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fsmn36 's review for:
The Sparrow
by Mary Doria Russell
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
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:
Complicated
After recently also reading Grass (in fact I started it after and finished it before this book), I find them of a similar theme and tone; religion, first contact, alien cultures, and fundamental misunderstanding of said culture that leads to both ruin and revolution. While Grass focuses on humans sort of sucked into that culture unwillingly, Emilio and the Rakhat delegation are sucked in through pursuit of discovery. Every step leads them to knowledge, but a fundamental difference impedes them and kills many. In the slow reveal, we understand the missteps and the lack of information that leads to the demise of the delegation and the spiritual demise of Emilio. It feels much more realistic than the TV sci-fi of the 90s like SG1 where they bumble into a culture and it causes a minor mishap or a small war but everything shakes out by the end of the episode. MDR says she modeled it on first explorers, many who considered themselves sent by God and in doing so, in the name of God, enslaved people, killed them (outright and through disease), and fundamentally destroyed the indigenous cultures. In The Sparrow, we see not only the disastrous and unintentional upset of the local ecosystem (hunter and prey and populations), but in fact, the explorers are ruined similarly. It is they who die and in ways that are vaguely unsatisfying to the reader (or at least me because I want to know all the things!) but are true to a first contact and new environment; there is no magical Dr Bones and computer to find and isolate a virus in 2 days.
This book is found family and because of that, brutal as the story goes along. The characters are incredibly complex; to the point that the first half of the book seems to drag on because it is almost entirely character development and in a complex writing and emotional style. Things are implied and not said and that is to the reader as well as in between the characters. The narrator may be omniscient in that the story is not told from one perspective only and we see things happening that don’t happen to just the main character(s), but the narrator is still limited, not explaining to the reader what is left unsaid - it must be gathered as the characters gather it.
This book took me forever to read because of the complexity and heavy nature of the themes of religion, first contact, academia, philosophy of language, anthropology, etc which meant I sometimes had to put it down when life got busy or my mood wasn’t right. But I devoted the last half of the book in days, limited only due to circumstances, and I know I will be rereading this one.
This book is found family and because of that, brutal as the story goes along. The characters are incredibly complex; to the point that the first half of the book seems to drag on because it is almost entirely character development and in a complex writing and emotional style. Things are implied and not said and that is to the reader as well as in between the characters. The narrator may be omniscient in that the story is not told from one perspective only and we see things happening that don’t happen to just the main character(s), but the narrator is still limited, not explaining to the reader what is left unsaid - it must be gathered as the characters gather it.
This book took me forever to read because of the complexity and heavy nature of the themes of religion, first contact, academia, philosophy of language, anthropology, etc which meant I sometimes had to put it down when life got busy or my mood wasn’t right. But I devoted the last half of the book in days, limited only due to circumstances, and I know I will be rereading this one.