notesurfer 's review for:

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense 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

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The Sparrow is a character-driven anthropological science fiction story in the vein of Ursula LeGuin. It's a book that describes the fullness of human experience - not on an individual level, but as an unweighted average coalesced into a few choice representatives. It's a book about the indifference of the universe, and the way that human beings counteract that indifference by filtering events through a lens of personalization. It is exquisite and poignant; brutal and beautiful. Russell does an amazing job of depicting a world without God while simultaneously showing the incredible value of faith. This is not the fun first-contact adventure I expected, but I fell in love with the characters and Russell's capacity for illustration. Her prose is intense and captivating and I will definitely be seeking out more of her work.