The Sparrow

I lack the capacity to adequately describe this book. Russell worldbuilds with the trained eye of a sociologist, but the light touch of truly a gifted novelist. However, what really makes her work is a dedication to exploration of issues of moral complexity, grittiness, desperation and redemption.
The Sparrow is without equal.

Just couldn't bring myself to complete this one. Got about halfway through before I decided that I'd had enough of the whole air of hopelessness. I didn't particularly like the author's handling of ‘God' issues either. Every time the topic of a character's belief in god came up, all I could think was “Oh, please, not this again!” This sparrow is flying straight into the trash-can!

To those who are offended by profanity, I suggest you ignore the next sentence and proceed to the rest of the review. Honestly, for most of this book, all I could think was “come the fuck on?!” Not, mind you, because I was really impressed with the brilliant writing and marvelous lot, but because of precisely the opposite!!!

Let me provide a bit of explanation by providing a partial plot summary.

Let's go on a mission to an unknown planet! Coincidentally, our group is a handful of people, which includes a love triangle (!), and we are all qualified to take an asteroid to an unexplored planet financed by the Jesuits! Let's not test the air before we touch foot to the planet! Let's not try to contact the aliens before barging on to their planet! No need to test any blessed (hahaha!) thing because God has willed this mission! Let's roast some “green guys” and feed them to one of our PILOTS to see if it's poisonous and promptly gave the entire crew eat all kinds of stuff instead of waiting for a period of time! If someone dies, let's do an autopsy and get SUPER angry because the rest of the very tiny crew asks about the results of the autopsy! Let's just lay around on the ground, asleep without any protection at all! Let's not bother exploring or documenting anything, so we are super surprised there are two species on the planet! I'm best buds with these here aliens who happen to have one young translator who knows English! These aliens need to learn how to garden! Oopsie, that caused my alien buds to reproduce and get slaughtered and know I'm a concubine!

There is no question that some suspension of disbelief is required to enjoy science fiction (or even some general fiction). However, Ms. Russell is asking way too much out of this reader.

Every person on the mission frames everything with what we believe to be known on Earth without trying to be the eensiest but interested in being objective and observing. Here's an irritating sentence:

“The principle were the same: firm follows function, reach high for sunlight, strut your stuff to attract a mate, scatter lots of offspring or take good care of a previous few, warn predators that you're poisonous with bright colors or blend into the background to escape detection.”

Fucking seriously?!

Sandoz is well-painted and the best thing about this claptrap, while other characters are one-dimensional. Anne and George are always HILARIOUS and she always cooks intricate meals based on a guests' ETHNICITY. Voelker is just plain sinister. Ed is super supportive and helpful in an aw-shucks way.

The author took over 400 pages to slap together a real mess. I should have believed my initial reaction to the first few pages where the author tried to wow the reader with the written equivalent of multi-camera shots, not really describing what's going on. The narrative gets a little more interesting for about 70 pages, but devolves into Dan Brown style schlock and never resurfaces.

Last year, I read “The Book of Strange New Things,” by Michael Farber also about a man of God visiting a planet inhabited by aliens. It is so, so, so much better than “The Sparrow,” so I recommend that to those who did and did not enjoy this book.