The short version is this: Jesuits in Space! It goes about as well as any early missionary work.
The Sparrow tells the tale of a bunch of Jesuits who follow radio transmissions to a planet in a nearby part of the galaxy to make contact with the intelligent life transmitting radio waves. At first, they think everything is hunky dory but as often happens when dealing with completely foreign cultures, enormous misunderstandings lead to death, destruction and heart break.
Children of God is the story of the lone survivor of that first mission. Its not a happy story but it is very well told. I couldn't put it down.
For a complete change of pace, the next book I read was called Jeeves and the Wedding Bells. Its an homage to P.G. Wodehouse by Sebastian Faulks. Mr. Faulks attempts to create a madcap romp, told in the style of the inimitable Wodehouse.
Look up 'inimitable'.
Faulks strives mightily to speak in the scatterbrained style of Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster but I was a third of the way into the book when I realized nothing funny had happened yet.
I've never read Wodehouse when I wasn't laughing nearly every page.
Reading this book was like watching someone do an Eddie Murphy impression with no jokes in it: what's the point?
So I put it down.
Now I'm back into Hamilton. The Continental congress is in session.