The Importance of a Second Book

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There's a lot of good like positive fun stuff and it does go to a really dark place in the end but I don't know that that makes the the rest of it more poignant. The sequel has been kind of canonized along with the original book or do you get that sense as you're reading it that it begs the sequel? "I think it closes itself up pretty well," says author Andrew McCaffery. 'It doesn't end with the end in a question mark'

We're back to sci-fi this week, but we take a break from the politics-heavy universe of Isaac Asimov's Foundation series. Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow instead uses science fiction to discuss anthropology, colonialism, and theology. There's some genuinely funny and warm stuff in this book, but there's a shadow hanging over the proceedings from the outset: eight people set out to explore the first known alien planet inhabited by sentient life, but only one comes back, and he's much worse for the wear.

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