The Sparrow
The Sparrow is about humanity's first encounter with extraterrestrial life.
The Sparrow is about the meeting, blending, and clashing of two cultures.
The Sparrow is about the frontier spirit that pushes us to always explore.
The Sparrow is about a group of people coming together to form a family.
The Sparrow is about one man's struggle to find God, and his despair at what he finds.
The Sparrow is about tragedies that result from miscommunication.
The Sparrow is about sacrifice and love.
The Sparrow is a rich, important book, and you should read it.
In the year 2019, humanity discovers intelligent life on a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri. While the UN is arguing over whether it's worth sending people to a planet over 4 lightyears away, the Vatican quickly and privately pulls it's own mission together. And so four Jesuit priests, a physician, an engineer, an astronomer, and a computer scientist embark on an adventure to a new world, leaving everything the know behind. Due to their near lightspeed velocity of their travel, what will be a five year mission for them takes much longer on Earth.
In the year 2060, a single man returns, battered and broken by his experience.
The narrative alternates between these two timelines, dropping hints here and there as the mystery of what happened to Emilio Sandoz unfolds.
I don't want to give too much away. The mystery comprises half the enjoyment of the first reading. The journey to find out what happened compels you to read onward, even as you find yourself not quite wanting to know what happened.
This book is dense, not in an inaccessible way, but in a way that will lend itself to future readings. There are a lot of themes, a lot of characters, a lot of narrative threads. There's more to be gotten from this book than a single reading can provide. This is prime criteria in judging a book to be great. And this book was great.
The first thirty pages or so are a bit difficult. Mary Doria Russel throws several characters at you - each timeline is populated with an entire cast and there a quite a few names to keep straight. But each is fully realized and has a distinct personality. It doesn't take too long to sort everyone out. The characters themselves are extraordinary. I could be friends with some of these people, and I wouldn't want to share a meal with others. They are all complete and human, which is quite the accomplishment given the size of the cast.
It's also a bit slow at the beginning. In the earlier timeline, it takes a while for the planet to be discovered and the mission to be conceived. Russel uses that time to introduce the characters and and build their relationships. The later timeline is stuffed with foreshadowing (backshadowing?) as Sandoz slowly heals from the torture he lived through and begins to relay his tale.
This book is simply incredible. It was reminiscent of Speaker for the Dead, by Orson Scott Card. But I liked The Sparrow much more. I can hardly say why, except that I have an intense urge to pick this book right back up and read it again from the beginning.
And now I'm telling you to read it. Pick it up. Stick with it through the first 100 pages. You won't be able to put it down after that.
The Sparrow is about the meeting, blending, and clashing of two cultures.
The Sparrow is about the frontier spirit that pushes us to always explore.
The Sparrow is about a group of people coming together to form a family.
The Sparrow is about one man's struggle to find God, and his despair at what he finds.
The Sparrow is about tragedies that result from miscommunication.
The Sparrow is about sacrifice and love.
The Sparrow is a rich, important book, and you should read it.
In the year 2019, humanity discovers intelligent life on a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri. While the UN is arguing over whether it's worth sending people to a planet over 4 lightyears away, the Vatican quickly and privately pulls it's own mission together. And so four Jesuit priests, a physician, an engineer, an astronomer, and a computer scientist embark on an adventure to a new world, leaving everything the know behind. Due to their near lightspeed velocity of their travel, what will be a five year mission for them takes much longer on Earth.
In the year 2060, a single man returns, battered and broken by his experience.
The narrative alternates between these two timelines, dropping hints here and there as the mystery of what happened to Emilio Sandoz unfolds.
I don't want to give too much away. The mystery comprises half the enjoyment of the first reading. The journey to find out what happened compels you to read onward, even as you find yourself not quite wanting to know what happened.
This book is dense, not in an inaccessible way, but in a way that will lend itself to future readings. There are a lot of themes, a lot of characters, a lot of narrative threads. There's more to be gotten from this book than a single reading can provide. This is prime criteria in judging a book to be great. And this book was great.
The first thirty pages or so are a bit difficult. Mary Doria Russel throws several characters at you - each timeline is populated with an entire cast and there a quite a few names to keep straight. But each is fully realized and has a distinct personality. It doesn't take too long to sort everyone out. The characters themselves are extraordinary. I could be friends with some of these people, and I wouldn't want to share a meal with others. They are all complete and human, which is quite the accomplishment given the size of the cast.
It's also a bit slow at the beginning. In the earlier timeline, it takes a while for the planet to be discovered and the mission to be conceived. Russel uses that time to introduce the characters and and build their relationships. The later timeline is stuffed with foreshadowing (backshadowing?) as Sandoz slowly heals from the torture he lived through and begins to relay his tale.
This book is simply incredible. It was reminiscent of Speaker for the Dead, by Orson Scott Card. But I liked The Sparrow much more. I can hardly say why, except that I have an intense urge to pick this book right back up and read it again from the beginning.
And now I'm telling you to read it. Pick it up. Stick with it through the first 100 pages. You won't be able to put it down after that.
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