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This is a brilliant, lovely and disturbing book. Trigger warnings should abound, and I have particular trouble with everything to do with Emilio's mutilated hands since my own are so often close to useless, to say nothing of the scenes of violence and, yes, rape. But this is also a beautiful depiction of a few different types of found family, and also contains a brilliantly imagined pair of alien races intertwined in an equally brilliantly imagined culture. The theological elements are omniprese
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Really beautiful story about a group of Jesuit priests and a few lay people who go and explore a new planet and alien race. Sci-fi elements but really just a novel about faith.
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I really wanted to like this book. It was recommended to me by a friend who suggested it after reading a paper I wrote about A Canticle for Leibowitz. Well, this is no Canticle for Leibowitz.
The first two-thirds of the book annoyed me by coyly suggesting some of the horrors to come while spending far too much time presenting characters whom I found too glib, too clever, too self-satisfied. The author's use of adverbs in dialog tags began to distract me (always a sign that som ...more
I really wanted to like this book. It was recommended to me by a friend who suggested it after reading a paper I wrote about A Canticle for Leibowitz. Well, this is no Canticle for Leibowitz.
The first two-thirds of the book annoyed me by coyly suggesting some of the horrors to come while spending far too much time presenting characters whom I found too glib, too clever, too self-satisfied. The author's use of adverbs in dialog tags began to distract me (always a sign that som ...more
I had this book on my to-read shelf for several years and thought I might never get around to reading it because all I really knew about it was that it involves space missionaries and is super grim. Then I found it just when I needed a book at a little free library and decided I would read one page and see if it hooked me. It did, and the rest of the book kept me hooked.
Things started out good but a little slow with all the dramatic foreshadowing and introducing of the many characters up front. ...more
Things started out good but a little slow with all the dramatic foreshadowing and introducing of the many characters up front. ...more
Mar 23, 2011
Maggie M
marked it as to-read
Mar 24, 2015
Angela
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May 29, 2015
Thorn
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Oct 06, 2015
Kalyan
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Mar 30, 2016
Sapiophial
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Apr 13, 2016
Samantha
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Sep 13, 2016
Caitlin
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Dec 09, 2016
maria
marked it as to-read
Nov 25, 2023
Amanda
marked it as to-read
