- Paperback: 448 pages
- Publisher: Orbit; paperback / softback edition (6 Nov 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1841492701
- ISBN-13: 978-1841492704
- Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 3.4 x 17.7 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 88,826 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Unto Leviathan
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Product Description
Book Description
Pulse-pounding excitement and widescreen sense of wonder combine in this brilliant
space opera.
Product Description
On a ship without a mission ... No one remembers where they came from or where they're going. For hundreds of years, the starship Argonos, home to generations of humans, has wandered throughout the galaxy, searching for other signs of life. Now, a steady, unidentified transmission lures them toward a nearby planet.
On a planet without inhabitants ... The colony has vanished. But deep within the planet's steamy jungles, the exploration team find horrible evidence of its fate: a cavernous chamber neatly filled with rows of skeletons, each one hanging on its own hook.
On a collision course with the unknown ... Once more, a signal lures the crew of the Argonos. Haunted by what they have seen, they have no choice but to follow - deep into space, where an alien mystery waits.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A wonderfully atmospheric tale of mans desperation to find life in deep space, aboard a ship containing the remnants of earths human race. Its a tale that has all the suspense of "Alien", and all the political back stabbings that most of us can relate to within our own governments. This book was origionally called "Ship Of Fools" in the US, which I think is a better title for it. If you read it, you might agree. Its one of the best sci fi books ive read, and will make a great film one day, if ever it gets made into one. Its dark, its thought provoking, but most of all, its a thoroughly good read.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The Argonos is a huge starship travelling from star system to star system. It hasn't made land in 14 years and the crew are getting restless. When they receive a signal from a planet they name Antioch, a team is sent down to investigate. This may be a chance to change the fortunes of the wandering ship. Mutiny is brewing, not just potentially from the divisions controlling the ship, but also from the service crew. On the planet they come upon a gruesome scene which leads them on to the discovery of an alien vessel - the first evidence of an alien civilisation that they have ever come across.
The background of the Argonos and the history of why they are travelling is shrouded in mystery and vagueness. Either Russo is just too lazy or disinterested in creating a setting or just doesn't have the technical background. Conveniently obscuring the deficiencies in the plot and the writing, all background into the ship's history has been lost after the Repudiation - a plague that destroyed a third of the ship and all of their logs 273 years ago. But get this - the Church has secret archives! So they investigate these to see if they can find anything useful and what do they find? Nothing. "Uh, captain, something blew-up. We don't know what caused it", is about the depth of technical information we get here. This is definitely not hard-sf.
This wouldn't matter so much if the author delivered on the potentially interesting premise of the book, working on a pure story-telling level without getting bogged down in technical details or the envisioning of imaginary worlds - but it doesn't even manage that. After a great deal of padding and false, pointless trails, Unto Leviathan descends into Alien-movie territory and finishes with an anti-climatic and open-ended finale. Very disappointing.
The background of the Argonos and the history of why they are travelling is shrouded in mystery and vagueness. Either Russo is just too lazy or disinterested in creating a setting or just doesn't have the technical background. Conveniently obscuring the deficiencies in the plot and the writing, all background into the ship's history has been lost after the Repudiation - a plague that destroyed a third of the ship and all of their logs 273 years ago. But get this - the Church has secret archives! So they investigate these to see if they can find anything useful and what do they find? Nothing. "Uh, captain, something blew-up. We don't know what caused it", is about the depth of technical information we get here. This is definitely not hard-sf.
This wouldn't matter so much if the author delivered on the potentially interesting premise of the book, working on a pure story-telling level without getting bogged down in technical details or the envisioning of imaginary worlds - but it doesn't even manage that. After a great deal of padding and false, pointless trails, Unto Leviathan descends into Alien-movie territory and finishes with an anti-climatic and open-ended finale. Very disappointing.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I tend to flit from genre to genre as my mood dictates, and when it comes to sci-fi I tend to be quite fussy about the kind of things that I will read. I have to say, that from the second I picked up this book and started reading, I had to buy it - and literally read it, forsaking sleep! And it was worthwhile feeling like cr*p the next day. I would describe this as kind of like a cross between "Sphere" and "Alien" - it might not be the cleverest ending in the world, but you are totally drawn into the lives of the characters, and the pace never drops. Do you find yourself getting bored with some books and skimming through passages? Not with this one you won't! Read and enjoy. Miss at your peril! Corny, I know but this has given me hope that there is some real fresh talent out there. We need more sci-fi like this. Totally accessible.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A book I keep coming back to
Great suspense novel, dark and involving. Another reviewer mentions similarities to Alien, and I think that's bang on in terms of the atmosphere. A great read.
Published 16 months ago by Ian Hutton
Excellent science fiction.
I can see why this book has such divided reviews - I have friends who think it's pretty bad. I think it's great.
The pacing is more Solaris than Aliens. Read more
The pacing is more Solaris than Aliens. Read more
Published on 13 July 2009 by Ben Sinclair
tense darkness.
I enjoyed this book greatly. The action is based around the Argonos a huge ship which has been traveling the stars for generations, it's original goal now buried in time. Read more
Published on 24 July 2008 by jake
Boring, boring, boring
When I saw this book had won the Philip K Dick Award I thought it would be worthy of the accolade. Wrong! Read more
Published on 4 Mar 2006 by PCM
Derivative, dull and predictable
I've read the Carlucci series by the same author which I thoroughly enjoyed, however this book was not at all entertaining. Read more
Published on 1 Feb 2006 by R. Brown
Hugely disappointing.
Extremely derivative of many staples of the gendre, uninteresting characters, cop out ending. Avoid.
Published on 3 Dec 2005 by Anton
Very good soft SF
Difficult to put down, and a bit creepy in places (I was reluctant to go down to the basement when nearing the end of the book) but not in the "Alien" league of scariness. Read more
Published on 7 Nov 2005 by Justin Murphy
Science fiction as it should be.
This is a story written in the first person and written from the perspective of Bartolomeo, a man who is a misfit amongst the inhabitants of The Argonos, a massive spaceship that... Read more
Published on 13 Sep 2005 by Ms. H. Sinton
Interesting but flawed.
There's a lot that's good about this book. It doesn't try to explain too much and just deals with the the reaction of the humans to what they find. Read more
Published on 1 Jun 2005 by Mr. S. Crook
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