This was a beautiful novel, with the tragic shadow of Shūsaku Endō's Silence and the creative brilliance of Ursula K. Le Guin. Russell writes in very well-paced prose, departing from the monologue laden style of other sci-fi writers such as Asimov or Card and instead relies upon a carefully written narrative and well developed characters. I'm still digesting the theological undercurrent of this book, in the same way that Silence still remains with me years after I've read it, and I suppose this shouldn't surprise me as both books deal with the experience of a crisis of faith when one is far away from home in the composite genre which chronicles the tragic sacrifice of a martyr.