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The Sparrow
by Mary Doria Russell

I heard a lot of interesting talk on this book before I picked it up. After reading it, I can see why it generated a lot of discussions. Personally, I enjoyed the book, finding the characters fascinating but I wished the author could have found a way to arranged the book differently.

The book deals with a Jesuit-lead expedition to the planet Rakhat. The first indication on Earth about intelligence on Rakhat was when music began to be heard from there: unearthly choral-type music.

One of the members of the expedition is Emilio Sandoz, a Jesuit priest who feels that God has meant him to go to Rakhat. It is thus a huge blow to him when the expedition fails, causing the death of the other members of the expedition except for him. Several years later, another expedition to Rakhat finds him and sends him back to Earth, a broken man.

The novel is set in two time periods which alternates in the book: in the 2020s and in the 2060s. The earlier period deals with introducing us to the various characters in the book, including a joyful Emilio Sandoz. It then covers the actual expedition to Rakhat. The later period deals with Sandoz, now a broken and mutilated man, and the attempts by the Jesuits to find out from him what happened on Rakhat and the truth behind allegations that he killed a child and prostituted himself on Rakhat. The truth, revealed at the end of the book, is both shocking and unexpected.

This book is unusual to me as the religious elements of the book are quite prominent but I found the author's treatment of religion (both for and against) quite even-handed. The technological aspects in the story (the design of the spaceship used to get the expedition to Rakhat, the steps used to decode and interpret the speech of the aliens on Rakhat, etc.) are not explained in much detail. But as this is a book about the characters, not the technology, this is a 'minor' shortcoming. But it does 'rob' the book of some if its Science Fictional elements. It is in the characters that the book comes to life. Sandoz and the other characters are fleshed out very well in the book.

However, I do have doubts over the way the book was written. By covering two threads at once, both before and after the Rakhat expedition, I feel the book may have lost some of its potential tension and suspense elements. I find it hard not to anticipate that this or that person will be dead because they are in the expedition. Of course, the manner of their deaths are not told beforehand but still, the loss of tension is there.

On the other hand, I am not quite sure how the book could have been written any other way. Both threads reach their dramatic conclusion together, so putting one before the other would have been even worse. Perhaps a future author will be able to solve this dilemma...<heheh>

However, the main question point (what was it that cause Sandoz to change from a somewhat 'mystical' Jesuit priest into a broken man) is not answered until the very end. And with the answer, comes a complete re-evaluation of what Sandoz had gone through on Rakhat.

This is a wonderfully written book, with a lot inside to please both mainstream and more SF oriented readers (like myself). The characters are engaging, the technology somewhat 'old-fashioned' compared to usual SF books on the future but acceptable. In all, it was a pleasant (but unsettling) experience reading the book.

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The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

The Sparrow
by Mary Doria Russell