Ship of Fools: A Novel

Overview

A ship without a mission--on a collision course with the unknown... From the "surprising, and illuminating"* winner of the Philip K. Dick Award. 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, where remnants of shocking brutality will send the ship reeling into deep space--and into a haunting alien mystery... Praise for Richard Paul Russo's "Carlucci" novels:

Editorial Reviews

After raising some tantalizing religious issues, Philip K. Dick Award-winner Russo fails to deliver a real climax and leaves the plot unresolved in this initially suspenseful but ultimately disappointing novel. Bartolomeo Aguilera, the story's narrator, gives a haunting picture of life on the Argonos, a starship that is home to generations of humans born aboard her; no one remembers the ship's originsits birthplace may have been EarthMbut it drifts year after year "almost at random through the galaxy," without apparent purpose or goal. 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. Here the book becomes largely static and uninvolving. The hoped-for resolution never occurs, the religious questions remain unexplored, while the ending proves an all-too-familiar shaggy-God story. Perhaps a sequel will supply some answers. (Jan. 9) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information. -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY.

Author Information

Bio of Richard Paul Russo

Richard Paul Russo is an American science fiction writer born in 1954. He attended the Clarion Workshop in 1983, his first story, Firebird Suite, appeared in Amazing Stories in 1981 and his first novel, Inner Eclipse, was in 1988. His second novel, Subterranean Gallery won the Philip K. Dick Memorial Award for 1989. He won that award again in 2001 for Ship of Fools. Subterranean Gallery was also a finalist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award. As of 2006 he lives in Seattle, Washington with his wife Candace, two cats and a dog.

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Additional Info

Imprint

Penguin Group E-Books

Filesize

799.72 KB

Number of Pages

384

eBook ISBN

9780786581504

Awards

• New York Times Notable Books of the Year
• Philip K. Dick Award