I looked at Mary Doria Russell's CV on her website and recognized one of her scientific papers that I analyzed for a class last year. Sweet. 
 Anyway. Children of God, sequel to The Sparrow. Beautiful. Though I think I like The Sparrow better. The 2nd party to Rakhat did not resonate with me as much as the 1st party did - I absolutely LOOOOOVED Anne Edwards in The Sparrow. 
 Secondly, The Sparrow had less babies. Or rather, the babies were present in The Sparrow in a very Jonathan Swift kind of way, if you get what I'm saying. Damn babies. Also, at some certain points, Children of God became a little too theological for me, but I still relished each word and consumed the novel like a greedy, greedy glutton.