Mary Doria RussellThe SparrowRandom House, 1996Monika says:
In the year 2019 the SETI program receives signals from Alpha Centauri that turn out to be music, namely chorales of unearthly beauty. Since those songs can only be interpreted as praising God it seems natural that the Society of Jesus plans an expedition to our neighboring star system. A group of four Jesuits and four secular scientists sets out in a carved out asteroid equipped for interstellar flight to establish first contact between humanity and an alien intelligence. While about 17 years pass on Earth the Stella Maris reaches Alpha Centauri in just eight months and finds a planet within the biosphere of the star system. Everything seems to go according to plan and the inhabitants of Rakhat welcome the strangers. But as it often happens the collision of completely different cultures leads to disaster. The disastrous outcome of the Rakhat expedition is revealed on the first pages of the book. The only survivor of the group is Pater Emilio Sandoz who returns to Earth a physical and emotional wreck. His superiors have a hard time learning why the expedition failed because he shies away from human contact and doesn’t want to talk about what happened on Rakhat. By and by we are told in flashbacks why and how he was the only one to return. Mary Doria Russell’s THE SPARROW is a remarkable book. Not too many novels feature such carefully drawn out characters. It’s hard to believe that this is the author’s debut novel. The main character is Jesuit Pater Emilio Sandoz, three-dimensional and with all the facets of a real person. But the other characters, too, are presented in a way that makes THE SPARROW a book you are not likely to forget and will probably want to read again to enjoy all the nuances missed the first time around because you were eager to find out what happens next. There are two different storylines, one taking place on Earth after the failure of the expedition, the other describing how it occurred. Russell creates tension by alternating them throughout the 650 pages of the book. You barely learned something about Rakhat when you are whisked back to Italy of the future where Sandoz is slowly recovering from what he has been through. The culture of Rakhat is as alien as a strange civilization can be without falling back on tired clichés. The author managed to bring the aliens to life just as colorfully as the humans even if they are not quite as well drawn as Sandoz. Her anthropological background came in handy for inventing credible VaRakhati without making them too human. An extraordinary first novel. Russell already continued the tale of the Jesuit missions in CHILDREN OF GOD. I hope we will hear more from her even if she leaves the world of Rakhat behind. |
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Last changes: 02-09-03 Copyright 2000 Christina Gross & Monika Hübner |
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