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roaming_enn's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
lauralauralaura's review against another edition
4.0
So much less compelling and more bloodthirsty than the first book. It wraps up so much neater, and while it wraps up the story arcs neatly, it was less satisfying, moving, and compelling than the Sparrow.
wetigers's review
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.5
lithographic's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Children of God is much more plot focused than the previous book, still full of the author's characteristics religious and philosophical musings, but less centered on one person's reckoning with the evils of the past. Instead, our focus becomes wider: to the rapidly shifting political state of Rakhat told through many different points of view, and to the crew of the Stella Marie which carries Emilio towards a final reckoning with the place that affected him so profoundly.
File under: books that would be wildly entertaing, but exhausting, to have both a book club-secular or religious-and a high school English class read and discuss.
File under: books that would be wildly entertaing, but exhausting, to have both a book club-secular or religious-and a high school English class read and discuss.
katieraegordon's review against another edition
3.0
Powerful theologies offered throughout, no settled truth but many interpretations. It was a long book, felt like many stories in one, but a powerful meditation on language, God, and music... as well as power, oppression, and liberation.
magsphil's review against another edition
5.0
Incredible sequel. So beautiful and heartbreaking. There was a really good balance of introducing new characters and storylines while still keeping the Stella Maris crew as the focal point.
charlotekerstenauthor's review against another edition
“We are biologically driven to create meaning. And if that’s so, he asked himself, is the miracle diminished?”
CW: body horror, kidnapping, rape, genocide
So What’s It About?
Mary Doria Russell's debut novel, The Sparrow, took us on a journey to a distant planet and into the center of the human soul. A critically acclaimed bestseller, The Sparrow was chosen as one of Entertainment Weekly's Ten Best Books of the Year, a finalist for the Book-of-the-Month Club's First Fiction Prize and the winner of the James M. Tiptree Memorial Award. Now, in Children of God, Russell further establishes herself as one of the most innovative, entertaining and philosophically provocative novelists writing today.
The only member of the original mission to the planet Rakhat to return to Earth, Father Emilio Sandoz has barely begun to recover from his ordeal when the Society of Jesus calls upon him for help in preparing for another mission to Alpha Centauri. Despite his objections and fear, he cannot escape his past or the future.
What I Thought
Unfortunately, I liked this much less than The Sparrow. There is still a lot of tremendous reflection on religion and suffering, but the cast of characters is much less well-developed, the time and narrative jumps are too abrupt, and it feels like a much less successful, cohesive work overall.
I have a lot to say about that fundamental question about religion and suffering. This book’s most basic theme is that human nature is designed to make meaning of senseless chaos - is that what God is? Is that what Isaac’s music is? There are a number of other compelling questions that arise on this topic - whose suffering do you get to make meaning of - your own, others’, the suffering you caused? And how do we draw a line between making meaning of suffering and saying that the ends justify the means? How much do intentions matter when the results of given actions are harmful? There are so many examples of character struggling with these questions, from Emilio reflecting on how the crew of the first mission to Rakhat caused such massive effects to the parents of those first slaughtered Runa children deciding to revolt, Sofia in her revolutionary leadership, the Runa with their near-genocide of the Jana’ata, Guiliani, the Pope, and Danny Iron Horse making excuses to placate themselves for what they did to Emilio…in so many ways, these characters all struggle to make meaning of their suffering/the suffering of others or struggle with ends, means and justifications or with questions of harm and the importance of intentions. I think the book’s basic point is that, good or bad, these are all fundamental, natural human instincts that we all have to grapple with.
Especially in Emilio’s story, so many people tell him to make some kind of meaning from what happened to him and find a way to “redeem” it, but it’s clear that this just isn’t a process that anyone else can impose upon you. Emilio kinds some kind of resolution and peace in his own way and his own time, not in the ways or time period that others expect of him. I did really like the ending of his story where he meets his daughter and grandchild - goodness knows that he deserves peace after all that he has been through.
His characterization is still strong -I really think he’s a fantastic character - but this is less true of almost everyone else. During the many time jumps and perspective changes during the war, we are introduced to many Jana’ata and Runa characters who play their part in the story and then get abruptly dropped again, sometimes never to be seen again. The new human cast also doesn’t make too much of an impression, specifically the crew of the second expedition to Rakhat. Joseba, Danny Iron Horse and Sean Fein were very hard for me to distinguish from each other personality and backstory-wise.
I think that the time jumps and perspective changes come with the territory of writing a story of such huge scope over a long period of time, and I do think it could be a lot worse than it is. There are definitely some effective and interesting elements to the war, especially the way that Sofia is unable to see that her revolution has turned to injustice until she meets Emilio again - another major theme of these books is definitely that it is so easy to believe that those you oppress are simply inherently less “human” (for lack of a better term) than you are. The Jana’ata commodified the Runa; in their revolt, the Runa then do the same to the remaining Jana’ata and nearly complete a genocide against them. Another of the most interesting aspects of the war is the small group of Jana’ata who turn away from eating Runa to survive and consequently struggle to survive.
There are a few elements of representation that left me raising my eyebrows, such as the way that the only Native American character is put in charge of the Jana’ata reservations (admittedly, with the justification that he will know the flaws and pitfalls to avoid better than anyone else) and the depiction of Isaac’s autism that feels (and has been identified by other readers as) dehumanizing. Finally, there is the major issue I brought up at the end of my review of The Sparrow regarding Russell’s seemingly apologist statements about North America’s colonization and writing these books with the intention of creating a narrative more sympathetic to missionaries/colonists than most current narratives are.
I wouldn’t know where to start in writing a sequel to a book like The Sparrow, and I think that Russell did as well as could be expected with such a daunting task. But the narrative jumps and characterization were much more problematic here in my opinion, and the final result was nowhere as good as the first book overall. I’m still very glad that I read these books.
CW: body horror, kidnapping, rape, genocide
So What’s It About?
Mary Doria Russell's debut novel, The Sparrow, took us on a journey to a distant planet and into the center of the human soul. A critically acclaimed bestseller, The Sparrow was chosen as one of Entertainment Weekly's Ten Best Books of the Year, a finalist for the Book-of-the-Month Club's First Fiction Prize and the winner of the James M. Tiptree Memorial Award. Now, in Children of God, Russell further establishes herself as one of the most innovative, entertaining and philosophically provocative novelists writing today.
The only member of the original mission to the planet Rakhat to return to Earth, Father Emilio Sandoz has barely begun to recover from his ordeal when the Society of Jesus calls upon him for help in preparing for another mission to Alpha Centauri. Despite his objections and fear, he cannot escape his past or the future.
What I Thought
Unfortunately, I liked this much less than The Sparrow. There is still a lot of tremendous reflection on religion and suffering, but the cast of characters is much less well-developed, the time and narrative jumps are too abrupt, and it feels like a much less successful, cohesive work overall.
I have a lot to say about that fundamental question about religion and suffering. This book’s most basic theme is that human nature is designed to make meaning of senseless chaos - is that what God is? Is that what Isaac’s music is? There are a number of other compelling questions that arise on this topic - whose suffering do you get to make meaning of - your own, others’, the suffering you caused? And how do we draw a line between making meaning of suffering and saying that the ends justify the means? How much do intentions matter when the results of given actions are harmful? There are so many examples of character struggling with these questions, from Emilio reflecting on how the crew of the first mission to Rakhat caused such massive effects to the parents of those first slaughtered Runa children deciding to revolt, Sofia in her revolutionary leadership, the Runa with their near-genocide of the Jana’ata, Guiliani, the Pope, and Danny Iron Horse making excuses to placate themselves for what they did to Emilio…in so many ways, these characters all struggle to make meaning of their suffering/the suffering of others or struggle with ends, means and justifications or with questions of harm and the importance of intentions. I think the book’s basic point is that, good or bad, these are all fundamental, natural human instincts that we all have to grapple with.
Especially in Emilio’s story, so many people tell him to make some kind of meaning from what happened to him and find a way to “redeem” it, but it’s clear that this just isn’t a process that anyone else can impose upon you. Emilio kinds some kind of resolution and peace in his own way and his own time, not in the ways or time period that others expect of him. I did really like the ending of his story where he meets his daughter and grandchild - goodness knows that he deserves peace after all that he has been through.
His characterization is still strong -I really think he’s a fantastic character - but this is less true of almost everyone else. During the many time jumps and perspective changes during the war, we are introduced to many Jana’ata and Runa characters who play their part in the story and then get abruptly dropped again, sometimes never to be seen again. The new human cast also doesn’t make too much of an impression, specifically the crew of the second expedition to Rakhat. Joseba, Danny Iron Horse and Sean Fein were very hard for me to distinguish from each other personality and backstory-wise.
I think that the time jumps and perspective changes come with the territory of writing a story of such huge scope over a long period of time, and I do think it could be a lot worse than it is. There are definitely some effective and interesting elements to the war, especially the way that Sofia is unable to see that her revolution has turned to injustice until she meets Emilio again - another major theme of these books is definitely that it is so easy to believe that those you oppress are simply inherently less “human” (for lack of a better term) than you are. The Jana’ata commodified the Runa; in their revolt, the Runa then do the same to the remaining Jana’ata and nearly complete a genocide against them. Another of the most interesting aspects of the war is the small group of Jana’ata who turn away from eating Runa to survive and consequently struggle to survive.
There are a few elements of representation that left me raising my eyebrows, such as the way that the only Native American character is put in charge of the Jana’ata reservations (admittedly, with the justification that he will know the flaws and pitfalls to avoid better than anyone else) and the depiction of Isaac’s autism that feels (and has been identified by other readers as) dehumanizing. Finally, there is the major issue I brought up at the end of my review of The Sparrow regarding Russell’s seemingly apologist statements about North America’s colonization and writing these books with the intention of creating a narrative more sympathetic to missionaries/colonists than most current narratives are.
I wouldn’t know where to start in writing a sequel to a book like The Sparrow, and I think that Russell did as well as could be expected with such a daunting task. But the narrative jumps and characterization were much more problematic here in my opinion, and the final result was nowhere as good as the first book overall. I’m still very glad that I read these books.
mamajaguar1791's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
suvata's review
4.0
Continuing my TBR project:
This is one the oldest selection on my TBR list - Originally added February 3, 2015.
Jesuits in Space, Part Two. If you have never read The Sparrow then you probably have no idea what I am talking about. These are both excellent science fiction books with a touch of religious philosophy. I would definitely recommend reading The Sparrow before going on to Children of God; not that it’s totally necessary. I just liked The Sparrow a wee bit better.
This is one the oldest selection on my TBR list - Originally added February 3, 2015.
Jesuits in Space, Part Two. If you have never read The Sparrow then you probably have no idea what I am talking about. These are both excellent science fiction books with a touch of religious philosophy. I would definitely recommend reading The Sparrow before going on to Children of God; not that it’s totally necessary. I just liked The Sparrow a wee bit better.