Rating: 
Summary: THE INVISIBLE BOOK -- Zero stars
Review: It's an attempt at an after the fact- look back- type of tale. The only problem is........................................ THERE IS NO TALE to look back at! I kept reading & hoping but it never materialized. I can't believe this book was ever PUBLISHED let alone won an award. Put succinctly, it's utterly devoid of what constitutes a book. Empty... :o(
Rating: 
Summary: This book takes you to the edges of your mind.
Review: Russel writes with authority and wisdom regarding situations that seem laughable in today's age. However, the future will find her trustworthy in her explorations of the frustrations and triumphs of an intergalactical society.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: This was a very good book. The plots sounds crazy. Priests sent by the church to another world to convert or learn about an alien species, but my disbelief was very successfully suspended as I got into the book and found I couldn't put it down. The author uses the english language more skillfully than most with steps forward and backward in time that keep you guessing and curious about how things turn out. The grey lining in the silver cloud was the characters making absurd errors in judgement, which detracted from the story. Also a good portion of the book was devoted to unanswerable moral and religious questions, such as why do good things happen to bad people, which was a serious waste of pine trees.
Rating:
Summary: Star Trek meets Encyclopedia Britannica
Review: Or more like a rejected script for Star Trek. Perhaps it would have been better at half the length, as some sections of 5-10 pages had no apparent reason for being, unless the reader really, really wants to know about agriculture on Rakhat. Yes, bad things happen to good people, but we already knew that. What more do we know after reading this book?
Rating:
Summary: Excellent metaphysical science fiction
Review: I was caught up in this novel from the first page and couldn't put it down. I fell in love with Emilio Sandoz and saw him as a Christ figure in his suffering and love and also in his doubt and struggle with God. I was also deeply moved by the story of Sophia Mendes and the reflections on Judaism. There were interesting parallels between the earlier Jesuit missions to China and Latin America and this contact with "aliens". I found the two races on Rakhat and the secret of their relationship (predator and prey) particularly well imagined. The author's background as an anthropologist certainly informs her outlook on these issues. While it is true that the characters are too good to be true, I think this is not an indication that this is a poor novel, but rather that its genre is romance rather than realistic fiction. It presents archetypes and ideas in a larger than life manner. And I think the struggle over faith and a God who permits suffering; and the irony of evil coming from the best of intentions, the ambiguity of different cultures and their beliefs and the meanings they impute to their acts (Sandoz's sodomy is later explained as meaning an act of self-giving to the Rakhat people who have no conception of this as prostitution or abuse) are in fact very thought provoking and many-layered. A book that makes one think and that can be enjoyed on many levels.
Rating:
Summary: This book will make you THINK!
Review: This book was wonderful!!! I am rather shocked to read some of the reviews here because I found myself absorbed in the book for a couple of weeks. It is a page turner, well-written, and has a great storyline with exceptional character development. I felt like I knew Father Sandoz very well by the end of the book and could predict his next move. I was impressed by the portrayal of the Jesuits as well as the questions that it rose up in the depths of my soul. The author not only raises questions that anyone who loves and serves God from time to time wonders and often dares to never mention, but she also maintains great respect for the faith of those who continue to believe God no matter what happens. Even through the questioning and all the doubt and torment, and perhaps because of it, the reader has a sense that Father Sandoz has the heart of a saint and the reality of sainthood is facing your humanity and still trusting God. It also is a riveting response to the self-righteous attitude of today's generation's scathing opinion of those Europeans who settled the Americas in the name of God. If we were to repeat the same kind of exploration today similar things would occur. Not because anyone had bad intentions, but simply a result of what occurs when two peoples come in contact for the first time. I can't say enough about this book. I can't stop pondering it and wish I personally knew others who read it to discuss the depth of spirit and philosophy this book raises. Thank you Ms. Russell! I loved your book!
Rating: 
Summary: Dialogue does not fulfill the description of Sandoz.
Review: Author's prose is weak, integrating lame jokelines with stale plot. She puts in something for everybody and shows no critical selection. The characters are truly stereotypes with no originality. Even the horrors that occur are old and chewed-over. The author sets the reader up with expectations that fizzle with the outcome. The reader hears a lot about who Sandoz is, but never sees him fulfill this characterization in his own dialogue. Although I kept reading it, I now conclude the author would write better non-fiction as she cannot create believable characters or follow though with a strong plot line. More rewrites before publishing might have helped. It seemed to be a rush-job because they DO (as another reviewer pointed out) want to MAKE MONEY ON THE MOVIE which I, for one, will not go to see.
Rating:
Summary: Naive philosophy fails to explore key themes
Review: The core concept of The Sparrow is fascinating: what would happen if a group of religious people set off to visit an alien society? Within this simple theme lies the possibility of exploring the nature of belief, the way we react to the unknown, the dynamics of small groups under stress and far from home. In this book, however, none of these themes are seriously raised let alone explored. The Sparrow is essentially Sunday School plus Soap meets Isaac Asimov. All the characters, clerical and lay alike, are good hearted, everyone has a (not so) dark secret that is later revealed, and just like in real life everyone is truthful, trustworthy and admirable. Although the genre is science fiction, the philosophy is closer to Langland's thirteenth century Piers the Plowman than to contemporary western thought. The entire message of the book, such as it is, is merely that an unquestioning belief in the presence of some supernatural entity (a god) is all we need to enable us to make sense of all things that may happen to us and to those around us. In short: "If it was good enough for Saint Augustine - or, indeed, the nomadic stone age progenitors of the Yaweh cult - then it is surely good enough for us." Reading this book it is impossible not to like the author. She shines through on every page (perhaps because her characters are essentially diaphanous) as a good-hearted, uncomplicated mid-westerner. Perhaps for that same reason, it is also impossible not to be disappointed and ultimately bored by this trite and naïve treatment of what could have been a fascinating theme.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant!
Review: Superbly wrought science fiction that will hold its own as mainstream literature. Ms. Russell's characters come alive on the pages of this book such that, as early as the fourth chapter, I wept for Father Sandoz and experienced profound gratitude and -- dare I say? -- love for those around him who offered compassion and healing; only Robert Heinlein characterizes so well! Apart from being an exceptionally well-told story, The Sparrow encompasses issues of spirituality and humanity that touch us all. Upon finishing this book, I immediately went out and bought the sequel, "Children of God", which should not for any reason be read first, but definitely read. My only negatives are that everything I've read since seems pallid by comparison and that I'm already missing Emilio Sandoz as a well-loved friend with whom I've had rich experience! A brilliant work!
Rating:
Summary: A distant planet mirrors adisturbing look at our own species
Review: Reminiscent of Ursala LeGuin's Omelas, The Sparrow invites the reader to take a look at our own society, and the ways in which humans treat other species on earth. The horrors observed and experienced by Sandoz arouse much sympathy, but an honest look at ourselves would show that none of the horrors he experienced on the planet Rakhat are worse than the experiences non-human animals endure at the hands of humans on earth.
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