Public admiration turned to scorn, and the entire Jesuit order was condemned.Īfter Sandoz returns to Earth a broken man, his order must, to save its reputation, discover the truth about what happened on Rakhat. Before he returned from Rakhat, stories of ''violence, murder and prostitution'' were radioed back to Earth by the rescue ship and picked up by the news media. Two main time periods are interwoven - after the mission (circa 2060), and before (circa 2020).Įmilio Sandoz, S.J., who led the eight-person Jesuit expedition and is its only survivor, is a native of Puerto Rico with a remarkable gift for languages. Through a series of finely executed flashbacks, the story traces the fate of this first manned expedition to the stars.

But ''The Sparrow'' is about human characters in very human predicaments, both on Earth and on a mission to the planet Rakhat, which has three suns and an exotic, adaptive civilization. I read science fiction for its genre strengths, which are innovative and highly imaginative in a disciplined way. If it weren't, one would have to call it a superior kind of science fiction and leave it at that. ''The Sparrow'' - a first novel by Mary Doria Russell, who has a doctorate in biological anthropology - is this kind, and all the better for it.

It is very difficult to review a book that depends on the maintenance of an intrinsic element of mystery.

Maria doria russell the sparrow