The Sparrow: A Novel (The Sparrow, #1)

by Mary Doria Russell

A visionary work that combines speculative fiction with deep philosophical inquiry, The Sparrow tells the story of a charismatic Jesuit priest and linguist, Emilio Sandoz, who leads a scientific mission entrusted with a profound task: to make first contact with intelligent extraterrestrial life. The mission begins in faith, hope, and beauty, but a series of small misunderstandings brings it to a catastrophic end.
 
Praise for The Sparrow
 
“A startling, engrossing, and moral work of fiction.”—The New York Times Book Review
 
“Important novels leave deep cracks in our beliefs, our prejudices, and our blinders. The Sparrow is one of them.”—Entertainment Weekly
 
“Powerful . . . The Sparrow tackles a difficult subject with grace and intelligence.”—San Francisco Chronicle
 
“Provocative, challenging . . . recalls both Arthur C. Clarke and H. G. Wells, with a dash of Ray Bradbury for good measure.”—The Dallas Morning News
 
“[Mary Doria] Russell shows herself to be a skillful storyteller who subtly and expertly builds suspense.”—USA Today

• ISBN10: 0449912558
• ISBN13: 9780449912553
• Publish Date: 8 September 1997 (first published 9 September 1996)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Random House USA Inc
• Imprint: Fawcett
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 528
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780449912553

Reviews

[smartflutist661]

What a contrast from the last book I read ([b:Dragon Sword and Wind Child|1110224|Dragon Sword and Wind Child (Tales of the Magatama, #1)|Noriko Ogiwara|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348282368l/1110224._SY75_.jpg|29779]). I'm not sure I can do it justice, but I will try my best.

This is nominally that staple of science fiction, a first-contact story, and has the classic interweaving storylines of a good space opera, though with only two lines in this case. But as with all of the best of them (I think I had this thought when reading [b:The Mote in God's Eye|100365|The Mote in God's Eye (Moties, #1)|Larry Niven|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1399490037l/100365._SY75_.jpg|2190500], too), it's not really about the aliens. It's about using them as a mirror to reflect and reflect upon humanity. ([very mild] We don't meet a single alien until more than halfway through the book. We don't even leave Earth until a quarter of the way through.)

Deeply religious but not proselytizing, it asks the Big Questions, and occasionally offers possible answers to some of them, though it never claims to know for sure, and in the end the reader is left to find their own resolution. It is ground undeniably well-tread by many great theologians, but there's nothing quite like an alien adventure to make it more interesting.

It is at once funny, charming, thought-provoking, and incredibly heartbreaking. There's a moment at the end that you know is coming, nearly from the very beginning (assuming you're even a minimally astute reader - how the supporting cast didn't see it almost immediately I may never understand), that still managed to make me grieve for a shattered soul. And as an academic myself, I recognize a fellow academician in the author, because this book is also unabashedly nerdy. Not in an entertaining yet sometimes cringy way like [b:Ready Player One|9969571|Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1)|Ernest Cline|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1500930947l/9969571._SY75_.jpg|14863741], but as a celebration of knowledge (even when some liberties are taken with the science). A particular quote that highlighted this for me:

"How long do you suppose I can go on loving you more every day?"

And he devised for her a calculus of love, which approached infinity as a limit, and made her smile again.

I don't think it's possible for me to recommend this one highly enough. It may very well be destined for the top 10 list I will inevitably try (and fail) to write on my deathbed.

[lovelybookshelf]

This book is beautiful, thoughtful, peaceful and serene, yet at times it's horrific and terrifying. I wanted to read this slowly so I could savor every page. Then the last 100 pages or so, I wanted to race through it because I HAD to know what had happened. This book was outstanding. The characters and their situations are rich and complex, and there are endless things to think about as far as issues regarding faith, society, first contact, and so much more. Best book I've read in a long time.

Video mini review originally posted on my blog, A Lovely Bookshelf on the Wall.

[jamiereadthis]

I wrote a big, long, thoughtful, from-the-gut review and, before I could post it, managed to lose it completely. I can’t recall a word of it. So, what I’m saying is, they’re flinging asteroids of people to Alpha Centauri, I’m trying to click a couple of buttons on my computer. Something’s always gonna go bad.

So the priests, not me— never me— are the only ones shocked when the mission doesn’t result in peace and goodwill for all of man- and alien-kind. It serves well the ego and hubris of all first-contact stories, which if that isn’t the point, it very well should be. It’s God’s mission, God’s, God’s, God’s, which all-too-often means us, us, us. We think we’re so enlightened, we think we can do better this time. We can’t. We never can, because we don’t carry the answers that can fix something we don’t understand and is not even broken.

There was a lot, a lot of telling, not showing, and I did my usual thing of wanting impossibly good characters to shake it up and do something immoral so I could love them a little bit, but that might be less the book’s fault and more the consequence of my usual reading. To say this was well outside the wheelhouse of what I’ve been reading all year, yes. And not because of the sci-fi. (If anything this was very light on the “sci.”) There are some deeply religious/spiritual/Catholic ideas here. People are condemned and punished for sins that I could never even fathom as sins. There are presuppositions the author makes that are across the Grand Canyon from my own. And so it’s interesting in the way that always is, to try such different trains of thought for a while, a perspective so different from my own.

Because it’s never not fun to shake things up, to say a hearty “yes!” what someone asks, “you want to fly this asteroid to this other planet?” That’s what we do. Right before we screw the whole mess up.

[empressbrooke]

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.