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Loading... The Sparrow (1996)by Mary Doria Russell
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I had some trouble with this one, largely because the writer had, at least in this book, a "good writer, poor storyteller" problem. Russell is obviously a skilled writer in that she knows how to use her words, and she came up with an interesting idea and interesting characters to use them on. Her problem was she didn't know when, or how, to stop. The Sparrow really should have been a novella rather than a novel. Reading it was like being in a movie and thinking, "well, this is nice but when is it going to be over?". ( ) I haven't read this one in years, but when it was fresh for me, I tried to force everybody I knew to read it. So.....I'm not thrilled that I re-read this one. I'm still totally engaged with the beautiful & tragic story of Emilio Sandoz but this time almost everything around it disappointed a bit. I think I could see the author trying to be clever or dramatic or deliberately vague. Some of it was plodding and repetitive. I love the concept of first contact and of the struggle to understand God and the way the Jesuits find god in small things. As a science fiction fan who attended a Jesuit high school, I am a big fan of the "Jesuits in space" subgenre of science fiction, and so I was delighted to receive this as a SantaThing gift a few years ago (and appropriately enough, I received the subgenre's other most prominent example, James Blish's A Case of Conscience, from the same program way back in its first year). I wouldn't say I loved this, but I liked it a lot. (It's too brutal for "enjoyed" to be the right word.) It bounces back and forth between the planning for and the aftermath of a terrible Jesuit expedition to the first known inhabited extraterrestrial planet. Russell is a very methodical writer, laying down her characters and themes and background in great detail, and I in particular enjoyed her rich character work here. All the people here really come to life, and you are very much invested in every step they take. Brother Guy Consolmagno, S.J., the Jesuit astronomer and sf fan, tore into the book, saying, "the real crime of this novel is that the Jesuit characters take themselves far too seriously. Our real reaction to soul-shattering events is, more often than not, to laugh at ourselves and our predicament." It is a very serious book... but I actually think that's an unfair assessment of the characters, who have very well-developed senses of humor. But though I have been around many Jesuits (my high school and college best friend is one now), I am certainly not one, so maybe that gives him a different perspective. This SF novel published in 1996, is more like a mainstream one which uses SF tropes - which probably accounts for the unbelievability of much of it. It is set in what is now an alternative history, since it deals with the discovery of an extraterrestrial signal from a planet around Alpha Centuri in a 2019 which has no smartphones, internet or any of the other things taken for granted in the modern day, although weirdly, someone in their 30s is asked if they remember television. An expedition is secretly mounted by the Jesuit religious order to visit the new planet, comprised of an unlikely group of a Jesuit priest, Sandoz, an artist/gardener, a doctor, an engineer, an astronomer, a woman called Sofia who is very good at coding skills into smart computer systems, a senior Jesuit who is an ex-military man from Texas, and a man who we never find much out about, apart from him being a musician - the signals are in the form of songs - as he is soon killed off. Apart from him, the other expedition members are old friends of at least one other person in the group. Although some of the essentials are thought through, they would have benefited from having someone from Nasa along, for example, as there is no thought of having an alien contact protocol, which accounts for many of the subsequent mistakes. When they finally arrive, they spend weeks wandering around, documenting forest wildlife and trying out the native foods on themselves, which seems pretty foolhardy. And one - the engineer - burns up too much fuel with fancy flying in the landing craft so that a later mishap means they have no means of returning to their ship in orbit. They spend the whole story lurching from one bungle to another. Meanwhile, they have met a group of native people who are peaceful herbivores living in a rock-cut village. The word 'herbivores' is used advisedly, as it becomes clear before too long that the Runa, as they are known, are prey to the dominant carnivorous species, the Jana'ata, who are the 'singers' and who possess the higher technology, including radio. Predation has become more civilised over the centuries so that now the Runa are either bred for particular traits when they live alongside their masters in the city, or they live in rural communities where they harvest natural resources, such as flowers, to trade with the Jana'ata. In return they receive manufactured goods and - if they earn enough profit - are permitted at intervals to breed, although the humans only discover this too late, despite the clues. Initially, the humans settle in and learn the Runa language, and inadvertantly influence their hosts, with tragic results. The book's structure is odd as it begins with Sandoz, sole survivor of the first expedition, back on Earth and facing condemnation for things he supposedly did (according to a second, commercial expedition which followed the first and broadcast back a message full of hearsay), and the lead-up to the expedition and then its arrival on the planet. Since it's a waiting game from the beginning until each of the other expedition members is killed off, this makes it difficult for a reader to invest in any of them. The style is also rather offputting as there is constant head hopping between characters within a scene, which distracts again from identifying with any of the characters. The main issue though is that the book is extremely tedious. The whole sequence of Sandoz, whose hands have been mutilated by the village's Jena'ata 'sponsor' for his own purposes, being interrogated by other Jesuits while obviously traumatised and very ill, and the slow revelation of what happened previously, is dragged out for far too long. It is also hard to believe that the reality of what was done to him - This all came over as completely incredible: There are some nicely written vignettes in the story, and it is an exploration of belief in God and whether that can withstand horror and tragedy, but I didn't find the portrayal of Sandoz as a 'saint' after they find the Runa convincing either. Given that it was a chore to read until near the end when the carnvivorous sponsor arrives and it gets a bit more interesting, I can't say I enjoyed it, hence the 1 star rating. AwardsNotable Lists
The sole survivor of a crew sent to explore a new planet, Jesuit priest Emilio Sandoz discovers an alien civilization that raises questions about the very essence of humanity, an encounter that leads Sandoz to a public inquisition and the destruction of his faith. No library descriptions found.
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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