First, this write-up definitely contains spoilers, and I realize the book only came out about a month ago, so, sorry if you like to find out what happens by reading the book. Better come back after you've read it...
The basic plot here is that a mysterious multinational company, USIC, hires a guy, Peter, who's currently a pastor in England, to become a missionary to aliens on a planet trillions of miles from Earth, and accessible by a very expensive quantum jump technology.
So far so good.
He goes out there, drives to meet the aliens, and surprise! They already know about the Gospel, and sing Amazing Grace to welcome him. He gets them to build a church, but they are afraid of needles, so he can't talk them into a spire. As it turns out, they don't have any capacity to heal from injuries. Which probably would make Jesus a way more compelling guy, considering the healings he does.
In the meantime, Peter's wife Beatrice (like the symbolism in the names? Eh? Eh?) manages to get pregnant as he's leaving, and basically all societal institutions back on Earth collapse in a matter of several weeks, or maybe a couple months.
So, while I can totally understand why Faber chose to focus the book on a missionary, the description of the pastor's faith life makes me pretty sure the author is not a Christian. It wasn't clear, for example, what kind of Christian Peter was. Like, if he's really a liberal, he's probably not going to make his first offer to these people he thinks have never heard of Jesus, "I've got the best news you've ever heard." That's a different tradition. Not that people can't mix and match, but, it just didn't come across as realistic to me. So that when he loses his faith, (shocking, right? Because no one doing drama about a pastor ever did that before...) it doesn't feel all that heavy because his faith was already kind of a weird shallow mishmash. Like, what denomination is this guy?!? Come on, have some fun comparing USIC to the Anglicans, for example. Or, what progressive actually bothers to memorize giant chunks of the Bible and highlight things? I don't know. Maybe if I asked, I'd find out that half my clergy friends do that. To me it seemed like throwing traits of two different Christian cultures into one person.
By comparison the sex scenes seemed much closer to the author's experience. And Faber did a good job with the experience of culture shock, too. Also good - the plot was definitely compelling - a page turner, if you will, what with everything happening so fast, and the Earth going to hell in a handbasket.
So, creative idea, entertaining, but if you want a realistic window into life as a pastor, Gilead by Marilyn Robinson is a way better book. Although - downside - there are no aliens in that one, just Iowans.
I've also been wanting to read Diary of a Country Priest, which I hear is excellent.
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