OK, my aim in this blog is give my opinions about the books I've read. I don't have to be impartial and I don't want to give too much away in case I ruin the read, but I could go on for hours about these two books.
About the Author
Mary Doria Russell is a former anatomist and lives in Cleveland, Ohio, with her husband and their son. She has studied six languages, trained as a paleoanthropologist and is the author of scientific papers ranging from bone biology to cannibalism, Mary Doria Russell's first novel, The Sparrow, won the 1996 James Tiptree Award, the 1998 BSFA Award and the 1998 Arthur C. Clarke Award. Dr Russell has also won the Cleveland Arts Council Prize for Literature and the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer of Science Fiction. Her second novel, Children of God, is the sequel to The Sparrow.
The Sparrow
About the Author
Mary Doria Russell is a former anatomist and lives in Cleveland, Ohio, with her husband and their son. She has studied six languages, trained as a paleoanthropologist and is the author of scientific papers ranging from bone biology to cannibalism, Mary Doria Russell's first novel, The Sparrow, won the 1996 James Tiptree Award, the 1998 BSFA Award and the 1998 Arthur C. Clarke Award. Dr Russell has also won the Cleveland Arts Council Prize for Literature and the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer of Science Fiction. Her second novel, Children of God, is the sequel to The Sparrow.
The Sparrow
Back in the late 90's I used to spend many a happy half hour in Books Etc in Victoria St SW1 before going to begin a night shift in City Hall (sadly Books Etc is now a clothes shop). For a chain bookshop Books Etc had a good range of all kinds of books and the SciFi section wasn't bad. I'd seen this book "The Sparrow" on the shelves for weeks before I finally picked it up. I had initially been put off by the cover which I thought looked like something spiritual rather than something SciFi. I was both right and wrong but for the next couple of days I couldn't put The Sparrow down.
From Wikipedia:
"The novel begins in the year 2019, when the SETI program, at the Arecibo Observatory, picks up radio broadcasts of music from the vicinity of Alpha Centauri. The first expedition to Rakhat, the world that is sending the music, is organized by the Jesuit order."
I was amused by the fact that when these radio signals were first detected the whole world was arguing about who should go to investigate. Meanwhile, quietly, the Vatican organises and sends a mission lead by missionaries as they presume that the music from Rakhat is religious.
Another point in the story that amused me greatly was that when first contact was actually made, the crew were listening to Van Halen being pumped loudly from the lander.
The Sparrow is set in two time frames, one before the mission to Rakhat and one after it has returned. The plot development is excellent, and Russell builds a rich set of characters that I really felt as though I knew. (Once when travelling on the tube home from work I read that two of them had suddenly died, I nearly burst into tears). Emilio Sandoz, a Jesuit priest, is the main character and in the earlier time frame you see him as a young, vibrant man whilst in the second time frame he has visibly aged and is physically and mentally damaged. I couldn't put the book down because I needed to know so badly what had happened to change someone so radically. When I eventually found out I actually had to put the book down and think about it for 5 minutes as I was so shocked...
Don't let that put you off, the terrible event really is awful, but it is essential to the book. The Sparrow isn't just a good story, it is also a tale about faith, spirituality, morality, love and suffering. It is also about how misunderstanding and a clash of faith and cultures can have truly dramatic consequences.
Children of God is the sequel to The Sparrow and this time the story picks up with Sandoz's recovery and a return mission to Rakhat. To properly appreciate this novel you need to have read The Sparrow, as most of the real action in Children of God takes place on Rakhat and involves the survivors of the first mission, the crew of the second mission and the two intelligent species on Rakhat - the Jana'ata and the Runa. I loved the book, but it wasn't the roller-coaster ride that The Sparrow was.
If you are put off by the SciFi tag, don't be. I believe that SciFi is, just like any other genre, a story about people. All that SciFi does is put the story on a grander scale. If you do read SciFi already, well done, I think it makes for more accepting and broader minded people.
Praise for The Sparrow:
"It is science fiction brought back to the project with which it began in the
hands of a writer like Jules Verne: the necessity of wonder, the hope
for moral rectitude, and the possibility of belief."
--America
"The Sparrow tackles a difficult subject with grace and intelligence."
--San Francisco Chronicle
"The Sparrow is an incredible novel, for one reason. Though it is
set in the early twenty-first century, it is not written like most science
fiction. Russell's novel is driven by her characters, by their complex
relationships and inner conflicts, not by aliens or technology."
--Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
"It is rare to find a book about interplanetary exploration that has this
much insight into human nature and foresight into a possible future."
--San Antonio Express News
Praise for Children of God:
"...a tragic, haunting parable about moral justice that miraculously avoids all of the usual clichés and even subverts some of them. Here, for a change, is a sequel that counts."
-- Entertainment Weekly, Tom De Haven
"Russell succeeds in painting an alien culture with remarkably detailed verisimilitude."""
-- The New York Times Book Review, Jim Gladstone
Interview on YouTube with Mary Doria Russell
From Wikipedia:
"The novel begins in the year 2019, when the SETI program, at the Arecibo Observatory, picks up radio broadcasts of music from the vicinity of Alpha Centauri. The first expedition to Rakhat, the world that is sending the music, is organized by the Jesuit order."
I was amused by the fact that when these radio signals were first detected the whole world was arguing about who should go to investigate. Meanwhile, quietly, the Vatican organises and sends a mission lead by missionaries as they presume that the music from Rakhat is religious.
Another point in the story that amused me greatly was that when first contact was actually made, the crew were listening to Van Halen being pumped loudly from the lander.
The Sparrow is set in two time frames, one before the mission to Rakhat and one after it has returned. The plot development is excellent, and Russell builds a rich set of characters that I really felt as though I knew. (Once when travelling on the tube home from work I read that two of them had suddenly died, I nearly burst into tears). Emilio Sandoz, a Jesuit priest, is the main character and in the earlier time frame you see him as a young, vibrant man whilst in the second time frame he has visibly aged and is physically and mentally damaged. I couldn't put the book down because I needed to know so badly what had happened to change someone so radically. When I eventually found out I actually had to put the book down and think about it for 5 minutes as I was so shocked...
Don't let that put you off, the terrible event really is awful, but it is essential to the book. The Sparrow isn't just a good story, it is also a tale about faith, spirituality, morality, love and suffering. It is also about how misunderstanding and a clash of faith and cultures can have truly dramatic consequences.
Children of God
If you are put off by the SciFi tag, don't be. I believe that SciFi is, just like any other genre, a story about people. All that SciFi does is put the story on a grander scale. If you do read SciFi already, well done, I think it makes for more accepting and broader minded people.
Praise for The Sparrow:
"It is science fiction brought back to the project with which it began in the
hands of a writer like Jules Verne: the necessity of wonder, the hope
for moral rectitude, and the possibility of belief."
--America
"The Sparrow tackles a difficult subject with grace and intelligence."
--San Francisco Chronicle
"The Sparrow is an incredible novel, for one reason. Though it is
set in the early twenty-first century, it is not written like most science
fiction. Russell's novel is driven by her characters, by their complex
relationships and inner conflicts, not by aliens or technology."
--Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
"It is rare to find a book about interplanetary exploration that has this
much insight into human nature and foresight into a possible future."
--San Antonio Express News
Praise for Children of God:
"...a tragic, haunting parable about moral justice that miraculously avoids all of the usual clichés and even subverts some of them. Here, for a change, is a sequel that counts."
-- Entertainment Weekly, Tom De Haven
"Russell succeeds in painting an alien culture with remarkably detailed verisimilitude."""
-- The New York Times Book Review, Jim Gladstone
Interview on YouTube with Mary Doria Russell
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