Reviewed by violetpeanut on
First, I enjoyed the world-building and descriptions of the settings. I felt completely immersed in the environment of Oasis, whether Peter was on the base or with the Oasians. The descriptions of the atmosphere and the rain were particularly evocative. I also loved reading about the Oasians themselves. As an alien race, there are aspects of their physiology and community that are familiar enough to make them accessible to the reader, yet different enough that they truly seem alien. It's not another "human" race on another planet, and they're not monsters.
As characters, I feel like the Oasian personalities develop for the reader just as they do for Peter. At first we don't know much about them, but eventually we can distinguish their personalities. This was well done. As for Peter, he is a deeply flawed character. Outwardly, he is a faithful missionary who wants to live by God's word. He tries his best to be an example for others and lives his life by the Bible. In reality, Peter is self-centered and is blind to his own prejudices. He shows little compassion for the hardships of others except as an excuse to spout Bible verses and platitudes. This is not a conscious thing for Peter. He genuinely feels that he is helping people but has no concept of how he comes off as condescending.
I also really liked reading about the failing relationship between Peter and his wife, Bea. It's the epitome of a long-distance relationship as she is still on Earth while he is light years away on Oasis. Along with the physical distance, there is a growing emotional distance because of Peter's inability to process events outside of his own immediate environment. I wish we would have had more about Bea's side of the story. I would really have liked more details about the crises happening on Earth and how she was handling them.
I'm only giving this three stars mainly because for long stretches of this book I was bored out of my mind. There are long passages describing the minutiae of Peter's life. More details than I needed or wanted. This book was much longer than it needed to be.
On a deeper level, this book raises a lot of questions. The end section of the book is an allegory with Peter's life as a parallel to the life of Jesus (temptation, resurrection, etc...). What is religion really? Is this how the story of Jesus came to be? What does it mean to have faith and be faithful?
I can see how readers who enjoy a philosophical read would enjoy this more than I did. I, however, read mostly for pleasure, and while I can appreciate the deeper questions, I was just too bored to rate this higher.
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 21 January, 2015: Finished reading
- 21 January, 2015: Reviewed