The Sparrow
Encyclopedia
The Sparrow is the first novel by science fiction
author Mary Doria Russell
.
It won the Arthur C. Clarke Award
, James Tiptree, Jr. Award
, Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis
and the British Science Fiction Association Award
. It was followed by a sequel, Children of God
, in 1998. The title refers to Matthew
10:29-31, which relates that not even a sparrow
falls to the earth without God's knowing of it.
program, at the Arecibo Observatory
, picks up radio broadcasts of music from the vicinity of Alpha Centauri
. The first expedition to Rakhat, the world that is sending the music, is organized by the Jesuit
order.
Only one of the crew, Father Emilio Sandoz, a priest, survives to return to Earth, and he is damaged physically and psychologically. The story is told in framed flashback, with chapters alternating between the story of the expedition and the story of Sandoz' interrogation by the Jesuit order's inquest, set up in 2059 to find the truth. Sandoz' return has sparked great controversy – not just because the Jesuits sent the mission independent of United Nations
oversight, but also because the mission ended disastrously. Contact with the UN mission, which sent Sandoz back to Earth alone in the Jesuit ship, has since been lost.
From the beginning, Sandoz, a talented Taino
linguist
born in a Puerto Rican
slum, had believed the mission to Rakhat was divinely inspired. Several of his close friends and co-workers, people with a variety of unique skills and talents, had seemingly coincidental connections to Arecibo and one of them, a gifted young technician, was the first to hear the transmissions. In Sandoz's mind, only God's will could bring this group of people with the perfect combination of knowledge and experience together at the moment when the alien signal was detected. These were the people who, with three other Jesuit priests, were chosen by the Society of Jesus to travel to the planet, using an interstellar vessel
made out of a small asteroid.
Sandoz tells about how the asteroid flew to the planet Rakhat, and how the crew tried to acclimatize themselves to the new world, experimenting with eating local flora and fauna, then making contact with a rural village – a small-scale tribe of vegetarian gatherers, the Runa, clearly not the singers of the radio broadcasts. Still, welcomed as 'foreigners', they settle among the natives and begin to learn their language and culture, transmitting all their findings via computer uplink to the asteroid-ship now orbiting above the planet. An emergency use of fuel for their landing craft leaves them stranded on the planet.
When they do meet a member of the culture which produced the radio transmissions, he proves to be of a different species from the rural natives, a Jana'ata. An ambitious merchant named Supaari, he sees in the visitors a possibility to improve his status, while the crew hopes to find an alternative source of fuel in Supaari's city, Gayjur. Meanwhile, the crew begins to grow their own food, introducing the concept of agriculture
to the villagers. These seemingly innocent actions and accompanying cultural misunderstandings set into motion the events which lead to the murder of all but Sandoz and one other Earthling, and Sandoz' capture and degradation which is a central mystery in the plot. It is revealed that Sandoz is made a slave of a famed poet/songwriter, whose broadcasts first alerted Earth to Rakhat's existence. Sandoz is physically disfigured. In that culture, it is considered an honour to be dependent upon another, and likewise to have a dependent, so the flesh between Sandoz's metacarpals is cut away to make it seem that he has long elegant fingers which start at his wrists, and with which he cannot even feed himself. Sandoz is routinely forced to sexually satisfy the musician, along with his friends and colleagues, and it is later revealed the songs which Sandoz had originally considered to be a divine revelation are in fact a kind of ballad pornography, relating the songwriter's sexual exploits on broadcast to the populace.
When Sandoz returns to Earth, his friends are dead and gone and his faith, once considered worthy of actual canonization
by his superiors, is merely an extension of his bitter anger with the God who sent him to Rakhat. Due to relativistic space-time effects, decades had passed while he has been gone, during which popular outrage at the UN's initial and highly out-of-context report on the mission, and especially Sandoz's role in the tragedy, had left the Society shattered and nearly extinct. As Sandoz painfully explains what really happened, his personal healing can begin, but only time will prove whether the same is true of the Society.
's science fiction novel, A Case of Conscience
. It also involves a Jesuit priest confronting an alien civilization.
On her website, Mary Doria Russell addresses this speculation with the following statement:
felt that this book was mistakenly categorized as science fiction, and that it is really "a philosophical novel about the nature of good and evil and what happens
when a man tries to do the right thing, for the right reasons and ends up causing incalculable harm".
Commonweal
believes that Russell has done her research on the early historic Jesuit missions and on Jesuit spirituality. They feel that
she is successfully updating the stories of other important Jesuits who have sent men to distant lands or went themselves to foreign cultures
to represent Christianity. They say that "Russell subtly raises concerns about the ways in which sophisticated cultures tell themselves cover stories in order to justify actions taken at a terrible cost to others". This is also reflected in the way that Sofia has to buy her freedom from what she describes as an institution of intellectual prostitution; as well as the differences between the simple Runa who live in the country side and the Jana'ata, who are the sophisticated city dwellers that created the beautiful music the mission was originally searching for.
had purchased the rights to The Sparrow for Brad Pitt
's production company, Plan B
, and that Pitt himself would be playing the role of Sandoz with screenwriter Michael Seitzman adapting the novel to film.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
author Mary Doria Russell
Mary Doria Russell
Mary Doria Russell is an American novelist. -Biography:Russell was born in the suburbs of Chicago. Her parents were both in the military: her father was a Marine Corps drill instructor, and her mother was a Navy nurse. She graduated from Glenbard East High School and later she earned a Ph.D in...
.
It won the Arthur C. Clarke Award
Arthur C. Clarke Award
The Arthur C. Clarke Award is a British award given for the best science fiction novel first published in the United Kingdom during the previous year. The award was established with a grant from Arthur C. Clarke and the first prize was awarded in 1987...
, James Tiptree, Jr. Award
James Tiptree, Jr. Award
The James Tiptree, Jr. Award is an annual literary prize for works of science fiction or fantasy that expand or explore one's understanding of gender. It was initiated in February of 1991 by science fiction authors Pat Murphy and Karen Joy Fowler, subsequent to a discussion at WisCon.- Background...
, Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis
Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis
The Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis is possibly the best-known science fiction award from Germany. The award is named after the science fiction author Kurd Laßwitz....
and the British Science Fiction Association Award
BSFA award
The BSFA Awards are literary awards presented annually since 1970 by the British Science Fiction Association to honor works in the genre of science fiction. Nominees and winners are chosen based on a vote of BSFA members...
. It was followed by a sequel, Children of God
Children of God (novel)
Children of God is the second book, and the second science fiction novel, written by author Mary Doria Russell. It is the sequel to the award-winning novel, The Sparrow.- Plot summary :...
, in 1998. The title refers to Matthew
Gospel of Matthew
The Gospel According to Matthew is one of the four canonical gospels, one of the three synoptic gospels, and the first book of the New Testament. It tells of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth...
10:29-31, which relates that not even a sparrow
Sparrow
The sparrows are a family of small passerine birds, Passeridae. They are also known as true sparrows, or Old World sparrows, names also used for a genus of the family, Passer...
falls to the earth without God's knowing of it.
Plot summary
The novel begins in the year 2019, when the SETISETI
The search for extraterrestrial intelligence is the collective name for a number of activities people undertake to search for intelligent extraterrestrial life. Some of the most well known projects are run by the SETI Institute. SETI projects use scientific methods to search for intelligent life...
program, at the Arecibo Observatory
Arecibo Observatory
The Arecibo Observatory is a radio telescope near the city of Arecibo in Puerto Rico. It is operated by SRI International under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation...
, picks up radio broadcasts of music from the vicinity of Alpha Centauri
Alpha Centauri
Alpha Centauri is the brightest star in the southern constellation of Centaurus...
. The first expedition to Rakhat, the world that is sending the music, is organized by the Jesuit
Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...
order.
Only one of the crew, Father Emilio Sandoz, a priest, survives to return to Earth, and he is damaged physically and psychologically. The story is told in framed flashback, with chapters alternating between the story of the expedition and the story of Sandoz' interrogation by the Jesuit order's inquest, set up in 2059 to find the truth. Sandoz' return has sparked great controversy – not just because the Jesuits sent the mission independent of United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
oversight, but also because the mission ended disastrously. Contact with the UN mission, which sent Sandoz back to Earth alone in the Jesuit ship, has since been lost.
From the beginning, Sandoz, a talented Taino
Taíno people
The Taínos were pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Bahamas, Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles. It is thought that the seafaring Taínos are relatives of the Arawak people of South America...
linguist
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
born in a Puerto Rican
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
slum, had believed the mission to Rakhat was divinely inspired. Several of his close friends and co-workers, people with a variety of unique skills and talents, had seemingly coincidental connections to Arecibo and one of them, a gifted young technician, was the first to hear the transmissions. In Sandoz's mind, only God's will could bring this group of people with the perfect combination of knowledge and experience together at the moment when the alien signal was detected. These were the people who, with three other Jesuit priests, were chosen by the Society of Jesus to travel to the planet, using an interstellar vessel
Interstellar travel
Interstellar space travel is manned or unmanned travel between stars. The concept of interstellar travel in starships is a staple of science fiction. Interstellar travel is much more difficult than interplanetary travel. Intergalactic travel, or travel between different galaxies, is even more...
made out of a small asteroid.
Sandoz tells about how the asteroid flew to the planet Rakhat, and how the crew tried to acclimatize themselves to the new world, experimenting with eating local flora and fauna, then making contact with a rural village – a small-scale tribe of vegetarian gatherers, the Runa, clearly not the singers of the radio broadcasts. Still, welcomed as 'foreigners', they settle among the natives and begin to learn their language and culture, transmitting all their findings via computer uplink to the asteroid-ship now orbiting above the planet. An emergency use of fuel for their landing craft leaves them stranded on the planet.
When they do meet a member of the culture which produced the radio transmissions, he proves to be of a different species from the rural natives, a Jana'ata. An ambitious merchant named Supaari, he sees in the visitors a possibility to improve his status, while the crew hopes to find an alternative source of fuel in Supaari's city, Gayjur. Meanwhile, the crew begins to grow their own food, introducing the concept of agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
to the villagers. These seemingly innocent actions and accompanying cultural misunderstandings set into motion the events which lead to the murder of all but Sandoz and one other Earthling, and Sandoz' capture and degradation which is a central mystery in the plot. It is revealed that Sandoz is made a slave of a famed poet/songwriter, whose broadcasts first alerted Earth to Rakhat's existence. Sandoz is physically disfigured. In that culture, it is considered an honour to be dependent upon another, and likewise to have a dependent, so the flesh between Sandoz's metacarpals is cut away to make it seem that he has long elegant fingers which start at his wrists, and with which he cannot even feed himself. Sandoz is routinely forced to sexually satisfy the musician, along with his friends and colleagues, and it is later revealed the songs which Sandoz had originally considered to be a divine revelation are in fact a kind of ballad pornography, relating the songwriter's sexual exploits on broadcast to the populace.
When Sandoz returns to Earth, his friends are dead and gone and his faith, once considered worthy of actual canonization
Canonization
Canonization is the act by which a Christian church declares a deceased person to be a saint, upon which declaration the person is included in the canon, or list, of recognized saints. Originally, individuals were recognized as saints without any formal process...
by his superiors, is merely an extension of his bitter anger with the God who sent him to Rakhat. Due to relativistic space-time effects, decades had passed while he has been gone, during which popular outrage at the UN's initial and highly out-of-context report on the mission, and especially Sandoz's role in the tragedy, had left the Society shattered and nearly extinct. As Sandoz painfully explains what really happened, his personal healing can begin, but only time will prove whether the same is true of the Society.
The Sparrow and A Case of Conscience
The Sparrow is similar to James BlishJames Blish
James Benjamin Blish was an American author of fantasy and science fiction. Blish also wrote literary criticism of science fiction using the pen-name William Atheling, Jr.-Biography:...
's science fiction novel, A Case of Conscience
A Case of Conscience
A Case of Conscience is a science fiction novel by James Blish, first published in 1958. It is the story of a Jesuit who investigates an alien race that has no religion; they are completely without any concept of God, an afterlife, or the idea of sin; and the species evolves through several forms...
. It also involves a Jesuit priest confronting an alien civilization.
On her website, Mary Doria Russell addresses this speculation with the following statement:
Literary significance and reception
A reviewer at the Library JournalLibrary Journal
Library Journal is a trade publication for librarians. It was founded in 1876 by Melvil Dewey . It reports news about the library world, emphasizing public libraries, and offers feature articles about aspects of professional practice...
felt that this book was mistakenly categorized as science fiction, and that it is really "a philosophical novel about the nature of good and evil and what happens
when a man tries to do the right thing, for the right reasons and ends up causing incalculable harm".
Commonweal
Commonweal
Commonweal is a American journal of opinion edited and managed by lay Catholics. It is headquartered in The Interchurch Center in New York City.-History:...
believes that Russell has done her research on the early historic Jesuit missions and on Jesuit spirituality. They feel that
she is successfully updating the stories of other important Jesuits who have sent men to distant lands or went themselves to foreign cultures
to represent Christianity. They say that "Russell subtly raises concerns about the ways in which sophisticated cultures tell themselves cover stories in order to justify actions taken at a terrible cost to others". This is also reflected in the way that Sofia has to buy her freedom from what she describes as an institution of intellectual prostitution; as well as the differences between the simple Runa who live in the country side and the Jana'ata, who are the sophisticated city dwellers that created the beautiful music the mission was originally searching for.
Awards and nominations
The Sparrow has received the following awards:- The 1996 James Tiptree, Jr. Award
- The 1998 Arthur C. Clarke Award
- The 1998 British Science Fiction Association Awards in the Novel category
- The 2001 Kurd Laßwitz Award
- 1998 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer
- The Sparrow and Children of GodChildren of God (novel)Children of God is the second book, and the second science fiction novel, written by author Mary Doria Russell. It is the sequel to the award-winning novel, The Sparrow.- Plot summary :...
together won the 2001 Gaylactic Spectrum Hall of FameGaylactic Spectrum AwardsThe Gaylactic Spectrum Awards are given to works of science fiction, fantasy and horror that explore LGBT topics in a positive way. Established in 1998, the awards were initially presented by the Gaylactic Network, with awards first awarded in 1999. In 2002 the awards were given their own...
.
Film, television and theatrical adaptations
In March 2006 it was announced that Warner Bros.Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
had purchased the rights to The Sparrow for Brad Pitt
Brad Pitt
William Bradley "Brad" Pitt is an American actor and film producer. Pitt has received two Academy Award nominations and four Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one...
's production company, Plan B
Plan B Entertainment
Plan B Entertainment is a film production company founded by Brad Pitt, Brad Grey, and Jennifer Aniston. In 2006, Pitt became the sole owner; the company currently holds a release deal with Paramount Pictures, along with Warner Bros...
, and that Pitt himself would be playing the role of Sandoz with screenwriter Michael Seitzman adapting the novel to film.
Related works
- James BlishJames BlishJames Benjamin Blish was an American author of fantasy and science fiction. Blish also wrote literary criticism of science fiction using the pen-name William Atheling, Jr.-Biography:...
's A Case of ConscienceA Case of ConscienceA Case of Conscience is a science fiction novel by James Blish, first published in 1958. It is the story of a Jesuit who investigates an alien race that has no religion; they are completely without any concept of God, an afterlife, or the idea of sin; and the species evolves through several forms...
has also a Jesuit priest confronting an alien civilization. - In Arthur C. ClarkeArthur C. ClarkeSir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE, FRAS was a British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist, famous for his short stories and novels, among them 2001: A Space Odyssey, and as a host and commentator in the British television series Mysterious World. For many years, Robert A. Heinlein,...
's short story "The StarThe Star (short story)"The Star" is a science fiction short story by English writer Arthur C. Clarke. It appeared in the science fiction magazine Infinity Science Fiction in 1955 and won the Hugo award in 1956. The story was also published as "Star of Bethlehem"...
" a Jesuit scientist finds out a faith-shaking fact about a supernovaSupernovaA supernova is a stellar explosion that is more energetic than a nova. It is pronounced with the plural supernovae or supernovas. Supernovae are extremely luminous and cause a burst of radiation that often briefly outshines an entire galaxy, before fading from view over several weeks or months...
. - ProgressiveProgressive rockProgressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
/Symphonic rockSymphonic rockSymphonic rock is a sub-genre of progressive rock. Since early in progressive rock's history, the term has been used sometimes to distinguish more classically influenced progressive rock from the more psychedelic and experimental forms of progressive rock....
band Metaphor has produced a concept album/rock opera based on The Sparrow (with the author's permission). The CD was released in September, 2007.
Publication history
- 1996, US, Villard ISBN 978-0679451501, Pub date 9 September 1996, Hardcover
- 1996, US, Brilliance Corp ISBN 978-1561007080, Pub date 1 October 1996, Audio Cassette
- 1997, US, Ballantine Books ISBN 978-0449912553, Pub date 8 September 1997, Paperback
- 1997, UK, Black Swan ISBN 978-0552997775, Pub date 1 November 1997, Paperback
- 2008, US, Brilliance Audio ISBN 978-1423356288, Pub date 4 April 2008, Audio CD
External links
The following links are to detailed reviews with many plot details.- First review of The Sparrow by R.W. Rasband, Association for Mormon LettersAssociation for Mormon LettersThe Association for Mormon Letters is a nonprofit founded in 1976 to promote quality writing "by, for, and about Mormons." The broadness of this definition of Mormon literature has led the AML to focus on a wide variety of work that has sometimes been neglected in the Mormon community...
. - Second review of The Sparrow by Rasband, with Russell's response.
- Review of Children of God by Rasband, with commentary by Russell.
- Infinity Plus Interview with Mary Doria Russell where she discusses The Sparrow.
- Video clip of interview with Mary Doria Russell and NPR Book Reviewer Alan Cheuse talking about faith and fiction in The Sparrow.
- Mary Doria Russell personal website.