The Sparrow

6.0 stars. This book was beautifully written and the best way I can think to describe it is emotionally devastating (but in a good way). Nominally, it is a book about "first contact" with an alien race but the heart of the story is the age old question, "How can someone believe in a just, loving God when such horrible things happen to good people?"

It has been over a year since I have read this book (in fact I just finished the sequel, Children of God), and I can still remember feeling blown away by the description of the "ordeal" of Emilio Sandoz which is central to the story. Highest Possible Recommendation !!!!



Winner: Arthur C. Clarke Award Best SF Novel
Winner: British SF Award Best Novel
Winner: Campbell Award Best New Writer
Winner: James Tiptree Award
Nominee: Locus Award Best First Novel

I wonder how it feels to be one of the thirty-one agents who rejected The Sparrow?

Oh, but I shouldn’t be so hard on hapless agents unable to recognize genius or unwilling to take a risk. It took me many years (seventeen from its date of publication, five from when I became aware of it) to pick up Mary Doria Russell’s debut novel. And four days to devour it.

The threaded narrative is split in two by time and space, but follows the story of one man: Emilio Sandoz, a Jesuit priest from Puerto Rico with preternatural linguistic abilities. In 2022, Emilio and seven other crew members board the Stella Maris to explore the recently-discovered planet Rakhat. In 2059, Emilio returns from the mission alone, physically and psychologically broken. Although nearly forty years have passed on Earth since the doomed crew embarked on their voyage, Emilio—who travelled at light speed—is fresh from the horror. Not even three years have passed in his life since the Stella Maris's departure. The story of what happened to the crew had been relayed by another mission that followed a few years behind the Stella Maris. It is horrific—or we suppose it must be— for Russell raises the tension ante by shifting back to the recent future, keeping her hand on the release valve of the truth as the storylines gradually merge. Whatever happened, Emilio isn’t telling. His hands have been mutilated, he suffers debilitating migraines, and he refuses to defend himself against terrible accusations. The Father General of the Society of Jesus, Vincenzo Guiliani, gives Emilio two months at a retreat outside Naples to heal, then the questioning will begin.

Journey is a core theme of The Sparrow and the characters undertake many. The literal journey from Earth to a distant planet is the heart of the novel’s gripping premise, but the internal journeys make it fascinating and heartbreaking. There are journeys of faith, love, marriage, and ageing; journeys that test physical limits and break the spirit. The spiritual journeys resonate and Russell’s masterful plotting enthralls.

I’ve been thinking hard about this in the days since I finished The Sparrow and I struggle to come up with more than a few titles of books that have been as holistic a reading experience, in which my every literary need and desire have been so exquisitely satisfied. I managed White Dog Fell From the Sky, Eleanor Morse, Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell, Atonement, Ian McEwan, Matterhorn, Karl Marlantes, The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco, and A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth. An eclectic mix, to be sure, but what they have in common is riveting story, characters who get under your skin, a scope awesome in size-either in research or world-building (or both) yet with deeply personal themes, and gorgeous but accessible prose. Each of these books changed me not just as a reader, but as a person. I add The Sparrow to this estimable collection.

Although I could have appreciated The Sparrow many years ago, I wonder if it would have touched me in the same way. The story caught me at a juncture of my own spiritual journey: the road that led me far from religion has crested a rise and I can see past the morass of dogma to the more orderly pursuit of theology. I am left with an inexplicable sense of beauty and hope and a renewed determination to continue my quest.

After forgoing The Sparrow for so long, why now? Well, that’s an easy one. I was gobsmacked by Mary Doria Russell’s most recent novel, Doc (review linked). If I could be this rapturous about a “western,” I was willing to follow her into science fiction. After The Sparrow, I’d follow her anywhere.

Just a sidebar about genre. I understand it’s in our genetic code to sort and classify. But it’s a damn shame to pigeonhole literary fiction with nugatory genres. How many times have I heard “Oh, I don’t really like westerns” as I’ve waxed enthusiastic about Doc in recent weeks (after moaning and groaning myself before digging into this book club pick)? More’s the pity. Ditto The Sparrow—often categorized as science fiction. I resolve henceforth to ignore simplistic classifications and explore a book based on the quality of its storytelling and prose, rather than knee-jerk a rejection because a novel is set in Dodge City, KS or on Planet Rakhat. End of soapbox. Continuation of reading bliss.

Let me be a bit real here. I was a bit anxious about reading this because it seemed to be yet another Jesuit first contact novel including aliens.

Now, let me be clear. I actually like religious ruminations when I'm in the right mood and when it's done well and when the context is backed up with solid world-building, whether local or extra-solar. Blish did it extremely well with his Jesuits and aliens. I was simply worried that this would be more of the same. Meaning of life and faith for the poor unsaved brothers from other systems kind of thing.

But actually, what I received was a prototypical near-LitSF that was erudite, humorous, full of likable and complex characters, and a full-blown excellent novel in structure, prose, and thriller-type twists.

And yes, there is also a lot about aliens, tragedy, loss of faith, and especially rape.

We know it's a tragedy before we even really begin. There are two timelines. Before. And after. The nearly saintly linguist-priest Emilio is the sole survivor of an 8-person mission to Alpha Centauri after a musical message gets decoded, luckily, by peeps bankrolled by the Vatican. He comes back mutilated, completely out of faith, calling himself the Whore of God (as in a reference to Beloved being the highest title in a harem), and who keeps everyone around him ignorant of the details.

We must learn about it the long way. But in the meantime, we're treated to present and past as others attempt to heal him and get him to talk and we're delighted by how fresh and funny and faithful he is early on.

The science bits aren't bad and Russell does a lot to keep it real, glossing over a few little issues such as power sources and stuff, but this isn't nearly as bad as some more recent LitSF titles I've read. This is actual SF with a deep and complex storyline about faith and tragedy and a really nasty surprise about the aliens. All three are intertwined.

No spoilers, but my god the end is pretty horrible. We're given a lot of great characters and characterizations, so losing them this way, and then seeing what Emilio had to go through, was damn rough.

A sparrow falling in the wood, but yet, the Father sees all, indeed.

My initial reservations were unfounded. Both atheists and the faithful can find wonderful things in here. Indeed, it's meant to be challenging as hell. And it is.

As for being a new-modern-classic for SF, I can definitely see it. Most of these other LitSF titles are lightweights in comparison.

I'm not sure this is a science fiction book at all. Mary Doria Russell is interested in first contact with native societies, and she never creates anything so science fiction-y that it couldn't equally have applied to a story about first contact on Earth. Her aliens look only marginally different, and the environment of her alien planet is Earthlike.

Approached as science fiction, her characters make inexcusable decisions. Leaving their lander without containment suits is irresponsible; they risk contaminating themselves and the natives with alien diseases. And the idea of just putting a bunch of stuff in their mouths to see if it tastes good is...unrealistic. Later on they'll cheerfully introduce agriculture and potatoes, completely destabilizing an entire society. On the story's own terms, they are morons.

But it's perfectly realistic, if not reasonable, compared to what missionaries have done on Earth. Jesuits introduced Western science to China in the 1500s, and destabilized the Huron and Iroquois societies in Canada in the 1600s.

Russell says that she conceived the story

"in 1992, as we were celebrating the 500th anniversary of Columbus's arrival in the new World. There was a great deal of historical revisionism going on as we examined the mistakes made by Europeans when they first encountered foreign cultures in the Americas and elsewhere. It seemed unfair to me for people living at the end of the 20th century to hold those explorers and missionaries to standards of sophistication and tolerance that we hardly manage even today. I wanted to show how very difficult first contact would be."

That's an interesting statement: note that she's not saying Columbus did a good job, just that she can see how he might be confused. And that's what she shows here: decent people trying to do the right thing. They do an awful job of it, and the consequences are deeply surprising and confusing to everyone.

We do now have a different perspective on first contact, and I can't imagine that a modern mission would be as foolhardy as this one is, so one does occasionally get the sense that she's cheating a little. There's a sequel to this book, and if it's true to Earth history, it will show economic forces following the missionaries with even more catastrophic results.

The Sparrow is about first contact, but it's also (and maybe more famously) about religion. Russell was born Catholic, turned atheist, and eventually converted to Judaism, so we're dealing with a person here who has legitimately wrestled with religion all her life. She grapples with it honestly here, in a no-holds-barred way that appeals to me even as an atheist who's never had need of the hypothesis at all. She's clearly sainting Emilio Sandoz, like Jean de Brebeuf and Gabriel Lalemant, who were martyred in Canada in the 1600s.

She doesn't have a great knack for characterization, so Sandoz doesn't have the same depth or interest as, say, Father Rodrigues of Shūsaku Endō's Silence, about a Jesuit priest in 17th century Japan. Rodrigues is tried by his fear. The unnamed whisky priest from Graham Greene's Power & The Glory is challenged by his weakness. Sandoz has no conflict as interesting; his major issue is that he's a moron.

That weakness in creating characters is what makes this a three-star book for me. None of the people in this book are spectacularly interesting to me. And Russell's shitty at writing their behavior; they interact with each other in a way that's frankly dorky. This book is fine.

Extremely thought provoking ...

In THE SPARROW, Mary Doria Russell has crafted a unique story in which an early 21st century SETI listening station in Puerto Rico has finally recorded proof of the existence of technologically advanced extraterrestrial life that scientists had so long been convinced was out there. But much to the world's shock, the radio waves emanating from a planet in the Alpha Centauri system are not in the expected format of mathematics or universally understood physics. Instead the world has been treated to a unique and sublime form of vocal "new age" music unlike anything our world's composers had ever conceived.

While world governments and the UN dither over an appropriate response, the Vatican and the Society of Jesus take it upon themselves to launch a manned first contact mission including Emilio Sandoz, a Jesuit priest with breathtaking linguistic abilities, an astronomer, a doctor and her husband, and a skilled computer programmer and free-thinking planner.

When Sandoz returns as the mission's sole survivor forty relativistically dilated years later, the mission de-briefing by his Jesuit superiors reveals not one, but two intelligent species, the Runa and Jana'ata, that have evolved a unique symbiotic co-existence on the planet Rakhat. Sandoz's story is a heart-breaking series of inter-woven tales - the almost insurmountable cultural and linguistic hurdles that would need to be cleared to comprehend and communicate with a sentient extra-terrestrial species; a devout priest's questioning his commitment to his God and to his vocation; and the examination of a world so thought-provokingly different that a thinking reader is forced to consider the very meaning of his own humanity.

If you enjoy soft science fiction that uses the genre to probe and question deep philosophical, cultural and anthropological issues, if you enjoyed the likes of Ursula K Le Guin's THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS or Isaac Asimov's THE GODS THEMSELVES, then you will enjoy THE SPARROW.

Highly recommended

Paul Weiss

Karanlığın Sol Eli’nin önsözünde Ursula Le Guin “düşünce deneyi” diye adlandırdığı bilimkurgu eserlerini şöyle açıklar:

"Böyle tasarlanan bir öyküde, modern romana özgü ahlaki karmaşıklıktan özveride bulunulmasına gerek olmadığı gibi, bir çıkmaz sokağa da girilmiş olunmaz; düşünce ve sezgi, sadece deneyin koşulları tarafından belirlenen sınırlar içinde (ki bu sınırlar çok geniş olabilir) özgürce hareket edebilir."

Kimi yazarlar bilimkurgunun – fantazyaların aksine – inandırıcılıktan çok fazla ödün vermeden kendilerine sağladığı bu avantajı, toplumsal meseleler üzerinde kullanarak şahane eserlere imza attılar.  Gerçi neredeyse bütün bilimkurgu eserlerinde sosyal bir alt metin bulmak mümkün olsa da, tamamen bunun üzerine yoğunlaşan ve sosyal bilimkurgu diye adlandırılmış bir de alt tür mevcut.

İşte Mary Doria Russell’ın 31 kez reddedildikten sonra 1996’da yayınlatabildiği, En İyi Roman dalında British Science Fiction Association ve Arthur C. Clarke ödüllerini alan ilk romanı Serçe, bence sosyal bilimkurgunun en iyi örneklerinden biri.

İlk Temas

Serçe’nin hikayesi görünürde basit bir soruya dayanmakta: “Uzayda bir yerlerde bilinç sahibi bir tür keşfetseydik, onları ziyarete gittiğimizde neler olurdu?”. Bilimkurgu eserlerinde görmeye alışkın olduğumuz şey ilk adımın genellikle uzaylılardan gelmesidir, ancak Russell’ın tercih ettiği yola da yabancı sayılmayız. Zaten Serçe’yi etkileyici bir roman yapan da kurgusunun veya olay örgüsünün marifeti değil. Uzaylılarla ilk temas gibi sık işlenen bir temayı araç olarak kullanan yazar aslında hikayenin temeline tanrı inancı gibi bambaşka bir konuyu yerleştirmiş. Russell’ın oldukça tehlikeli sayılabilecek, kolaylıkla birçok kişinin tepkisini çekebileceği böyle zor bir konudan başarıyla ayrılmasını sağlayan ise iyi yazılmış karakterleri, özellikle de olayların merkezinde yer alan kahramanımız Emilio Sandoz.

Serçe farklı zaman dilimlerinde geçen ve paralel olarak okuduğumuz iki ayrı anlatı üzerinden ilerliyor. Aralarında 40 sene bulunan bu iki anlatının da başrolünde dilbilimci Cizvit rahip Emilio Sandoz var. Ama ortak nokta neredeyse bu kadar, çünkü yan karakterlerin yanı sıra hikayelerin tonu da baya farklı.

Tanrının Şanını Yüceltmek İçin

İlk zaman dilimi 2019 yılında başlıyor. Porto Riko’daki Arecibo Radyo Teleskopu çalışanlarından biri Alfa Centauri’den alınan bir sinyali fark eder ve sinyali incelediğinde bunun bir şarkı olduğu anlaşılır. Anlamadığımız bir dilde bilmediğimiz enstrümanlarla çalınmıştır ama sonuçta akıllı bir yaşam formu tarafından ortaya konduğu açıktır. Bu buluşunu önce en yakın arkadaşlarıyla paylaşır, aralarında Emilio Sandoz’un da bulunduğu bu arkadaş grubu daha sonra Rakhat adı verilecek gezegene giden ekibin de parçası olacaktır.

Bu keşif kısa sürede hem Birleşmiş Milletlere hem de Cizvit -veya bilinen başka adlarıyla İsa Cemiyeti, İsa’nın Askerleri- yöneticilerine haber verilir. Lakin kitabın önsözünde de söylendiği gibi “Birleşmiş Milletlerin yıllar harcayarak aldığı kararı, İsa Cemiyeti sadece 10 günde almıştır”. Zira Cizvitlerin kuruluşlarından beri esas aldıkları bir amaçları vardır: Ad Majorem dei Gloriam, Tanrının şanını yüceltmek için.

Bu noktada belirtmem gerekiyor ki kitaba başlamadan önce Cizvitler hakkında çok az bilgiye sahiptim. Dolayısıyla romanı okurken kendilerini gerçek değil de kurgusal bir teşkilat olarak kabul ettim, böylece yazarın verdiği bilgilerin doğruluğu hakkında şüpheye düşmeme de gerek kalmadı. Zaten bütün yolculuk bir Cizvit girişimi olarak anlatılsa da Russell hikayeyi tek bir dine sıkıştırmamış, yolculuğa çıkan mürettebatı çeşitlendirip romanın odak noktasına Tanrı inancını koyarak evrenselleştirebilmiş. Yine de çeşitli yerlerde bazı Hristiyan ve Yahudi inanışlarına yapılan atıflar var, bunları bilmemek okura çok bir şey kaybettirmeyecektir belki ama ufak bir internet araştırmasıyla öğrenilemeyecek şeyler de değiller.

8 kişiden oluşan mürettebatta Emilio Sandoz dışında biri müzikolog, biri doğa bilimci ve biri de eski pilot olan üç Cizvit rahibi, mühendis George Edwards ve antropoloji eğitimi almış tıp doktoru karısı Anne, keşfi ilk yapan gökbilimci Jimmy Quinn ve son olarak da yapay zeka adaptasyonu üzerinde uzmanlaşmış Sofia Mendes var. Yani bir uzay yolculuğunda ihtiyaç duyulabilecek neredeyse bütün ihtisaslara ekipte yer verilmiş. Mary Doria Russell’ın kemik biyolojisi ve biyomekanik konusunda uzman bir paleo-antropolog olup mühendis bir eşe sahip olması ona bu kadar geniş yelpazede karakterler yaratmasında büyük kolaylık sağlamış olmalı.

Karakterlerin çeşitliliği yalnızca meslekleriyle sınırlı kalmıyor çünkü Edwards çiftinden biri ateist diğeri Katolik yetiştirilmiş bir agnostikken Sofia ise İstanbul’da büyümüş bir Yahudi. Farklı inanışların varlığı sayesinde Russell’ın okura sormak istediği sorular doğal bir şekilde karakterlerin ağzından çıkabiliyor. Bir yerde Yahudilik ve Hristiyanlıktaki ibadet şekillerini kıyaslarken bir başka yerde ise “Tanrı varsa dünyada neden bu kadar kötülük var?” sorusuyla karşılaşabiliyoruz. Ama Serçe kesinlikle bir din eleştirisi ya da güzellemesi değil. Yazar etliye sütlüye dokunmayayım demek yerine biraz kısıtlı fakat hiçbiri öbüründen üstün gösterilmeyen farklı bakış açıları sunarak kararı okura bırakıyor.

Romandaki gizemi bozmamak için olayların Rakhat’ta geçen bölümü hakkında pek fazla bir şey söylemeyeceğim. Russell’ın biyolojik olarak insana benzeyen Runa ve Jana’ata adındaki iki bilinçli tür ile kurduğu politik ve ekolojik sistem ile bunun üzerinden yaptığı insanlık eleştirisi oldukça hoşuma gitti. Kitapta din teması daha ön planda olsa da yazarın antropoloji alanında yaptığı akademik kariyeri burada etkilerini göstermiş.

Serçe Yine de Düşer

Romanın ikinci anlatısı ise Rakhat yolculuğunun sonrasında geçiyor. Kitabın daha ilk bölümünde yolculuktan geriye yalnızca Emilio Sandoz’un dönebildiğini öğreniyoruz. Sandoz’un içinde bulunduğu ruhsal ve fiziksel enkaz yolculuğun büyük bir felaketle sonuçlandığının en büyük göstergesi. Tabi yıllar önce gönderilen ekibe ne olduğunu anlamak için Rakhat’a gidip yalnızca perişan bir durumdaki Sandoz’u bulan Birleşmiş Milletler çalışanlarının gönderdiği raporlar da cabası. 2059’da başlayan bu hikayede ötekine kıyasla çok daha karamsar bir hava var. Bir yandan Cizvit yetkililer Sandoz’un başına neler geldiğini öğrenmeye çalışırken bir yandan da Sandoz kendi başına gelenleri anlamlandırmak için çaba gösteriyor. Özellikle beğendiğim bir nokta da paralel ilerleyen bölümler sayesinde birinci zaman dilimindeki bazı olayların ikinci anlatıda Sandoz’un ağzından aktarılması oldu. Yazar böyle anlarda okuru kısmen yaşananların dışına yerleştirerek olayları daha açık bir şekilde değerlendirmemizi kolaylaştırmış.

Russell anlattığı iki hikaye arasında dengeyi güzel yakalamış. İlk sayfalarda bize vadedilen büyük olay romanın son sayfalarına dek bizden saklansa da gerilim ve merak duygusu neredeyse hiç kaybolmuyor. Okurun final için beklentilerinin bu şekilde yükseltilmesi ne derece doğru bilmiyorum ama en azından ben finali yeterli buldum. Romanın bana göre en önemli kısımları olan Emilio ile diğer karakterler arasındaki felsefi sohbetler, karakterlerin derinliği ve yazarın kullanmaktan çekinmediği mizahi dil sayesinde sırıtmıyor, sıkıcı olmadan keyifle okunuyor. Yazar başta Sofia Mendes olmak üzere yan karakterlere de oldukça özen göstermiş, yaptıkları ve söyledikleri şeylerin arkasındaki motivasyonu anlayabiliyoruz.

Gelgelelim bu kadar övmüş olsam da Serçe kusursuz bir eser değil. İlk olarak kitabın bilimsel konularda inandırıcılıktan uzak olduğunu söylemem lazım. Yabancı bir türle ilk kez iletişim kuracak ekibin zahmet harcamadan belirlenip çok az eğitim alarak bu göreve gönderilmesi veya bu gezegene iniş gerçekleştiğinde de hemen hemen hiç zorluk yaşamadan ortama uyum sağlamaları gözüme batan bazı şeyler. Bilimkurgu eserlerinin bilimsel gerçeklere sıkı sıkıya bağlı kalması gerektiğini düşünmüyorum, hele Serçe gibi bilimkurgu tarafı geri planda olan bir eserden bunu beklemek haksızlık. Yine de ufak tefek değişikliklerle daha tatmin edici olunabilirmiş.

Kitabın bir diğer sıkıntısıysa gerekenden fazla uzun olması. Russell Serçe’yi yazmaya başladığında aklında bir öykü varmış fakat daha sonra karakterleri zenginleştirerek bir romana dönüştürebileceğini fark etmiş. Ne var ki romanın bazı kısımları hikayeye bir katkıda bulunmadığı gibi bende de sanki sadece kitabı biraz daha uzatabilmek amacıyla yazılmış izlenimi uyandırdı. Keşke bunları okumak yerine Rakhat ve sakinleri hakkında daha fazla bilgi alabilseydik. Devam kitabı olan Tanrının Çocukları’nın bu konuda daha doyurucu olacağını umut ediyorum.

Çeviri ve Editörlük

Kitabın çevirisinin yetersiz olduğuyla alakalı yorumlar okumuştum. Açıkçası korktuğum kadar kötü olmasa da Emil Keyder’in Türkçeleştirdiği romanın “çeviri koktuğu” söylenebilir. Okurken çok fazla rahatsız olmadım ama kitabı bitirdikten sonra orijinal metinle karşılaştırdığımda gördüm ki Keyder çeşitli yerlerde anlamı korumak kaydıyla cümleleri basitleştirmekten, hatta tamamen değiştirmekten kaçınmamış. Bu da ortaya daha düz bir anlatım çıkmasına sebep olmuş. Bir de orijinalinde “notebook and stylus” olarak geçen ifadenin önce alakasız bir şekilde “defter ve kalem” diye çevrilip birkaç sayfa sonra sadece “notebook”a dönüşmesi bir an aklımı karıştırdı doğrusu.

Kitabın künyesinde bir editör adı yer almıyor. Ama bir Metis kitabından bekleneceği gibi gözüme çarpan bir imla hatası olmadı. Bununla birlikte daha önce bahsettiğim dini atıflar kısa dipnotlarla okura açıklansaydı çok daha güzel olabilirdi.

Kitabın kapağında kullanılan El Greco imzalı Cizvit şair Hortensio Félix Paravicino portresinin de kitaba pek yakıştığını düşünmüyorum. Diğer dillerdeki baskıların birçoğunda olduğu gibi gökyüzü temasının vurgulandığı bir kapağı tercih ederdim.

Serçe, özellikle doğru beklentilerle okunmaya başlanırsa, okura başta inanç olmak üzere çeşitli konularda sunduğu felsefi tartışmalarıyla birçok kişiyi memnun edecektir. Hazır Metis Yayınları uzun bir aradan sonra devam kitabı Tanrının Çocukları’nı da Türkçeye kazandırmışken, bilimkurguya ilginiz olsun olmasın sizi düşünmeye sevk edecek kitaplardan zevk alıyorsanız Serçe’ye mutlaka şans vermelisiniz.

***

Bu inceleme ilk olarak Aralık 2016'da Kayıp Rıhtım'da yayınlanmıştı, o günden bu yana bir okur olarak çok değiştim ama denk gelince buraya da taşıyayım dedim. Link: http://kayiprihtim.com/inceleme/serce...

4.5 stars.

n  "Matthew ten, verse twenty-nine: Not one sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it."

"But the sparrow still falls.”n

The Sparrow is a multi-award-winning science fiction novel about first contact. After reading it, I could understand why. I came across this title over two separate occasions. First was when a friend recommended it to me many years ago, but I've forgotten about it. And then it was mentioned in the Great Course audiobook for How Great Science Fiction Works, which I've recently finished, under the sub-topic of 'Religion in Science Fiction'. The context in which The Sparrow was discussed in that Course finally tipped me over to pick it up.

The Sparrow was predominantly a story about a Jesuit priest named Emilio Sandoz over two timelines. One was when the SETI Programme at Arecibo picked up signals from the Alpha Centauri region of space in the form of music and singing. A secret space expedition led by Jesuit priests was sent forth to locate the source of these signals, which turned out to be a planet called Rakhat. The second timeline was about 40 years later, when Emilio Sandoz, a linguist, was recovered back to Earth as the sole survivor of the expedition and had to undergo inquisition as to what really happened on Rakhat. At first glance, this may seem confusing. However, I found the narrative flow between the past and current timelines to work really well. The past timeline introduced us to the characters who were part of the space expedition. It took almost a quarter of the book before the signal was discovered. Thus, building upon the characters, first and foremost. At this juncture, the current narrative mainly showed Father Sandoz suffering extreme trauma of what happened on Rakhat, and finding it immensely difficult to cooperate with the inquisition.

The narrative was wholly engaging from two key points. One, it is highly character-driven for the reader to know and understand the different individuals on the space expedition - their contribution or value to the mission, and most importantly, how much they mean to each other. Sandoz got the most character development out of them all, for obvious reasons; to truly understand the extent of the horrors of what he endured. To say that I greatly sympathise with him seemed an understatement. Sandoz's characterisation, his backstory, and how he developed his faith in and love for God, is very significant in establishing why he is suffering so terribly now. Besides him, I also found most of the other characters to be well-written and likeable. The more I got to know them, the sadder I was with the knowledge that none but Sandoz survived.

The second point was how the storytelling kept by my curiosity piqued throughout the novel. Part of Sandoz's suffering does manifest physically, and I needed to know what it was and why. The current timeline also reported a heinous crime committed by Sandoz which was contradictory to his character that it begged to be explained. The pacing was by no means brisk but I found myself enjoying the experience of reading this thought-provoking book. That the author is an anthropologist comes across quite clearly in the narrative. In her own words, her key interest in writing The Sparrow was "not to highlight technological changes and differences, but continuity across vast swaths of time and the commonalities that unite us - hence, the centrality of both music and religion in my story." However, let me forewarn any readers who may pick up this book with the idea of getting a wonderfully moving story about beautiful music across the stars, etc. While the music may be one of the central themes, it did not feature heavily in the narrative. Even more crucially, the revelation about the source of music from this planet was frightful. Beauty, after all, lies in the eyes of the beholder. And in this case, the beholders are entirely alien and foreign to humanity.

The more apparent central theme of religion was wondrously developed, however, particularly on the fundamental question of existence. Again, I'll let the author's own words from the Afterword speak for itself.

n  "What is a life worth living, and what is a life wasted, and why? What is worth dying for, what is worth living for, and why? What shall I teach my child to value, and what shall I urge that child to avoid, and why? What am I owed by others and what do I owe others, and why? Each human culture provides a different set of answers to those questions, but deity is nearly always embedded in the Why."n

This much-disdained genre amongst the literary circles has so much more to offer aside from space operas and cyberpunk fiction (which I also love). With excellent novels like The Sparrow, I'm learning to appreciate the layered subtleties of great science fiction writing better.

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I really loathed this book, I think because it was such a lazy piece of work. The characters had absolutely no clue, no situational awareness of what was going on around them. A real astronaut, hell, Captain Picard himself would never have made the bonehead moves these characters make in a first contact situation, and then--then! to have one of them kidnapped and sold into sexual slavery? Are you KIDDING me? Any scientist, no, make that anyone who made it through freshman biology could have told Russell that it is a mathematical impossibility that two species that evolved separately on planets lightyears apart would never be able to physically copulate, let alone rape for pleasure. This was sheer sensationalism, designed specifically to appeal to the voyeur in us all.

I really loathed this book. Having said that (again) she knows how to write, and perhaps will be able to construct a convincing narrative on another topic. But she should definitely stay away from sf. At least until she's seen a couple of episodes of "Star Trek."