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4.16 AVERAGE
4.16 AVERAGE
Wow. What a book. I think it will stay with me for awhile.
dark
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Like a lot of reviews say, The Sparrow is psuedo-sci-fi. The back story and reasoning behind a lot of the mission is wonky and not particularly believable, but I don’t think that’s the point of the book. There are interesting theological considerations and it’s an easy smooth read. There are also interesting considerations of the structure of other societies but I don’t think it goes far enough.
All in all, a good read but has some gaps and is a little too verbose in its descriptions of life.
All in all, a good read but has some gaps and is a little too verbose in its descriptions of life.
adventurous
dark
reflective
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
What if first contact was made by Jesuit missionaries? Great read. Interesting world building
This book. Whew. Packs a punch. There was much I liked here: the spiritual journey of the protagonist, the alien world, the onion structure of the novel with its slow peel toward ultimate tears. And some aspects that irritated me as I read now seem integral to the emotional wallops at the end. You could easily classify this as horror. But I have to knock off a couple of stars for the kumbaya middle, some issues I had suspending disbelief, and the absolutely obnoxious fake Texan.
This book does a WHOLE lot right, but what it really nails is creating some of the most interesting, fully-formed characters I've seen in science fiction. Really great, sad, thought-provoking stuff.
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Like Ursula LeGuin, only deeper. Hard to believe this is the author's first novel.
Some spots bogged down for me, so good editing would have helped; but a well-written book with believable characters. I had to keep reminding myself it was written 25 years ago.