REVIEW: Children of God by Mary Doria Russell

Children of God by Mary Doria Russell
Publishing Information: 1998 (first publishing) 1999 (current edition)
Publisher: Ballantine Books, Trade Paperback, 438 pgs
ISBN-13: 978-0-449-00483-8
Series: Sequel
Reviewer: Andy
Copy: Out of Pocket

Synopsis: (from Goodreads.com): 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 Children of God, Russell further establishes herself as one of the most innovative, entertaining and philosophically provocative novelists writing today. The only member of the original mission to the planet Rakhat to return to Earth, Father Emilio Sandoz has barely begun to recover from his ordeal when the So-ciety of Jesus calls upon him for help in preparing for another mission to Alpha Centauri. Despite his objections and fear, he cannot escape his past or the future. Old friends, new discoveries and difficult questions await Emilio as he struggles for inner peace and understanding in a moral universe whose boundaries now extend beyond the solar system and whose future lies with children born in a faraway place. Strikingly original, richly plotted, replete with memorable characters and filled with humanity and humor, Children of God is an unforgettable and uplifting novel that is a potent successor to The Sparrow and a startlingly imaginative adventure for newcomers to Mary Doria Russell's special literary magic.

Mary Doria Russell's books contain a level of maturity that is scarce in speculative fiction. Her books don't try to sell you characters as being "badass". Though there is sex and violence in her books, it is rarely gratuitous. And she likes to tackle those spiritual and philosophical questions that grown-ups care about. "What does it all mean?", "Does God exist?", "Why is there evil in the world?" These sorts of qualities led me to think that my senior citizen father would enjoy her books and I sent him a copy of The Sparrow. Russell is that kind of author - she is not writing sci-fi because she thinks spaceships and aliens are "cool" but rather because she is trying to achieve something quasi-literary and respectable while still incorporating her science background into her work.

In The Sparrow, Children of God's predecessor, Russell had a strong premise: a group of Jesuit missionaries would brave interstellar space travel to another solar system after making contact with an alien race. In the historical tradition of missionaries traveling throughout the globe to unexplored lands, Emilio Sandoz and his ragtag group of holy men and scholars would explore the only planet in the universe that showed signs of intelligent life. I found it a tad farfetched that the Catholic Church would be the ones launching this first mission to an alien world but I can suspend my disbelief long enough to let a story be told - especially when it is a good story. And, the Sparrow was a good story. But then, the story concluded and I didn't ask "where is the rest of the story?" or "what happens next?" I was content to put these characters and storylines to rest.

Russell didn't think so. Children of God feels like an unplanned sequel, and whats worse, it just reads like she is leading us on a worn-out path. What made The Sparrow effective was that it was full of mystery and suspense. Russell showed us the aftermath of a space mission gone bad and I desperately wanted to know what occurred and how things had went so horribly wrong. The relationship between the two alien races that inhabit Rakhat was not fully revealed until the end of the book, and it was bizarre, sadistic, and downright interesting sociological dynamic. There's nothing new that's that interesting here. The story of the Runa aliens and the human survivors from the first novel playing Che Guevara was rushed and told mostly by the characters in retrospect. Russell chose to introduce too many new alien characters and tried to re-tell too many famous stories at once. Children of God is a re-telling of the Old Testament, the Holocaust, and the colonization of the Americas all rolled all into one. I guess Russell figured that she could garner much praise from drawing parallels to history and myth, but she forgot to tell a decent story in the meantime.

Russell's The Sparrow was interesting and provocative - but my advice is to skip this sequel and not taint your memories of it with a pointless sequel. However, if you still want more resolution concerning the spiritual journey of Sandoz and are endeared to the setting of Rakhat already it may not be a complete waste of time.

Plot……….4.5/10

Characters………5/10

Style……….5/10

Overall……….5/10