Product Description

Combining elements of science fiction and spiritual philosophy, this novel is a tale of the devastating consequences of a scientific mission to make contact with an extraterrestrial culture.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30757 in Books
• Published on: 1997-11-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 512 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
This strange, ambitious science fiction novel has already won enough attention for its first-time author to make it a selection by both the Book of the Month and QPB clubs. Father Emilio Sandoz, a Jesuit linguist, heads a team of scientists and explorers on an expedition to the planet Rakhat, where contact has been established with two apparently primitive races, the Runa and the Jana'ata. The narrative shifts back and forth between 2016, when contact is first made, and 2060, to a Vatican inquest interrogating the maimed and broken Sandoz. A palaeoanthropologist, Russell makes the descriptions of the inhabitants of Rakhat both convincing and unsettling.

From the Back Cover
'After the first exquisite songs were intercepted by radio telescope, UN diplomats debated long and hard whether and why human resources should be expended in an attempt to reach the world that would become known as Rakhat. In the Rome offices of the Society of Jesus, the questions were not whether or why but how soon the mission could be attempted and whom to send. The Jesuit scientists went to Rakhat to learn, not to proselytize. They went so that they might come to know and love God's other children. They went for the reason Jesuits have always gone to the farthest frontiers of human exploration. They went for the greater glory of God. They meant no harm.'

Taking you on an extraordinary journey to a distant planet and to the very centre of the human soul, Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow is an astonishing literary debut - a powerful, haunting and exciting novel about the nature of faith and what it means to be 'human'.

About the Author
Mary Doria Russell
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.

Customer Reviews

Learning to fly...
Mary Doria Russell's novel, 'The Sparrow', is a truly interesting mix of theology and science fiction. Prior to this novel, Russell had only ever written scientific and technical manuals, which makes her prose style and story telling all the more remarkable, as a hidden talent becomes unveiled.

The story follows close the journey of Father Emilio Sandoz, a Jesuit with a facility for language, and an emptiness in his soul. Set in the near future when near-earth space travel has become if not commonplace at least not unusual, the SETI listening post near Father Emilio's parish post discovers a signal from the nearby star system.

While nations debate and plan an exploratory trip, the Jesuit order (well known historically for missionary work) get their own trip underway, with a crew of Jesuits and laypersons each with differing expertise (one in musicology, as the transmission seem musical; and so forth). They arrive on a planet (Rakhat) with two dominant species (the Runa and the Jana'ata), and an intricate society dependent upon certain inter-species realities that the human visitors come to find unethical (yet not really basing this judgment on more than cursory research and observation).

Russell presents this as an adventure and a tragedy; as members of the expedition die off one by one for various causes, Father Emilio is left alone and injured and ill-used by those he came to embrace as friends. A second expedition arrives from earth and rescues Father Emilio; the whole tale is told in the manner of flashback while the Jesuits investigate what went wrong. Thus, there are two narrative lines running simultaneously--the unfolding story on Rakhat, and the unfolding trauma and resolution of Father Emilio.

Russell, raised a catholic yet a convert to Judaism, writes with sensitivity and realism about the Jesuit order, the church, and about the will of God in general. According to Russell, 'When you convert to Judaism in a post-Holocaust world, you know two things for sure: one is that being Jewish can get you killed; the other is that God won't rescue you. That was the theology I was dealing with at the time.'

This is a glimpse into human nature as well as a good science fiction story; many of Russell's situations will be unnerving, and the conclusion very disturbing. Yet, I feel there is something dishonest about the 'everything-works-out-in-the-end-for-everyone' kind of science fiction which is our usual lot today; this book doesn't end on hopelessness, but there is a good dose of reality here, and this honest makes the story all the more credible.

Only the Human Aspects of SF Make It Interesting!
I am a true blue, dyed in the wood science fiction fan. But only if the fiction relates to the way science affects human beings. A tech/tech novel may be interesting to a very few but a book like this one takes s/f to it's true heights. Is it technically flawed? Perhaps. Slightly. Is is a true human drama? Oh yes!

The effect of science, first contact and exploration on the religious mind and attitude is not explored enough in science fiction (or other fiction for that matter). What are the tests of faith? What will it mean to encounter societies that are both ecologically balanced and culturally advanced in ways we cannot imagine?

There was one reviewer who criticised the book for the huge impact a small group had on a larger population must not have read his history. Think of the Conquistadores in Mexico. Think of the Portugese in Japan. Think of the British in Ireland! It doesn't take much for a more technologically advanced and ideologically cohesive to make major inroads into a small and widely scattered population. Things were very different when the explorers reached the real top of the food chain!

As for the quibble of the Vatican making great strides in putting together a space exploration crew in 60 years: We went from the flight at Kitty Hawk to the Moon landing in about the same period of time. Such criticisms show that the reviewer did not understand the real heart of the book.

I thought the book (and its sequel) so well done that I both look forward to and dread the coming movie adaptation. And cannot help but wonder how the "Church" will react to it. It should be interesting! And that's what's most important in a book. This is a book to expand your thoughts --science fiction fan, religious fiction fan or just plain fan of good fiction!

A strange story
This was one of the most original and odd sci fi stories I have ever read. Set in the near future an planet is discovered which has evidence of superior intelligent alien life and as the nations discuss this the Jesuits organisation organise a manned mission there to make first contact and probably spread Christianity into Space.

It starts off very slowly and told through flashbacks. It takes until page 200 or so before the mission takes off. So could have done with a bit more editing there but the ending was so moving and disturbing that its worth hanging on for. But not an easy read. Worth a go though.