A review by rohand0
Children of God by Mary Doria Russell

3.0

I think the Sparrow works so well because it's a story about one man's fall from faith. Children of God is about that reverse and honestly it just doesn't have the same hold. You can see how Emilio slowly builds himself back up again in this novel and how his experiences end up shaping him but the faith of how God works isn't really clear as he has the same issue that Anne had in the past book. Why are good things prescribed to God? Why does John's help restore his faith in God and not in his fellow human? Maybe that's just my perspective coming from an agnostic.

The story of the Runa though is the compelling narrative here. How they try to negotiate, how they develop and go beyond their feebleness in the last book. How truly awful their domestication was. It was a compelling story.