The Sparrow - by Mary Doria Russell

The Sparrow

By Mary Doria Russell

Story rating – 4

Since this is the last book I read, I’m kicking off my new review blogroll with this one.

I little bit outside my normal scope, I read The Sparrow because the author used to babysit for me! (That does not make you old, Mary! It’s all relative as time goes on, doncha know.) My rating is based on my own deficiency – that this IS outside my normal scope and for the one point noted toward the end of this review.

The Sparrow (lovingly referred to as Priests in Space), is a sci-fi story, carefully crafted to unfold each delicate piece of the story a little at a time. As it begins, you see the aftermath of an expedition into space to contact “singers” whose radio signals have transmitted across the galaxy. The team is spurred on by Jesuit priests, largely as a matter of expedience. They don’t have to deal with the red tape necessary to make it happen.

In flashback, the author introduces you one by one to each member of the team, how they fit in and what happens to them along their journey. In the end, only one of them returns, the priest instrumental in getting the mission “off the ground.”

Interleaved with the flashbacks, the reader is given a present day look at Emilio, the mutilated priest who returns, while the inquisition looks into what went wrong with the mission, Emilio’s reported sainthood, and his apparent fall from grace as reported by the team who rescued him.

The characters are easy to relate to, each with their own deep-seated issues and unique skill sets. I found myself caring about the characters, some more than others, but each in their own special way. I’m trying not to share other people’s impressions in my own review, some of which are well-founded. For myself, I was able to follow the string of events and keep up with the cast of characters. The vocabulary can be challenging at times, especially considering the linquistics that is an integral part of this book. The descriptions were three-dimensional. This book came to life for me. There is only one question that stretched my imagination a bit too far, and that’s Emilio’s solitary return (when you read the book, you may understand what I mean) --The physical and emotional challenges seemed too great to overcome from the point of his rescue to his return to Earth. But hey, if you can believe he went to a far away planet in the first place, you can rationalize his return.

Slow going, but worth the read. A story slowly revealed, gently unraveled, brilliantly crafted.