Doria Russell's Sparrow and Arthur C. Clark

[Jgrace]

A lot of us have read The Sparrow, with our usual variety of opinions. This is the author's most recent blog post about a three way e-mail conversation she had with Clark and the Pope's Jesuit astronomer. It's fun and interesting that they criticised her book for some of the same things that PBT readers commented on.

http://marydoriarussell.net/2016/08/2...


She also has a link to a Discover article about other writers who have used alpha centauri as a fictional setting.

[Karin]

I am laughing so doggone hard!!!! Having been a hard core scifi reader in high school and having reread at least one Clarke novel in the past couple of years, I can tell you that at least some of his stuff was at least as off the wall scientifically as what he said about The Sparrow, although not all. But that's the scifi world for you--it's like any other with a myriad of opinions, etc.

At any rate, I think Mary Doria Russell is a better writer in some ways than Clarke, but that may be because she's more literary. However, I've only read two of her books, this one and its sequel.

[Jgrace]

Karin wrote: "I am laughing so doggone hard!!!! Having been a hard core scifi reader in high school and having reread at least one Clarke novel in the past year, I can tell you that at least some of his stuff wa..."

I liked the way she pulled out her own scientific credentials ( the doctorate in biological anthropology ) to rebut the putdowns of these two male critics.

[Karin]

Jgrace wrote: "I liked the way she pulled out her own scientific credentials ( the doctorate in biological anthropology ) to rebut the putdowns of these two male critics. ."

Yes, I agree. But there is so much outlandish stuff in scifi, such as in Rendezvous with Ramda and others, which is why it's FICTION and also often lumped with fantasy (although to be honest I think they should be separate genres most of the time). The outlandish stuff was part of the fun for me when I was in high school.

[Denizen]

Jgrace wrote: "I liked the way she pulled out her own scientific credentials ( the doctorate in biological anthropology ) to rebut the putdowns of these two male critics.
"

Doria 1, Clark 0! Fun article1