The Sparrow

I was going to write this upbeat and happy thing about what I like about Australians, in celebration of Australia Day (Jan 26th) but that will have to be another day.

I've struggling with reading The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell because it starts with a tragedy and goes backwards, so as I read more and more about the characters and grew to like and admire them more and more, I knew bad things were coming. I kept lingering at the good spots, unwilling to go forward.

In the book we find music from another planet, not only conclusive evidence of sentient life, but also of some technological progress - at the very least they have radios. So while the UN and everyone else argues over what to do, the Jesuits at the Vatican buy a mining asteroid (it's set 20 or so years in the future, the book is now 10 years old, but I think it should still be read as '20 years from today' to allow for the technological advances that she needs) and put together a mission of 8 people to get there first, including 4 Jesuit priests.

But the book starts at the end - one priest has returned under the most suspect of circumstances, and the rest of the party is dead... What happened? And finding out what happened is the rest of the book.

Very nicely written, with lots of thought and care. There are 4 Jesuits and the Vatican is involved, so there's religion here, but really warmly and beautifully portrayed. I struggled with getting into it not because it was bad, but because it was good. I didn't necessarily want to know what happened to these fine folk... but I was sitting in a New York cafe as I read the denouement and softly crying there... Really moving. She wrote a sequel and I'm going to read that too. Emotionally engaging and genuinely thought provoking, like all the best science fiction should be.