The Sparrow: A Novel

“The Jesuit scientists went to learn, not proselytize. They went so that they might come to know and love God’s other children. They went for the reason Jesuits have always gone to the farthest frontiers of human exploration. They went ‘ad majorem Dei gloriam,’ for the greater glory of

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God.” (Page 3)

As The Sparrow opens, in Rome in 2059, Father Emilio Sandoz is the sole survivor of a voyage into space and the reader doesn’t understand why he is so surly and reluctant to tell his story to his superior and the other Jesuit members of The Society of Jesus. His unraveling is told in flashback, morsel by morsel.

In 2019, the Jesuit order organizes a trip via asteroid to the planet Rakhat, when a gifted young astronomer hears voices coming from the far reaches of space and it is determined that there may well be life on the planet. The order does not wait for government approval, and undertook the mission “not so much secretly as privately—a fine distinction but one that the Society felt no compulsion to explain or justify when the news broke several years later.” (Page 3)

Aboard the asteroid are four Jesuit priests, the astronomer, a physician and her engineer husband and a child prostitute, now computer expert. Father Sandoz is convinced that only God’s intervention could have made this motley crew His hands in this venture into the unknown.

The group acclimates themselves to their new home fairly easily, much too easily in this reader’s opinion. There seem to be only a few subtle differences between the two species. This changes when the group leaves the rural area where they’ve become very comfortable and travel to the city. There they encounter a different species, and discover a very unsettling relationship between the two species. It’s this relationship that eventually leads to carnage of the group and the novel’s alarming conclusion.
Russell poses a number of philosophic questions through the story’s narrative and, in the end, the book can be considered a novel about the nature of good and evil with a twist. Sandoz is just a man trying to do good and ends up doing immeasurable harm. The age old question pops up: how could a loving God allow such horrendous events to occur? Sandoz’s faith is shaken and we commiserate with him as he questions all he has ever believed in.

I am not a science fiction fan, but this book isn’t really science fiction; rather a moral dilemma and its exploration. Interesting questions here but, for this reader, something was missing. And the last fifty pages were horrendous. After reading Russell’s A Thread of Grace, I was anxious to read this book but it did not live up to those lofty standards. Still, a few days after reading it, it’s still in my mind so it’s made an impact.

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I liked this book a lot. It’s the story of a mission to meet the first alien civilisation whose signals have been received on Earth – a classic “first contact” story, set in the slightly dystopian but not entirely unfamiliar near future. Like all good first contact stories, it not only

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tells us about the alien civilisation, but a lot about ourselves too, and what it means to be human. It’s also the story of a Jesuit priest’s mission to understand and try to fulfil his God’s purpose for him, and how he copes when he believes himself to have been abandoned by that God. We know from the start that something has gone terribly wrong, with the Jesuit, Emilio Sandoz, the only survivor, returning in a wrecked state, physically and mentally. Thereafter, the story is told in two parallel strands – the “present”, when Sandoz is being cared for and encouraged to explain what happened, and the story of the mission itself, how it came about, who went and why, what happened, and eventually, what went wrong. The dénouement, of both stories, comes only at the very end, which keeps it exciting.

Some people may choose to see this as a very religious or spiritual book, asking themselves the same questions Sandoz does – Is everything that happens ordained by God? How can we know God’s purpose for us? What sacrifices does God demand of us, and are they ultimately worth it? What would God want us to do if we received communication from another world? How can we continue to love God when he allows such truly awful things to happen to us and to those we love? How can we live if we believe ourselves abandoned by God, or even come to believe there is no God at all? BUT – non, or even anti, religious readers can get just as much pleasure and fulfilment by merely observing Sandoz’ journey through these questions. He is such an interesting and complex character, as are his companions, that their various reflections and conversations on these topics are never boring or preachy, and gave me real insight into how some people think. The relationships between the characters also make good reading as they become closer during the mission.

This side to the book also doesn’t get in the way of a really cracking story of first contact, travel to another world, encounter with other beings, civilisations and structures, what that teaches us about ourselves, and the inevitable misunderstandings that can lead to disaster and tragedy despite our best intentions. The characters are well rounded, the writing is good – it’s simply a good read, with another dimension added in by the religious element.

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If you had a chance to travel to another planet, to visit a distant civilization, with very little chance of returning, would you do it? In the year 2019, a small group of people are given just this opportunity. Led and financed by the Jesuits, this party boards an asteroid and propels into space.

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Russell is a very smart writer and she handles the science and inter-planetary travel with sharp precision, but it is with her characters, that she really blossoms. Anne Edwards is a physician and the “mother” of the group and I fell hard for this incredible woman. Father Emilio Sandoz, a dark, troubled priest, is equally fascinating. He is also the “conscience”. The story is divided into two narratives, one following the mission and another tracking the events forty years later. It’s a device that works very effectively, with the latter adding a mounting sense of foreboding, that caused this reader to tremble at certain points. This is a stunning debut, containing wonder and beauty, but also a cruel darkness. I look forward to exploring her other work.
My answer to the question posed at the top: No thank you! I prefer reading about it!

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OK... call me strange/weird/whacked/all of the above! I did not think this book was "creepy". It was beautiful, sad, tragic and tender. This is not just about the mere discovery of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. It turns out to be a mirror held up to our own human race struggling with

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power, love, heartbreak, and faith in God.

Russell takes a deep plunge into an unknowable God and creation. Written with sensitivity, pathos and hope, she takes this opportunity to contemplate first encounters with unknown cultures and the unintended impact on a "new world". It was a feast for thought.

You could not use the 50 page rule on this one. The last 100 pages hold the intense substance of the story... but you need the first 300 to get there. Easy to read - excruciating to ponder.

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I thought this was good science fiction, not landing among the pantheon of the Greats, but worth reading.

The entire story centers around a Jesuit mission to be the first to contact the inhabitants of a planet in the Alpha Centauri system. The author deliberately draws upon the parallels with the

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Jesuit missions to the New World three centuries ago. It is "soft" science fiction—less concerned with spaceships than with psychological issues—and I think it's entirely possible that the only reason it was science fiction at all was because there are no real "first contact" possibilities in the modern world and historical novels are too constrained by, well, the actual events of history. In fact, there's very little science in the story and the only effort you'll have to make is to move the dates of the story by a half-century or more in your mind (your call on the rate of technology progress). If you don't, you'll be wondering why you aren't reading about a few technological advances in today's newspapers...mining the asteroids, for example. For the rest, the author just sort of waves her hands at the mass driver for the spaceship and the hyper-efficient solar panels.

Ms. Russell has succeeded at a type of plot structure that I think many authors fail at: the book starts with the present and then, in a series of flashbacks, tells you why the present looks the way it does. I usually find these somewhat boring; the author often fails to make the past anything but completely evident in the present and, so, why bother reading further? However, this book has done a good job of keeping up the suspense. The story opens with Emilio Sandoz, a Jesuit priest who is crippled and mentally unstable, being brought before the head of his order to explain what happened.

Why is everyone else on the expedition dead? Why did the second expedition, who rescued him, accuse him of murdering a child in front of their eyes? Why have all the muscles on his hands been surgically removed? The mysteries go on and on and, by-and-large, are well answered. I say by-and-large because a few of the minor questions have unsatisfying answers, particularly those dealing with the harm inflicted directly on him, but I don't think these ruined the story.

What did I like most about this? The aliens, for one. You get a sense of the fact that Ms. Russell is an anthropologist by trade. I didn't find them to be "humans in funny suits" or cardboard. I thought the action portions of the story also worked well in a John Carter of Mars sort of way. Perhaps it was the lack of science in the story, but there was a real feel of the Golden Age pulps to this. I particularly enjoyed the discussions about celibacy and sacrifice.

What disappointed me? Mainly the spiritual side-story. What was intended to be the major theme here was Sandoz' search for faith and God. However, we never really experience it; we just hear characters talking about it. This was a classic case where you want to say, "don't tell me, show me." The result was that, while I liked him a lot as an individual, I wasn't invested in his spiritual struggle. I didn't get any sense of identification with him and his spiritual triumphs and failures didn't move me or even resonate that much. I felt Ms. Russell simply rushed through this aspect of the book, particularly in the final events on the alien world.

In the end, it was a good science fiction story. It is extremely readable; you end up liking the characters...even the slightly corny ones...and caring what happens to them. It could have been a great one, but it failed to capitalize on its real strength: the spiritual journey of Father Sandoz.

I think this one's got enough mass appeal that you might want to try it even if you aren't a real science fiction aficionado.

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I loved so many things about this novel. Russell writes with an easy authority which pulled me along throughout. The characters are well-drawn and likable and their interactions with one another ring true. The logistics of organizing and executing an expedition to a planet in another solar system

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are rendered believably, with appropriate attentions to the details that are interesting and appropriate glossings over of the details that would grow wearisome. Perhaps most importantly, issues of faith are handled with care and grace.

I so loved all of these aspects of the novel, and I so enjoyed reading the book, that my fairly profound disappointment with the ending only dims my assessment of the book by the light of a half star.

Russell comes at her story from two directions: we begin with Father Emilio Sandoz, a Jesuit priest, who has been brought back to Earth physically and emotionally broken, the only surviving member of the Jesuit-led expedition to the planet Rakhat, which SETI activities had identified as a planet with sentient life. Over a number of months, members of the Jesuit order nurse Sandoz back to health and attempt to discover exactly what happened on Rakhat. This narrative (I'll call it the Jesuit Narrative) intertwines with the story (call it the Expedition Narrative) of the earlier events leading to Emilio's current condition: the discovery of radio waves from Rakhat, the plans for the expedition, and the expedition itself.

The Sparrow contains many themes, but one of the most prevalent is that of the nature of God and faith in the face of an unknowable God. This theme plays out primarily in the character of Emilio, who believes from early on that the mission to Rakhat is the will of God and that he and his companions have been specifically chosen by God to man the expedition. It is clear from the beginning of the book that Emilio has lost his faith in God and that this loss is a direct result of something awful that happened to him on Rakhat. While The Sparrow is at least as much an exploration of first contact with alien species as it is anything else, much of the forward thrust of the book stems from the question "What awful, apparently unspeakable, thing happened to Emilio?"

We are told early on, through the Jesuit Narrative, that Emilio was found, by members of a second expedition to Rakhat, living a debased life as a prostitute on Rakhat and that he killed a child without provocation in the sight of human witnesses. We also know right from the start that Emilio is the only member of the original eight-member expedition to survive. So the questions "How do the others die?" and "How does Emilio end up a prostitute?" cannot help but inform one's reading of the entire novel. The simple answer to both of these questions is "Through not understanding, despite their best efforts, the cultures of the people of Rakhat." Obviously, one can say much more about the events than that, and The Sparrow does, and does so well. As an illustration of how first contact can go wrong, of how genuinely good intentions do not always yield good outcomes, of how observers necessarily alter the observed, this novel soars.

Where it falls is in the resolution of the theme surrounding faith--and it is this theme in which I think the book is most invested. (From here on, I am decidedly spoilery.) The novel convinces me completely that Emilio is a man of devout faith. I believe in his belief, and I believe in the other characters' belief that Emilio has been touched by God throughout the mission, that he is becoming saintly. But the awful, unspeakable thing that happens to Emilio fails to convince me that it would destroy this man's faith.

As the novel comes to a close, things start to fall apart for the Jesuit Expedition. One of the party died months earlier from causes unknown. Just as all seems to be going quite well, two members of the party are killed and eaten by VaHaptaa, lawless raiders of the Jana'ata, the ruling species on Rakhat. Emilio is the one who finds his friends' remains and buries them. Then the expedition learns that the Runa, the gentle, somewhat simple but sentient species with which they have been living, are bred by the Jana'ata, not just as servants, but as a meat source. Three more members of the expedition are killed when they try to incite the Runa to an uprising against Jana'ata military members who have come to cull the herd. Emilio and fellow priest Marc Robichaux, the only members of the expedition left, are taken captive and forced to march with the ranks. The only food they are offered is Runa meat. Marc refuses to eat and eventually dies of starvation. Emilio, numbed by all of the awful things that have happened to him, does eat, and survives. Eventually he is sold to a Jana'ata prince as an exotic sexual partner.

It is the moment that Emilio is first raped by the prince that he focuses on as the moment, the moment when he lost his faith. This is the thing of which he cannot speak, the thing about which he has nightmares, the thing which must be almost cruelly battered from him by the other priests in order to allow room for any possibility of catharsis and healing. Emilio says of this moment: "I was scared but I didn't understand what was going on. I never imagined--who could have imagined such a thing? I am in God's hands, I thought. I loved God and I trusted in his love . . . I had nothing between me and what happened but the love of God. I was naked before God and I was raped" (394). And this is the moment where the novel just doesn't work for me.

Emilio asked "who could have imagined such a thing?" And I think, automatically, without trying to be glib or sarcastic or what-have-you, "Anyone reading the book?" I certainly imagined it long, long before it is revealed that this is what happened to him. Surely no one who has been paying attention thinks Father Emilio Sandoz entered into prostitution consensually? I had assumed from the first we learned of his prostitution that there was rape involved. And I don't buy that Emilio can't imagine it either. Much is made of how difficult and dangerous Emilio's early life was, and of how much time he spent as a priest in dangerous neighborhoods ministering to the poor. This is a street-wise priest, a priest who was himself rescued from a life of crime and drugs and the underworld. And he can't imagine rape? Really?

None of the awful things that have happened to Emilio has happened to me, so I can't say with any surety how awful they are in relation to one another. But I also balked at the idea that Emilio could maintain his faith through learning that he is, in all likelihood, stranded on an alien planet, through coming across two loved-ones brutally murdered and partially eaten, through learning that a species he'd come to love was being bred for food by another species he'd come to respect, through losing three more loved-ones bloodily, through a forced march, and through surviving only by eating the flesh of friends while watching another loved-one die of starvation, and then lose his faith because he was raped. Not because the rape was a "last-straw" in a long-line of potentially faith-shattering events--the novel does not suggest this. But because of the rape. Full stop.

I don't get it. And because the novel is so good, I want to get it, and my first inclination is to believe that my not getting it is my fault, not the writer's. Are we meant to understand that Emilio has too much faith in that moment? Is his faith blinding him to what's happening around him? Has he allowed himself to be submissive because of his faith in God when he ought to have exercised his free will and fought? Is the rape meant to act not only as an event but as a metaphor? Does Emilio believe that God has used him, without his permission and to ends with which he does not agree?

I don't mind a book that leaves me with questions. But these questions feel confusing rather than satisfying. I know an intentionally and usefully ambiguous moment when I see it, and I don't see that in Emilio's rape scene. I see potential, maybe, for some further exploration of the nature of God. One of the priests says of Emilio, after Emilio's painful confession of the rape and his loss of faith, that "he's closer to God right now than I have ever been in my life. And I don't even have the courage to envy him" (400). Knowing this God will not, I think, be a walk in the garden (remember the Old Testament). But I wanted that potential explored here, in this book. There's a sequel to The Sparrow, but while I think the novel could support a sequel, it doesn't feel like it needs one. What it needed, what would have made this absolute five-star, best-read-of-the-year material, is a longer resolution where the purpose of the end's ambiguities, if not the ambiguities themselves, became clear.

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Couldn't really make up her mind whether this was science fiction or some revivalist religious tract. The religious theme was flawed, invasive and ruinous to the book. Most characters were not appealing and I really didn't care if they lived, died or achieve their goals. Mawkish and over-wrought in

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many places. Not worth reading when there are so many good books out there. Although there are sequels, I can't imagine torturing myself by reading them. I couldn't get rid of this book quickly enough.

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I hated this book when I read it, and evidently still feel passionate enough 13 years later to tell you why, even though clearly I am in the minority.

Near-future science fiction stands or falls on the believability of its extrapolation. Here the technology that the Jesuits can command (in secret!)

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is completely out of the realm of possibility for the time period and was in 1997.

In addition, I found the Jesuits completely unbelievable. I've met a number of people who like this book who went to Jesuit schools in the 1960s and 70s. So, I suspect that it is a fairly accurate portrait of Jesuits at that time period. However, the Jesuits in this book would have been in seminary in the 1990s, not the 1960s. They would have been influenced (either positively or negatively) by the Berrigans, Liberation theology, Archbishop Romero and contemporary ideas about missions. Instead they are re-enacting the worst mistakes for the Jesuits in North America in the 1600s (chronicled in the Jesuit Relations for anyone who wants to investigate some of Russell's sources), completely unaffected by anything that happened in the church post-Vatican II, It's ludicrous.

Then there are the heaps and heaps of slashy hurt-comfort doled out to Emilio. I know fan fiction writers who would blush to have written something like this.

Obviously a lot of people like the book for whatever reasons. So I can't say don't read it. However, if you are a connoisseur of near-future sf and know anything about the Catholic Church from 1970 to the election of Pope Benedict, I think you will be extremely disappointed.

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If it were not for Mary Doria Russell's writing, I most likely would not have finished this book. A provocative premise, but highly unlikely, thus it becomes fantasy/science fiction.

While one of the Jesuits' most notable missions is the evangelization of those who have not yet heard the Gospel,

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the journey to the so-called planet of "Rakhat" hardly qualifies since the Jesuits, as a mendicant order basically rely on donations and alms for financial support. The contemplative mystical element present within the Order might support such a fantastical mission, but the realistic boundaries defy such pursuit.

Some might argue that I am missing the point: this is fantasy/science fiction. Unfortunately, my highly memorable knowledge of the Jesuits prevents me from accepting the egregious fallacy of "The Sparrow."

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Writing in alternating time lines, the author weaves a compelling story of a group of friends, some of whom are scientists, and a Jesuit priest who travel to a distant planet of Rakhat located far, far away in Alpha Senturi.

Inspired to write this science fiction novel after the 500th year history

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of Christopher Columbus' mission to the new world, Russell wanted to give perspective of how difficult it is to inhabit a foreign land and try to make logic of a vastly different culture.

Drawn to Rakhat by the sound of haunting, beautiful music, Father Sandoz believed that it is a sign from God as one by one miraculous things fell into place in order for the trip to occur. Therefore, of course, the mission is deemed one of God's calling. And, when the mission disastrously fails, it can therefore be deemed as a punishment of God.

Lack of fuel strands the crew members on Rakhat with no or little hope of ever returning to earth. The members make the best of the situation and grow to like the Runi people who inhabit the space they share. All seems heavenly until members begin to die, some of them in very bloody, barbaric ways.

In the third year, another culture, more dominant and of a higher intelligence, punishes the Runi, and the earthly team, for lack of strict adherence to the rules.

Excellently written, this is a re-read for me. I obtained an advance readers copy years ago before the book was published. The violence and manner in which the people were punished, left a negative impact . I have a different reaction now.

While still reacting to the violence, I am able to discern that this is a book of faith. When Father Sandoz is rescued and returned to earth, he is the only remaining team member. Beaten down physically and emotionally, he is soulless and angry.

While severely judged by the Jesuits, soon he is made to tell his story. The graphic horror of what happened to his body and soul leaves those in judgement eventually understanding the implications of their mission.

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When I sat down to write this review I considered that perhaps with so many reviews already written I wouldn't really have anything new to bring to the party so to speak, but after a day of reflection I decided that any book that encourages this much thought and consideration afterwards can never

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be wholly encompassed in one review or even a thousand. And it's been years since I gave this much consideration to a book after reading it.

Let me begin by expressing how utterly shallow I find China Mieville's declaration that this book is entirely about a fear of anal sex as another reviewer quoted. Neither do I see it as homophobic in any way. Rather, I would argue that Mieville and others have confused sex with rape. Rape on a physical, mental and spiritual level. The reference to D.W.'s homosexuality is incidental, like Anne's attraction to Emilio or Sophia's jewishness... peripheral facts that help to develop the character but that in and of themselves do not define the plot. One could say that this is a story of misunderstandings, the church's misunderstanding of what happened to Emilio Sandoz, the landing party's misunderstanding of species interactions on Rakhat, misunderstandings of language, culture, gender, ecology and identity on every level. But again I see this as incidental, necessary for the plot line but not the main thread. There is a correlation between the experience of Father Emilio Sandoz and his God and that of the two sentient species on Rakhat, the Jana'ata and the Runa. The Jana'ata are the stewards of the Runa, providing them with care, food, employment and purpose. But it is the care of a predator for prey. It is not true compassion but rather husbandry. Father Emilio and the rest of his companions realize this too late to save themselves, but they do realize it eventually. And they are appalled. The church is appalled. Those from earth are horrified by the existence of sentient predators, and by the species that would willing go it's own destruction like a lamb to slaughter. And they fail to see the lambs in their own midst. Father Emilio devotes himself to his God, believing that everything he receives is a gift from that God. His love of God is based on his belief that God has led him to this place; that God has provided him with all he needs to arrive at this place where he belongs. At various times in the story prior to his fall, Father Emilio is referred to as a saint, saints being sinless, innocent, spotless, uncorrupted, and pure. He gives himself completely to his God. This is the deeper meaning, not homosexual sex but rather that Emilio is to God what the Runa are to the Jana'ata. He depends on God for all that he is and all that he has. He believes in God's love for him so completely that he walks willingly to his own physical destruction. It is that betrayal that destroys him; the rape, the defilement, the violation of his life and the place he believes God holds in it that is what he ultimately cannot bear. He must follow one of two paths of belief. 1. That he is a fool, responsible for all that happened, attributing holiness to chance and choice or 2. His God is the predator and he is the prey, nothing more than well-tended meat, carefully cultivated for what it can provide.

I won't say this is a feel good book. It is not. The themes are dark and haunting and the outcome tragic. But this book will make you think. Whether you agree with me or come to your own completely different conclusions doesn't matter, the point is that you WILL. I dare you to read this book and not consider it in a greater light.

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I had very high hopes for this book because so many people seem to love it. Unfortunately, it didn't do much for me.

I'm just starting to get into science fiction and was disappointed in this aspect of the book. It really could have been written in any time period--the fact that it took place

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between 2019 and 2060 didn't seem crucial to the main point of the story, i.e. that bad things happen to good people, and there wasn't anything that different to me about the future portrayed by the author.

The religious struggles of the main character were somewhat more interesting but I thought they were a bit heavy-handed. In an interview at the end of my paperback copy of the book, the author says the moral of the story is that "even if you do the best you can, you still get screwed." I think I would have preferred a less literal approach in getting this point across. For example, in one of the discussions the Jesuits have about what went on on the planet, Rakhat, they cite Mathew ten, verse twenty-nine, "Not one sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it." But, as one of the priests notes, "the sparrow still falls." (p. 401)

I almost think the author was trying to do too much with a first novel--too many characters, too many planets, too many time switches. It just never worked for me and I'm giving it 2 stars.

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One of the worst books I have ever read. Couldn't finish it. I gave up the will to live on page 168 when they found Emilio SPOILER AHEAD working a s a prostitute in an alien brothel!!!!!!! What was she thinking!!!!!!! Diabolically bad. Don't even get me started on the furnished asteroid they flew

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there in populated by aging Jesuits and other assorted misfits.

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The Sparrow is Mary Doria Russell's first novel, a story that almost defies categorization. It is, of course, science fiction, because it deals with space travel and first contact with sentient beings on another planet. It's also anthropology, because it approaches that topic -- first contact --

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with deep understanding of the complexities in such situations. But mostly this is the story of a man's life, and it's compelling and satisfying on that basis alone. The rest of it is all frosting on a very good, very rich cake.

The main character here is Emilio Sandoz, a native of Puerto Rico, and a Jesuit priest. So here I have to tip my hat to Russell. She pulled off something I thought impossible in my case, because a childhood of Catholic education vaccinated me against this particular illness: she made me fall in love with a priest. This is such an interesting, complex character, and you go through so much with him -- that's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it.

There are a half dozen other characters I also fell in love with. The kind of characters you want to be real so you could live across the street from them and go over to borrow sugar and shoot the breeze. This group of characters heads off on a mission organized, secretly, by the Jesuits. It's the year 2019 and they are going to the planet that will eventually be known as Rakhat.

You may remember that in various places I've discussed the difference between story and plot. Story is what happened in chronological order; plot is the artful rearrangement of that order to create suspense and interest. Russell chose to start telling this story at the end: in the year 2059, when Emilio returns from Rakhat. Because of the nature of space travel and time and relativity and all those things I don't pretend to understand, he is only a few years older but everyone else is significantly aged. More important: Emilio is the sole survivor, barely clinging to his sanity and his life, and reluctant to tell the story to his superiors in the Society of Jesus. The novel moves back and forth in time, between the near-broken and maimed Emilio, the years before the mission, and the four years of the mission on Rakhat.

If there is any problem with The Sparrow at all, it's a mechanical one: Russell pulls off the high wire act of moving back and forth in time while juggling several dozen characters, and she does so gracefully. And still there are a very few points where she wobbles, ever so slightly. Some of the four years on Rakhat feel a little rushed. We've come a long way with the characters and I was disappointed to have some storylines resolved out of scene. Some -- but not all of that -- is addressed in the sequel, Children of God.

This is not an easy novel. It's demanding in a variety of ways. It will make you laugh out loud and it will break your heart, and most of all, it will make you think.

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This is a character-driven speculative novel that explores themes of faith, grief, and contact between cultures. Mary Doria Russell, in an interview at the end of my library edition, talks about the "beauties and risks" of faith: the terrible tension between atheism, which allows for profound

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aloneness but also for acceptance of what comes; and faith, which allows for meaning and a sense of belonging, but also for the experience of gut-wrenching betrayal by one's God. The story moves between the events and experiences of a small group of Jesuits (and their scientifically- and medically-trained companions) who travel to another planet around 2020, and the retelling of these events and experiences by the sole survivor of the expedition, Father Emilio Sandoz, in 2060. Sandoz is a complex and chaotic character, believable and sympathetic as one learns his life story.

The events on the planet, with the two species (Runa and Jana'ata) and their complicated relationship with one another, are at times arbitrary and the characters from those species never really develop very fully. Perhaps this is intentional. MDR beautifully developed her human characters during two different generations on Earth. This is probably enough. My only other quibble is that the theme of grief doesn't quite unfold in an emotional way for me. My experience in this novel was intellectually satisfying, but it fell short emotionally.

Still, I wanted to know what happened and I believe the characters will stay with me. MDR said that a challenge for her in writing a sequel, Children of God, was that she knew readers would miss the characters from this first novel. I will particularly miss Anne. The other characters unfolded less fully for me. But Anne. I wanted to have dinner with her.

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It took me about six months to read this book, which is ridiculous, but let me explain. From the beginning, you know that this Jesuit space mission has only one survivor, and Father Sandoz has returned to Earth a broken broken man. As the book goes back to the establishment of the team, as they get

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to know each other, you get to know and love them and to know that they are all going to die - it's a little intense. But this book is amazing. There are surprising and heartwarming and heartbreaking twists throughout the whole book, but the last fifty minutes really pack a punch. I read it sitting in the middle seat on an airplane and I was trying to pretend that I wasn't crying. But I totally was.

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Russell says in an interview at the back that the "central theme is an exploration of the risks and beauties of religious faith." The author is a Jewish convert (though raised as a Catholic) and the spiritual crises of a Jesuit missionary is at the core of the book. I'm not really drawn to that

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theme, but because this was recommended on The Ultimate Reading List, I gave it a try, but within a hundred pages I considered abandoning the read.

Lots of things about the initial setup struck me as ludicrous. First, its vision of the near future isn't credible. Science fiction often doesn't age well, but she really should have left herself more leeway. This was published in 1996 and has two narrative strands. We learn from the start there has been a mission to Alpha Centauri that involved first contact with aliens--and that the mission failed scandalously leaving only one survivor--Jesuit Father Emilio Sandoz--returned to Earth in 2059. The other narrative line deals with the mission from its origins, and that thread begins in 2014. That's 18 years away from the time of publication and only two years away from the time I read this, and Russell posits some pretty major developments. On this Earth, the United States is no longer a superpower--the world is dominated by Japan. There is advanced, developed interplanetary travel and colonies on the Moon and Mars and mining of asteroids. Artificial intelligence is eliminating human jobs and there's a market in gifted children who, in return for an education, become indentured servants. And on the 2060 end, we're supposed to believe that using wood for construction, furnishings, or a wood fire is a thing of the past. But of all the things I found hardest to swallow was that a group of five friends, a married couple consisting of a physician and engineer, a Jesuit linguist, a computer specialist and an astronomer could between them cook up a mission that would involve first contact of an alien species and the first interstellar voyage--and bring it off under Jesuit sponsorship.

Still, Russell is a decent writer, and the weaving together of the two threads left me wanting to find out just what had gone wrong. I'm sorry I continued. Oh, so, very, very sorry. The aliens themselves start out as well done. Russell has a background in anthropology and you can see it in the way she showed how cultural assumptions could lead to tragedy. But...and there's just no way to explain why without spoilers--but gad, the climax left me wanting to scrub my brain with bleach. There are several brilliant science fiction authors that deal with spiritual themes: James Blish, Octavia Butler, Orson Scott Card, Arthur C. Clarke, C.S. Lewis, Walter M. Miller Jr. among others. I'd recommend their works over The Sparrow if you want to explore such themes. (You might especially want to look up James Blish's A Case of Conscience--a book very similar in plot and theme written decades before involving a Jesuit and his encounter with an alien culture--and so much better.)

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I expected to like this book. I wanted to like this book. I tried to like this book. But frankly I was a bit disappointed. As an exercise in characterization, it's pretty darn impressive. As a science fiction novel of discovery and first contact it’s only so-so.

The characters are beautifully

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drawn, each with a distinct and organic personality. But I never really built much empathy for any of them. And their theological considerations didn’t particularly resonate with me. I didn’t particularly like the author’s twin storylines plotting, partly because it felt disjointed and partly because it revealed key elements of how the book was going to end from the very beginning. The alien planet, flora and fauna, and society served to support the plot, but were less compelling than those offered in my favorite books of this ilk. I also found some of the key plot developments unbelievable. And the final unraveling of the reasonably blissful situation in Kashan felt rushed.

All in all, a promising first novel, but not really up to my perhaps unrealistic expectations going in.

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When a friend of mine told me I had to read this book, she prefaced it with "I know you don't like religion, but you do like SciFi and it's really, really good." So, I went ahead and read it and, yeah, I still don't like religion. The Jesuits have a history of contaminating cultures with their

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Christian and Euro-Western beliefs, so of course they'd go behind everyone's backs and do the same with the first species of aliens ever discovered.
The book tells of Emilio's journey with his team to encounter the aliens, and also what happens when he's the only member of the team to return alive, if not undamaged. Emilio is actually very, very damaged and that has made him question his Faith. Which, good, because that's what a lot of people who have had similar horrific experiences have been forced to do. I'm not going to go much more into that because it falls very near to spoiler territory, but I do have to say that if Emilio wasn't a religious male person, he might have well expected something like what happened to him and taken some better precautions.
Anyway, I do have to say that I flew through the pages on this one, and it did keep my interest throughout, although that had more to do with how fascinating I found the alien culture and team's discoveries of it. It's almost a shame that once the horror begins, we don't get to know any more about that part of the alien society.

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I was totally blown away by this book. It amazes me that a single human being can come up with something with so many layers, so much depth, so much food for thought.

This is one of those books that you either want to read all in one sitting to find out what happens, or over a period of many months

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because you know the ending is going to be painful and you want to savor the happy moments. The human characters are lovable and incredibly vivid. The alien world is startlingly original and believable.

In addition to exploring the unpredictable results of humans' first contact with aliens, the book also tackles major issues of faith. Does God exist? Does he work in our lives? Russell does an amazing job of exploring all sides of theology - exposing the hypocrisy of the Catholic hierarchy without condemning them, presenting both sides of arguments for and against belief, showing both the joys and sorrows of both belief and unbelief.

Every chapter of the book is worthy of contemplation and discussion, and Russell leaves the interpretation open - I was afraid that at the end the book was going to turn out to be either very pro- or very anti-religion, but it sits very neatly in the middle, showing the beautiful and ugly aspects of both worldviews.

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The year is 2019 when a listening telescope picks up an alien radio transmission of astonishingly beautiful singing. While the UN debates, things fall into place quickly for a Jesuit expedition of linguists and scholars anxious to meet God's other children.

The timeline bounces back and forth

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between the time the singing is first heard and an expedition launched and a timeline starting in 2060 when the single surviving priest returns, physically and emotionally crippled.

The last paragraph of the prologue:

"The Jesuit scientists went to learn, not to proselytize. They went so that they might come to know and love God's other children. They went for the reason Jesuits have always gone to the farthest frontiers of human exploration. They went ad majorem Dei gloriam: for the greater glory of God.

They meant no harm. "

I was afraid this would turn into a 'religion poisons everything' novel. Instead, I was amazed by what it did turn into. Part science fiction, part spiritual journey, it was the first book in a long time that I was anxious to start the sequel as soon as I had finished.

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Amazing. Russell managed to convey so much beauty and depth of character in this novel. I was blown away.

And for someone not comfortable with religious overtones, I was captivated by the central spiritual premise of this novel. Beautifully crafted.

The Sparrow is not really science fiction, even if it has a space ship and first contact with aliens. Russell creates unique and lovable characters as she explores anthropology, sociology and religion against the backdrop of an alien planet. The book is worth reading just for the characters but the

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story's unique chronology, where the reader hears the beginning and the ending at the start and works toward the middle, makes it too intriguing to pass up.

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I really enjoys books that manage to combine imaginative speculative writing with meaty idea-based discussion. The Sparrow does just that: the central role that Jesuits play in the plot guarantees lively discussion about human values even while the action moves from Earth to a distant planet.

The

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writing is skillful, characterizations are well done, and the pacing and structure of the book are super. It is a good read.

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