Description: Excerpts from reviews of Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow "It is science fiction brought back to the project with which it began in the hands of a writer like Jules Verne: the necessity of wonder, the hope for moral rectitude, and the possibility of belief." --America "Russell's debut novel...focuses on her characters, and it is here that the work truly shines. An entertaining infusion of humor keeps the book from becoming too dark, although some of the characters are so clever that they sometimes seem contrived. Readers who dislike an emphasis on moral dilemmas or spiritual quests may be turned off, but those who enjoy science fiction because it can create these things are in for a real treat." --Science Fiction Weekly "The Sparrowtackles a difficult subject with grace and intelligence." --San Francisco Chronicle "The Sparrowis an incredible novel, for one reason. Though it is set in the early twenty-first century, it is not written like most science fiction. Russell's novel is driven by her characters, by their complex relationships and inner conflicts, not by aliens or technology." --Milwaukee Journal Sentinel "It is rare to find a book about interplanetary exploration that has this much insight into human nature and foresight into a possible future." --San Antonio Express News "Two narratives--the mission to the planet and its aftermath four decades later--interweave to create a suspenseful tale." --The Seattle Times "By alternating chapters that dramatize Sandoz's tough-love interrogation with flashbacks to the mission's genesis, flowering, and tragic collapse, The Sparrowcasts a strange, unsettling emotional spell, bouncing readers from scenes of black despair to ones of wild euphoria, from the bracing simplicity of pure adventure to the complicated tangles of nonhuman culture and politics.--The smooth storytelling and gorgeous characterization can't be faulted." --Entertainment Weekly From the Trade Paperback edition.

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