Children of God (Ballantine Reader's Circle) Summary and Reviews

Children of God (Ballantine Reader's Circle)
by Mary Doria Russell

Children of God (Ballantine Reader's Circle)
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Book Summary Information

Author: Mary Doria Russell
Edition: Paperback
Published: 1999-02-02
ISBN: 044900483X
Number of pages: 464
Publisher: Ballantine Books

Book Reviews of Children of God (Ballantine Reader's Circle)

Book Review: A good sequel to The Sparrow
Summary: 4 Stars

The first time I heard that Mary Doria Russell had written a sequel to The Sparrow, I wasn't sure if I wanted to read it. Don't take that the wrong way, I loved The Sparrow, but to me it seemd that the story had come to a natural departure point at the end and any continuation of the story of Emilio Sandoz would only continue in the reader's head. But, Children of God exists, and if anyone can have the definitive say on 'what happened next...' it's Mary Doria Russell.

Children of God paints a broader picture than The Sparrow, with more 'viewpoint' characters and this sometimes weakens the book in that some characters get ignored for large sections of the book and by the time Russell returns to them they've moved on so far that it's hard to recognise them with so much character development taking place offstage. This is only a fault with some characters, though, and the continued evolution of Sandoz is handled wonderfully, even if the way he is brought back to Rakhat seems somewhat contrived (Russell admits as much herself in her afterword).

To me, Children of God seems less theological than The Sparrow. Whereas much of The Sparrow is based around a discussion of the nature of God, there is very little theology in Children of God, compared to The Sparrow (of course, that's still a whole lot more theology in Children of God than in most books you'll ever read).

However, if you read and enjoyed The Sparrow then Children of God is a book I'd definitely recommend to you. If you haven't read The Sparrow, then I would strongly recommend reading that first if you want this to make any sense at all.

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