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Summary:
In 2019, humanity finally finds proof of extraterrestrial life when a listening post in Puerto Rico picks up exquisite singing from a planet which will come to be known as Rakhat. While United Nations diplomats endlessly debate a possible first contact mission, the Society of Jesus quietly organizes an eight-person scientific expedition of its own. What the Jesuits find is a world so beyond comprehension that it will lead them to question the meaning of being "human." When the lone survivor of the expedition, Emilio Sandoz, returns to Earth in 2059, he will try to explain what went wrong... Words like "provocative" and "compelling" will come to mind as you read this shocking novel about first contact with a race that creates music akin to both poetry and prayer.
Customer Reviews:
Average Customer Rating:
Good service from seller
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I can't rate the book itself because I bought it for someone else. I can say that the book arrived in a timely manner in the condition it was presented.
Can I give it zero stars?
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I am a long time Science Fiction reader who loves" literary" SF most of all and am always fascinated by religious and philosophical questions. Someone I love a great deal suggested I would love this book and from the various descriptions it sounded as if I, indeed, would. I hated it. I don't know when a novel has annoyed me more. I despised the characters and was hoping that they would die a lot more quickly than they did. These subjects have been explored so often and so much better by so many people. This is just a terrible terrible book. Stay away. If you want good thoughtful books about religion in a science fiction setting read Le Guin or read Robert Charles Wilson's Mysterium or heck, read Carl Sagan's Contact for that matter. Or read that wonderful James Blish story which apparently influenced this book. Don't bother with this overwrought nonsense. I am astounded that this won a Tiptree award. I doubt she would have approved.
Briefly...
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I read this book more than a year ago and it still haunts me. It's a book that you need to give time to (not a fast read & one that you need to stick with). I think a lot of the naysayers here put it down far too early. I'm back to buy it for fellow non-believing/agnostic friend. It's very much worth your time. And yes, there is real depth...
A remarkably unique approach for a sci-fi book
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I purchased this book due to another reader's enthusiasm for it. If you, the reader, expect another sci-fi novel with lots of military action---forget it!! What you will find are remarkably well developed characters who may (or may not) act as you think they should under the circumstances given them. if you can accept the premise of members of a Jesuit order undertaking space exploration in the hopes of extending the membership of the Christian community to "others" as well as explore what awaits them after contact, you may find this book to your liking. I gave it a 3 because it is like straddling a bar--which way do you fall? Do I regret buying it? no! Would I want to read another similar to it? no! SO, you decide!
THE SPARROW by Mary Doria Russell
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The Sparrow is a philosophically- and spiritually-oriented "literary" science fiction novel by paleoanthropologist Mary Doria Russell. Here, Father Emilio Sandoz is the only survivor of a Jesuit-sponsored expedition to an alien planet to make first contact. When he returns, he is maimed, in emotional shambles, and accused of terrible crimes.
The setting and framework of The Sparrow are a highly conducive environment for Russell to explore some serious theological and moral principles and implications. Unfortunately, the whole thing is poorly executed and Russell more or less punts on any kind of deep analysis.
Russell begins upon Sandoz's return to Earth, and from there goes back and forth between then (2060) and the origins of the expedition (forty years prior). Working from the ends, Russell fills in what happened in between. While this was probably the best way to structure the story, Russell does it poorly. The Sparrow leans heavily on suspense to keep the reader's interest, and Russell manufactures this artificially by waiting as long as possible to tell the reader what he or she really wants to know - What happened to Sandoz? How did he come to be in this situation? How did everyone else die? By the end of the novel, there's entirely too much skipping around, which significantly lessens the novel's suspense and makes it entirely too long. And too many of the payoff events, the dramatic climaxes the reader has been waiting 400 pages for, are told secondhand, neutering the drama. Thusly the payoff is extremely disappointing.
Russell's writing is amateurish in many ways, beyond her mishandling of the narrative. Her physical descriptions of characters are often clumsy. She is prone to using big and uncommon words seemingly just for the sake of using them. The dialogue is another egregious offender. The Sparrow is fifty to a hundred pages too long, and a major reason for this is because Russell spends the first half of the novel trying to endear her characters to the reader, mainly by repeatedly having one of them make a corny joke or an obviously fanboyish movie quote, and then having everyone else crack up. It doesn't particularly work. They die, the reader knows they're going to die, and it really isn't that big of a deal. Her characters' chemistry together is decent enough, but they just aren't fleshed out well enough for it to matter.
What Russell does well is the alien culture. With her anthropological background, this isn't surprising. The aliens' culture is different and interesting, even if she doesn't do a lot with it.
Russell drops the ball with her portrayals of the priests. There are a lot of Jesuits, but there isn't much God anywhere to be found. Russell's priests are, on the whole, a bunch of agnostics and deists. For Russell and her characters, just believing that God exists is a big accomplishment and noteworthy spiritual breakthrough. This is hardly an accurate representation of modern Catholicism. Nowhere in the book does any Catholic say one word about evangelizing the aliens. That's remarkable beyond words.
The long and short of it is The Sparrow is a badly-missed opportunity. It was a good idea, pregnant with potential, but it just doesn't work on too many levels to make it worthwhile reading.
P.S. - A Spanish-speaking Jesuit priest travels to another planet as part of an expedition to make first contact with an alien race, and subsequently suffers a crisis of faith - that's right, we're talking about James Blish's 1958 novel A Case of Conscience. This shared premise is so specific that it seems unbelievable that Russell didn't steal it (which she maintains). Indeed, it is curious she would choose a Jesuit as her protagonist given her profound ignorance of Catholicism. In any event, Blish's novel is superior in many ways - the science is better, the concept is better, the understanding is better, and the execution is better.
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