The Sparrow

Mary Doria Russell (author)

Black Swan Books, UK: 1997; 504pp

ISBN: 0552997773

Genres: science fiction

Issues: abuse, communication, cultural differences, friendship, grief/loss, identity, religion

advanced concepts

Winner of the 1998 Arthur C. Clarke Award for Science Fiction.

Humankind discovers they are not alone in the galaxy when some astonishing music is intercepted by a radio telescope. While the UN debates about who to send as envoy, the Society of Jesus has already pulled together a group to send on a mission from God – to learn about this new species and understand their relationship with the world around them, their beliefs about their existence. Thus a handful of disparate and highly complex individuals are thrown into a completely alien society.

A former academic, trained as a paleoanthropologist, Russell's knowledge of six languages as well as her scientific training give great authority and depth to her writing. Russell's characterisations are robust and idiosyncratic – and completely believable. They are people you might know in your own circle of friends or colleagues. They have the same beliefs, questions, ideologies and problems. Their personal histories are as uneasy as our own. They are human.

Russell spends at least a third of the novel 'growing' these characters – showing the reader, rather than merely telling them, who they are, their foibles, their strengths, their weaknesses. Thus, by the time the group finally arrives on Rakhat, the reader is as familiar with and attached to these people as s/he is to his/her own friends. The reader is positioned to believe that these individuals are intelligent and open-minded, excited by the prospect of encountering and learning about a completely alien society. As, indeed, they are.

But as events unfold (to tell would be to ruin the reader's enjoyment), Russell, like the greatest scifi writers before her, questions how our assumptions about forms of and reasons for behaviour is so biased by our very humanity, our complete inexperience of anything alien, that it is impossible to truly understand a different species. Incorporating themes and issues that directly reflect on our interactions with different cultures in our own world, Russell's superb writing is both disturbing and thought-provoking.

Highly recommended for multiple readings.

Sequel: Children Of God