The Sparrow

primele 400 de pagini: 1/5. Personaje caricaturale, exagerate, lipsite de credibilitate și de-a dreptul enervante. Lungeală și plictiseală maximă: 400 de pagini de nimic, ceva fițe pseudo-flozofice, trăncăneală fără rost, și iar nimic. Doar scriitura e bună, fluentă.
Ultimele 200 de pagini: 3/5. singurul personaj bine construit, Supaari, descrierea unei societăți funcționale, câteva evenimente interesante. Dar personajele umane acționează în mod repetat ridicol, de parcă ar fi retardați, iar planeta/fauna/civilizația nu sunt deloc descrise/conturate.
În medie, iese 2/5, dar îi mai scad un punct pentru că m-a înfuriat prin terism/umansism, sau cum am putea numi rasismul dacă-l extindem la umanitate. Pentru autoare, chiar și când după 400 de pagini ajunge în sfârșit pe altă planetă, Celălalt e irelevant: orice fiță a Marelui Explorator Civilizat Alb (om, deși dcă mă gîndesc personajele chiar sunt 100% albi) e mai importantă decât o civilizație întreagă, care nu e băgată în seamă și are doar rolul de a sublinia cât de cool sunt Sandoz (cică un dur din favele, dar care se poartă ca o muiere văicăritoare) și Anne (doamne, ce babă falsă și fâsâită!). Extratereștrii, la ei acasă, sunt la fel de caricaturali precum negrii și amerindienii din westernurile proaste: sunt acolo doar ca să zâmbească tâmp pe lângă John Wayne (de altfel imitat aici de-un personaj texan JW).
Nerecomandabil, apropae la fel de proastă precum Connie Willis (pe care o iau ca etalon de 0/5).

To those who are offended by profanity, I suggest you ignore the next sentence and proceed to the rest of the review. Honestly, for most of this book, all I could think was “come the fuck on?!” Not, mind you, because I was really impressed with the brilliant writing and marvelous lot, but because of precisely the opposite!!!

Let me provide a bit of explanation by providing a partial plot summary.

Let's go on a mission to an unknown planet! Coincidentally, our group is a handful of people, which includes a love triangle (!), and we are all qualified to take an asteroid to an unexplored planet financed by the Jesuits! Let's not test the air before we touch foot to the planet! Let's not try to contact the aliens before barging on to their planet! No need to test any blessed (hahaha!) thing because God has willed this mission! Let's roast some “green guys” and feed them to one of our PILOTS to see if it's poisonous and promptly gave the entire crew eat all kinds of stuff instead of waiting for a period of time! If someone dies, let's do an autopsy and get SUPER angry because the rest of the very tiny crew asks about the results of the autopsy! Let's just lay around on the ground, asleep without any protection at all! Let's not bother exploring or documenting anything, so we are super surprised there are two species on the planet! I'm best buds with these here aliens who happen to have one young translator who knows English! These aliens need to learn how to garden! Oopsie, that caused my alien buds to reproduce and get slaughtered and know I'm a concubine!

There is no question that some suspension of disbelief is required to enjoy science fiction (or even some general fiction). However, Ms. Russell is asking way too much out of this reader.

Every person on the mission frames everything with what we believe to be known on Earth without trying to be the eensiest but interested in being objective and observing. Here's an irritating sentence:

“The principle were the same: firm follows function, reach high for sunlight, strut your stuff to attract a mate, scatter lots of offspring or take good care of a previous few, warn predators that you're poisonous with bright colors or blend into the background to escape detection.”

Fucking seriously?!

Sandoz is well-painted and the best thing about this claptrap, while other characters are one-dimensional. Anne and George are always HILARIOUS and she always cooks intricate meals based on a guests' ETHNICITY. Voelker is just plain sinister. Ed is super supportive and helpful in an aw-shucks way.

The author took over 400 pages to slap together a real mess. I should have believed my initial reaction to the first few pages where the author tried to wow the reader with the written equivalent of multi-camera shots, not really describing what's going on. The narrative gets a little more interesting for about 70 pages, but devolves into Dan Brown style schlock and never resurfaces.

Last year, I read “The Book of Strange New Things,” by Michael Farber also about a man of God visiting a planet inhabited by aliens. It is so, so, so much better than “The Sparrow,” so I recommend that to those who did and did not enjoy this book.

I didn't know this book beforehand. I went for it because it was selected as the read of the Month for January by the Sword&Laser Bookclub. Finished a bit too late but voila, better late than never.

Science-Fiction, religious questioning, aliens, likable characters (Anne and Sophia), good use of past/present chapters.

I would like to see more focus on the time that has passed on earth in the almost 50 years between travels (time-relativity). However, the author did an intelligent workaround when John asked Sandoz if he didn't care at all about all the things that had changed when he was away, and he answered that after what he had seen and passed, nothing could surprise him anymore.

The religious theme dominates the book, but I don't find it really intrusive or that it is trying to convert the reader to a religion. Nonetheless, if potential readers have very strong feelings about their religious beliefs, this book may not be suitable for them.

Now I will just have to pick up the second and final book to know, in the end, where Sandoz will stand about his doubts about God.

Here's a link related to what starts it all in the book: http://www.space.com/26000-alien-life-prediction-congress-hearing.html”

The Sparrow can pretty much be summed up as “Jesuits in SPAAAACE!”

(space-space-space-space)

(We get an echo in here now. What?)

Anyway, the premise of this story is that the human race detects a signal from a distant planet that clearly shows signs of intelligent life, and, being humans, decide they have to go stick their noses into the affairs of others. Specifically, the Jesuits decide to make it their next great missionary project, and agree to foot the bill. The story is set in the-not-so-distant-future of 2019-2060 (space flight, relativity, etc. accounts for the time lapse), when non-governmental space flight is possible, though still uncommon. A bit more inventive is the type of spacecraft they use - a hollowed out asteroid. The events in the book are not told chronologically - the story jumps between the present (2060) and the past (2019) to build up suspense as to what happened on the alien planet. Although this is clearly a work of science fiction, the story is much more focused on the relationships of the characters rather than the technicalities of space travel. This is most clearly evident when, upon arrival to an alien planet, it becomes incredibly apparent that none of our astronauts had ever read the works of H. G. Wells. It's not much of a spoiler to say that things to do not end well, and the journey leaves the survivor(s) in pretty bad shape, both physically and emotionally.

The major element of this story is the characters and their relationships. Much of the first half of the book consists of bringing the crew together and setting the stage for the sort of interpersonal drama that can only happen when you are trapped for several months inside of an asteroid traveling at light speed. The crew consists of several Jesuit priests - Emilio Sandoz (a younger, attractive Puerto Rican who has an incredible talent and long training in learning new languages), his mentor D. W. Yarborough (compete with Texas twang), and two redshirts, errr...other priests. It also has several non-Jesuit specialists - Anne and George (an older married couple, George was head of the program that located the original signal), Jimmy (George's employee, who actually found the signal originally), and Sofia Mendes, the requisite MPDG (an AI specialist). One thing I appreciated about this story was that the relationships between the characters felt rather believable, and, well, adult. I'm a big fan of many of the YA series available, but, I have to admit it was sort of refreshing to read a story where the world didn't have to be saved by a fifteen year old. Granted, with this many characters the standard love triangle was bound to take shape, but at least it wasn't the central theme of the story. On the other hand, while I found the relationships to be believable, the characters themselves seemed a bit over-powered. They were all super intelligent, highly skilled, and extremely pretty. Or they at least had enough of a personality to compensate if they fell short on that last bit. Now, granted, if you were going to send a mission to a new planet, you would want to hire the smartest and most-skilled people you could find. But it seemed a bit odd that these hyper-intelligent, über-humans could foul things up so incredibly poorly when they reached the alien civilization. All of their mishaps were just believable enough that you could perhaps understand how they made their mistakes, but, honestly, they were all built up a bit too much to completely believe in their epic fall.

Overall I have to say I thought this book was ok. The story does its best to tug at your heartstrings, repeatedly, and I have to admit that I was sort of over the tugging by the time I got to the end of the book. Not that I'm so callus as to not have felt anything, but, well, when so many bad things happen it is a bit easy to get dulled to the pain of it all. Suffice it to say, if you are looking for a pick-me-up sort of a book, this isn't it. It also wasn't the sort of a book that I felt compelled to pick up while I was reading it - I sort of had to force myself to finish it in a timely manner for the book club. The writing itself wasn't bad - it was actually quite good - I just wasn't motivated by the characters or their story. Which is a bit funny, because several months later I can still remember many of the characters quite vividly. I don't think my estimation of the book has grown over that time - no, I haven't come to the sudden realized that this is the best book ever - but I do remember much of the story in more detail than I had expected I would several months down the road. So, there is that. In summary I would have to say that if SyFy and Oxygen got together to make a TV-miniseries special, it would probably come out something like The Sparrow. I can't really give a positive or negative recommendation - this book has things I enjoyed, and things I didn't. It is the sort of book that I think a certain audience would really enjoy, I just don't think I'm part of that certain audience.

I enjoyed the book except for the ending. I understand why things closed so fast and the ending was still powerful but I was looking for a longer closing to the characters that had been so long in developing.

Executive Summary: I'm torn on this book. This is a book I never want to read again, but I'm glad I read once. 3.5 rounded up, though I could just as easily round it down. I change my mind every time I think about it.

Full Review
This is a hard review to write. I don't know how to properly express my feelings about this book.

It's not exactly a sci-fi book. Except it is. There isn't a lot of technical detail, so it's certainly not hard sci-fi. It's a first contact story. But really it's a story people, relationships, and trauma. That's not a spoiler. Ms. Russell lays that out right at the beginning.

The book alternates between present day and flash back chapters. We know something awful happened, but we don't know what that is.

It's well written, and the characters are excellent. It's also depressing as hell. My favorite parts were the flash backs on earth with Anne and George. Some of the parts were hard to read though.

I thought the religion thing was pretty well done. It doesn't cover all the bases, but you've got some Jesuits, a Jew, and some atheists. This isn't a religious book. It's a book with people of faith in it. I'm not one who enjoys reading religious stuff, and I wasn't bothered by it. So if it's not your thing either, I wouldn't let the fact that protagonist is a Jesuit turn you away.

I can't really speak to how religious people view this book, but I don't think it's an anti-religion book either. It simply talks about the faith of it's characters in a pretty neutral manner.

Early on in the book, I had a good idea what had happened. I just didn't know the details. In some ways I didn't want to know the details. I would have preferred to read more about Emilio before his trip.

Being prepared for it didn't really help though. I think that makes this a book that some people will just love, while others will find hard to read. I'm glad I read it, but I'm also glad I borrowed it instead of buying it, because I know I won't read it again.

I really liked this book; would have given it 4.5 stars. I suppose the format of a survivor relating the major event they have survived gives a novel automatic suspense but at no point did I find this predictable. The characters were all likeable, especially Emilio, Anne and Sofia which is probably not a good thing given what happened to each of them :(One thing that annoyed me is the author explicitly telling us the Jana'ata have prehensile feet (to explain part of their prowess) and also placing emphasis on Supaari's boots (in order to show similarities to ourselves). This pulled me out of the narrative because I find it ridiculous that a species with prehensile feet would develop footwear, thereby limiting their function; this annoyed me because I feel it was done simply for a plot point rather than as part of the world she'd created. A small thing, barely even a sentence in a 500+ page book, but it did throw me out of the rhythm.Emilio's final confession was dragged out somewhat, though given the obsession religions have with sex and all it's permutations I suppose it fits into the world. Normally I struggle with religion in books, particularly Christianity, but I didn't feel it a hindrance in this book; though perhaps my fondness for Anne and Sofia was their atheism and lapsed Judaism respectively.I only discovered there is a sequel ([b:Children of God 16948 Children of God (The Sparrow, #2) Mary Doria Russell https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1373509005s/16948.jpg 882029]) when I finished this and I'm almost disappointed - thought I'd managed to reduce my TBR!

Split into two time frames, 2060 sees a ravaged Emilio Sandoz, the only remaining survivor of a Jesuit funded mission to make first contact with the inhabitants of the planet Rakhat, trying to come to terms with what happened. We're also there in 2019 when, fuelled by unbridled optimism, the crew comes together to embark on the journey via asteroid to the newly discovered planet. The two stories converge in time and reveal how it went so horribly wrong.

I loved the story. It's a slow build as the author brings together the cast of characters. It's like King's The Stand in its ability to shape a huge cast of players and imbue most of them with real depth. Anne, George, Emilio, Sophia, Jimmy and DW are lovingly rendered here and it will be a while before I forget them. Sure it's got all the questions of faith, free will and colonialism but it's also a great read filled with sharply defined characters.

I first read this book 15 years ago when I was a freshman in college. Ouch time flies. There is a huge difference in reading this book at 18 vs 33, and I found a lot of my reread was more about looking at my shifting interpretation of the events rather than the actual events, so this might be a weirdly personal review.

The first thing I noticed is that the science just didn't stand up. Russell wrote this in 1996, and even when I read it in 2000, I was completely able to suspend my disbelief that travel outside our solar system via hollowed out mining asteroids would be completely possible in the next couple of decades by a group of untrained but enthusiastic explorers. Oh, and nobody would really notice till they were gone. 33 year old me was shaking her head at the flippant carelessness of the mission where 18 year old me was as smitten as Emilio was by the divinely ordained exploration.

However, this story is more anthropological fantasy than science fiction, so let's just move past that.

The story has a dual core, beginning with First Contact and how we handle it. Russell states in the extra material that she was inspired by Columbus and other figures from the Age of Exploration and the disastrous effects they had on the societies they touched. She has her characters, none of them trained in the Prime Directive, act based on faith and emotion as well as admittedly little science. Where 18 year old me was shocked at the repercussions of their actions, 33 year old me is much likely to say “I told you so!”

The second core is that of faith and the divine. The bulk of the story is addressed with a Jesuit philosophy (and Jesuits in space seems to be a theme I really enjoy), which makes sense considering how often Jesuits have been the first point of contact for two cultures. Sofia's character allows for some Judaic thought to be woven in as well. It tells about how dangerous it can be to view events as ordained by the divine. A sparrow cannot fall without God knowing it, but the sparrow still falls. That meant very different things to an 18 year old soul searcher compared to a 33 year old cynic. Both readers, however, love the way Russell plays with morality and ethics, taking no sides but pulling no punches either. It is an effective if intentionally unclear lesson in the school of “shit happens.” Having 15 extra years of experience in that area took the book to a different level for me.

Let's not leave out that Russell's writing is still a treat to read even if the science isn't. She has crafted a completely different evolutionary chain on Rakhat including two sentient species, language system Tolkien would be proud of, and a richness of culture that runs the gambit from depraved to divine. For that alone, I have to recommend reading this book, although it is not for the faint of heart and trigger warnings definitely apply. Read it, and read it again to see how you change.

La parte iniziale è interessante e coinvolgente: i personaggi vengono analizzati profondamente, le situazioni e gli eventi non sono banali, il susseguirsi degli eventi viene presentato quasi giornalmente, la descrizione degli apparati scientifici e della relativa fisica e matematica dietro è corretta e così via. Poi però, man mano che si procede nella lettura, le cose cambiano radicalmente: lunghi periodi temporali vengono passati in rassegna velocemente spesso dando solo pochi accenni ai fatti avvenuti durante (il colmo avviene quando ben 5 personaggi muoiono in 5 pagine circa nell'arco di due giorni quando ci si sarebbe aspettati chissà quale avvenimento dietro la loro morte, che tra l'altro viene anticipata fin dall'inizio), l'uso della matematica e della fisica si rivela scorretto (ad esempio nel calcolo del tempo necessario a raggiungere il pianeta: questo per me è stato davvero inspiegabile perché poco prima, nell'analisi del telescopio a cui lavora Jimmy e della relativa analisi dati l'autrice era stata perfettamente corretta e poi, poche pagine dopo, sbaglia un calcolo di relatività. tra l'altro, non è che mette una data scorretta perché quella reale sarebbe stata troppo lunga, quindi proprio non capisco) ; c'è poi da citare il fatto che tutti i problemi che ovviamente sorgono sul pianeta (respirazione, cibo, acqua, animali pericolosi, etc) vengono praticamente spazzati via ogni volta con un brevissimo Deus vult, che può andar bene una o due volte ma poi sembra diventare semplicemente la scusa dell'autrice per non scervellarsi troppo a risolverli. Inoltre l'analisi dei personaggi sfuma e si concentra solo su Sandoz e il suo travaglio spirituale. A questo punto, almeno per me, sembra diventare chiaro che lo scopo dell'autrice era parlare solo di questo: della fede in Dio da parte di Emilio. è sicuramente un oggetto lodevole ma non capisco allora la necessità di mettere in ballo un pianeta alieno quando evidentemente lo stesso scopo poteva essere raggiunto parlando di un qualsiasi evento sulla Terra. Difatti questo pianeta alieno è stato evidentemente un dramma da trattare: praticamente i contatti con i nativi locali non avvengono e non so quanto possa essere credibile che dei tizi che si fanno un viaggio di 4 anni luce per andare a visitare un pianeta, una volta arrivati lì rimangano 4 anni nello stesso posto, senza alcun vero desiderio di andare a visitare la città da dove è provenuto il segnale o semplicemente esplorare la regione (probabilmente la distruzione dell'aereo e la mancanza del combustibile per la navetta servivano ancor più allo scopo però poi non si spiega perché i personaggi rimangano a casa quando i runa vanno a scambiare le merci). Inoltre è semplicemente inspiegabile come Sandoz possa essere sopravvissuto nel viaggio di ritorno sulla terra considerate le condizioni in cui era (Deus vult di nuovo?). E che fine hanno fatto i tizi arrivati dopo Sandoz? E come è possibile che non solo i runa ma anche i ja'ata non facciano alcun commento o non si stupiscano nel vedere i terrestri (a parte Supaari che è l'unico alieno - in un pianeta pieno zeppo di alieni - ad essere analizzato!!!!)

In conclusione, l'argomento trattato - il percorso di fede di Sandoz (e specifico Sandoz perhè la fede è un percorso personale che ognuno di noi compie e giudica in maniera completamente diversa dagli altri) - è sicuramente interessante ma la scelta dell'ambientazione è completamente fuori luogo e porta difatti a continui espedienti letterari che sono fastidiosi e per nulla credibili.

Magnificent. First contact with another species provides a stunning fulcrum on which Russell can turn spirituality and faith, the essence of humanity, and all manner of weighty ideas. Nicely paced, exciting, devastating, hopeful.

I found The Sparrow a very unusual read, very satisfying. It takes place in two narratives. In one Emilio Sandoz, Jesuit Priest is introduced as a broken man after having returned from a mission. It is strongly implied that he has endured torture and is under suspicion by some of committing (initially) undisclosed heinous acts. This narrative follows Emilio as he slowly tries to recover emotionally, physically and spiritually from his experiences while at the same time having to endure an inquiry as to the events of his mission.

The second narrative follows a much younger, energetic and mystically devout Sandoz from his earliest days as a priest being sent to places such as war-torn Sudan, helping in medical missions and discovering his talent for languages, later he meets and befriends people who are all coincidentally brought together just as a signal from another star is received - a signal that sounds like choral singing. Emilio realises that miraculously the people present possess all the skills and connections to plan and launch a mission to the world of the Singers. Clearly he believes that this was meant to be: “If you find a turtle on a gatepost, it didn't get there by itself”.

The two narratives continue, slowly converging. I don't want to give anything away, but the style is slow and beautiful, tragedy when it strikes is shocking, but does not feel artificial - just sad, and it's significance appropriately reflected upon. In this it reminds me somewhat of “The Time Traveller's Wife”.

The author, when asked what she wanted readers to get out of the book replied:
“That you can't know the answer to questions of faith but that the questions are worth asking and worth thinking about deeply.”
I think that quotation very much sums the book up for me.

Thanks, Meave, for this recommendation!

About a third of the way into the book, I had to stop reading for a week. I had become so upset because I knew something bad was going to happen to characters that I had become emotionally invested( in without realizing it), that I couldn't go on. I've not had such a reaction to a book since I was a preteen (when everything is melodrama). The characters feel so real and even though this the future, it feels logical. You could see the technology in the next 10 years being there, you still felt like this was your universe. Considering this was written awhile ago and it didn't feel out of date is a plus for me. The way the story was written, going back a forth from present to past, allows you to figure out many things that are going to happen, but surprisingly adds a bit of suspense as you are waiting for the big reveal. There were a few disappointing areas that I felt deserved more attention and seemed glossed over, but the spiritual and personal growth of the characters keep you thinking and wanting more.

Just couldn't bring myself to complete this one. Got about halfway through before I decided that I'd had enough of the whole air of hopelessness. I didn't particularly like the author's handling of ‘God' issues either. Every time the topic of a character's belief in god came up, all I could think was “Oh, please, not this again!” This sparrow is flying straight into the trash-can!

“The Sparrow” is listed by io9 (http://io9.com) as one of “The Twenty Science Fiction Novels that Will Change Your Life”. The story follows the journey of a Jesuit priest, Emilio Sandoz, as he and a group of friends/associates he considers to be family make first contact with an alien species. This is a powerful story, challenging most notions of what extra terrestrial species would be like.

This is a second (or maybe third) read for me of “The Sparrow”. I've reread it this time with the sole purpose of being able to review it for Goodreads. I found the character of Emilio to be amazing. Here is a man who, growing up in a poverty ridden community, is “rescued” by a Jesuit priest. He is so influenced by D.W., he joins the Jesuits and becomes a priest. During the course of the book, he admits to never receiving a “calling” from God. In fact, he isn't even sure he is a total believer. As the events unfold to send him and his friends to the newly discovered planet, he begins to change his perception. That is, until misunderstandings and miscommunications on Rakhat take a tragic turn and he finds himself the victim of the unthinkable. The Sparrow is a story about faith gained and faith lost, packaged in a beautifully written science fiction setting.

Full review:
http://fantasycafe.blogspot.com/2008/04/review-of-sparrow.html

I lack the capacity to adequately describe this book. Russell worldbuilds with the trained eye of a sociologist, but the light touch of truly a gifted novelist. However, what really makes her work is a dedication to exploration of issues of moral complexity, grittiness, desperation and redemption.
The Sparrow is without equal.

I want to give this book 2.5 stars. I thought the first half was stellar, and the last 1/3 horrendous.

Awful...I absolutely hated this book. However, my friend, Karen, loved it, especially what she called “its spiritual overtones”! Go figure!