The Sparrow

A book of two halves. Was it worth working through the first half to get to the second? For me, I'm not sure it was. I was looking for something different, something more ubiquitously dark. It got there in the end, and that is by far the best section of the book. I think it was a matter of expectations: I thought I was about to get Endo's Silence in space, but I was surprised to find half of the crew weren't even Jesuits, and those that were made no attempt to proselytise. It made for an odd, forced dynamic between the crew that didn't play out realistically. For all that, MDR is clearly a skilled writer, and I can't fault the prose.