The Sparrow

I really liked this book; would have given it 4.5 stars. I suppose the format of a survivor relating the major event they have survived gives a novel automatic suspense but at no point did I find this predictable. The characters were all likeable, especially Emilio, Anne and Sofia which is probably not a good thing given what happened to each of them :(One thing that annoyed me is the author explicitly telling us the Jana'ata have prehensile feet (to explain part of their prowess) and also placing emphasis on Supaari's boots (in order to show similarities to ourselves). This pulled me out of the narrative because I find it ridiculous that a species with prehensile feet would develop footwear, thereby limiting their function; this annoyed me because I feel it was done simply for a plot point rather than as part of the world she'd created. A small thing, barely even a sentence in a 500+ page book, but it did throw me out of the rhythm.Emilio's final confession was dragged out somewhat, though given the obsession religions have with sex and all it's permutations I suppose it fits into the world. Normally I struggle with religion in books, particularly Christianity, but I didn't feel it a hindrance in this book; though perhaps my fondness for Anne and Sofia was their atheism and lapsed Judaism respectively.I only discovered there is a sequel ([b:Children of God 16948 Children of God (The Sparrow, #2) Mary Doria Russell https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1373509005s/16948.jpg 882029]) when I finished this and I'm almost disappointed - thought I'd managed to reduce my TBR!