Mary Doria Russell‘s The Sparrow (1996) is one of the most satisfying reads I’ve had in a while. The core idea is fantastic: contact is made with an alien species, so the Jesuits decide to send a mission to make contact with them.
The book alternates between the near-future (the 2010s and 2020s), when we meet our main characters, the initial discovery is made and the mission is being assembled; and the 2060s, when our protagonist, Emilio Sandoz, has returned from his time on the alien planet. This is often a problematic structure for me as a reader, as we already know, in broad strokes, the outcome of the mission before we know much about its details. We know who lives and who dies, and we have a general sense of the outcomes.
What we don’t know is the how and the why, and it takes an awful lot of skill to keep the narrative moving along and engaging. But we still care about characters whose death is known, and when it comes, an emotional weight is still maintained. This is one of the strengths of Russell’s writing: she handles the different character motivations with clarity, deftness, and directness, and while two of the astronauts are significantly thinner (in terms of character depth), the warmth and solidity of the rest make up for it.
The core of the book, though, is the role of faith, both in terms of a rationale for space travel and the specific role it plays for Emilio, who has to reconcile a concept of an engaged and loving God with great personal tragedy and pain. This is not a religious book, but it uses religion to explore some big ideas: fate, hubris, celibacy & sexuality, the possibility of understanding other people (let alone other races). At heart, well constructed variations on the story of Job remain deeply compelling. The fact that this occurs in a creative narrative involving a thickly constructed alien culture adds even more yumminess.
This is a memorable book, and one that I highly recommend. Clearly, if either science fiction or the presence of Jesuit theology make you break out in hives, avoid; but otherwise, this was an enjoyable surprise.