The Sparrow - Mary Doria Russell

9	Listal rating

Manufacturer : Ballantine Books
Release date : 8 September 1997
ISBN-10 : 0449912558 | ISBN-13 : 9780449912553

Sci-fi (2), Arthur C. Clarke Award (1), Speculative Fiction (1), Swap Shelf (1), James Tiptree Jr. Award (1), BSFA Award (1), 5/08 (1), Fiction (1), Science Fiction (1), TBR (1)

Description

Product DescriptionONE OF ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY'S TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR"A NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENT . . . Russell shows herself to be a skillful storyteller who subtly and expertly builds suspense."--USA Today"AN EXPERIENCE NOT TO BE MISSED . . . If you have to send a group of people to a newly discovered planet to cont Product Description
ONE OF ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY'S TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR

"A NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENT . . . Russell shows herself to be a skillful storyteller who subtly and expertly builds suspense."
--USA Today

"AN EXPERIENCE NOT TO BE MISSED . . . If you have to send a group of people to a newly discovered planet to contact a totally unknown species, whom would you choose? How about four Jesuit priests, a young astronomer, a physician, her engineer husband, and a child prostitute-turned-computer-expert? That's who Mary Doria Russell sends in her new novel, The Sparrow. This motley combination of agnostics, true believers, and misfits becomes the first to explore the Alpha Centuri world of Rakhat with both enlightening and disastrous results. . . . Vivid and engaging . . . An incredible novel."
--Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

"POWERFUL . . . Father Emilio Sandoz [is] the only survivor of a Jesuit mission to the planet Rakhat, 'a soul . . . looking for God.' We first meet him in Italy . . . sullen and bitter. . . . But he was not always this way, as we learn through flashbacks that tell the story of the ill-fated trip. . . . The Sparrow tackles a difficult subject with grace and intelligence."
--San Francisco Chronicle

"SMOOTH STORYTELLING AND GORGEOUS CHARACTERIZATION . . . Important novels leave deep cracks in our beliefs, our prejudices, and our blinders. The Sparrow is one of them."
--Entertainment Weekly

SELECTED BY THE BOOK-OF-THE-MONTH CLUB

Amazon.com Review
In 2019, humanity finally finds proof of extraterrestrial life when a listening post in Puerto Rico picks up exquisite singing from a planet which will come to be known as Rakhat. While United Nations diplomats endlessly debate a possible first contact mission, the Society of Jesus quietly organizes an eight-person scientific expedition of its own. What the Jesuits find is a world so beyond comprehension that it will lead them to question the meaning of being "human." When the lone survivor of the expedition, Emilio Sandoz, returns to Earth in 2059, he will try to explain what went wrong... Words like "provocative" and "compelling" will come to mind as you read this shocking novel about first contact with a race that creates music akin to both poetry and prayer.

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Written by

Mary Doria Russell

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Ratings of The Sparrow

9/10
3 global ratings

JJones

nataliegoes

johnnysoko

7
want this

Mari

slux

Ungar D

Big Mo

Reviews of The Sparrow - View all - Post review

nataliegoes

Blew My Mind

Posted : 2 years, 3 months ago at Aug 22 8:15

Are you open minded? Read this book and find out for sure. In the future the first interplanetary mission is funded by the Jesuits. The team is made up of Jesuits and non-religious specialists. Only one priest survives to tell the tale. The philosophical quandaries that develop make the reader think and see things from many different angles. I particularly like the fact there are no "bad guys", just everybody doing what they think is right, and that which will benefit themselves. This is the second time I have read this book (and I almost never do that) and it was as good the second time around. If I have any problems with this book it is that everybody is too likable, but maybe that only serves to make the outcome more intriguing.

Rating : 9/10

1 comments

JJones

Review

Posted : 2 years, 5 months ago at Jun 10 8:51

Beginning in the year 2059 the story cuts between past and present. Father Emilio Sandoz is a reformed no hoper with a great capacity for languages. He is the sole survivor of a failed mission to the planet Rahkat. The mission was funded by some sort of Jesuit HQ, to investigate beautiful music heard on this planet. It’s thought that such music must have been made by an intelligent life form. Very lively and imaginative.

Rating : 8/10

0 comments