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The Sparrow | 
 enlarge | Author: Mary Doria Russell
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
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Rating:  459 reviews
Sales Rank: 7427
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 448
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.6 x 1
ISBN: 0449912558
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780449912553
ASIN: 0449912558
Publication Date: September 8, 1997
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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.
Product Description
"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
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| Customer Reviews: Read 454 more reviews...
True science fiction literature -- at last! November 19, 2008
There are few science fiction novels that are also great works of literature. "The Sparrow" fits this category and even manages to add a new element to the mix: theology. Russell is not only a smooth storyteller, she is also a knowledgeable one, explaining everything from interstellar space travel to evolutionary convergence in a comprehensible manner.
The characters, particularly Anne Edwards, Emilio Sandoz and Sofia Mendez , were wonderfully developed and kept the story going even when I found the plot to be a bit sluggish. For me, her characters were so fleshed out that even though I began reading "The Sparrow" with full knowledge that Emilio was the lone survivor of the expedition to Rahkat, I still found myself horrified when the explorers met their untimely deaths.
The only weakness I found in "The Sparrow" was its tempo. The time between Jimmy picking up the alien signal and the Jesuit party actually leaving for Rahkat was too long for my tastes as was the gap between the characters making contact with the Runa and later meeting Supaari. Perhaps this wouldn't have bothered me if the pace hadn't changed so drastically when Russell squeezed a great deal of plot into the last 50 pages. Or perhaps I simply failed to appreciate Russell's realistic portrayal of time with it slowing down during parts of our lives and speeding up at others.
All in all, "The Sparrow" left me somewhat confused. Like Emilio Sandoz, I'm not sure whether to view it as a comedy or tragedy; I was not overly enthused by the ending nor was I depressed by it. Just as in life, the reader is left with far more questions than answers. And I think that's what Russell intended.
 The Sparrow November 17, 2008
this is the best book I have ever read. I had it on tape and hard cover. I just got it on CD. It has been my fovorite book for over a decade. The more I read it the more it makes me think and the more I see in it.
brillliant introspection in outer space November 7, 2008
This book is a beautiful and haunting Sci-Fi meditation on the nature of God and faith. It uses an extraterrestrial plot line to brilliantly articulate the strengths and weaknesses of the human race. I consider myself an atheist, and find myself re-evaluating faith, religion and even the practice of theology and philosophy after reading this book.
Reading this book conferred on me a type of spiritual punch I imagine Arthur C Clarke's "Childhood's End" and CS Lewis' space trilogy must have had on readers when originally published. I consider this book the modern exponent of introspective Sci-Fi, possibly sharing that seat with Margaret Atwood's "Oryx and Crake".
 Long investment, no payoff. October 28, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Muddiness gives water the illusion of depth; complexity does the same for writing. But after wading around in it for an hour or two and never leaving the shallows, you're left disappointed.
At heart, this book is a mockery of Christianity, if that matters to you.
Russell can write in the sense of stringing words together well, but her basic recipe just doesn't satisfy. She gives plenty of conflict, but no resolution. How many different ways can you mix together a couple pounds of ambiguous Torah and Holocaust themes, and try to pass them off as a new dish? However, if you pretend you are reading this as a fictionalized anthropology case study, you might enjoy it.
Immoral Aliens October 19, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
This was the WORST book I have ever read. The lone star that I gave this book goes to the author for her efforts in writing it.
I was encouraged to read this by all the amazing 5 star reviews and once I was done, I felt defiled.
I can appreciate good books, too....but this?? ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING.
Sex addicts might enjoy this read.
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