2.1: The Sparrow Pre-Read

Spectology: The Science Fiction Book Club Podcast

We're excited to announce that in May, we're reading The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell!

In this spoiler free, pre-read episode, Adrian and Matt discuss religion in science fiction. How do different books handle religion in the future? Does science fiction have an antagonistic relationship with religion? What are some of our favorite works of SF that feature religion? There's a diversion into Adrian's fundamentalist upbringing and his path to agnosticism. And what does a prog rock album based on future Jesuits sound like?

Some of the books we talk about this episode are:

• The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber
• The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
• Ten Billion Days and One Hundred Billion Nights by Ryu Mitsuse
• Dark Eden by Chris Beckett
• Underground Railroud by Colson Whitehead
• Contact by Carl Sagan
• Broken Spears by Miguel Leon-Portilla

And make sure to check out The Sparrow album by the prog rock band Metaphor for your reading soundtrack.

As always, we'd love to hear from you! Tweet us at @spectologypod, submit the episode at r/printSF, or email us at [e-mail] with your thoughts about the book.

Many thanks to Dubby J and Noah Bradley for doing our music and art.