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4.16 AVERAGE
4.16 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A planetary space mission funded by Jesuits? Russell pulls it off with aplomb -- and creates some of the most interesting species in sci-fi into the bargain.
1.5/5
If you want to observe a civilization's fears, look to its horror stories. If you want to understand a civilization's justification for its fears, look to its science fiction. Seeing as how I so rarely voluntarily choose to interact with either genre in my reading these days, I've mostly forgotten how jarring it is to be blithely following the characters and the plots and their oh so interstellar exploits and then, with a lurch, realize that none of it is very interstellar at all. For you can regale me for days on the science of nutrition and delve into a nuanced explanation of energy consumption in the form of chemical bonds and the propulsive dynamics of an asteroid moving through space, but if you turn around and start putting folks into groups such as "Tanio," "Sephardic Jew," and "celibate gay" while letting the cishet WASPs run fancy free, I'm going suspect that there's as much flaw with your grand design as there is with your individual parts. And so, when the word "Chinese" was finally used and the last self-absorbed, voraciously antagonistic piece fell into place, I found myself both relieved that I hadn't been imagining things and more than a little disgusted. For what sells in the US are tales where the frontier is still there, eternal promises of sensual enticement and self-perpetuating justifications for black and white paradigms of morality still intact, but discretely packaged so as cloy the senses of the typical reader. It works for most, judging from the obscenely high rating for this work. But I've lived too long amongst margins both directly pertaining myself and not, and I have no patience for those stories, however highly rated or intricately crafted, that attempt to sell me the argument that either I strategically use the systematic extinction of others for the sake of my own profit, or face being wiped out myself.
There's a lot going on in this book. Indeed, I have to be grateful that fortune led me to read Rafia Zakaria's [b:Against White Feminism|55298403|Against White Feminism Notes on Disruption|Rafia Zakaria|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1602621789l/55298403._SY75_.jpg|86235740] alongside this, as a lot of what's going on that is utterly rank and despicably predictable is performed along lines that require a great deal of world knowledge and critical reasoning to encompass. Basically, disaster capitalism is still sending all non-WASP/non-"Western" aligned countries into a tailspin, neoliberal thinktanks still have their rapacious pick of the best of those youthful populations rendered excruciatingly malleable via starvation, abuse, and capitalistic enticement, and rather than work to render resources from each according to their ability, to each according to their need, those who proclaim themselves the frontline of humanity turn their white savior complex eyes to the stars. What follows is a bunch of biologically deterministic horseshit (non-cishet WASP characters whose core functions follow their primarily defined form) that couples eugenicist Malthusian theory (population control) to contemporaneous ideological warfare (Orientalism) and implicitly justifies extermination (irredeemable degeneracy that will wipe all us (WASPs) out before we do so first) for the sake of the tragic mulatto. I'm sure all that sounds rather improbable, but how many times have the poor, yet lovably rustic populations been saved from their opulent, predatory rulers who are presented in their sex lives (harems), their governance (infanticide), their beauty practices ("like binding the feet of aristocratic Chinese women"), and even their architecture ("an overevolved look, like that of Chinese architecture, as though it had been worked on for too long, layered and added to more than was strictly good for it") as variations on a form of anathema. Subtle, but once the disparate pieces are colored in, one wonders at how few have noticed it. Then again, Russell was a military brat, and the mainstream news has practically been begging for another Cold War, this time of the Sinophobic variety, for a long time coming.
One can argue against the claims presented in this review, but in 1996 when this book was published, China's One Child Policy had been in place for 16 years, and one need merely scan back across centuries of imperial propaganda, both British and US, to discover the other strands of fearmongering consolidated on the usual aggressively decontextualized subjects. It shows to the quality of the storytelling not bogged down in hysterical nonsense that I sunk this down only to two stars, but even now I'm wondering whether to just bite the bullet and give the folks looking for one star reviews something to chew on. Russell, for all her professional training (or perhaps because of it), chose not to rise above the propaganda of her time, but to instead put a new spin on it so that it was just close enough to relish, but far enough away to disavow any responsibility. Still, I've had my literary training, and there is some worth to the concept of the death of the author when it comes to moralizing sycophants. However, in that line of thought, there's reactionary puritanism that conflates fiction with reality, and then there's subconsciously feeding into various streams of contemporaneous hate so as to garner a sizable reader attention by appealing to their nation's supreme and murderously self righteous ego. Whatever the case, I have my rights as a reviewer, and I shouldn't get any backlash for my criticism despite the author being on this site. Right?
If you want to observe a civilization's fears, look to its horror stories. If you want to understand a civilization's justification for its fears, look to its science fiction. Seeing as how I so rarely voluntarily choose to interact with either genre in my reading these days, I've mostly forgotten how jarring it is to be blithely following the characters and the plots and their oh so interstellar exploits and then, with a lurch, realize that none of it is very interstellar at all. For you can regale me for days on the science of nutrition and delve into a nuanced explanation of energy consumption in the form of chemical bonds and the propulsive dynamics of an asteroid moving through space, but if you turn around and start putting folks into groups such as "Tanio," "Sephardic Jew," and "celibate gay" while letting the cishet WASPs run fancy free, I'm going suspect that there's as much flaw with your grand design as there is with your individual parts. And so, when the word "Chinese" was finally used and the last self-absorbed, voraciously antagonistic piece fell into place, I found myself both relieved that I hadn't been imagining things and more than a little disgusted. For what sells in the US are tales where the frontier is still there, eternal promises of sensual enticement and self-perpetuating justifications for black and white paradigms of morality still intact, but discretely packaged so as cloy the senses of the typical reader. It works for most, judging from the obscenely high rating for this work. But I've lived too long amongst margins both directly pertaining myself and not, and I have no patience for those stories, however highly rated or intricately crafted, that attempt to sell me the argument that either I strategically use the systematic extinction of others for the sake of my own profit, or face being wiped out myself.
There's a lot going on in this book. Indeed, I have to be grateful that fortune led me to read Rafia Zakaria's [b:Against White Feminism|55298403|Against White Feminism Notes on Disruption|Rafia Zakaria|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1602621789l/55298403._SY75_.jpg|86235740] alongside this, as a lot of what's going on that is utterly rank and despicably predictable is performed along lines that require a great deal of world knowledge and critical reasoning to encompass. Basically, disaster capitalism is still sending all non-WASP/non-"Western" aligned countries into a tailspin, neoliberal thinktanks still have their rapacious pick of the best of those youthful populations rendered excruciatingly malleable via starvation, abuse, and capitalistic enticement, and rather than work to render resources from each according to their ability, to each according to their need, those who proclaim themselves the frontline of humanity turn their white savior complex eyes to the stars. What follows is a bunch of biologically deterministic horseshit (non-cishet WASP characters whose core functions follow their primarily defined form) that couples eugenicist Malthusian theory (population control) to contemporaneous ideological warfare (Orientalism) and implicitly justifies extermination (irredeemable degeneracy that will wipe all us (WASPs) out before we do so first) for the sake of the tragic mulatto. I'm sure all that sounds rather improbable, but how many times have the poor, yet lovably rustic populations been saved from their opulent, predatory rulers who are presented in their sex lives (harems), their governance (infanticide), their beauty practices ("like binding the feet of aristocratic Chinese women"), and even their architecture ("an overevolved look, like that of Chinese architecture, as though it had been worked on for too long, layered and added to more than was strictly good for it") as variations on a form of anathema. Subtle, but once the disparate pieces are colored in, one wonders at how few have noticed it. Then again, Russell was a military brat, and the mainstream news has practically been begging for another Cold War, this time of the Sinophobic variety, for a long time coming.
One can argue against the claims presented in this review, but in 1996 when this book was published, China's One Child Policy had been in place for 16 years, and one need merely scan back across centuries of imperial propaganda, both British and US, to discover the other strands of fearmongering consolidated on the usual aggressively decontextualized subjects. It shows to the quality of the storytelling not bogged down in hysterical nonsense that I sunk this down only to two stars, but even now I'm wondering whether to just bite the bullet and give the folks looking for one star reviews something to chew on. Russell, for all her professional training (or perhaps because of it), chose not to rise above the propaganda of her time, but to instead put a new spin on it so that it was just close enough to relish, but far enough away to disavow any responsibility. Still, I've had my literary training, and there is some worth to the concept of the death of the author when it comes to moralizing sycophants. However, in that line of thought, there's reactionary puritanism that conflates fiction with reality, and then there's subconsciously feeding into various streams of contemporaneous hate so as to garner a sizable reader attention by appealing to their nation's supreme and murderously self righteous ego. Whatever the case, I have my rights as a reviewer, and I shouldn't get any backlash for my criticism despite the author being on this site. Right?
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A slow start with characters being developed. The action, such as it is doesn't start until 25% in. That said, it is a unique first contact book and I'm glad I read it. I won't be reading the follow up book. I prefer action based stories
WOW! This book was a great find I recomend it to any one who like Sci-fi.
The Sparrow is unlike any sci-fi book I've read before. It addresses struggles of everyday life (love, death, sex), ecology and anthropology of a newly discovered planet, and struggles with faith. As an atheist, I expected to be bored by the very prevalent discussion of faith, but I actually found myself fascinated by the thought processes of the Jesuits. Even when it seemed absurd, they would find ways to validate their belief in god. Interestingly, many of the conversations are between a Jesuit and an agnostic who points out flaws in the Jesuit's thinking. I really liked that dynamic in the beginning of the book, but as the story continued the only atheist in the group was not part of the conversations and the agnostic's arguments were found lacking. However, the book is written so that the reader is jumping between past and present; it is clear from the present that something went terribly wrong on the alien planet the characters travel to, which makes the faith of the Jesuits seem twisted and ominous somehow. Seeing the main Jesuit character, who feels truly secure in his belief in god for the first time, go through an unthinkable experience was tragic, more so since you know what is coming despite his blind faith. Although the parts of the book dealing with faith were interesting, I was much more interested in the ecology and anthopology of the new planet. Russell does an excellent job of helping the reader to visualize the ecosystem and understand the rather complex culture on the planet. Really, my only complaint about The Sparrow is wishing for more science and less talk of religion, but that is a matter of personal preference. Either way, it is an excellent book that I would recommend.
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was excellent. The story was very well done, the characters were excellent, and it was both heartbreaking and laugh-out-loud funny. The author does a very good job of imagining a realistic first contact scenario, and also exploring issues of faith, belief, and free will. I liked this enough that I probably won't read the sequel - I don't think there's any way it can live up.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
sad
tense
slow-paced
Moments of absolute joy and moments of "oh god, no." That's the only way I can describe this book. I was ready to give it at least three stars, but then those final pages just did me in. This book may live with me forever, but not in a good way.