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A review by missbear
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
The Sparrow has been on my radar for quite awhile—I've seen people mention it, people quote it, people but it's only in the last year or two that I've fully grown into my absolute First-Contact-With-Aliens obsession. A surprisingly large percentage of my recent five star reads have fit into this trope. And I'm not even usually much of a trope or plot reader — I can't think of any other topic like this, a theme that makes me so very confident that I'll like a book.
What really gets to me are these books about encountering an alien race, where the focus of the story is on linguistics and anthropology and diplomacy and (some) biology, like the aliens are being approached from an academic rather than political perspective. This was such a perfect example of this kind of story, because Russell goes out of her way to develop the philosophical questions that her characters are interested in exploring through the existence of the inhabitants of Rakhat (this is why I didn't mind the questionable science in this book, since it just seemed like obviously not the point). And although some of those questions are related to religion, I felt like most of them were broader than that and were presented in a surprisingly subtle way, given the plot summary of this book. I'll admit that not all of this book is super subtle — probably the most obvious criticism of it is that the characters are kind of caricatures who are unbelievably optimistic, bordering on dangerously and foolishly so, and joyously happy in each other company all the time.
I also was very impressed with the pacing and structure of The Sparrow. It's a bold move to give away a tragedy at the beginning of your story, especially a story that is packed full of hope and community and joy. It is almost too brutal to read this book, knowing that there's no way out of the ending that's been promised by the beginning. But it worked for me.
What really gets to me are these books about encountering an alien race, where the focus of the story is on linguistics and anthropology and diplomacy and (some) biology, like the aliens are being approached from an academic rather than political perspective. This was such a perfect example of this kind of story, because Russell goes out of her way to develop the philosophical questions that her characters are interested in exploring through the existence of the inhabitants of Rakhat (this is why I didn't mind the questionable science in this book, since it just seemed like obviously not the point). And although some of those questions are related to religion, I felt like most of them were broader than that and were presented in a surprisingly subtle way, given the plot summary of this book. I'll admit that not all of this book is super subtle — probably the most obvious criticism of it is that the characters are kind of caricatures who are unbelievably optimistic, bordering on dangerously and foolishly so, and joyously happy in each other company all the time.
I also was very impressed with the pacing and structure of The Sparrow. It's a bold move to give away a tragedy at the beginning of your story, especially a story that is packed full of hope and community and joy. It is almost too brutal to read this book, knowing that there's no way out of the ending that's been promised by the beginning. But it worked for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Rape, and Colonisation