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    The Sparrow
    The Sparrow
    The Sparrow
    Audiobook15 hours

    The Sparrow

    Written by Mary Doria Russell

    Narrated by David Colacci

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    A visionary work that combines speculative fiction with deep philosophical inquiry, The Sparrow tells the story of a charismatic Jesuit priest and linguist, Emilio Sandoz, who leads a scientific mission entrusted with a profound task: to make first contact with intelligent extraterrestrial life. The mission begins in faith, hope, and beauty, but a series of small misunderstandings brings it to a catastrophic end.

    Praise for The Sparrow

    “A startling, engrossing, and moral work of fiction.”—The New York Times Book Review

    “Important novels leave deep cracks in our beliefs, our prejudices, and our blinders. The Sparrow is one of them.”—Entertainment Weekly

    “Powerful . . . The Sparrow tackles a difficult subject with grace and intelligence.”—San Francisco Chronicle

    “Provocative, challenging . . . recalls both Arthur C. Clarke and H. G. Wells, with a dash of Ray Bradbury for good measure.”—The Dallas Morning News

    “[Mary Doria] Russell shows herself to be a skillful storyteller who subtly and expertly builds suspense.”—USA Today

    Editor's Note

    Philosophical journey…

    Russell’s boundary-pushing, award-winning work of speculative fiction isn’t for the faint of heart. Some compare it to a parable, others label it science fiction, but above all else, it’s a philosophical journey across time and space. It’s slated to get a miniseries adaptation for FX written by Scott Frank (“Queen’s Gambit”) and directed by Johan Renck (“Breaking Bad”).

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateApr 4, 2008
    ISBN9781423356318
    The Sparrow
    Author

    Mary Doria Russell

    Widely praised for her meticulous research, fine prose, and compelling narrative drive, Mary Doria Russell is the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of The Sparrow, Children of God, A Thread of Grace, Dreamers of the Day, Doc, and Epitaph. Dr. Russell holds a PhD in biological anthropology. She lives in Lyndhurst, Ohio.

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    Reviews for The Sparrow

    4/5

    3,006 ratings254 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Excellent - but one MUST read the "Children of God" after to savor the experience completely.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      There just aren't enough stories about Jesuit intergallactic explorers! ENJOY!

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Fascinating, artistically and theologically. This was my second reading over 24 years and as another person.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Best book I've read in years. Well written and thought provoking. Highly recommend.
    • 3/5
      I had seen a lot of glowing reviews of this book, which is probably why it was a minor disappointment for me. It seemed like a whole lot of build-up that wasn't justified by the final payoff.Still, it's worth a solid 3 stars, even if it won't make it to my "favourites" shelf.
    • 5/5
      A beautifully written story exceptional narration all in all worth every second.
    • 4/5
      Very lng on religion, BUT how did Santos get home?????
    • 5/5
      Revisiting this 10 years after the first read, it's still utterly exquisite, and devastating.
    • 4/5
      This is the first science fiction book I've read in such a long time, and it felt good to immerse myself in a genre so alien to me (pun intended).This is a book about a group of Jesuits and scientists that travel to a planet many light years away and meet two species of alien. Only one priest returns to Earth alive, and the book is a means to the priest's confession of what happened on planet Rakhat and his struggle with God.Although it took me a while to follow in the beginning, the story quickly picked up, and soon I was racing throught the 500 pages to a satisfying end. I just learned of a sequel to The Sparrow, although I haven't decided if I want to read it based on the direction of the plot. Recommended to me by a friend, I immensely enjoyed The Sparrow, hailed as 'One of the year's most powerful and disturbing books' by The Times.
    • 5/5
      Almost perfect, if only it were a little tighter in the middle third. Otherwise, excellent in conception, human in execution, wise in conclusion. It’s a kind of wisdom very difficult to earn in fiction, tried by many, achieved by few
    • 4/5
      An intriguing read. Well plotted and paced. One thing that marred my enjoyment was the priest and his celibacy--guess you'd have to be Catholic to understand it. Oddly, I enjoyed the first part of the book more than the second. That is, I liked meeting the members of the expedition and learning where they'd come from. I was disappointed with the way the story of what happened to each of the members was written. We find out what happened to each member in the past tense, as a retelling, and not a very lively one at that. Not one of the best books I've ever read, but definitely worth reading.
    • 3/5
      A very heavy read! Amazing character development. Warning spoiler alert. The ending of this story ended in a silent whisper. The ending was sooo weak and deflating after a rollercoaster ride. The narrator was spot on.
    • 5/5
      I’d honestly give it six stars if I could. Majestic prose, gorgeous characters, perfectly paced, with a unique plot that will haunt and hallow the reader. Not for the faint of heart, but worth its tribulations.
    • 5/5
      There's no decisive ending, which is exactly how books of this nature should be handled. The characters are believable, the plot is engaging, and the writing is great. Superb narrator, too.
    • 4/5
      Look forward to discussing this book with someone! An amazingly realistic portrayal of a futuristic journey to a alien world. First encounters with a new intelligent species and the resulting fallout. Of course, having the "first encounter" team being a group of Jesuits changes the dynamic. A little slow at times, but overall, a very intriguing read. Made me think... There's a reason that Star Trek had the prime directive.
    • 5/5
      I've never before read a book that so beautifully depicts the tension of being a person of faith in a painful world. Russell's writing is lyrical and sharp - I love her characters and Emilio has a special place in my heart.
    • 4/5
      A beautiful read- a tour through worlds both past and future. The reader unfurls this literary web with respectable skill. Highly recommend.
    • 5/5
      This was a spell-binding fantasy and a fascinating reflection on theology, instructional power, intercultural or inter-species communication, colonialism, survival, development, economy and human relationships. The audiobook was presented clearly and pleasantly. A good read and listen.
    • 2/5
      I would not recommend this book. I also think readers should be aware this is religious propaganda disguised as sci-fi. With a side of cat-lady sexy wish fulfillment. I wish I'd known that. In the end, it's all good because god and suffering-truly horrendous suffering since your childhood- is good for you. I'd never have read this had I known. I only gave it two stars because I think it's fairly well-written.

      The narrator was...I liked his pacing and overall tone, but his voices - yikes. The main character, Sandos, often sounded like a cross between Father Guido Sarducci and the worst Dracula impression, the Texan was an absolute caricature and ften hard to distinguish between him and another older man, the women were...odd. I can give him credit for making it usually easy to distinguish between the characters, including the aliens, but it was a comical distinction and somewhat distracting.

      I just came off reading the Three Body Problem where I had the same complaint as others about how the characters were one dimensional (among other problems), and thought this was going to be refreshing, as the author spent a lot of time fleshing out backstories and active personalities. That did happen, but not in a good way. The first 2/3 of the book lagged and dragged so long in an effort to create suspense, I went online to find out what happened because I was jsut plain bored, but I got to the point where they finally started telling the story, which is the last 5-6 chapters maybe? and I honestly wish I'd just quit way in the beginning when it was clear this was going to be unsatisfying.
      Spoiler-ish below. But it won't matter, because the big reveal is only an explanation of what was revealed in the beginning.
      I give about 10 % of this book five stars - there are some really interesting ideas in it about the aliens on the new planet (though, really, the aliens are the humans who arrived on the planet after hearing the music) but the rest of the book was really weird in the bad way. There was an unusual preoccupation with sex spoken in a way that was weirdly puerile. In places where it was supposed to show shame or affection, it often came across as seedy and super creepy - which leads me to the older woman, Ann who seems to be an avatar for the author. It was borderline mom-fetishization that seemed to scream, "look! older women are sexy and useful" in a super weird way. Sophia's prostitution backstory was handled in a very gross way, as was Emilio's sexual enslavement. Not because it was graphic, but because it was kinda still trying to make it sound sexy? Therest of the time there was so much preoccupation with the idea of celebacy I wondered how there folks got anything done considereing how this seemed to be all they thought about - theirs or others. I had the creeps.
      In the end, finally came the sermon. Obviously religion is peppered throughout as the cast is almost all priests or observant or devout and vocal atheists, and I don't mind that, but the entire book existed to justify suffering as the true determination of faith. Like, yo, we jsut saw all these people die horrifically, threw a whole other world into chaos resulting in unnecessary death (and a crackdown by the military), people having their bodies forcibly mutilated, the murder of the characters most loved alien and human, child, fetus, and adult-including one he was directly responsible for, and months of gang rape, and it ends with, "welp, I feel better now after this public inquest/confession and I know I'll be doung this lots more times, which is great for my soul!" and the others looking at him and goin, "ah yes, this is a real saint and I envy him for it." I mean, gross. Really, really gross. I wish someone had warned me this was nothing but a cat-lady sex fantasy that was sanctioned by Him. Eww.
    • 3/5
      Interesting! I always get insight into my own life when I read about others experiences! Killed off the main characters so close to the end!
    • 4/5
      In a word - excellent. The Sparrow is a "first contact" science fiction novel, but it's also an example of the genre that's great for non-SF fans. Although it's a story about a Jesuit mission to an alien planet, the focus is more on the question of faith.The novel uses a non-linear storytelling device, so in the first few pages you know the outcome - Emilio Sandoz has returned to earth alone and broken, and scandalous stories about a dead child and a brothel have preceded him. His superiors attempt to extract the full story from him - there are hints that the scandals have had a disastrous effect on the Church.Despite knowing the end result, I found the slow reveal of the "how" and "why" totally fascinating. I've seen some complaints that Emilio's final confession wasn't as shocking as they expected, and I'm puzzled by that one - I thought it was pretty implicit from the beginning what had happened to him, and that the story was not so much what did happen, but the progress Emilio made towards healing and coming to terms with it.My only complaint is that there are two characters on the expedition who don't get much in terms of being fleshed out - Alan Pace and Marc Robichaux are so colorless and neglected compared to the others. The others - Anne, George, Sofia, D.W., and Jimmy - are so vibrant and their relationships are so endearing that just knowing they don't make it back to Earth is enough of a heartbreak.
    • 5/5
      So cleverly written, this is the age old theological problem of theodicy played out in very creative speculative fiction.
    • 4/5
      "Matthew ten, verse twenty-nine," Vincenzo Giuliani said quietly. "’Not one sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it.’"

      "But the sparrow still falls," Felipe said.

      That quote is essentially a summary of the entire book, and also essential to understand why the title is what it is.

      It's hard to know what to make of The Sparrow. It's a journey in many ways: from wanting faith to having faith, from having faith to belief without trust that I hesitate to call faith, from our planet to another, from ignorance to understanding. The journey, for the most part, is that of Emilio Sandoz, but a lot of the other characters have their own journeys to make, and so does the reader.

      The narrator is omniscient, which I generally don't like but didn't trouble me too much here. It's quite well done, I think: despite the omniscient narrator, I still felt close to the characters. My only problem is the way all the deaths were dealt with: they struck me with a kind of numbness, instead of feeling sad. But that might indeed have been the intention.

      The characters who are human do seem very human. They make mistakes, they make dumb decisions, they argue, they fail at the worst possible times. They also have compassion and curiosity, so that their mistakes are understandable. The idea of the first mission to another planet being a Jesuit mission is ridiculous, in one way, and then also not at all surprising. Because it's a mission based largely on faith rather than science, the mistakes are all the more understandable, even if the trust in God seems ridiculous. Emilio's slow healing and also his refusal to heal are done well. The way he's presented to the reader when he's young makes you love him, which makes his situation later in the story compelling instead of, as the other priests originally see it, disgusting and contemptible.

      The actual plot ends up not being all that surprising. The big reveal at the end isn't needed as a plot twist -- you've already guessed, by that point, what happened to Emilio -- but as a kind of closure for the story: finally, he admits what happened to him, and perhaps the journey can go on.

      This might seem at times like a story that advocates atheism, but I don't think so. I haven't read the sequel, Children of God, yet, but the story seems to be much more about the sparrow God sees, and knows, and loves, but still doesn't prevent from falling. The Sparrow is a novel about the big question for believers: if there is a God, how could He allow terrible things to happen?

      It does not answer the question, by the way.
    • 4/5
      "God will break your heart." So says Father Emilio Sandoz, lone survivor of the Jesuit mission to Rakhat. Most of the spoilers are revealed up front--we know that our protagonist has been brutalized in unimaginable ways, both physically and mentally--but he's not talking. His ordeal comes out slowly and painfully as his fellow Jesuits uncover the depths of his despair.Although I enjoyed Russell's A thread of Grace two years ago, and this, her first book, came highly recommended, I never thought I could become so engrossed in a work of Science Fiction. I had to overcome my preconceptions of SF to read about a group of unlikely comrades boarding a potato-shaped asteroid in search of the singers of hypnotic music. I'm glad I did. This seemed to me to be more of an exploration of the limits of belief in God rather than mere space travel. I felt that MDR portrayed the spiritual themes in a sensitive and faith-inspiring manner and will definitely be reading the sequel.
    • 5/5
      One of the best books I have ever read.

      2 people found this helpful

    • 5/5
      OK... call me strange/weird/whacked/all of the above! I did not think this book was "creepy". It was beautiful, sad, tragic and tender. This is not just about the mere discovery of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. It turns out to be a mirror held up to our own human race struggling with power, love, heartbreak, and faith in God. Russell takes a deep plunge into an unknowable God and creation. Written with sensitivity, pathos and hope, she takes this opportunity to contemplate first encounters with unknown cultures and the unintended impact on a "new world". It was a feast for thought. You could not use the 50 page rule on this one. The last 100 pages hold the intense substance of the story... but you need the first 300 to get there. Easy to read - excruciating to ponder.

      2 people found this helpful

    • 3/5
      Which is more sufferable–physical rape by a poet, or spiritual rape by God? If both are Deus vult (God’s will) then both are our burden to bear. Just as is emotional rape by the novelist. As in The Sparrow.
    • 4/5
      When an authentically alien transmission originating from somewhere near Alpha Centauri is discovered by a passionate young astronomer, it sets in motion a chain of events that will result in the first intergalactic mission to contact another sentient race. The transmission is a strange and beautiful song which allows a Jesuit priest with extensive linguistic experience to begin working on the alien language.This priest, Emilio Sandoz, will be the beating heart at the center of this nascent mission which is ultimately sponsored by the Jesuits. Although the mission will suffer many setbacks it also seems oddly blessed, and it is Father Sandoz's unbridled faith in the Lord's will that encourages his teammates to continue. The narrative is split between two timelines, one which moves chronologically through the events of the mission, and another which examines the mission's aftermath. Father Sandoz is the only surviving member of the mission that makes it back Earth. By the time he returns, half dead from traumatic injury, mutilated, and practically non verbal, he is universally reviled as reports of his catastrophic mission have preceded him.The order of Jesuits takes control of his care, nursing him back to health and interrogating him about the events of the expedition. What exactly happened to the team of scientists who set out with such high hopes of contacting an alien society? And what happened to Father Sandoz, a brilliant linguist and near religious mystic who was found working in an alien brothel and was witnessed murdering a child?This is a fascinating speculative novel about a joint religious/scientific expedition to another world. Themes of faith, doubt, and the will of God are heavily examined as well as the problem of evil. The haunting plot does a brilliant job of raising complex moral questions without providing pat and unconvincing answers. Instead, the author lets the reader see the characters reckoning with the senseless cruelty of life and grappling with the relentless urge to seek answers and construct meaning from tragedy. The result is a book which is both intellectually thought-provoking and emotionally impactful.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      This was an interesting book. It is not a hardcore science fiction book by any stretch but it certainly is to be considered science fiction. It involves the discovery of signals from Alpha Centauri and a group of people headed up by Jesuit priests to go check it out. It certainly is not a proselytizing book but religion plays a major role without getting bogged down in the details. I was unsure if it would be friendly to religion or not but was pleasantly surprised. I cannot say much without spoiling something but I will say that I certainly enjoyed it and found it a quick read.
    • 5/5
      Sam lent it to me and I finished it within about 36 hours. Completely engrossing, almost impossible to put down. Makes you work for the answers.Some very interesting and thoughtful things on religion. And exploration. I don't expect to understand it all right now---I've promised to have a discussion with Sam and her housemate who's also read it. But the story works on many, many different levels.I still haven't figured out/decided about the end.One complaint---I was certain that the deaths were going to be absolutely devastating. (I don't think that's a spoiler; you learn it on the back cover.) The (human) characters were so beautifully and artfully drawn that I nearly teared up every time I thought about it. But when they came---it just didn't have the impact. They were somehow remote. Maybe it's a problem on my end; who knows.