The Sparrow: Mary Doria Russell

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Sapient Eat Sapient: The Jana'ata are willing to eat Runa that are superfluous to their breeding program, and after killing the excess babies born due to the mission crew's garden they make Emilio and Marc eat the meat as well, though Marc refuses. The 1996 James Tiptree, Jr. Award". tiptree.org. James Tiptree Jr. Literary Award Council. Archived from the original on 2008-03-13 . Retrieved 2008-05-03. Father Emilio Sandoz is a Jesuit priest who has returned to Earth and is recovering from his experiences on the planet Rakhat (detailed in The Sparrow). He believes himself to be the only survivor of a disastrous mission to Rakhat that led to a massacre of a village of herbivore Runa people by their carnivorous Jana'ata rulers, which in turn sparked a Runa revolution. There is a moment toward the end of the book when one of the priests makes an observance that I believe sums up what we are meant to take away from this story: On December 7, 2059, Emilio Sandoz is released from the hospital and secretly transported to the Jesuit Residence in the Vatican. The next day, a Jesuit spokesman explains to the media that Emilio is the only known survivor of the mission to Rakhat, and his return was made possible with help from the UN and a mining corporation. The spokesman refuses to comment on the "allegations regarding Father Sandoz's conduct on Rakhat."

From Bad to Worse: Father Alan Pace dies. The Jesuit team gets stranded on the planet. Anne and D.W. are poached and eaten. Jimmy, George, and (supposedly) Sofia are killed. Runa babies are murdered by the Jana'ata. Runa babies are fed to Marc and Emilio. Marc and Emilio are mutilated. Marc dies and Emilio is alone, stranded on an alien planet, all of his loved ones having died because of Emilio's desire to visit Rakhat. And then it gets worse.

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A priest from Chicago, John Candotti is a “bony, big-nosed, half-bald man” who “once waded into a street fight simply because he thought the odds were too lopsided.” It is this sense of compassion that draws Candotti to befriend the ostracized Emilio. The screenplay is an outstanding adaptation of an exceptional book. Really. I was blown away. I’ve told you both that the book is one of my favorites in any genre, but what I secretly doubted was that the deep beauty and spiritual devastation of the novel could be fully captured in a film. I was wrong — the script is just fantastic. ”

But there was no way to resist. He looked at this undreamed-of daughter and at her tiny child – frowning and milky in dreamless sleep – and found room in the crowded necropolis of his heart.We are biologically driven to create meaning. And if that’s so, he asked himself, is the miracle diminished?” As mentioned in Artistic License – Physics above, relativistic effects won't become apparent until the ship reaches around 0.5 c, which will take over a year with a constant 1g acceleration. I confess I was initially braced to be disappointed in Children of God -- partly because I am generally suspicious of sequels and also because the first novel in the sequence, The Sparrow, although brilliant, ran far afield from my usual interest in canonical literature. But Russell once again exceeded expectations, winning me over with his careful and innovative prose, her impressive erudition, and her gift for telling an old-fashioned compelling story. Vincenzo Giuliani is the Father General for the Society of Jesus at the time of Emilio’s return to Earth.