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The Sparrow

Author: Mary Doria Russell
Creator: David Colacci
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Category: Book

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Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars

67 reviews
Sales Rank: 762044

Media: Audio CD
Edition: MP3 Una
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 5.4 x 0.6

ISBN: 1423356292
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9781423356295
ASIN: 1423356292

Publication Date: April 4, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New. Expected UK delivery in 7-10 business days

Also Available In:

•	Paperback - The Sparrow (Ballantine Reader's Circle)
•	Paperback - The Sparrow
•	Hardcover - Sparrow
•	Audio CD - The Sparrow

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Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.co.uk Review
This strange, ambitious science fiction novel has already won enough attention for its first-time author to make it a selection by both the Book of the Month and QPB clubs. Father Emilio Sandoz, a Jesuit linguist, heads a team of scientists and explorers on an expedition to the planet Rakhat, where contact has been established with two apparently primitive races, the Runa and the Jana'ata. The narrative shifts back and forth between 2016, when contact is first made, and 2060, to a Vatican inquest interrogating the maimed and broken Sandoz. A palaeoanthropologist, Russell makes the descriptions of the inhabitants of Rakhat both convincing and unsettling.

Customer Reviews: Read 62 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

A HIGHLY INTELLIGENT TREATISE ON PERSONAL THEOLOGY - A TRUE CLASSIC May 1, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

Theology can become a distant logical exercise of dry doctrine and easy theoretical conclusions. When it comes down to the wet choices of real life most such theoretical Theology is found wanting as it can offer only limited answers. This is Theology of the other kind, the real one.

Mary Doria Russell has created a highly intelligent story: what would the story of a future saint be? Say, a Jesuit spearheading an exploratory mission to an alien civilization as a linguist of unique abilities; a former outcast that found his true calling as a man of the Cloth and God's face in all the hungry he fed and all the orphans he sheltered and all the lost he bough back from desperation. And then God asked for more. Much more. Is God real or a mere human construct? Can Faith survive anything?

This is one of those books that stays with you for ever. Read THE SPARROW first, CHILDREN OF THE GOD later in order to enjoy them both more.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

5 out of 5 stars

rich and moving character development January 25, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

Emilio's crisis of faith is perhaps the most moving I have ever read. I never found organised religion particularly persuasive, but The Sparrow at least left me with a positive regard for the simple elements of a true and human-dimensioned faith - and the terrible price one pays for such a thing.

5 out of 5 stars

It takes some reading, but is definitely worth it! November 5, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

If you're looking for Guns 'n' Aliens style SF, then you may as well not read these reviews and just avoid this book. However, if you are looking for something deeper then you're in the right place. 'The Sparrow' is a marvellous book, that captivates and plays with your emotions. A wonderful examination of religious faith through a very interesting lens.

5 out of 5 stars

Amazing October 31, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

It might be a bit slow, the chronologic order might be a bit confusing at first, but heck this is one good book, one of the best i've read. And much preferred it to the sequel.
Everything about this story was amazing, humanely touching, and M.D. Russell created a universe i personally did not like, but is stable, interesting and downright dramatic.
I have read very very few books that can make me laugh, cry, frighten me all at the same time...
Amazing.

3 out of 5 stars

Slightly disappointing July 24, 2007
In the end I found the book a disappointment. An interesting beginning and middle section loses its way, with characters that, at least before everything goes wrong, appear more like a collection of conversational tics than genuine human beings. This applies less to the chapters set after Fr Emilio's return to earth.

In many ways this is a transposition of Shusaku Endo's novel 'Silence' to outer space, only not so good. But I would say that anyone who enjoyed Mary Doria Russell's novel would also find much to think about in Endo's story.