Name: Ship of Fools
ISBN: 9780441008933

Richard Paul Russo

After centuries of wandering through the galaxy in search of other life, the crew of the starship Argonos is lured by an unidentified transmission to a nearby planet, where they come face to face with a haunting alien mystery.

Ship of Fools

Ryan LaFerney

If you know me at all, you'll know that my favorite horror film and my favorite science fiction is Alien. I found Ship of Fools to be akin to Ridley Scott's sci-fi/horror classic, although Russo's novel is more psychological horror rather than "slasher in space". Ship of Fools and Alien both have a similar tone and somewhat similar plot in that a seemingly-abandoned alien spaceship is discovered by the crew of a human-occupied ship. But this is about the extent of similarities between the two. 

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."

Kelsey Lynn

One of my all time favorite books. The other isn't afraid to have unlikable characters and hopeless situations, a perfect example of horror science fiction.