Children of God - Mary Doria Russell

My aunt once asked me why I never read the sequel to The Sparrow, since I loved the original so much. But, ok, I loved The Sparrow like I love a dog that dies. I mean, it was AMAZING, but that doesn't make me want to get another dog.

But here I am, on the other side of the sequel. And if The Sparrow left you cold then you should figure out where you've misplaced your HEART won't like CoD much either. Because it has all the same features: aliens, Jesuits, betrayal, death, total and terrifying loss of faith, banter.


And it's so, so good. So Emilio is at home, recovering from how completely ruined his last trip into space left him, both physically and psychologically, and he meets a lady and they fall in love and everyone is planning another trip to space and is like, YOU SHOULD COME, and he is like,


And then some people very high up are like, No really, you should come. It's possible that kidnapping ensues. There is some facing of demons. You know, usual shit.

And my feelings were all over the place from page one, because I'm still residually sad from That Time I Read The Sparrow Three Years Ago (I feel like I should clarify at this point that no dogs are killed), so I was very invested. And there's action and adventure and a civil war in space and really, I liked it very much.

Eight and a half caterpillars.