Both cases seem to have links to Cancer Cell, a group of medico-terrorists that offer experimental treatments to the terminally ill who agree to be used as guinea pigs in exchange. Are Cancer Cell also behind the release of a new disease that seems to be spreading outwards from the Core and is almost 100% fatal to those who've contracted it?
This is the longest of the three Carlucci stories and also the most complex. There are many threads woven throughout and we follow a few strands to get to the heart of things. Not only do we follow Carlucci himself as he struggles to make sense of what's going on but we also have his daughter Caroline as she tries to infiltrate Cancer Cell on her own. Then there is Cage, a doctor who gives most of his time to a free clinic, who is one of the first to see the seriousness of the outbreak of this new disease. Will these threads come together to form a clear picture in the end and who is the one really pulling the strings? 4★'s.
Summary
While I have been labelling these books as cyberpunk there really isn't that much in the way of technology to justify that tag. Maybe future-noir would be better as these stories are more detective novel just being set in a mid-21st century world that seems to be mostly unpleasant. The setting does draw the reader in though but what really makes these worth the read are the characters. They are all quite believable for the world which they inhabit and the motivations for their actions. You really want the bad guys to get their just desserts in the end but you're always unsure that they will and that is what ultimately kept me reading and overall enjoying these books.
This was a disappointing novel.
It’s one of those crime story where the crime and apprehension of the criminal is almost irrelevant, certainly not the thrust of story and the cyborg Destroying Angel was not very interesting. Rather characters and the creation of a gritty, grimy world is the point of this book. Russo is pretty successful in creating that ambience with descriptions of heat, humidity, sweat, greasy coffee, futuristic slums. But it’s an empty accomplishment in service of a contrived future.
One senses another (fairly subtle) attack on conservative economics in the description of future street people which are there because of free market economics. Nothing explicit -- just a feeling.
This book belongs to the cyberpunk sub-genre with a heavy emphasis on the low-life and not the hi-tech. Unfortunately, it’s incorporated the worst cyberpunk cliches with the high orbital colony of New Hong Kong as the heavenly rich paradise of wealth and regenerated limbs and the hell of the futuristic San Francisco with the Core serving as a sort of Mircea Eliadean world center for this novel (there’s even a reworked quotation from Dante’s Inferno at one entrance of the Core.).
Our hero Louis Tanner constantly ruminates about how grim and awful the world is, and the novel’s main story is him gaining hope. Yet it’s a contrived, illogical, cliched grimness. Besides the schism between rich orbiters versus poor Earthers being reminiscent of Walter Jon Williams Hardwired (and, to a lesser extent, William Gibson’s Neuromancer), the sleazy, elaborately secure, secretive Tenderloin and Core reminded me of George Alec Effinger’s Budayeen as Skoozie reminded me of similar girlish skate punk character in Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash -- though that and this novel were published virtually simultaneously. However, the Budayeen is just a bad part of town. The Tenderloin and Core is improbably out of the control of the police and improbably elaborate and secure. And why should an Earth with orbital colonies be polluted and impoverished? That assumption comes from the same mindset that doesn’t see the advantage to all of trade, and the same mindset that gives the utterly predictable, cliched Destroying Angel as a military project gone amok. The military coverup after his capture was also very predictable.
In short, this novel has only atmosphere to reccomend it, certainly not originality or thought.
I thought that the plot in "Ship of Fools" was fascinating and very interesting and the story moved along at a brisk pace with lots of twists and turns. The author's did a terrific job of creating the environment for this group of characters that are on this lonely ship and the adventure is riding on a high wave of suspense throughout the entire book. The characters are likable but flawed, and the science is better than most. Mr. Russo seems to have a deep understanding of the human spirit and clearly reflects it in the dialogues between the characters.
I would gladly recommend this book to all my friends.
I thought that the plot in "Ship of Fools" was fascinating and very interesting and the story moved along at a brisk pace with lots of twists and turns. The author's did a terrific job of creating the environment for this group of characters that are on this lonely ship and the adventure is riding on a high wave of suspense throughout the entire book. The characters are likable but flawed, and the science is better than most. Mr. Russo seems to have a deep understanding of the human spirit and clearly reflects it in the dialogues between the characters.
I would gladly recommend this book to all my friends
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mpho3 | 3 andre anmeldelser | Feb 6, 2011 |
mpho3 | 3 andre anmeldelser | Feb 6, 2011 | Serial killer on the loose. Police (Carlucci) and Tanner looking to stop him. Interesting plot developments along the way. The serial killer ends up being a mostly cyborg human who went AWOL from a secret government project is caught, then the police are forced to give him back to the government who created him.
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