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The Book of Strange New Things Michel Faber Books

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The Book of Strange New Things Michel Faber Books

If you are looking for a page-turning space opera, this isn't your book. What this book is really about is the struggles of a redeemed man of great faith as he evangelizes an alien race as things fall apart back home on earth. Some have criticized this book because its science and ecology of the alien planet are not terribly well developed, or particularly credible. But that's not the point. This book uses the protagonist and the alien race as a means to an end -- the end being the exploration of a person whose faith and beliefs are challenged by uncontrollable events. There is also the subtext of why anyone believes a particular faith -- in this case an alien race without any relationship of context to understand the world of Jesus. But that's just a description of most contemporary people in trying to come to terms with a religion based on a stories and worlds at least 2000 years old. Only by putting this in the context of of an alien race, while the earth descends into an apocalyptic chaos, makes these questions more stark. And, no, one doesn't have to be an evangelical Christian to enjoy this book. But one must be searching for something more than a space opera to get into the plot. It's an adult book for adults confronted by theological questions that do not have easy answers. Oh, you won't find the answers here either, but you will find the questions.


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The Book of Strange New Things Michel Faber Books Reviews

As I was reading, I felt like I was waiting for...something...epic? I wanted some resolution to the tragedies that were listed or an abstraction of the protagonist's experiences to yield some symbolic meaning. But, I don't know if I ever got the release I was hoping for. And maybe that's part of the book's message. Maybe we're all looking for something...better. Maybe there are no reasons for tragedies or answers for loss except for blind faith in something more powerful than ourselves. Maybe the only thing we can control are the proximal relationships with those around us. I guess that's what made me want to get something from the protagonist, who commits to seeing the good in others.

The protagonist is deeply connected to a woman who he claims saved him when he met her at a low point in his life. He has to leave that woman behind to take a journey. This is unfair, but from the moment she reconnected with him via email on the new planet (maybe from the moment I first met her on their ride to the airport), I couldn't help but wonder whether she had ever been as wonderful as he described her to be? It seems like he must have just overlooked her flaws because he believed she was his savior and he truly loved her. I can't help but wonder if she had ever been happy? Maybe she had been silently resenting him for years and his leaving was her opportunity to unleash her frustration. The disasters she described seemed too numerous and possibly absurd to even believe. Was she just trying to get his attention?

There were so many questions that I wanted answered. I thought the author was dropping little nuggets that would be expanded or answered later (e.g., Could a large piece of infrastructure, built to harvest water for the new colony, somehow influence the planet's weather? How would this impact the natives' way of life? Why are all of the colonists on the planet so benign? ), but I'm not sure that I ever got the answer (though I may have just missed it).

It was an interesting world and a sympathetic protagonist, though.
The start of this book is very exciting. I enjoyed seeing Peter and Bea (apparently pronounced Bee-ah not Bee) together working as a husband wife team. Bea is a compassionate, empathetic human being, a devoted wife, and a dedicated Christian. Her husband, Peter Leigh has been selected to travel to a new planet, Oasis, and act as a missionary to the locals there. Unfortunately, Bea is not allowed to go with him. The rest of the book is the story of the many ways physical distance also results in emotional distance between even the most in love couples.

My biggest complaint about this book is that the middle feels bloated with a lot of unnecessary chapters about the Oasans. I watched the videos of Michel's commentary on the book and none of them have anything to do with the Oasans. I'm really not sure why he wrote so much about them if they weren't even significant to the author. I really did not enjoy the chapters where Peter was living with them. I don't think they added nothing to the story, but I don't think they added enough to justify their length.

What I absolutely loved was the correspondence between Bea and Peter. Her letters were filled with terrifying happenings around the world, the Maldives are wiped out, a volcano erupts and turns an entire city into a mass grave, they get worse and worse as time goes on.

How does Peter respond? By telling Bea- "I can't relate to this. I don't know how to respond when you tell me these things."

...

Peter you idiot.

He tries later to retract these statements saying "Please tell me anything you want" but it's too late and the damage is done.

I think the real genius in this novel is the way Faber highlights the many differences in the way men and women communicate. I connected to and related to Bea in so many ways. I could recall so many times where my own relationships have been hung up on these exact differences and issues.

Here's a hint guys Sometimes, women just want someone to LISTEN. We don't need your commentary. We don't need you to tell us "It's going to be okay." Give us more credit. We are tougher than that. But we like to be heard. If you resort to telling us you can't relate and you don't want to hear about it--- You Have Failed.

This book is heavy on Christianity, and it's depiction and meaning applied to the universe as a whole, rather than just Earth, really raises some interesting questions. The Oasans know nothing of sheep, shepherds, etc. How do you translate a book in which so many things have no relatable counterpart? How do you decipher the metaphors to a people who speak strictly literally? Is the Bible a book that can even have any meaning beyond Earth? Their revelation on the Technique of Jesus was a fairly profound observation and I sincerely enjoyed the questions it posed. They will stick with me for a long time to come.

Ultimately, it took me a while to put all the pieces together. The middle was really slow and I did almost give up, but I'm happy I finished. I'm giving it a 3, but I can at least see why this has been called a "masterwork from a writer in full command of his many talents". I might check out other works by Faber in the future (preferably shorter ones).
If you are looking for a page-turning space opera, this isn't your book. What this book is really about is the struggles of a redeemed man of great faith as he evangelizes an alien race as things fall apart back home on earth. Some have criticized this book because its science and ecology of the alien planet are not terribly well developed, or particularly credible. But that's not the point. This book uses the protagonist and the alien race as a means to an end -- the end being the exploration of a person whose faith and beliefs are challenged by uncontrollable events. There is also the subtext of why anyone believes a particular faith -- in this case an alien race without any relationship of context to understand the world of Jesus. But that's just a description of most contemporary people in trying to come to terms with a religion based on a stories and worlds at least 2000 years old. Only by putting this in the context of of an alien race, while the earth descends into an apocalyptic chaos, makes these questions more stark. And, no, one doesn't have to be an evangelical Christian to enjoy this book. But one must be searching for something more than a space opera to get into the plot. It's an adult book for adults confronted by theological questions that do not have easy answers. Oh, you won't find the answers here either, but you will find the questions.