What readers think of The Book of Strange New Things, plus links to write your own review.

This was one of the most beautiful books I have ever read, both the story and the actual book. The author took special care to draw you into a world filled with faith and love. It is one of the most original books I have ever read. Don't miss this one!!!

I have enjoyed this author in the past and I loved this books. This story is like nothing I have read before. It is an adventure story, a character study and also thought provoking philosophical book. I felt like I was on a journey with the missionary and his wife. Though separated they were each on their own journey. I know this book will resonate with other readers. I am anxious to read what others think of this book. I was disappointed to be at the end of this book. I am sure it is a book that I will revisit in the future.

What if you had the opportunity to go to another world and bring the Good News to a people very different from yourself? What if it entailed leaving your wife/partner in your ministry behind here on earth? Would you go? This is the situation Peter Leigh and his wife Bea face. Peter chooses to go and brings "The Book of Strange New Things" to the inhabitants of this alien world. The trials he faces there and the ones his wife faces here on earth and how these events change each of them is the basis of the story. Being a Christian I appreciated the way Michael Faber incorporated parts of the gospel into this well written and interesting novel, and I especially loved his paraphrasing of the 23rd Psalm. This would be an excellent choice for a book club discussion.

I never read science fiction, so I was truly surprised by how much I liked this book. It is an intriguing story of another world and how a minister from this world would find his message received by the inhabitants of this strange place. His wife is here and he is there. Can their marriage survive? Read this book; you won't be sorry.

Would you accept a new job in a place light years away from Earth? Where you had to leave all your family and friends behind? Where the "natives" understood some of your language but you understood not one word of theirs? Where your co-workers barely noticed you?

Peter, (astute readers will notice the appropriate use of this name), is accepted for a job far away from his routine, comfortable life on Earth. He arrives at his destination tired, sick, and immediately begin to feel adjustment turmoil. He begins to wonder about the purpose of the base camp on a planet so far from home, and sets out to answer some of his unspoken questions.

Readers will immediately begin to have many questions that are revealed like peeling the layers of an onion. While life on Earth begins to deteriorate to resemble Hell on Earth, Peter faces his own physical and mental challenges. Being separated from the ones he loves begins to take a heavy toll, changing him into someone he barely recognizes.

Even upon completion of the book, there are still a few unanswered questions. Perhaps it is assumed the reader will work out the answers for themselves after reading this complex, genre bending book. One thing for sure, once read, this book will not soon be forgotten.

Multi-Genre: sci-fi, with a touch of inspiration and romance

The Book of Strange New Things by Michael Faber is unlike anything I have read before. It is a wonderful story about faith, love, religion and responsibility. The main character, a pastor, struggles with these issues as they relate to his relationship with his wife, as well as to his responsibility to the world at large. The fact that he undergoes these struggles on another planet while galaxies away from his home on Earth makes it all the more poignant. The author frames these themes in a book that you will not be able to put down. Highly recommended to anyone who likes a great story that makes you think.

This did not feel like a true "sci-fi" book. It has many of the trappings of one: credible yet disorienting world-building, space colonization, scientists & engineers on an alien planet working for an over-controlling corporation, a mysterious alien race, flora & fauna, etc. - but all of that was completely secondary to what is essentially a fascinating novel about faith, love, trust, memory, and other "big" human themes. In sci-fi, those themes tend to take a back seat to the harsh alien environment, aliens that turn out to be vicious monsters, boorish characters that make tragic decisions that endanger the mission, etc. Not so in this book. I agree with other reviewers that it would make a good book club selection. I'm not sure "sci-fi" fans would like this book, but fans of literary fiction with an open mind should definitely give it a chance. The ending was abrupt and inconclusive, which left me speculating not only about what happened next, but whether a sequel might be in the works. In an afterword, the author acknowledges he used the names of Marvel Comic creators of the 60's and 70's for the book's characters - with no correlation to the characters' traits, save for legendary comics creator Jack Kirby (real name: Jakob Kurtzberg, the same as a character in the book). Not being an avid reader of comics myself, I will leave it to others to recognize any connections Faber may have made in that regard. Overall, an engaging read right up to the end.

This book, I think, is best appreciated when the reader comes to it, as I did, with no clue of what is happening. I think that the sense of disorientation that I felt for the first 300 or so pages of this book seemed to mirror the disorientation the main character experiences as he is transported to a distant planet for the purposing of ministering to the native alien population there. The company who funds the planetary exploration wants him there as a Christian missionary because the aliens, who grow and prepare all of the food for the humans, won't continue to do so unless they have a minister.
Throughout the book there is an eerie feeling of waiting for the other shoe to drop...the native population seems much too eager to embrace Christianity and, given that the usual narrative with aliens is that they are monsters, there is an expectation that there will be some price to pay for the ease of the main character's mission.
The main character has left a wife back on earth and the only way for communication to be had is through written e-mail like messages, no pictures or videos can be transmitted. As the main character is experiencing success on the alien planet his wife, Bea, who became pregnant right before he left, is experiencing a number of tragedies on an earth that is rapidly deteriorating. Although the circumstances are strange, I really enjoyed the author's examination of two people who love each other growing apart due to an inability to communicate or empathize. I think it is similar to the way in which many once loving relationships fail.
I also was really interested in the examination of Christianity offered in this book. The main character arrives on the alien planet a true believer after having been converted from his drug addicted, thieving ways by Bea. But while he is on the planet he faces many questions about the sincerity of his faith and what, exactly, should be expected in return for his faith.