Critical Praise

"This is not a book about easy faith, or God as a nice guy. This is the God of Job, and his world is a moral thicket, a vale of tears, a place of terrors and wonders almost beyond human understanding."

——Locus

"A gem....sweeping, operatic...Russell's gift for dialogue and the novel's questioning of our very souls at the dawn of a new millennium give Children of God a quality that transcends genre."

——The Globe and Mail

"A sequel that will please even readers new to her interplanetary missionaries...Misunderstandings between cultures and people are at the heart of her story. It is, however, the complex figure of Father Sandoz around which a diverse interplanetary cast orbits, and it is the intelligent, emotional and very personal feud between Father Sandoz and his God that provides energy for both books."

——Publishers Weekly

"The slow return of [Sandoz's] faith brings pain nearly as great as the sudden rending of it. Russell's exploration of the psychic rift and its healing is eloquent, illuminating all the dark corners of the mind in great novelistic style."

——Cleveland Free Times

"A brutal and deliberate tale...that will challenge and sometimes shred the reader's preconceptions."

——Kirkus Reviews

"Immensely satisfying...Children of God engages readers with Russell's provocative themes because it is a fine novel, with a compelling plot, intriguingly complex characters and enough poetry in the writing to convey the heartbreaking tragedy that even the best-intended actions can cause."

——The Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Even more ambitious in scope than The Sparrow, the sequel addresses issues of peace, justice and belief, handling complicated spiritual and moral questions with depth and sensitivity."

——USA Today

"[Russell] spreads the story out over time and space, drawing in every possible character with beautiful logic....Sequels often stumble. This one soars."

——Detroit Free Press