Trigger warnings for this book: explicit sexual assualt. Discussion of domestic violence. Cannibalism.
Reading this book is an experience. I’ve been trying to think of a book that matches the sheer level of agony this induced. Candidates include The Doomsday Book, Guy Gavriel Kay books (the ending of The Lions of al-Rassan probably hits the hardest out of his bibliography, if I had to pick), and even looking into nonfiction with Night and other Holocaust memoirs (I’m married to a Holocaust historian, so I am familiar with many). None of them are quite as painful as this book. One friend of mine described The Sparrow as one of those “life before, and life after” kind of points in her life, and I think that’s fair.
So what was so bad about this book? There are no spoilers here, which is actually the precise reason this was so painful to read. Allow me to explain.
The premise is that, in the present day (twenty-ish years into the future from when the book was written in the late ‘90s) SETI detects radio signals coming from Alpha Centauri. An expedition is immediately mounted, not by the UN or by the United States or China or any nation, but by the Society of Jesus (“not so much ‘secretly’ as ‘privately,’” to quote the book). They’re not going to proselytize, but simply to learn about, know, and love God’s other children. As we’re told (ominously) at the beginning, they meant no harm. 40 years later, the lone survivor comes back to Earth, maimed and traumatized. The mission ended in absolute disaster.
All of that you can get from the blurb on Goodreads. We don’t find out exactly what happened or why until the end of the book. First, we get to spend 90% of the book getting to know and love all the members of the expedition. The entire book, I had a growing dread in the pit of my stomach. WHEN is the other shoe going to drop? What is going to happen? When the worst finally did happen, it was honestly a relief.
If there’s a single theme to this book, it’s addressing the age-old question of why, if God exists, bad things still happen. This book doesn’t attempt to offer any answers - as any intellectually honest Christian will tell you (and no one has ever accused the Jesuits of lacking in intellectual rigor) there’s no answer to that question. But, even (or perhaps especially) because there is no answer, it’s important for people of faith to grapple with the question.
The book’s chief flaw is that it felt somewhat manipulative at times. Like the author sat down and went, “Hmm, how can I make this hit even harder?” rather than letting things happen organically. It’s also a very Catholic book (unsurprising, when half of the people on the expedition are literal priests). Lots of discussions of celibacy and a very Catholic view of the world. I had Father Emilio pegged in my head as a prime example of a Father What-a-Waste before the author brought up the term, to my amusement.
Overall a very powerful read, and one I would encourage most people to try. Just have a mug of cocoa, a fuzzy blanket and a puppy and/or kitten while you read, with a Becky Chambers book on standby for when you finish.
On that note, I’m off to sob into a pillow for a while, and then read my ARC of the second Monk & Robot book.