Children of God

So I read the sparrow something like 15 years ago. I loved it. Totally meant to read the sequel. This was a time before ebooks and Amazon when I would have had to go to a store to purchase a book with money college me didn't have. So I didn't. It took over a decade for happenstance to return to The Sparrow to my shelf and throw the sequel in with it. I do finish things I start; I do.

Children of God is much more hopeful than The Sparrow, and I think that's why it didn't resonate quite as strongly with me. The Sparrow is an ambiguous book that looks at religion as it affects believers, agnostics, and atheists alike. That sort of parity is the main reason I love it. This book is more of a summation and because Mary Doria Russell doesn't want all her readers to kill themselves, the various endings are hopeful if not all good. They point to ineffable plans bearing fruit in a way that makes me happy for the characters, but sits a little bit wrong in my bitter, realist heart.

The main themes of this book are coping with senseless tragedy and the benefit of hindsight. Whatever the actual plausibility of Russell's use of speed of light travel, the element of Emilio's lifespan allows for him to witness a span of time most of the other characters will never see, and the reader benefits from his perspective. We see societies collapse and reform and our sympathies shift from victims to oppressors. We see people do awful things for noble reasons. We see consequences play out past anyone's expectations both for good and ill. It's a sweeping novel, and I envy Russell's control of a shifting time scheme.

In the afterword, Russell says the main element she hopes readers take away with them is “Don't be so damn quick to judge!” I think this statement is a worthwhile one for everyone to take with them. Learning it while exploring Russell's brilliantly brought to life alien cultures is much easier than trying it in real life. I only wish there was one more featuring Rukuei's story as he ventures to H'earth. That is a whole different thematic palette I'd love to read

Children of God. I picked up this 2nd book in the series immediated after I finished "The Sparrow." I loved the characters and the alien world, so wanted to learn more of their stories. Unfortunately this 2nd book held very little of what I most appreciated about "The Sparrow." The story-telling with multiple time lines was hard to follow. I also had a tough time keeping track of what was going on politically w/ the two alien species. While some of the humans were endearing-most were hard to handle. The hardest thing to handle was that the audiobook narrator was different then for The Sparrow" and this was a shame as I really liked the one for "The Sparrow" and I couldn't stand the voice for this one!

After the Sparrow crushed my heart and soul I knew I had to read the sequel as soon as possible - and I'm glad I did!

Children of God takes a deeper dive into the society of the Runa and Jana'ata in Rakhat, and I LOVED it. It makes the alien societies feel so much more real, and shows a very different and surprising perspective to what happened to Sandoz on Rakhat.

As for Sandoz... he still takes a beating in this book (quite literally), but overall, his journey of recovery is hopeful and I think this book wrapped up The Sparrow quite nicely.

I feel like this is a book I'll have to re-read again when I'm older to fully appreciate the message. Still, this is one of the best books I've read so far.

I liked (by which I mean “enjoyed”) this better than The Sparrow, because it provided more answers. Because it allowed me to believe that there was a meaning to what happened in The Sparrow. Because it was more hopeful. I have an uneasy feeling that very fact somewhat dilutes the impact of the first book, which drew its rawness at least in part from a refusal to pull punches, to let you take refuge in platitudes. It was a very different book, trading The Sparrow's tight focus on individual suffering for a broader view of politics, history, societal change. It was equally good but hard to compare; not so much a sequel as a different philosophical lens.

I didn't cry a whole bunch when it ended and I knew there was no more. Only a little.

I didn't feel so sad because I wanted more of the story and plot. I like stories to end. I was sad because I had come to the end of such a perfect synthesis of art, philosophy, theology, psychology. This book is science fiction doing what only science fiction can do, and using that mode to explore some of the deepest questions we can face. A brilliant book, and a perfect sequel to its equally brilliant predecessor, The Sparrow.

A second reading:
Summary: The second half of the story of The Sparrow.

When I first read The Sparrow, I did not realize that Children of God was actually part two of the book. I thought it was a sequel, but instead, it should be considered the second half of a single story. Because of this, I did not read Children of God until two years after I read The Sparrow. It was not until re-reading that I realized how much those two years impacted my understanding. This is a single story.

The book opens immediately after the end of The Sparrow. The reader and the characters think that they understand what happened on Rahkat (the other world that they traveled to.) But one way you should prepare to read Children of God is to think of it as an explanation of all the things misunderstood in The Sparrow. This is an alien contact story. Culture and biology are different. And even when Sandoz thinks he understands the language as a linguist, there are mistakes and misunderstandings.

Sandoz was traumatized in The Sparrow, and multiple stages of healing come throughout the Children of God. It is not that he “forgets” his pain and trauma. But he does come to terms with it in some ways over time. This does bring up my main concern about The Children of God. In my post about The Sparrow, I somewhat minimized this as a book about the problem of evil, which is still a significant theme within The Children of God. I do not believe there is a solution to the problem of evil. However, one method of dealing with the problem of evil is to suggest that God was behind everything to accomplish the greater good. While I think there is some space for seeing a different plan than what we had or that we misunderstood God's plan, I get concerned with “making things come out right.”

I have two main concerns with it. First, I do not think that God ordains evil. I think God can work to redeem the results of evil, but that is different from thinking that God has a plan from the beginning where evil is required to be done, which results in God's plan being accomplished. The problem with how I conceive of this is that it limits God's power, knowledge, or willingness to intervene. I think God is all-powerful, has knowledge, and wants good to happen for all of us. However, evidence from history shows that evil still occurs. So, I cannot explain the problem of evil. I can only say that God, in his incarnation, chose to be with us in our pain to show us a way forward. And while I think that is true, I do not think it is a great answer pastorally.

I still think that these two books lack consideration of the role of evil or an embodied Satan (see Reviving Old Scratch for more). There is a brief exchange in Children of God that acknowledges the problem and, I think, shows Russell's lack of familiarity with Ignatius. This exchange is between Sean (a Jesuit from Northern Ireland) and Sandoz.

“I'm told y'blame God for what happened on Rakhat. Why not blame Satan? Do y'believe in the devil, then, Sandoz?” “But that is irrelevant,” Sandoz said lightly. “Satan ruins people by tempting them to take an easy or pleasurable path.” He was on his feet, taking his mug and plate to the galley.

“Spoken like a good Jesuit,” Sean called to him. “And there was nothin' easy nor pleasurable in what happened to you.”

“You were a priest for decades,” Sean said with quiet insistence, “and a good one. Think like a priest, Sandoz. Think like a Jesuit! What did Jesus add to the canon, man? If the Jews deserved one thing, it was a better answer to sufferin' than the piss-poor one Job got. If pain and injustice and undeserved misery are part of the package, and God knows they are, then surely the life of Christ is God's own answer to Ecclesiasticus! Redeem the suffering. Embrace it. Make it mean something.”

and slightly later

Sandoz closed his eyes, but Sean's voice went on, with its hard r's and the flat, unmusical poetry of Belfast. “Pity the poor, wee souls who live a life of watered milk—all blandness and pleasantry—and die nicely asleep in ripe old age. Water and milk, Sandoz. They live half a life and never know the strength they might have had. Show God what yer made of, man. Pucker up and kiss the cross. Make it your own. Make all this mean something. Redeem it.”

He thought of all the ways of coping with undeserved pain. Offer it up. Remember Jesus on the cross. The bromides: God never gives us a burden we cannot bear. Everything happens for a reason. John Candotti knew for a fact that the old sayings worked for some people. But as a parish priest, he had often observed that trust in God could impose an additional burden on good people slammed to their knees by some senseless tragedy. An atheist might be no less staggered by such an event, but nonbelievers often experienced a kind of calm acceptance: shit happens, and this particular shit had happened to them. It could be more difficult for a person of faith to get to his feet precisely because he had to reconcile God's love and care with the stupid, brutal fact that something irreversibly terrible had happened.

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Not as good as its predecessor, but still with enjoyable moments. The story got away from Ms Russell, though. There was, perhaps, too much going on to fit into one book, because most of the action gets explained later, as sort of exposition. The reader follows characters for a few chapters, only to have them disappear from the narrative, except as footnotes in the story or someone else's narrative. Suraari disappears for many chapters, only to reappear right at the end, briefly. We are told too much and not shown.

And somehow, even though I wanted to like the human characters, most of them are fairly shallowly written. I lost interest in our hero. Sofia goes off the rails. And in the end, I actually was more interested in the Rakhati characters. Like Supaari. But Ms Russell spends quite a bit of time with Supaari, Djalao, and Kitheri that I became initially interested. But then they're all sort of forgotten as she explains their history, again, rather than showing us, delving into their own stories. The last half of the book pretty much ignores them, which is a pity.

OMG! 18 hour audiobook and it took 7 hours just to take off. Way too long with little happening.

3.5 if I could. Definitely not as good as the first. It dragged a lot through the middle. Still a lot of interesting stuff and it was fun both to revisit the characters and to see what happened after the events of the first book. But the story arc didn't have the same pull as the first, and it had the disadvantage of lacking the thrill of discovery from the first book. Can't rediscover Rakhat. It's worth reading, especially if you enjoyed the first, but it's definitely not on the level of the first book, in terms of characters, plot, storytelling, and introspection.

Didn't enjoy this one so much as the first. Taking more than 6 months to finish it is a clear sign of that.

While the first book was religious but tolerable, the second one focus much more on this side of things, rendering all the other themes to the background (even the interesting political situation of Rakhat).

The other issue are the characters, so many on that ship, and you really can't tell them apart. Maybe the issue is that they aren't at all likeable... Hell, I don't even remember their names anymore. There was John, Carlo, the giant guy with a heart of gold, the one with indigenous background...

I won't drag. This one really didn't fit with me. The only part that was enjoyable was before Emilio went against his will to Rakhat again. That was where? At 20% of the book maybe?

Conclusion: Too much religion, too many characters (both human and alien), passable ending.

In many ways, the Dark Knight Rises to the Sparrow's Dark Knight.

Redemption!