The Sparrow

An ambitious work, long and complex in its plotting, alternating between time periods before and after the expedition to gradually reveal the events that occurred on the alien world, though it is so slow to get going that I nearly gave up; the first third develops so slowly that I felt mired in mud as I tried to get to the meat of the story. Although spirituality and religion are key components, the long and detailed expositions of Sandoz's state of mind become repetitive and tedious.

The characters are well-drawn both physically and in personality. Their back stories are interesting and detailed, so that we can really engage with them.

There are aspects of the plot that are implausible. I winced at the description of how interstellar travel was achieved --- anyone with a passing familiarity with the rocket equation will understand why. More serious is the sheer thoughtlessness of a group of supposedly intelligent and educated protagonists in their dealings with the alien species. The harm they do is well-drawn, but the lack of awareness of the characters is not believable.

I was not convinced either by the climax which, for me, failed to deliver on the promise of the rest of the story. The sudden reveal of the relationship between the two alien species was obvious from early on, and the rationale for Sandoz's behaviour after his return was unconvincing, as was his so easy redemption.

In brief: Earth receives a signal from an alien civilization. The Jesuits (yes, those Jesuits) mount an expedition to go meet the aliens, but disaster befalls it.

Let me start with the good: the alien languages were intriguing. In one of them, one says “Someone” instead of “I”. E.g., “Someone is glad to see you” means “I am glad to see you”. This is a bit reminiscent of the way, in French, “on” (one, an indefinite person or persons) means “we”. There’s a question of declension in the book that hinges on what seems to me a fairly plausible sort of distinction a mind in another culture might make.

The alien species were interesting. I suspect that a biologist would poke all sorts of holes in Russell's descriptions, but I thought they were interesting, at least in a “Huh. I wonder if that would work” sort of way.

And of course it was interesting to see how adding religion to the mix would change things. This one goes both ways, though: on one hand, you don’t see religion a lot in science fiction, and when you do, it’s often an alien religion with a hard kernel of truth in the middle of it. If you’re expecting God to show up in The Sparrow, you’re going to be disappointed. You have people who believe in the Catholic god, and people who go through all sorts of emotions and personal development based on their belief that the Catholic god exists, but God quite pointedly stays out. This becomes significant near the end.

If you, the reader, are Catholic, that’s one thing. But for those of us on the outside, a lot of the problems seem self-inflicted. The simplest example is that of the priests, who suffer from not having a normal sex life, something they freely chose. At one point, one character has a revelation: that rape is worse than prostitution, because prostitution is consensual. Why yes, thank you. Welcome to Ethics 101. But apparently the Catholic church, obsessed as it is with sex, sees the sex act as the major determinant in whether something is sinful, eclipsing the consent part.
And speaking of which, there are some bits involving Catholic church officials dealing with sex abuse that take on a new tenor, thanks to what we now know about its practice of shielding rapists.

Moving on: the expedition itself seems more like something out of a kids’ adventure novel than, say, [b:The Martian|18007564|The Martian|Andy Weir|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1413706054s/18007564.jpg|21825181]: Spoilerit looks as though less planning has gone into an interstellar, first-contact expedition than into the Oregon Trail: they don’t even seem to have brought walkie-talkies! And the people on the trip are very definitely not astronauts.

All in all, not at all a bad story, but there are some major problems.

This was the selection for a book group. I slogged along for awhile, then whined. A friend assured me that it was worth going on -- "it will get better when they get to the planet!" It did, marginally. It was published 20 years ago. The years have not been kind to it. The concerns about sex, and the assumed gender roles seem so odd to me, especially in a book set in the future.


It's a bad idea to publish scientific articles by a brilliant, accomplished woman because she was sexually exploited as a child?!? Rescuers find the last survivor of a group of humans explorers in a brothel, in horrible health, and think he was there for kicks? A mature man hides the fact that he's gay, and it would be a big deal if it was revealed?

A big -- gasp! -- reveal on the planet is that the larger of the alien species is the females, and the males are the homebodies. Oh, but just that one species. The other one, naturally, has alpha males.

The group has a den mother, Anne Edwards. Before they leave on their journey, she's a physician working in the one clinic serving a poor community, with little help, and she comes home to cook delicious meals for groups of friends. Her retired husband doesn't appear to help. Not just any meals -- she cooks the food that her guest ate as a child in Puerto Rico, or Texas, or Istanbul, and it's always perfectly authentic and delicious.


I just felt like it lurched from howler to howler. Not least of which is that the Jesuits mount an interstellar mission to a planet.

Faith is central to the book. We have Jesuits wrestling with their faith and duty. I guess that just doesn't do much for me. Perhaps if that was more to my taste, I'd have overlooked the other things that got on my nerves.