"The Sparrow" by Mary Doria Russell

Cafe Society
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I just finished the book after a heavy rec from a friend with good taste, who described it as “A Graham Greene novel in outer space.” She wasn’t far off - it’s a magnificent novel about first contact between humans and aliens, as seen through the eyes of a Jesuit preist sent as a sort of emissary to the aliens, and the moral and religious conundrums presented by the situation. It’s pretty light on the sci-fi side of things, other than basic exposition about the aliens and how their culture(s) work. The bulk of the book deals with the crisis of faith that the protagonist priest is confronted with in light of how things go down once he and his crew make contact (hint - it isn’t pretty at all).

Now, a few spoiler boxed talking points - these two issues in the book REALLY bothered me and seeemed completely out of place, almost nonsensical. They definitely took me out of the book and left a bad taste in my mouth, and I’m wondering what other people thought of them.

  1. When Sandoz returns to earth after being rescued from Rakhat,

Why is it that the church denounces him as a “whore” and assumes that he had willfully gone into a life of prostitution? I thought this was just ludicrous - they rescued Sandoz from a PRISON CELL, very clearly injured and sick and abused, after the other members of his party had been KILLED. How on EARTH could ANYONE deduce that he was intentionally and willfully working as a prostitute?

This is the major conflict of the book, and it just seems completely illogical to me.

  1. With how well-trained and even militaristic the envoy to Rakhat was, how is it that

Two of the characters ACCIDENTALLY use up all of the fuel to their landing craft, making them unable to return to their ship? We’re talking about people so expertly trained that every last factor of their lives, down to their diets, is measured out in order to fit into the plan - and George uses up all of the fuel because he wants to “showboat” and perform acrobatic manuvers when they’re landing? WHAT?

This is almost comically out of character for these people and just seemed like a plot device cooked up because the author couldn’t think of any other way to get them stranded on the planet. Absurd.

What did you guys think? Has anyone read the sequel, Children of God? How is it?

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Does the Church? In my memory of the book the secular authorities do, while the Church is waiting to see what actually happened - but I could be wrong, as it’s been a couple of years since I’ve read it. In regards to how anyone could (slight spoilers for Children of God):

It’s revealed in CoG that the whole prostitution thing is the result of a miscommunication between Supaari and Sandoz; basically, Sandoz was trying to explain the concept of celibacy by saying that it freed him to love everyone. Supaari thus interpreted celibate as whore. (Y’see what she’s done there with the irony?) Anyway, the second contact team fairly rapidly located and talked to Supaari, and he told them that Sandoz had volunteered to be an alien concubine.

I can’t offer any better explanation for your second point, I’m afraid. I’ve read CoG - I’d say it’s worth reading, though not quite as good as The Sparrow.

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One of the first lines from the head of the Church investigation re Sandoz is “he is a whore.”