A review by inkfingers
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

The Sparrow is a first contact story set in the near future. The characters are well developed and engaging, and while some of the plot points or discussions may seem like rabbit trails or odd distractions, by the end they form a coherent thematic picture. The linguistic and anthropological discussions are interesting and reminded me a bit of Ursula K. Le Guin’s sci fi. 
The in media res framing effectively cuts between the horrible aftermath and the exuberant pre-disaster lives of the crew. Knowing the tragedy from the first paragraph does not make it harder to get attached to the fleshed out crew, but it did make every misfortune and miscommunication even more tense.
The putting together of the mission and crew does feel extremely convenient, but the characters consider the pieces falling together a sign of divine intervention but question it later as things go wrong. As long as the reader is willing to meet the book on its own terms and see it as a kind of eucatastrophe, it does reward the suspension of disbelief.

The horrible end of the mission is hinted at from the beginning, and a careful reader may guess what went wrong, but Russell holds the whole truth back until the last fifty pages of the book when Emilio finally tells the Father General what happened. Then the catastrophe plays out at breakneck speed and earns 80% of the novel’s tag warnings in quick succession so heed those even if you aren’t very squeamish.

This book is a discussion of faith and suffering in the league of Silence by Shūsaku Endō, offering no easy answers about a crisis of faith and God’s silence. 
The last fifty pages of this book laid me out like a Victorian lady taken to her bed with a dreadful illness, and I expect I won’t recover until I read the sequel. 
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