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Children of God (The Sparrow #2)

by Mary Doria Russell (Goodreads Author)

4.02 of 5 stars 4.02 · rating details · 7,628 ratings · 767 reviews

Mary Doria Russell's debut novel, The Sparrow, took us on a journey to a distant planet and into the center of the human soul. A critically acclaimed bestseller, The Sparrow was chosen as one of Entertainment Weekly's Ten Best Books of the Year, a finalist for the Book-of-the-Month Club's First Fiction Prize and the winner of the James M. Tiptree Memorial Award. Now, in Ch...more

Paperback, Ballantine Reader's Circle, 464 pages

Published February 2nd 1999 by Ballantine Books (first published 1998)

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Sep 22, 2007 Patrick rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 5q-book-group

The sequel to The Sparrow. Once again, the author does a tremendous job in both introducing new social, political, and cultural concepts on almost every page for both the human and alien species she writes about, which makes the story very compelling for the reader. As the story progresses the author creates a nearly intractable problem of species genocide that she resolves near the end in a manner that completely surprised me, but which makes a lot of sense once one considers the backgrounds of...more

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Mar 19, 2010 David rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2010

"The Sparrow" is a hard act to follow, and Russell doesn't quite match the brilliance of the earlier book in this sequel. Her evident desire to tie up all the loose ends and leave no one unaccounted for is a distinct handicap, as some parts of the book are too obviously there for that purpose only. Just as she did in the first book, Russell takes on the big questions of spirituality, morality, the challenge to faith posed by an apparently capricious God, against a backdrop of extreme psychologic...more

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May 03, 2013 Aerin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: female-sf-authors-of-the-80s-90s, science-fiction, the-luxury-of-loneliness, what-if-it-all-means-something, atheism-and-religion

Sequel-related shittiness is a serious disease, and its prevalence is growing. Symptoms may include: a lack of a coherent plot, frequent bouts of boringness, a dearth of decent editing, desperate rehashes of ideas that worked the first time around, and a tendency to provoke fathomless disappointment. Though there is no cure, the effects of sequel-related shittiness can be managed through the liberal application of vodka, or, in serious cases, feeding the offending sequel to the nearest alligator...more

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Feb 10, 2009 Brooke rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009, science-fiction

I was expecting this to knock me off my feet the way The Sparrow did, but it was such a letdown of a sequel.

I didn't connect with anyone the way I completely fell in love with all the characters in The Sparrow. Sean Fein, Danny Iron Horse, Joseba Urizarbarrena - they were all completely interchangeable. I couldn't tell you who did what or who had which characteristics. There was an overweight pilot as well, and I'm not sure why he was in the book at all except for the ship to have a pilot.

I did...more

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May 21, 2008 Allison rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, adult

I went out and bought this book the day after I finished "The Sparrow" because I needed to know what happened to Emilio and to the worlds created in that book and could not believe my good fortune that there WAS a sequel and that the first bookstore I walked into had it.

The book picks up right where the last one let off. Maybe it's because I was so enthralled/engaged/enraptured by "The Sparrow" that I began plowing my way through "Children of G-d" and a breakneck pace, when I probably should hav...more

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Dec 30, 2008 Fran rated it 5 of 5 stars

The amazing sequel to The Sparrow, reviewed earlier (the one I have affectionately referred to as Jesuits in Space.) I won't give away how The Sparrow ended, but suffice it to say that I couldn't imagine a sequel being possible to write or bearable to read. Something convinced me to pick up Children of God, though, and it was just as intellectually fascinating, just as emotionally wrenching, just as exciting. A stay-up-all-night-reading book.

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Apr 19, 2009 Mosca rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

I am not writing a separate review for either The Sparrow or Children of God because I feel that the two books are so bound to one another that I can only review them as a pair. So this review addresses the two as if they were merely Part I and Part II of the same work.

This unique work of science fiction takes as its premise a Jesuit mission to space--at first an outrageous assumption, but this should not prevent you from reading these books because these books are most importantly an investigat...more

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Mar 14, 2009 Lisa Vegan rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: every reader who has read the author’s The Sparrow but none who have not

Recommended to Lisa by: Sandi

Shelves: fiction, gr-groups-buddies, orphaned-and-quasi-orphaned-kids, reviewed, novel, speculative-fiction, gr-author, altta

I am so glad that Mary Doria Russell continued with the story from The Sparrow. I was so happy to see some of the characters from that book in this one. It’s my favorite kind of science fiction: character driven and thought provoking. This one had me sobbing at the end.

This is a fascinating study of human and other sentient being psychology and cultural and social anthropology, which is how I saw it what with my predilections, and because my personal philosophy differs from many of these charact...more

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Mar 31, 2012 Carol rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: readers who liked The Sparrow

Shelves: sci-fi

Epic. Read it shortly after reading The Sparrow, and I'm glad that I read both together. Although it might stand alone, some of the characters are the same, and the story firmly builds upon experiences and events in The Sparrow.

Didn't rate it 5 stars for a couple of reasons. One, occasionally Russell has the habit of dropping non-plot vital but important information in the space of a sentence, so if you tend to skim or even if your attention wanders, comprehension will suffer. An example would b...more

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Oct 27, 2008 Marley rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone who read The Sparrow

This is the sequel to The Sparrow, but I think it is more accurate to think of The Sparrow and Children of God as part 1 and 2 of the same book. If you've read The Sparrow, you must read Children of God and if you're considering Children of God you need to go read The Sparrow first.

Everything I said about the first book applies here. The author has created a very believable future world, full of ethical dilemmas that force you to really think. It's sad and tragic and yet she manages to sneak in...more

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Jul 22, 2008 Jamie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

This sequel to The Sparrow is worth reading, but I didn't enjoy it as much as the first book. It begins well enough but loses steam about halfway through.

I liked the second revealing look at the events which occurred at the end of The Sparrow, even though the author cheats: it turns out that something you thought happened in the first book didn't really happen. The new characters aren't as well-developed as the original set, and I thought the aliens were more interesting when they were more myst...more

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Apr 12, 2008 Siria rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 21st-century, american-fiction, scifi

Children of God falls into the category of sequels which are not bad, but which are unnecessary. Picking up where The Sparrow left off, it follows the story of Emilio Sandoz' return to Rakhat, and how the social changes which he found there had occurred. Unlike the first book, however, Children of God is much more of a traditional first-contact SF novel than it is a character study. There was nothing here which needed to be told, and I think the ending of The Sparrow offered a much more real...more Children of God falls into the category of sequels which are not bad, but which are unnecessary. Picking up where The Sparrow left off, it follows the story of Emilio Sandoz' return to Rakhat, and how the social changes which he found there had occurred. Unlike the first book, however, Children of God is much more of a traditional first-contact SF novel than it is a character study. There was nothing here which needed to be told, and I think the ending of The Sparrow offered a much more real, raw kind of resolution than the one this novel provides.

The plot line feels very forced at times--if the author admits in her acknowledgements that one important event in the novel is unlikely, then you know it's problematic indeed--and I too often found that the more detail she gave of Jana'ata or Runao society, the less convincing I found them. For example, perhaps the Jana'ata might value gold or silver as do, enough to wear them as display pieces before battle--but would they necessarily give primacy to gold? Things like that made both cultures feel a little too pat at times, a little too unexamined, and often caught my attention enough to pull me out of the story; which I thought rather strange, considering how much their unexpected alien-ness was such a key point in the first book. I felt as if a little distance would have served the book, and its purposes, far better.

Few of the new characters introduced here really grabbed me, but I was glad to see both Emilio and Sofia again. I felt that their ending was lacking in... not necessarily just believability, but intenseness, for both of them. I can never share their faith, but it was interesting to follow its evolution, because that's one of the areas where Russell really shines as an author.

Though God a'mighty, enough with the characters with "Irish" accents. We sound different from other English-speaking peoples! We get it! That doesn't mean you need to write the speech of your Irish character phonetically when you do not do so with any of the other human characters in the book. It's patronising, othering, and really doesn't help given how un-Irish Fr Fein's syntax was. (Also, a character called Sean Fein? Seriously? Seriously? Not. Funny.)(less)

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Apr 20, 2008 Farida added it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I liked this sequel to The Sparrow well enough. I'd recommend reading either both books or neither of them, as The Sparrow ends on such a note of despair. This one provides a sense of resolution. While I find the premise of Jesuits making first contact on another planet an intriguing one, I like my science-fiction to be of the harder variety and not play so loosely with physics. Also, there were a number of sections where I thought, "Oh, just get on with it already." In terms of the faith-based...more

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Matt There is a tendency in modern fiction to rely heavily on the 'noble savage' figure who teaches those foolish technological civilized people a thing or...more
Jul 21, 2008 08:12am

Farida Matt,
Thanks for your thoughtful critique. I'm holding out for a first contact novel in which two different alien species (humans and others) are rough...more
Jul 21, 2008 08:41am

Matt Farida:

It's somewhat dated, but the closest I've encountered to that is Gordon R. Dickson's 'The Alien Way'. Both species are fairly new space farers...more
Jul 21, 2008 08:49am

Mar 22, 2009 Karen rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Renata, Sally

A very good sequel to her extraordinary first novel, "The Sparrow". Nothing like a good wrestling with religious, sociological and ethical questions, set on an alien planet with a very well thought out society of it's own.

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Dec 28, 2007 Zigforas rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Zigforas by: A. Silverman

Shelves: sci-fi, fiction

A favorite exchange:

"It is dishonest," Danny said with clipped exactitude. "It is arrogant. It is cruel."
"The Holy Father--"
"Stop hiding behind his skirts," Danny sneered.
"You are scrupulous," Giuliani observed. "There is a way out, Father Iron Horse--"
"And cede the Society to your kind?"
"Ah. My kind," the Father General said, almost smiling..."You are young, Father Iron Horse, and you have a young man's vices. Certainty. Shortsightedness. Contempt for pragmatism." He leaned back, hands clasped...more

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Jul 17, 2011 Shawn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Every time I picked up this book I had a hard time putting it back down. I was engrossed from beginning to end. The Sparrow had its stalls. But if my attention was left wanting at any point throughout this book I don't remember it.

Not surprisingly Children of God was considerably more sermonizing than The Sparrow. The title is all the warning anyone could ask for on that point. But Russell stays true to the form she set in the first book and gives every scene of theological pondering a good dose...more

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May 08, 2013 Ryan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow was a beautifully complex human drama, which happened to be dressed in science fiction clothing. In it, a diverse cast of people set off to another star system, in hope of making humanity's first contact with another intelligent species. Though the mission was successful at first, it ultimately shattered in tragedy, leaving one survivor, a maimed, spiritually broken priest named Emilio Sandoz. Through his eyes, the story told is one of faith disappointed, and the...more Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow was a beautifully complex human drama, which happened to be dressed in science fiction clothing. In it, a diverse cast of people set off to another star system, in hope of making humanity's first contact with another intelligent species. Though the mission was successful at first, it ultimately shattered in tragedy, leaving one survivor, a maimed, spiritually broken priest named Emilio Sandoz. Through his eyes, the story told is one of faith disappointed, and the struggle to come to terms with what the word "faith" might still mean after such trauma -- whether in humanity, in the people of other planets, or in the ultimate design of the universe.

I'm not sure if The Sparrow was a book that needed a sequel, but Russell felt that Emilio Sandoz's story wasn't finished, and contrives a way to bring him back to Rakhat, as well as a mission for him when he gets there. Thus, we get a second space expedition, with another crew of history-freighted characters. Meanwhile, on Rakhat (decades pass during transit), the native aliens find their attitudes changed by their contact with the foreigners, which sets in motion a civil war between the plant-eating "slave" species and the dominant, but less numerous predatory "master" species.

Children of God is as thoughtful a book as its predecessor, and Russell does an admirable job of expanding on the themes she established in the Sparrow, finding hope, meaning, and connections to religious ideas in events on Rakhat, while maintaining a vision of a God that’s ultimately mysterious. The plotting, however, feels more labored this time around, an obvious process of getting pieces into place with plenty of glossing over of logic. Other than Emilio Sandoz, most of the characters feel like talking biographical dossiers who don’t have all that much to do other than push the protagonist in various directions. I missed the organic friendships of the crew in the Sparrow, and found it hard to care about Danny Ironhorse and Sean Fein in the same way.

The part of the novel set on Rakhat isn’t uninteresting, though the alien characters feel more human than they did before and I had some trouble keeping their identities straight. Russell seems to be going for a parallel between the Runa and the Biblical Jews in Egypt, but with a different kind of outcome, which I thought went well with all the other religious themes in the book. I enjoyed seeing how the herd mentality of the Runa, which had previously kept them docile, could be turned into an advantage against a foe with a less collective-minded, more aristocratic society. I also liked the development of the characters who ended up between cultures. It would have been interesting to see, in a third novel, where things on Rakhat went after the war ended, given the future issues Russell hints at, but we’ll just have to use our imaginations.

Though the last chapters of Children of God are somewhat predictable, I thought they provided an emotionally satisfying conclusion to Emilio Sandoz’s story, giving him a role to play in concluding what his first visit set in motion. Was a whole novel necessary to get there? Maybe not, but I think Russell accomplished what she set out to do, and it was worth my time to complete the two book series. 3.5 stars.

Audio notes: Anna Fields is a competent narrator, but nothing special. I happened to have a paper copy of this book as well, and might recommend that format more. The contemplative quality of the writing is more evident without the sometimes overwrought accents that Fields employs.(less)

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Jan 18, 2013 Kacunnin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Mary Doria Russell's CHILDREN OF GOD is the sequel to her very popular novel, THE SPARROW. In that novel, Jesuit priest Emilio Sandoz travels with a group of priests and scientists to the planet Rakhat, where he encounters two sentient species, the benevolent Runa and the carnivorous Jana'ata. Sandoz puts his ultimate faith in God, but this doesn't help him when human intervention in the structure and politics of Rakhat has disastrous results. THE SPARROW ends with Sandoz's confession of his own...more Mary Doria Russell's CHILDREN OF GOD is the sequel to her very popular novel, THE SPARROW. In that novel, Jesuit priest Emilio Sandoz travels with a group of priests and scientists to the planet Rakhat, where he encounters two sentient species, the benevolent Runa and the carnivorous Jana'ata. Sandoz puts his ultimate faith in God, but this doesn't help him when human intervention in the structure and politics of Rakhat has disastrous results. THE SPARROW ends with Sandoz's confession of his own tragic suffering on Rakhat, and his loss of faith. CHILDREN OF GOD further explores Sandoz's physical and spiritual recovery, and provides closure to the story of what happens to the Runa and Jana'ata on Rakhat.

Where THE SPARROW was primarily a cerebral exercise, CHILDREN OF GOD is a more traditional story. Sandoz slowly recovers, comes to terms with his own guilt, and begins to allow himself to connect again with people who will become his friends. His relationship with God is still confusing to him, and he has yet to find a way to reconcile what happened to him on Rakhat with his personal faith. When it is discovered that one of the original mission to Rakhat (a close friend of Sandoz) has survived on the planet, a planned return trip takes on a new purpose. Against his will, Sandoz is enlisted to join the return crew, and he finds himself again on Rakhat, facing his demons. We learn that the mistakes made by the first mission have had incredible results on the planet - could this reveal God's ultimate wisdom, or simply human misunderstanding and folly?

I did not find CHILDREN OF GOD to be as intriguing as THE SPARROW. I think Russell tried too hard to wrap up her story with a more comforting Christian bow. Too many of the characters this time seemed clichéd (a Mafia-style thug leads the new mission, and an autistic savant becomes the new Messiah), but I did like the way Russell turned the tables on her readers with the character of Supaari, a Jana'ata merchant who unwittingly betrayed Sandoz in THE SPARROW. Through Supaari, we learn that miscommunication and a failure to understand can make us incapable of fairly judging those around us. Just as the Jesuits judged Sandoz unfairly when he first returned from Rakhat (in THE SPARROW), so we judged Supaari unfairly. In CHILDREN OF GOD, Supaari becomes the most noble of beings, a man who recognizes his own failings and gives everything he has to enact change. His story was the best thing about CHILDREN OF GOD.

If you enjoyed THE SPARROW and want to know more about Sandoz and the people of Rakhat, then I recommend CHILDREN OF GOD. If it isn't quite as challenging as THE SPARROW was, it does tie things up more efficiently. I did, however, find that "Christian bow" (a particular piece of music, discovered at the end) to be a bit too pat. I guess I prefer the questions to any one particular answser. (less)

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Oct 24, 2012 Annie rated it 5 of 5 stars

As intriguing as the first novel, The Sparrow, Children of God kept me reading, but reluctantly. Why? Because I knew once I was finished, I'd have nothing comparable to read.

Mary Doria Russell (a Catholic who converted to Judaism) is an excellent writer who is skilled at creating characters that seem real. Her books raise questions that open the mind and encourage conversation. They are wonderful to read alone, but would be great to read and discuss with fellow readers.

The story switches between...more As intriguing as the first novel, The Sparrow, Children of God kept me reading, but reluctantly. Why? Because I knew once I was finished, I'd have nothing comparable to read.

Mary Doria Russell (a Catholic who converted to Judaism) is an excellent writer who is skilled at creating characters that seem real. Her books raise questions that open the mind and encourage conversation. They are wonderful to read alone, but would be great to read and discuss with fellow readers.

The story switches between Naples and Rakhat, and spreads between 2060 and 2096 Earth-Relative years. Three different locations are followed - Earth, Rukhat and the ship, Giardano Bruno. In addition, we follow the lives of Emilio Sandoz, Sophia Mendes (originally thought dead), and members of a Jana'Ata family, Hlavana Kiteri and his descendants. Despite the many viewpoints, and the time-changes, this is an enjoyable, thought-provoking read.

Was Jesuit priest Emilio Sandoz' original mission to Rakhat a success or a failure? Did God let him down? Is there more to be done before his work is finished? Sandoz is no longer longer judged by the Church's interrogators as a prostitute turned baby-killer. Still healing from the horrors of his experience and doubtful of his relationship with God, he is ready to move on, to make major changes in his life - including giving up his priesthood and marrying.

While Emilio is back on Earth, major changes are being made on Rukhat because of the Jesuit sponsored mission that started in the first book. The Runa have slowly begun questioning their sociological position. For centuries they were passive, accustomed to providing the Jana'Ata with everything from childcare to protein. The Jana'Ata have never questioned the morality of their treatment of the Runa. The arrival of the humans, the lives and relationships that are born, the introduction of new world views causes life as the Runa and Jana'Ata knew it to be questioned and changed forever.

You could read this book without having read The Sparrow, but I wouldn't recommend it. Start with The Sparrow - if you love it, come back for more. You won't be disappointed.(less)

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Oct 01, 2012 Martine Taylor rated it 4 of 5 stars

Very satisfying ending. On the other hand - character development was done mostly with telling about the characters, rather than letting the characters develop through actions, and many ended up a sketch. Also there was way too much rehashing...once an author has shared that a character has had a troubled youth, it doesn't need to be brought up every time the character does something that might be attributable to the trauma. The back-and-forth settings of present on Earth, present on alien plane...more

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Aug 31, 2012 Booknblues rated it 5 of 5 stars

Children of God by Mary Doria Russell is the necessary sequel to her first novel The Sparrow. While The Sparrow left the reader feeling devastated and raw, Children of God provides comfort and a glimpse of hope. Although either The SparroworChildren of God could be read as stand alone books, I would not recommend that if the reader is interested in the full story and impact. The raw feelings from the first book are required to fully understand the redemption of the second.

Children of God is a sc...more Children of God by Mary Doria Russell is the necessary sequel to her first novel The Sparrow. While The Sparrow left the reader feeling devastated and raw, Children of God provides comfort and a glimpse of hope. Although either The SparroworChildren of God could be read as stand alone books, I would not recommend that if the reader is interested in the full story and impact. The raw feelings from the first book are required to fully understand the redemption of the second.

Children of God is a science fiction which continues following the life of Emilio Santos the Jesuit priest who visited the planet Rakhat and discovered two sentient species, the Runa and the Jana’ata. These two species have developed a civilization which is reliant upon there strange symbiotic relationship. This relationship becomes strained and begins to change after Sofia Mendes a crew member of Emilio’s says to the Runa “We are many, they are few!”

Mary Doria Russell with her skills as an anthropologist aptly describes the cultures and civilizations of the Runa and Jana’ata and the impact that the human civilization has upon them. While the reader may view one of these as the good and the other as the evil by the conclusion of the book this is called into doubt and feelings of righteousness and justice are dispelled.

As always Russell creates characters which come alive and which the reader truly cares about. It was a delight to see Emilio Santos recover from his feelings of devastation and loss and begin to recover and to develop a relationship with a woman and it was painful to journey with him once again to Rakhat fearing that it may all slip away from him.

Children of God is somewhat difficult reading because of the great and continual shifts of time and space from Earth to Rakhat, until one begins to feel settled and understand the timeline at Rakhat. I could well understand that this might detract from the enjoyment of the book.

At the end Russell did leave some possibility for a continuance of this series, but as Children of God was published in 1998 and she has seemed to go in another direction in her writing, I am not sure she ever will produce a third.(less)

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Jun 12, 2012 Maurinejt rated it 3 of 5 stars

3.5

In some ways the sequel to The Sparrow is better than the original, in others it suffers. The action in Children of God is more interesting and consistent; you lose the many unnecessary pages of endless conversation between characters that are a little too perfect to be real which plagued the first, and the events--particularly those on Rakhat--keep the pages turning. Children of God also deals with the continued journey of Emilio Sandoz. And some of the plot points that involve him are logic...more

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Apr 22, 2012 Sara rated it 3 of 5 stars

I didn't hate this book, but it was a bit of a letdown after The Sparrow. I really enjoy Russell's writing, so I had high hopes for this one. To be honest, though, it comes off like she was writing fanfiction about her own work. (Spoiler Alert) Like "Author's Note: This is a fic where Sofia actually didn't die and she lives on Rakhat and Emilio is going to get married then he gets kidnapped and taken back and there's like this huge ass war on Rakhat. Please R and R!"

I really admired Russell's no...more I didn't hate this book, but it was a bit of a letdown after The Sparrow. I really enjoy Russell's writing, so I had high hopes for this one. To be honest, though, it comes off like she was writing fanfiction about her own work. (Spoiler Alert) Like "Author's Note: This is a fic where Sofia actually didn't die and she lives on Rakhat and Emilio is going to get married then he gets kidnapped and taken back and there's like this huge ass war on Rakhat. Please R and R!"

I really admired Russell's non-linear style in book 1, but here she jumps around so much that it's honestly hard to determine what happened when.

The characters themselves don't exactly fit in with the characterization from The Sparrow. Sofia is the most problematic - in The Sparrow, she was a semi-devout Jew, at least devout enough to travel to Israel for a mikveh and she mentions at least once "the ashes of the six million." And she was a survivor of the "Second Kurdish War." In Children of God, she basically authors genocide. No joke. Given her background and apparent concern for the Holocaust, for this character to incite a war with a little 'final solution to the Jana'ata problem' on the side makes no logical sense. Despite Sofia's strong sympathy with the Runao, one would think that a Jewish character who had survived a war wouldn't, let's see now, behave exactly like Hitler. Unless this was some kind of very poorly rendered metaphor/life lesson of which I've missed the point entirely.

The idea that a handful of humans could cause such upheaval on Rakhat is rather blatant imperialism. Despite their professed politically correct sensitivity that all on Earth will have reached by the 2016, the characters from the Sparrow and Children of God have no respect for the Rakhati way of doing business (ie Jana'ata eating the Runao. The Runao are basically cool with this until the humans show up). The humans manipulate intelligent beings (capable of transmitting signals to Earth when Earth can't figure out how to transmit signals to them) into doing "World War II Except With Aliens" and completely reversing a society that has been established since time immemorial. Yeah.

And then...Heeeerrre they come to save the daaaaaayyyyy!!! Another Jesuit mission!! Emilio Sandoz who gets some kind of redemption or something! Reunited and it feels to good to play Simon Wiesenthal to Sofia "Himmler" Mendes. When those 'stupid aliens' epicfail and the Jana'ata are nearly extinct, the new crop of Jesuits fixes everything and everyone lives in peace and harmony, the end. And there's some kind of boring subplot with Sofia's autistic son. It doesn't have much to do with the book, aside from letting Russell's camera stay mostly on the humans.

Honestly, it's not a terrible book. If you loved The Sparrow, you might like Children of God. It's nice to catch up with the few characters that remain, and Russell does tie up all the loose plot threads neatly, if not satisfactorily.(less)

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Mar 01, 2012 Florinda rated it 4 of 5 stars

When I re-read The Sparrow in the spring of 2010, I knew that Children of God would get a re-read not long after. My recollections of CoG were much less vivid than those of The Sparrow, for one thing, and I wanted to refresh them; for another, although CoG is a follow-up to The Sparrow, I consider the two books as a single story, and forgoing the second part of that story wasn't an option for me.

Children of God opens shortly after Emilio Sandoz has responded in full to the Jesuit inquiry about t...more When I re-read The Sparrow in the spring of 2010, I knew that Children of God would get a re-read not long after. My recollections of CoG were much less vivid than those of The Sparrow, for one thing, and I wanted to refresh them; for another, although CoG is a follow-up to The Sparrow, I consider the two books as a single story, and forgoing the second part of that story wasn't an option for me.

Children of God opens shortly after Emilio Sandoz has responded in full to the Jesuit inquiry about the original mission to Rakhat, and one outcome of that response is that the Jesuits want a second mission to Rakhat; that's the last thing that Sandoz wants to have anything to do with. His experience on Rakhat profoundly changed Emilio...but we'll learn that he and the other members of the Stella Maris crew profoundly changed Rakhat, too.

Rakhat and its people - the ruling minority Jana'ata and their partners and prey, the Runa - receive most of the author's attention in Children of God; while Mary Doria Russell introduced their world in The Sparrow, she builds it here. The themes of this novel are more political than philosophical and theological, and the questions it raises are different, although not of lesser importance. And while many of the new characters in this story are from other species, they are drawn and developed in recognizably human ways.

Another reason I wanted to re-read CoG is that I hadn't liked it as much as The Sparrow when I first read it, and I wanted to see if that still held. Granted, there are very few books I love as much as The Sparrow, which received a rare 5/5 rating from me. And while I liked and appreciated CoG more on this reading, I still like The Sparrow better. This is strictly opinion - I don't think I'd say one novel IS better than the other, but depending on your literary preferences in general, you might not like them equally. While both tell a fascinating story, I don't get the sense of intensity from Children of God that I do from The Sparrow. Also, CoG, with its heavier story focus on the denizens of another planet, feels more rooted in traditional science fiction to me, and I'm not a huge fan of reading SF. I prefer SF as a movie and TV genre, which allows me to see the world being created; I remain frustrated that I can't visualize the peoples of Rakhat. And while it's not a major issue - for some, I'm sure it wouldn't be a problem at all - it gets in my way, I'm afraid. I wish it didn't.

I'm very glad I re-read Children of God; I got more out of it this time around, and I have a greater appreciation for Mary Doria Russell's talent and accomplishment in creating this story. I still don't feel that it stands on its own as well as The Sparrow, but I have more recognition of how my literary biases influence that feeling. I will continue to recommend reading it along with The Sparrow, but if I could only read one of the two, I'd still choose The Sparrow.(less)

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Aug 28, 2011 Taryn rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: potential-future, would-read-again

This book is a sequel (and continuation of the narrative) of The Sparrow. I own The Sparrow and it’s a difficult book to read. Really difficult, awful things happen to the people of that book, and it’s hard to finish. I told a friend about it recently and she liked it (tho she agreed with its difficulty) and then went on to read Children of God. I hadn’t considered moving on to the second book, but boy am I glad I did! Such interesting things to say about God and His hand in this world. Question...more

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Feb 23, 2011 Cori rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Sparrow was my favorite book in 2010. So, despite a few negative reviews, I decided to give its sequel, Children of God, a shot. I knew from the beginning that it probably wouldn’t live up to the first book, but I was pleasantly surprised nonetheless. I found myself captivated by the characters once again, though I missed Anne and George like crazy. Emilio is one of the most devestating and beautiful characters I’ve ever read, and I loved to read the continuation of his story. Isaac’s autism...more

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Jan 30, 2011 CynthiaA rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: bookcrossing

Readers should ensure they read The Sparrow first, as this book is a sequel to it. I did really enjoyed both books a great deal, but to be frank, I preferred The Sparrow to Children of God. The first half of Children of God was very good, perhaps because it totally challenged the assumptions I had made about the events of The Sparrow. The second half of Children of God was more difficult for me. I didn't like what Sofia had become -- which I suppose is the point, but still. Both of these are exc...more

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Aug 25, 2010 Bonnie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi, aliens-among-us, sci-fi-planetary-exploration

This book was...intense. There is no other word to describe it. The Sparrow was powerful and wonderful, but I knew that everyone but Sandoz would die and I was prepared for that. I knew what happened, even though I didn’t know how, so I was intrigued but not on the edge of my seat. In Children of God I had NO idea what would happen and I spent most of the time white-knuckled and on edge. Poor Sandoz manages to get screwed over all the time no matter what. And it’s all God’s plan and for the best...more This book was...intense. There is no other word to describe it. The Sparrow was powerful and wonderful, but I knew that everyone but Sandoz would die and I was prepared for that. I knew what happened, even though I didn’t know how, so I was intrigued but not on the edge of my seat. In Children of God I had NO idea what would happen and I spent most of the time white-knuckled and on edge. Poor Sandoz manages to get screwed over all the time no matter what. And it’s all God’s plan and for the best. It’s very little comfort knowing that the poor bastard gets his life ruined over and over again for the good of Rakhat. This book raises so many philosophical questions that I don’t even know how to begin answering them. No author has ever made me think so much and so deeply about complex issues. And at the same time the book never comes off as pedantic and plodding; it is a thrilling novel as much as it is a thinking novel. I simply don’t know how Russell does it and I’m very rarely as awed by a novelist as I am by her.

I will say that I didn’t feel like The Sparrow was set up to have a sequel, though it was very well done. My view of Supaari changed a 100% between the end of the first book and the beginning of this one; he went from a villain to a tragic hero simply because we saw things from his perspective and found out that actions we thought were callously cruel were actually done with the best of intentions. I was annoyed that Mendes turned out to be alive in the beginning—I’d already mourned her death, dammit, and it felt like a retcon especially since the first book said repeatedly that Sandoz was the only survivor. I got over it, though, when Mendes was used intelligently and her and her child became integral to the plot. Though I do wonder about what happened to the guys who rescued Sandoz, disappeared and were never found. And the fact that nobody looked very hard for them and they even stopped being mentioned eventually. Dropped plot thread? (less)

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Feb 17, 2010 Juushika rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: status-borrowed

This sequel continues where The Sparrow left off. Sandoz is finally beginning to heal after the traumatizing events on Rakhat, the first known alien planet. He renounces the priesthood, but the Jesuit Church insists that he return to Rakhat to finish the work he started; meanwhile civil war brews on Rakhat as Runa declare their independence from Jana'ata. Children of God is similar to The Sparrow in many ways, but pales in comparison: many literary techniques reappear but are less effective; the...more This sequel continues where The Sparrow left off. Sandoz is finally beginning to heal after the traumatizing events on Rakhat, the first known alien planet. He renounces the priesthood, but the Jesuit Church insists that he return to Rakhat to finish the work he started; meanwhile civil war brews on Rakhat as Runa declare their independence from Jana'ata. Children of God is similar to The Sparrow in many ways, but pales in comparison: many literary techniques reappear but are less effective; the various themes and Sandoz's story are all well-intended but fail to have such a strong impact as they do in the first book. All in all it's not a bad piece of literature and there's no harm in reading it, but I don't consider it a worthy sequel.

Many of the literary techniques that made The Sparrow a success reappear here as ineffective fragments of themselves. Similar to its predecessor, Children of God has two plotlines, one focused on Sandoz and one on the Rakhat civil war; unlike The Sparrow, both of these plotlines are contemporary, although the Rakhat plot is sometimes interrupted by flashes of the future. The dual plotlines create a little tension and some foreshadowing, but relativity and glimpses of the future hasten and distort the timeline and do the book no favors. The Sparrow took a while to get going, but redeemed the wait; Children of God also has a slow start, but it uses that beginning to summarize the previous book rather than to build a strong cast of characters; as a result the opening is redundant (the plot summary isn't enough to replace The Sparrow) and the cast is composed of undeveloped strangers and old faces whose stories stretch on overlong. The plot is still readable, the dual timelines can be compelling, and characters are sometimes empathetic and interestingbut for the most part, this sequel mimics but falls short of its predecessor.

More than writing style, what made The Sparrow a success was Sandoz's beautiful and terrible journey from religious rapture to martyrdom. Children of God has different religious and moral issues which range from Eden to Exodus to the justification of utilitarianism, and it's intended to be Sandoz's final salvation. Some of the themes are quite thoughtful, but many of them are explored through underdeveloped or unempathetic characters and so they lack an emotional componentintellectual but too impersonal, the themes don't come to life. Sandoz's redemption is somewhat better, but it's hampered by an extra touch of unbelievable evil and a too-quick wrap up: the book's ending is at once frantic and intangible, frustrated by poor communication, and ends Sandoz's journey too quickly. While his healing and rediscovery of faith are both realistically paced, it still feels like the book should have a stronger, braver conclusion. The one that exists does not quite justify Sandoz's difficult experiences.

I'm critical of Children of God because its predecessor was so very good. This sequel has a lot to live up to, and it doesn't quite manage it. To be fair the book is pretty good: above average in all senses, the writing style is swiftly readable, the plot is detailed, some of the characters are realistic and empathetic, and best of all the book contains an admirable amount of thoughtful, intelligent, brave content that ranges from religion to philosophy to morality. It's not a bad book, so read it if you desire to. Personally, however, I wish I hadn't. Perhaps I should strop trying to read sequelsI always doubt them and they often disappoint me. Russell can do better than thisI know that because The Sparrow is incredible. Children of God is a pale comparison and, despite its successes, despite the fact that Rakhat did have a longer story to tell, it's just not a worthy sequel to such a good book.(less)

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Sep 09, 2009 Gar rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This is twofer review, also including the first book "The Sparrow" as I pretty much consider them of a piece. Backcover-esque synopsis blurb: a Jesuit mission that's the First Contact between humanity and newly-discovered civilization right next door (relatively speaking, they're at Alpha Centauri) goes suddenly and horribly wrong.

Our hero's Emilio Sandoz, an agnostic Jesuit parish priest. Both books are written in a parallel structure in two different timeframes; the Sparrow runs parallel with...more This is twofer review, also including the first book "The Sparrow" as I pretty much consider them of a piece. Backcover-esque synopsis blurb: a Jesuit mission that's the First Contact between humanity and newly-discovered civilization right next door (relatively speaking, they're at Alpha Centauri) goes suddenly and horribly wrong.

Our hero's Emilio Sandoz, an agnostic Jesuit parish priest. Both books are written in a parallel structure in two different timeframes; the Sparrow runs parallel with the chronology of the small cast of characters who make up the first mission to Rakhat and how they came both to discover the radio signals and to the Society of Jesus-financed mission...decades later after he's been returned as that mission's apparently sole survivor, psychologically shattered, physically mutilated, a wreck of a man. The two threads converge to give a more complete picture of what happened and the course it took getting there, Sandoz's spiritual awakening and personal apocalypse both. It's a really thoughtful examination of the Problem of Evil, in an unpreachy non-denominational judeo-christian-framed way that doesn't stoop to easy answers. Some characters -try- to stoop to easy answers, but even they aren't convinced. There are reasons the "Problem of Pain" remains a problem.

Children of God picks up where The Sparrow leaves off; Emilio's shattered life starting to begin healing, but life's not done with him. Like its prequel, it's also structured in a parallel timeframe, with a bit more jumping around. It uses the structure better than the first book did--in The Sparrow it was mainly for dramatic effect, here, it uses the different timelines as a built-in and very appropriate way to examine a larger theme of how history is a wave that moves faster than the individuals in it (tangent: I think that phrase is yoinked from Kim Stanley Robinson's "Mars" trilogy, which I'm due a reread on sometime), here using relativistic time dilation effects of interstellar travel to make that even more literally the case. It covers the decades of time that passed on Rakhat after Sandoz was sent back, and the convulsive civil war that destroys and remakes the civilization there that was sparked by the mission's other survivor (omg spoiler!) and the characters the mission's lives touched, a war and revolution that's building inexorably to imminent species genocide of the once-ruling species there.

The larger themes examine the common narrative that everything has a purpose, and how if you accept that, there's the uncomfortable fact that if that's so, people are inevitably used in that purpose--and used hard, and cruelly. (A badly memory-mangled paraphrased quote from Aleister Crowley, I think--possibly some other early 20th century occult figure too, I ain't positive--kept coming to mind: "when a metallurgist seeks to purify an alloy of gold, he takes the base metal, heats it, hammers it flat, bathes it in acide, heats it again, hammers it again, over and over. He does not care about how the base feels about this process, only the result.")

There are definitely flaws--the author leans *way* too hard on the melodrama in several scenes, and you can just about hear generic tearjerker music swell at several points. I can sympathize with anyone who was tempted to stereotypically throw the book across the room when Sandoz and Mendes have a dramatic confontration at the second book's climax about the fate of the nearly-extinct Jana'ata *during a building thunderstorm and when it's resolved the storm passes* (I'd call that a seriously low point; I had no temptation to throw the book, though that was primarily because I was reading it on a kindle), but those flaws are overlookable for the quality of the whole.(less)

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About Mary Doria Russell

Mary Doria Russell is an American author. She was born in 1950 in the suburbs of Chicago. Her parents were both in the military; her father was a Marine Corps drill sergeant, and her mother was a Navy nurse.

She holds a Ph.D. in Paleoanthropology from the University of Michigan, and has also studied cultural anthropology at the University of Illinois, and social anthropology at Northeastern Univer...more

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Quotes from Children of God

“How can you hear your soul if everyone is talking?” — 43 people liked it

“Rain falls on everyone, lightning strikes some. What cannot be changed is best forgotten. God made the world, and He saw that it was good. Not fair. Not happy. Not perfect. Good.” — 34 people liked it

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Children of God (The Sparrow #2)

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