More than SciFi: The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell

If you are seeking an action story, do not read this book.

If you are seeking a story in which good and evil are clearly deliniated, when good is rewarded and evil is punished, do not read this book.

If you are seeking a book in which discussions of ideas & morals, means and ends, are as much as part of the story as some very likeable characters, make The Sparrow your next read.

The plot: a few years from now, an astronomer discovers a planet in a nearby solar system which is inhabited--deduced by radio transmissions of music. While the world governments dither over what to do, the Vatican quietly launches its own ship, with a crew of eight--4 priests and 4 laypeople; or 5 believers and 3 skeptics; or 7 current/former Christians and 1 Jew; or a leader/an astronomer/a doctor/an engineer, a linguist/a computer whiz/a gardener/a musicologist. The mission of the mixed group is to make peaceful contact, for an exchange of knowledge. Period. They are not traveling 17 light years to either convert/enslave the natives, or to amass wealth, or to establish a power base. Their motives are pure. The results are horrific.

The book opens after the only survivor has arrived back on earth, barely alive after being tortured, and accused of having become both a prostitute and a child-murderer. The Vatican is receiving very bad press over this horrible, misunderstood situation, and its leaders (and the reader) has to extract the true story from Father Emilio, bit by painful bit. "It's all true, I suppose,..."but it's all wrong." Once you've met George, Anne, D.W., Emilio, Sophia & Jimmy, you will be unable to drop this book, unable to stop until you discover what horrors these good, mature, selfless, likeable people unintentially precipitated, both for themselves and for the natives of Rakhat.

The Sparrow is a fine choice for a book discussion group. Is it possible for peoples to not make mistakes in communication, when their cultures hold different beliefs, values, and practices? We all view the world through our backgrounds--when one culture contains taken-for-granted elements that can't be imagined by another culture, whose fault is it when misunderstandings occur? Were the tragedies unavoidable?

[There is sequel, The Children of God. You will probably feel compelled to read it, but it suffers by comparison with the original.]