Michel Faber

Called to perform missionary work in a world light years away where the natives are fascinated by the concepts he introduces, man of faith Peter Leigh finds his beliefs tested when he learns of natural disasters that are tearing Earth apart. 200,000 first printing.

A Novel

The Book of Strange New Things

azliana aziz

the Oasans! I love this book for its witty dark humor and also the approach of similating various religious views in a story.

Rachel Kanyid

First off: I won this in the Goodreads First Reads giveaway. Any and all opinions are entirely honest.

Let me just say, that I barely knew what this book was about when I started reading it. I decided to jump in knowing nothing more than what the little quip on the inside of the back cover said.
I knew it was about a missionary. And that was all.

Goodness, I don't even know where to begin.

This book is about a pastor named Peter. 

He is recruited by a mega-corporation to go to a distant planet and be a missionary to a native alien population.

The book starts with him and his wife traveling, making love for what they think might be the last time, and then separating at an airport, before he is shipped out on a space-craft.

This intro is very captivating, and wonderfully begins to flesh out the characters. You start to see a little bit of who Peter and his wife Bea are. And you continually learn more and more about each of these characters throughout the book.

When Peter gets to the planet, named 'Oasis' by a human little girl, there are many things different and yet wonderful about that planet.

The air moves like water and is very humid, the water itself is green and tastes like melon(and makes your pee orange!), the rain patterns and light patterns are very different and beautiful compared to Earth, and there is only one plant that the humans know of on the entire planet. 

This plant is a small white flower, and depending on when it is harvested tastes and feels very different than at other points, and it is malleable to the point that the humans use it to replicate nearly every kind of food you can think of nearly perfectly.

There are many wondrous and new things about this planet, and Peter is in awe of it. I was in awe of it. The planet is fleshed out to the point that you can almost perfectly picture being there yourself.

The natives to the planet too, are very interesting. They are described very vividly as very small human shaped beings, that all look near identical(only able to tell them apart by the colors that they wear), with a face like no other(I won't spoil that tidbit for you!), and they speak English, due to past efforts, but have a great deal of physical trouble producing the letters 's' and 't'. 

Peter finds that these natives are very receptive to the gospel of Jesus, and in fact, are so passionate already in their faith, due to past missionaries, that they call themselves "Jesus Lover One", "Jesus Lover Two", etc, rather than their given native names after they have accepted Christ.

Peter is in awe of the fact that these peoples are so receptive and soon starts building a church, in order to allow them a better place to meet. 

He spends a fair amount of time with these peoples throughout the books, but also is able to minister to some of those at the base for the humans, and we see some of the characters there fleshed out as well, such as Grainger. 

I greatly enjoyed reading the story that culminated in this book: the struggles that Peter's wife was having as things on earth went haywire, the relationship between them changing due to distance and hardships, the relationships between Peter and the natives, as well as the human population on Oasis, Peter's beliefs and his own struggles.... 

As a Christian, I was able to see where he was coming from with his beliefs and how they naturally changed or were affirmed as if he were a living, breathing person, rather than just a book character, and it made the whole book seem more alive to me.

This book is very captivating and beautiful from start to finish, and Michel Faber made it seem as if it was something that actually happened, in his realistic character development and world building. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes sci-fi!

'I am with you always, even unto the end of the world . . .' Peter Leigh is a missionary called to go on the journey of a lifetime. Leaving behind his beloved wife, Bea, he boards a flight for a remote and unfamiliar land, a place where the locals are hungry for the teachings of the Bible - his 'book of strange new things'. It is a quest that will challenge Peter's beliefs, his understanding of the limits of the human body and, most of all, his love for Bea.The Book of Strange New Things is a wildly original tale of adventure, faith and the ties that might hold two people together when they are worlds apart. This momentous novel, Faber's first since The Crimson Petal and the White, sees him at his expectation-defying best.AS HEARD ON BBC RADIO 4

Dave Perkins

Really well written. Really interesting concept. I wish there were a few more chapters about what happened next mind.

Dana Kraft

This book was ok overall. The whole scenario is a little absurd but ok I'll buy it. Some interesting themes that are thought provoking but the story purposely includes characters who don't do anything interesting or out of the ordinary. I found it a little tedious to get through.

With the publication of The Crimson Petal and the White, Michel Faber became one of the most lauded and admired novelists at work today. This rich, brilliantly written and highly original work about the struggles, ambitions and progress of a nineteen-year-old prostitute in Victorian England was hailed as "a big, sexy, bravura novel" by The New York Times. It has sold nearly half a million copies in the U.S. alone. In 2011, it was made into an acclaimed mini-series by the BBC, starring Romola Garai, Chris O'Dowd, Shirley Henderson, Richard E. Grant and Gillian Anderson. Faber's new book, his first in thirteen years, is full of emotion and deep humanity. The Book of Strange New Things is a mind-blowing work that fearlessly tackles the search for meaning in an unfathomable universe. It concerns Peter and Beatrice, whose marriage is tested when Peter travels as a missionary, spreading the Gospel to a faraway land, and Beatrice is left to deal with troubles at home. In the most extraordinary and spellbinding ways, it deals with faith-religious faith, to be sure, but also faith in oneself, faith in salvation and faith in those we love. Riveting, mysterious and eye-opening, Faber's latest novel is sure to be one of the most read and discussed books of 2014.

The Book Of Strange New Things

Mary Rose Luksha

The concept for this book was neat and fresh - a human minister becomes the first missionary to the native population on an alien planet. His mission is funded by the mysterious USIC, who runs a base on this new planet. The title is taken from the natives' term for the Bible. Peter, the missionary, also gets glimpses of what's happening back on Earth through messages he receives from his wife, Bea. 

While the descriptions of the new planet, the natives, and the base were all intricate and well-crafted, the sci-fi plot itself was a little more fiction and a little less science. I personally wish the futuristic and sciencey plot points were a little more flushed out, however you can just tell that's not the book Faber wanted to write. 

The book is great. It's well-written, it's creative, it's engaging, but it wasn't the book I wanted to read; which is why I gave it 4 and not 5 stars.

Rebecca Owen

I feel like I may have missed something here - I resisted the hype at the end of last year to read this book, then finally sat down over the New Year, very excited about getting started. I liked it, the premise is interesting and the religious ideas occasionally thought provoking, but it was a bit of a struggle to get through. I happily kept going back to it but wasn't 'sucked in' to the world of Oasis as much as I had hoped. Maybe I expected too much.

Amanda Valentin

** spoiler alert **
           Is it sad that I was more interested in Bea's messages to Peter then Peter ministering to boring aliens...I think the book would have been more interesting if it focused more on Earth then Oasis...darn disappointed. There were some interesting parts throughout the book but it sorta dragged a lot.

Author of the bestselling The Crimson Petal and the White returns after twelve years with an all-out masterpiece about love and the search for meaning in an unfathomable universe.

Olivera Mitić

Jade Flynn

Read for my Divination O.W.L 2019 - (read a book set in the future). My second Faber and an improvement on Under the Skin. I was honestly so ready for this to be a five star read but I felt it lacked direction in some parts and it also felt monotonous, especially the letters from Bea. With that being said I sped through nearly 600 pages in a day and a half and I did appreciate the arguably ambiguous ending. Specifically respected the laments on Christianity and the impact whether it is for the better or for the worse it can have on a community. I will pick up the ever praised The Crimson and the Petal in the future.

Luca Conti

Ryan Mateyk

Katja Evertz

'I am with you always, even unto the end of the world . . .' Peter Leigh is a missionary called to go on the journey of a lifetime. Leaving behind his beloved wife, Bea, he boards a flight for a remote and unfamiliar land, a place where the locals are hungry for the teachings of the Bible - his 'book of strange new things'. It is a quest that will challenge Peter's beliefs, his understanding of the limits of the human body and, most of all, his love for Bea. The Book of Strange New Things is a wildly original tale of adventure, faith and the ties that might hold two people together when they are worlds apart. This momentous novel, Faber's first since The Crimson Petal and the White, sees him at his expectation-defying best. WINNER OF THE SALTIRE BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD SHORTLISTED FOR THE ARTHUR C. CLARKE AWARD AS HEARD ON BBC RADIO 4

The Book of Strange New Things A Novel

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