---
product_id: 488886
title: "The Sparrow: A Novel (The Sparrow Series)"
price: "97.45 DT"
currency: TND
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 7
url: https://www.desertcart.tn/products/488886-the-sparrow-a-novel-the-sparrow-series
store_origin: TN
region: Tunisia
---

# The Sparrow: A Novel (The Sparrow Series)

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The Sparrow: A Novel (The Sparrow Series) [Russell, Mary Doria] on desertcart.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Sparrow: A Novel (The Sparrow Series)

Review: God is in the Why - “Not one sparrow can fall to the ground without your father knowing it.” “But the sparrow still falls.” The fascinating premise of Mary Doria Russell’s book attracted me, that once an extraterrestrial intelligence is discovered a few decades from now, the Society of Jesus (aka the Jesuits) is the first to send a contact mission. It struck me as an original approach to a first contact story and makes sense. While governments and private corporations jockeyed for advantage and tried to get out of their own way, the Jesuits quietly did what they have done for centuries. They set out to bring the knowledge of God to the aliens, or to find out whether such knowledge is universal among all God’s children. Beginning at the Arecibo telescope with a gawky SETI astronomer, the revelation that we’re not alone travels quickly among a circle of friends with extraordinary talents and connections. THE SPARROW is a character-driven story that draws the reader into the lives of people embarking on an historical expedition. I’m not Roman Catholic, but I appreciated the insight into the life of a Jesuit priest. Service, celibacy, and honor are explored alongside secular issues. This is not a ‘Christian’ book, per se, but more an exploration of how intelligent people approach the concept of why an omniscient and omnipotent God allows terrible things to happen, whether he simply watches atrocities or orchestrates them for some purpose hidden from us. This is a wonderfully-written thinker’s book that encourages the reader to examine the logic of whether God exists, what evil looks like, whether one society’s morality is more valid than another’s, how faith and science can overlap and complement one another, and too many other concepts to list in this review. Russell has an impressive background in anthropology, and it shows in this compulsively readable, thoroughly approachable speculation on how interaction with an alien culture impacts humanity in general, and one man’s faith in particular. Without giving too much away, I’ll say that the book begins with a disaster having taken place. Details of the events are shrouded in mystery, but one thing is clear: it’s not going to end well. I spent most of the book enjoying the intelligence and humor of the dialog and character interaction, falling in love with Russell’s characters, and living in a kind of dread for the hard ending I knew was coming. The main character says at some point in the story, “God is in the why.” This is reflected in the way the author chooses to structure the novel. We know the ending from the beginning of the book, but the book isn’t about what happens, it’s about why, and the effects of the ‘why’ on one physically, emotionally, and spiritually ravaged man. The profound sadness of this book lingers, along with grand ideas that I can keep and turn over in my mind like exotic artifacts. My conclusion: at the point where science can no longer answer there are mysteries we have to accept–assumptions that must be made–in order to go on living and working and loving. For some, I think, this is what is required to bridge the gaps in our knowledge that otherwise would lead to despair. Another word for this is faith.
Review: A tragic tale full of wonder, mystery, and the search for meaning. - Father Sandoz is the Job of the future, except he failed his test. From page one, we know him to be the sole survivor of a first contact mission to the planet Rakhat, four light-years away. His friends are all dead, his alien hosts were slaughtered, he is ill and maimed, and his spirit is broken. What had begun as a beautiful leap of faith ended in unimaginable misery, and he is judged culpable. This story, told from the beginning and the end simultaneously, slowly reveals how the Jesuit mission to Rakhat failed, but the meaning - or as the author would say, the poetry - lies in the why. The Sparrow is unlike anything I’ve ever read before. It is a well-written and potent mix of science fiction and theology, highlighted by masterful world-building and peppered with shrewd banter. The characterization is thorough and compelling; the twists are unpredictable yet felicitous. It is truly incredible writing, and I may certainly read more by this author. However, I am conflicted about the choice of structure: starting us at the end. How could I allow myself to become attached to characters I knew would not survive? And yet, if I had to watch them all die one by one, without warning, I would have been appalled by the tragedy. As it is, I failed to connect with the characters and still found it to be a sad story. Amazing and stirring, but sad. As a parable, though, it is superb. It provides a powerful example of warped faith overstrained. Faith based on the law of sowing and reaping expects temporal rewards, is audacious enough to presume the mind of God, and is destined for disappointment. “... God will reach toward us if we reach toward Him ...” This is the root of the myopic “problem of evil” which has plagued religious faiths for millenia. The various responses to the “problem of evil” are named theodicy (vindication of providence). There are several such arguments in Christianity. In Hinduism and Buddhism, the answer is Karma, either from this life or another. Judaism has a soul-making theodicy: suffering is natural and provides growth opportunities for the sufferer as well as virtue exercises for their neighbors. However, my favorite theodicy is that of Alan Watts. ”When we examine our bloodstreams under a microscope we see there’s one hell of a fight going on. All sorts of microorganisms are chewing each other up. And if we got overly fascinated with our view of our own bloodstreams in the microscope we should start taking sides, which would be fatal. Because the health of our organism depends on the continuance of this battle. What is, in other words, conflict at one level of magnification is harmony at a higher level. Now could it possibly be, therefore, that we—with all our problems, conflicts, neuroses, sicknesses, political outrages, wars, tortures and everything that goes on in human life—are a state of conflict which can be seen in a larger perspective as a situation of harmony?” - Alan Watts, The Myopic View of the World

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #17,778 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #119 in First Contact Science Fiction (Books) #271 in Science Fiction Adventures #1,894 in Literary Fiction (Books) |
| Book 1 of 2  | The Sparrow Series |
| Customer Reviews | 4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars (5,904) |
| Dimensions  | 5.55 x 1.14 x 8.25 inches |
| Edition  | Reissue |
| ISBN-10  | 0449912558 |
| ISBN-13  | 978-0449912553 |
| Item Weight  | 2.31 pounds |
| Language  | English |
| Print length  | 408 pages |
| Publication date  | September 8, 1997 |
| Publisher  | Ballantine Books |

## Images

![The Sparrow: A Novel (The Sparrow Series) - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81L0jn+JlhL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ God is in the Why
*by S***L on February 26, 2014*

“Not one sparrow can fall to the ground without your father knowing it.” “But the sparrow still falls.” The fascinating premise of Mary Doria Russell’s book attracted me, that once an extraterrestrial intelligence is discovered a few decades from now, the Society of Jesus (aka the Jesuits) is the first to send a contact mission. It struck me as an original approach to a first contact story and makes sense. While governments and private corporations jockeyed for advantage and tried to get out of their own way, the Jesuits quietly did what they have done for centuries. They set out to bring the knowledge of God to the aliens, or to find out whether such knowledge is universal among all God’s children. Beginning at the Arecibo telescope with a gawky SETI astronomer, the revelation that we’re not alone travels quickly among a circle of friends with extraordinary talents and connections. THE SPARROW is a character-driven story that draws the reader into the lives of people embarking on an historical expedition. I’m not Roman Catholic, but I appreciated the insight into the life of a Jesuit priest. Service, celibacy, and honor are explored alongside secular issues. This is not a ‘Christian’ book, per se, but more an exploration of how intelligent people approach the concept of why an omniscient and omnipotent God allows terrible things to happen, whether he simply watches atrocities or orchestrates them for some purpose hidden from us. This is a wonderfully-written thinker’s book that encourages the reader to examine the logic of whether God exists, what evil looks like, whether one society’s morality is more valid than another’s, how faith and science can overlap and complement one another, and too many other concepts to list in this review. Russell has an impressive background in anthropology, and it shows in this compulsively readable, thoroughly approachable speculation on how interaction with an alien culture impacts humanity in general, and one man’s faith in particular. Without giving too much away, I’ll say that the book begins with a disaster having taken place. Details of the events are shrouded in mystery, but one thing is clear: it’s not going to end well. I spent most of the book enjoying the intelligence and humor of the dialog and character interaction, falling in love with Russell’s characters, and living in a kind of dread for the hard ending I knew was coming. The main character says at some point in the story, “God is in the why.” This is reflected in the way the author chooses to structure the novel. We know the ending from the beginning of the book, but the book isn’t about what happens, it’s about why, and the effects of the ‘why’ on one physically, emotionally, and spiritually ravaged man. The profound sadness of this book lingers, along with grand ideas that I can keep and turn over in my mind like exotic artifacts. My conclusion: at the point where science can no longer answer there are mysteries we have to accept–assumptions that must be made–in order to go on living and working and loving. For some, I think, this is what is required to bridge the gaps in our knowledge that otherwise would lead to despair. Another word for this is faith.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ A tragic tale full of wonder, mystery, and the search for meaning.
*by J***N on December 30, 2020*

Father Sandoz is the Job of the future, except he failed his test. From page one, we know him to be the sole survivor of a first contact mission to the planet Rakhat, four light-years away. His friends are all dead, his alien hosts were slaughtered, he is ill and maimed, and his spirit is broken. What had begun as a beautiful leap of faith ended in unimaginable misery, and he is judged culpable. This story, told from the beginning and the end simultaneously, slowly reveals how the Jesuit mission to Rakhat failed, but the meaning - or as the author would say, the poetry - lies in the why. The Sparrow is unlike anything I’ve ever read before. It is a well-written and potent mix of science fiction and theology, highlighted by masterful world-building and peppered with shrewd banter. The characterization is thorough and compelling; the twists are unpredictable yet felicitous. It is truly incredible writing, and I may certainly read more by this author. However, I am conflicted about the choice of structure: starting us at the end. How could I allow myself to become attached to characters I knew would not survive? And yet, if I had to watch them all die one by one, without warning, I would have been appalled by the tragedy. As it is, I failed to connect with the characters and still found it to be a sad story. Amazing and stirring, but sad. As a parable, though, it is superb. It provides a powerful example of warped faith overstrained. Faith based on the law of sowing and reaping expects temporal rewards, is audacious enough to presume the mind of God, and is destined for disappointment. “... God will reach toward us if we reach toward Him ...” This is the root of the myopic “problem of evil” which has plagued religious faiths for millenia. The various responses to the “problem of evil” are named theodicy (vindication of providence). There are several such arguments in Christianity. In Hinduism and Buddhism, the answer is Karma, either from this life or another. Judaism has a soul-making theodicy: suffering is natural and provides growth opportunities for the sufferer as well as virtue exercises for their neighbors. However, my favorite theodicy is that of Alan Watts. ”When we examine our bloodstreams under a microscope we see there’s one hell of a fight going on. All sorts of microorganisms are chewing each other up. And if we got overly fascinated with our view of our own bloodstreams in the microscope we should start taking sides, which would be fatal. Because the health of our organism depends on the continuance of this battle. What is, in other words, conflict at one level of magnification is harmony at a higher level. Now could it possibly be, therefore, that we—with all our problems, conflicts, neuroses, sicknesses, political outrages, wars, tortures and everything that goes on in human life—are a state of conflict which can be seen in a larger perspective as a situation of harmony?” - Alan Watts, The Myopic View of the World

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review
*by A***J on September 20, 2024*

The ending is horrific and not for the faint of heart - cannot exaggerate this. Yet everything fits together with great deftness and delicacy. It's difficult to describe a book that weaves together so many disparate scientific fields seamlessly, with unexpected characters full of pathos, in a delicate puzzle. Fair warning, the first 20-40% is terribly slow and then it explodes! Absolutely phenomenal past that and worth the investment.

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*Last updated: 2026-06-04*