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Thoughts on: The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell
What a fabulous, fabulous, FABULOUS start to the new reading year. I’ve been waiting for years to read The Sparrow and I was so pleased that it was as wonderful as everyone who recommended it to me said it would be. And to have Sci Fi elements in it when I told you guys 2011 would be my year for Sci Fi? I must be dreaming.
Don’t wake me.
The Sparrow was riding on the backs of tonnes of positive reviews, but one thing that irked me as I deliberated whether or not to purchase a copy, was no matter how intensive the review, the story never seemed to be told. The blurbs, whether snatched from the back of its latest published cover, or created via the original skill of the book blogger, seemed defiantly mysterious. It frustrated me to no end. And now I’m going to frustrate you by doing the same thing.
Here is what you need to know:
The year is 2019, and life on another planet has managed to broadcast their brand of haunting, soulful music light years away, audible to those on Earth who are willing to search for it. A team of people come together to form a spaceship expedition to this distant planet, not really knowing what to expect and quite frankly, are ill-prepared for what they do find. The novel flits between the era of 2019 and 2060, but of course, time is very much different when you’re travelling light years from home. Nestled within the story of these star-crossed voyagers is love, hope, life, death, desolation and redemption – it’s still stuck in my head from yesterday and I suspect I will think about it often throughout the coming week.
If you worry that this is all sounding a little too weird and futuristic for you, fear not. If anything, The Sparrow is a beautifully-written religious parable where the characters stand in the face of unimaginable beauty and unimaginable tragedy, and try to find in both of these, the existence of God. It is clearly easier to find His existence in one particular face, much harder in the other.
As someone who is still not sure whether she can properly handle hardcore science fiction novels where the dialogues appear more to be equations than conversations, I cherished reading this novel. Cherished it for its philosophical scope and the love between the characters, who, having travelled to a distant planet and experiencing things beyond belief, became all the more human for it.
Highly, highly recommended.
***
Year of First Publication: 1996
Year of This Publication: 1997
Number of Pages: 502
Book Challenges: The Chunkster Challenge 2011; 2011 Futuristic Sci Fi Reading Challenge
Tags: book review, mary doria russell, the sparrow
January 13th, 2011 at 9:29 pm
I loved this one too. So complex and, as you said, ‘philosophical’. The sequel Children of God is also very good… not as good as The Sparrow but still a very decent read and it’s good to discover how things panned out.
January 14th, 2011 at 3:23 pm
I have Children of God on my TBR list, Cath… I am excited to hear that it is a decent read, too – I was wondering!