The Sparrow (1996)

In a word - excellent. The Sparrow is a "first contact" science fiction novel, but it's also an example of the genre that's great for non-SF fans. Although it's a story about a Jesuit mission to an alien planet, the focus is more on the question of faith.

The novel uses a non-linear storytelling device, so in the first few pages you know the outcome - Emilio Sandoz has returned to earth alone and broken, and scandalous stories about a dead child and a brothel have preceded him. His superiors attempt to extract the full story from him - there are hints that the scandals have had a disastrous effect on the Church.

Despite knowing the end result, I found the slow reveal of the "how" and "why" totally fascinating. I've seen some complaints that Emilio's final confession wasn't as shocking as they expected, and I'm puzzled by that one - I thought it was pretty implicit from the beginning what had happened to him, and that the story was not so much what did happen, but the progress Emilio made towards healing and coming to terms with it.

My only complaint is that there are two characters on the expedition who don't get much in terms of being fleshed out - Alan Pace and Marc Robichaux are so colorless and neglected compared to the others. The others - Anne, George, Sofia, D.W., and Jimmy - are so vibrant and their relationships are so endearing that just knowing they don't make it back to Earth is enough of a heartbreak. ( )

pompous, self-satisfied, narrow minded. Tiptree winner 1996 ( )

recommended for: those who enjoy thought provoking and character driven science fiction

I read this author’s A Thread of Grace with my real world book club and I really enjoyed it and this looked interesting so I put this book on my to-read shelf because of that, even though that book is historical fiction and this book is science fiction/speculative fiction. An online book club inspired me to actually choose it to read from my very long to-read shelf and I am so grateful to have read it.

I don’t know the bible so I didn’t know why the title was The Sparrow until a few pages from the end of the book, but then I loved the title selected.

This book is heartbreaking, devastating, horrifying, and emotionally difficult. It’s also fascinating and engrossing and captivating (ok, they all mean pretty much the same thing but I can’t stress it enough.) The story and characters are incredibly memorable and it’s a really well crafted story so, despite some flaws, I’m giving it 5 stars and not only 4 stars.

This is my kind of science fiction: character driven and thought provoking.

I felt attached to and cared about the fate of virtually all of the major characters and there are many.

I read an edition where there’s an interesting author interview in the back and discussion questions also. The interview was superb and helped me understand even more the author’s point of view.

The story takes place from 2019-2060. It’s about a Jesuit mission to another planet that takes place because of signs of intelligent life in the form of music heard from a solar system not too many light years away from earth.

I thought it was brilliant the way the story is told, building up to what felt like a crescendo, and going back and forth in time and place, and pertinent that it was music that brought the earthlings to this foreign planet.

Of interest from the author interview is that she grew up Catholic until age 15, then she became an atheist, and then when she became a mother she converted to Judaism. One of my favorite characters is a Jewish woman and another is a somewhat agnostic woman the author says she most identified with.

I guess the book is about faith and religious experience but I read it from my own point of view, as all readers do with all books, so those themes took somewhat of a back seat for me. I look at life so differently from the central character Emilio Sandoz but he is a very compelling and understandable character.

As a Jewish woman but not a religious or spiritual person, while there’s a lot of talk about G-d and religion I was able to find meaning in the philosophizing in the book and consider this book more about human (and sentient being) nature, which I know has to do with my own point of view.

I thought it was a almost a treatise on inter-cultural understanding, and misunderstanding, and even for those who don’t like science fiction readers could look at it as an exploration of relationships between human cultures or among different species. I have no problem suspending disbelief as these relationships could easily take place on earth with earth’s species of animals (including humans) and plants. It says a lot about what happens when we don’t understand one another or cannot empathize adequately with one another and when, for whatever reason, there’s some barrier to communication.

For me as a vegan, it made me further contemplate the commonalities among humans and other sentient beings, and about sentient beings who can speak and those who cannot. I found myself considering the ability to empathize vs. manipulate and use/harm, etc. The central character in the book is a Jesuit priest who’s also multi-lingual and language and communication are so crucial to this book’s story.

This would be a good book for my vegan book club, which is a book club section where we read mostly novels, occasionally non-fiction, but not animal rights or vegan/vegetarian books, but this book could spark much discussion about veganism too. (I just added it to our “future book suggestions” shelf at our book club page.) It’s a terrific book club book. There’s so much substance and different subjects to discuss yet it’s not a challenging read; it’s an easy read actually.

It’s not next on my to-read list but I am now eager to read Children of God, which is a sequel to The Sparrow. I’m a bit afraid I won’t like it but I’m too curious to know what happens next with Emilio Sandoz and the interactions to come between the inhabitants on Earth and Rakhat, and interested to know how Mary Doria Russell continues this story. ( )

Once I devoured The Sparrow I had to move on to The Children of God because I was utterly fascinated. I loved the philosophical and anthropological ideas, with questions about God, faith, cultural diversity, communication, about suffering and death, atrocities and foremost of all about the meaning of humanity. What Mrs. Russell did in these stories was not only that she examined all of these aspects, but she also went on and answered them. Whether these are answers you expected and you find acceptable that depends on what your own beliefs and your viewpoints on life are. However, I felt that I was among other things, introduced into a religious viewpoint I certainly don’t share but which I can understand and respect.

“... That is my dilemma. Because if I was led by God to love God, step by step, as it seemed, if I accept that the beauty and the rapture were real and true, the rest of it was God’s will too, and that gentlemen is cause for bitterness. But if I am simply a deluded ape who took a lot of old folktales far too seriously, then I brought all this on myself and my companions and the whole business becomes farcical, doesn’t it. The problem with atheism, I find, under these circumstances...is that I have no one to despise but myself. If, however, I choose to believe that God is vicious, then at least I have the solace of hating God.”

All in all, this two books are an extremely gripping story with a terrific storyline and pretty character driven. Although, be warned and have the tissues on standby – sorry I tend to be a bit soft-hearted – especially as you know from page one that Emilio Sandoz our main protagonist is the sole survivor of the Jesuit mission to Rakhat. Switching between the Present and the retrospective memories of Emilio whilst delving into the story you always wonder how it all could could lead to these tragic events. And with tragic events I truly mean dreadful, horrific, harrowing, brutal, terrible. In the Present when we meet Emilio Sandoz he is a total wreck, utterly emotionally destroyed and physically severely mutilated Jesuit Priest who can’t even talk about the events of the mission.

"There's an old Jewish story that says in the beginning God was everywhere and everything, a totality. But to make creation, God had to remove Himself from some part of the universe, so something besides Himself could exist. So He breathed in, and in the places where God withdrew, there creation exists."
"So God just leaves?" John asked, angry where Emilio had been desolate. "Abandons creation? You're on your own, apes. Good luck!"
"No. He watches. He rejoices. He weeps. He observes the moral drama of human life and gives meaning to it by caring passionately about us, and remembering."
"Matthew ten, verse twenty-nine," Vincenzo Giuliani said quietly. "'Not one sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it.'"
"But the sparrow still falls," Felipe said.

Retrospectively we experience and learn to love all the members of the mission to Rakhat a planet they are about to explore. Once on Rakhat, we are introduced in a truly compelling way to a remarkably different kind of social society. It was intriguing to determine to which extent man was able to influence cultural changes through seemingly trifle performances. Mrs. Russell demonstrated quite well what impact such changes could have on different social cultures and to what disastrous outcomes this could lead to, usually by means of cultural misunderstandings. All these issues are further explored in the second book. Both books are highly recommended to anyone who likes to be challenged in his reading. ( )

Enjoying this one immensely. Love the character development, the turn of phrase, the slow unveiling of the mystery. Very powerful - I was in turns breathless, horrified, spellbound. Now I want more - must seek out more Russell. ( )