"The Sparrow"

The Sparrow

The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell, is one of those books that I have loaned out so often I must have 10 copies in various bookshelves across the U.S. I don't even try to get them back. The book is so good it is worth it to me to pay 9.95 and get another copy, knowing that my previous one is being cherished elsewhere.

The Short Round-Up ; The Sparrow has been unfairly characterized as "Jesuits in Space". Accurate and darn limited. Russell has a doctorate in anthropology and was looking for a medium to write a fiction story reflective of the first contact that happened around the world with the Catholic church sent missionaries to explore. So she sets her story (in several time-lines) around the time that First Contact with an alien species happens. While the Earth's Governments talk appropriation and purpose and bureaucracy, the Catholic Church actually gets it done, quietly and privately. They send scientists and theologians to meet God's Other Children.

This is TRUE science fiction..... the kind where a very real moral and ethical problem is explored in a very fantastical setting. It allows the setting to be merely a vehicle for getting the real issues considered. Think Star Trek TOS. Cheesy as sin, but the moral issues were clearly defined because we could ignore the absurdity of sci-fi elements. Russell touches on the morality of science, religion (she herself is a Catholic converted to Judaism and she discusses both religions with grace and dignity), cultural contamination, and more. And truly - this is a VERY compelling read. In fact, it is one of the few books I have reread multiple times.