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| Blasphemy | 
 enlarge | Author: Douglas Preston
Publisher: Forge Books
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  150 reviews
Sales Rank: 16510
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 416
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.1 x 1.6
ISBN: 0765311054
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780765311054
ASIN: 0765311054
Publication Date: January 8, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Dust Cover Missing. Help save a tree. Buy all your used books from Green Earth Books. Read -> Recycle -> Reuse!
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Product Description
The world's biggest supercollider, locked in an Arizona mountain, was built to reveal the secrets of the very moment of creation: the Big Bang itself. The Torus is the most expensive machine ever created by humankind, run by the world’s most powerful supercomputer. It is the brainchild of Nobel Laureate William North Hazelius. Will the Torus divulge the mysteries of the creation of the universe? Or will it, as some predict, suck the earth into a mini black hole? Or is the Torus a Satanic attempt, as a powerful televangelist decries, to challenge God Almighty on the very throne of Heaven? Twelve scientists under the leadership of Hazelius are sent to the remote mountain to turn it on, and what they discover must be hidden from the world at all costs. Wyman Ford, ex-monk and CIA operative, is tapped to wrest their secret, a secret that will either destroy the world…or save it. The countdown begins…
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| Customer Reviews: Read 145 more reviews...
 There's a (holy) Ghost in the machine January 12, 2008
88 out of 107 found this review helpful
Blasphemy is the story of a group of researchers at Isabella, the new US government financed $40 billion particle accelerator, located on an Arizona reservation leased from the Navajos. The main goal of the accelerator is to recreate conditions just after the Big Bang, to test modern theories of the creation of the universe. When the newly completed accelerator fails to get on-line as quickly as expected, the Feds send in an operative under cover as a Navajo liaison to find out what has gone wrong. Turns out a lot has, either as the result of deliberate sabotage, a bug in the software, or something really strange. Mix in a few thousand fundamentalist Christians who view the whole thing as an attempt by anti-religious atheistic scientists to disprove the existence of God and undermine the good book, incited to a frenzied pitch by a slick televangelist huckster and a well-meaning but psychotic and delusional fundamentalist minister on the Rez, season with elements of the AntiChrist, miniature black holes and the possibility of a really large explosion, and you have all the ingredients for a suspenseful and successful potboiler.
The writing is crisp and lean and everything moves very fast. The book is hard to put down as it is very much plot-driven and paced and parsed very well, and, well, you just have to find out what happens next. Do not read this if you contributed regularly to the ministries of Jerry Falwell or Jim Baker or if you disliked the Preston-Childs collaborative novels featuring the irrepressible Agent Pendergast. On the other hand, if you have recently finished and were impressed by "Letter to a Christian Nation" by Sam Harris or "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins and/or their intellectual brethren, I predict you will find this novel very amusing. In spite of a hole in the plot big enough to land a 747 in (sorry - no spoilers here - if interested see my comment), this novel is great fun and highly recommended.
 Horribly melodramatic January 23, 2008
86 out of 110 found this review helpful
Douglas Preston has really been on a roll with his last two solo novels. In "Tyrannosaur Canyon" he has this theory about how the dinosaurs had died...and then he proceeded to restate it a dozen times throughout the story to the point where it actually eclipsed anything happening in the book. In "Blasphemy", he suddenly gives us a glimpse into his theory of science as God.
We are treated to pages-long tirades about how faith and science cannot co-exist, one must destroy the other. About how science is the true religion and God has never spoken to man before. The villains of the story are Christians...but not like any you've ever met in real life. They are melodramatic caricatures of the real thing. They somehow manage to form a killing mob in the middle of the desert two hours after an email goes out...so ridiculously unrealistic I can't see how this made it past any sane editor. Christians will ignore every other End-Times prophecy in the world, but when a lone pastor in a tiny mission writes them about this dangerous new thing called a "kohm-pew-tur" using something called "ee-leck-tri-sit-ee" and how this has to be the Anti-Christ, they come out in droves to kill the demon machine and its creator? Yeah, that's realistic. And the ramblings of Isabella/whoever sound honestly like a physicist on an LSD trip just chattering away at every freaky theory he's ever had in his life. And yes, I got the little twist at the end that's supposed to explain the machine, but that still doesn't excuse the flat characters and ridiculously over-the-top plot. When Ford is in the control room looking at the faces of these stoic atheist scientists who are suddenly becoming converted by this computer, it's like something out of a bad movie. They ridicule the "crutch" of religion throughout the story, but then wholly embrace their own version of it without batting an eye later? Sure.
I think Preston really needs to treat Lincoln Child well, because it appears Child is the one in the writing duo who keeps the Pendergast stories sane and interesting. It's really a shame that his solo work has gone so downhill lately, because I thought "The Codex" was amazing. Hopefully Preston will approach his next solo novel with the idea to tell a good story, not write a scientific theory with a few characters thrown in to call it a novel.
I am Douglas Preston, the author, responding to critics who say the novel is anti-Christian February 6, 2008
32 out of 37 found this review helpful
This is Douglas Preston, the author of Blasphemy, and I would like to respond to some of the people who are saying that BLASPHEMY is an anti-Christian novel.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. Yes, there are so-called Christians in the novel who are negatively portrayed. But my main character, the hero of the story, Wyman Ford, is a devout Catholic who spent several years in a Benedictine monastery. Some of my critics don't seem to think that Ford counts as a positive portrayal of a Christian, because, they say, Catholicism is not really Christianity. I strenuously beg to differ.
I would also point that many of the scientists in the book are also negatively portrayed--as manipulative, arrogant, or gullible. The fact is, all the characters in BLASPHEMY are flawed in one way or another.
BLASPHEMY is not anti-Christian--it is anti-certitude. It is anti those Christians who tell the rest of us that we are going to hell. The real blasphemers in the novel are those so-called Christians who claim to know the very mind of God--and who tell us exactly what God thinks and how we will be judged.
I am a spiritual person and I believe in God. BLASPHEMY is affirmation of faith - not a faith of certitude and intolerance, but a faith that seeks the truth, that doubts and struggles, but that perseveres despite it all.
Thank you for reading these comments of mine with an open mind and heart.
 An uninformed, blathering tirade against Christianity January 14, 2008
25 out of 63 found this review helpful
Imagine my delight to hear that a new Preston book was out. Then imagine my disappointment.
This thin gruel of a plot serves only one aim: to promote a new "religion of science." Religion has served its purpose in giving purpose to man, and therefore giving him a drive to survive and progress. But its time is over, and science has to take over. In this respect, the book is much like Michael Crichton's "State of Fear." Those who deplored the enviro-alarmism so widespread today thought the book timely, although the plot was likewise thin; those who are disciples of Dawkins will react similarly to this book, although, strangely, they thought the plot was the bee's knees. Dawkinism tends to warp the mind.
There are two "Christian" characters so repulsive, they are practical atheists. By this I don't mean that all atheists are bad, only that atheism provides a freedom from morality, as admitted by many of its proponents (Dawkins has recently defended adultery; Pinker has defended infanticide). So, like most Christians Preston knows, one is a murderer, another is a hypocritical, money-grubbing televangelist. One scientist, the "harmless" Christian, is some kind of Catholic, an ex-monk.
The nutcases are railing against a supercolliding computer, Isabella, which starts claiming to be God. But God, it seems, doesn't know much about history or cosmology. He says that religion and science are mortal enemies, quite ignorant of the foundations of modern science - the Christian view that matter is OK (because of the Incarnation) and the efforts of the Catholic Church, as recently documented in such books as "How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization," to discover the rational order of the universe because it was created by a rational God. Neither does God know the future, since he's basically a creation of the universe.
Preston also puts forward the theory that the Big Bang, happened not in "nothing", but in some kind of quantum vacuum, in Hawking's theory of imaginary time, which Hawking himself has admitted does not fit reality, but is just a mathematical fiction to avoid the beginning. Did Preston really not know this? He seems to be betting that most readers will not be informed enough to object.
Theists historically welcomed confirmation of the Big Bang, while nontheists openly expressed disgust and nausea at the implications of the Big Bang. In fact, the confirmation of the Big Bang caused many scientists to draw parallels with the book of Genesis. Here, Preston turns history on its head - the "bad Christians" think the Big Bang threatens their faith. Why this twist? Preston seems to be embarrassed at the irrational reaction atheists have had to the Big Bang, and is rewriting history.
As Jim Holt writes in Slate, "Churchmen rejoiced. Proof of the biblical account of creation had dropped into their laps. Pope Pius XII, opening a conference at the Vatican in 1951, declared that this scientific theory of cosmic origins bore witness "to that primordial 'Fiat lux' uttered at the moment when, along with matter, there burst forth from nothing a sea of light and radiation. ... Hence, creation took place in time, therefore there is a creator, therefore God exists!"
"Marxists, meanwhile, gnashed their teeth. Quite aside from its religious aura, the new theory contradicted their belief in the infinity and eternity of matter--one of the axioms of Lenin's dialectical materialism--and was accordingly dismissed as "idealistic." The Marxist physicist David Bohm rebuked the developers of the theory as "scientists who effectively turn traitor to science, and discard scientific facts to reach conclusions that are convenient to the Catholic Church." Atheists of a non-Marxist stripe were also recalcitrant. ... The dean of the profession, Sir Arthur Eddington, wrote, "The notion of a beginning is repugnant to me ... I simply do not believe that the present order of things started off with a bang. ... The expanding Universe is preposterous ... incredible ... it leaves me cold."
Did Preston just somehow fail to read *any* of thousands of relevant books on the main subjects, notably Dinesh D'Souza's recent "What's So Great About Christianity", or ex-atheist Antony Flew's "There Is a God"? D'Souza especially skewers Dawkins and Harris, the new crop of fundamentalist atheists, by turning their own reasoning against them. Was Preston entirely ignorant of these arguments? Perhaps. But ... perhaps not.
Perhaps God's inexplicable ignorance - or, in the book, Isabella's ignorance - is an intentional clue to the ending. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
As mentioned earlier, the plot is paper-thin, serving only as a vehicle for Preston to vent his wrath on his caricatures of Christians. I looked in vain for the promised "action" and "fast pace" the other reviews claimed. One must wonder why they felt the need to misrepresent the book in this manner. Fanaticism, I guess.
The missives from "God" are somewhat interesting, and make for most of the page-turning ... that is, if you are scientifically illiterate and can gobble up that stuff about the Big Bang arising from (almost) nothing. Otherwise, it's a frustrating window into how poorly-read Preston expects his readers to be. Strangely, I know atheists - and at least one ex-atheist - who would agree.
By the way, Preston's idea of accepting truths only verified by science is skewered in Berlinski's "The Devil's Delusion" and D'Souza's "What's So Great About Christianity". Some readers here will be aware of the severe limitations of the scientific method, and that even the basic premise - "only scientifically discovered facts are valid" - is self-defeating; and others will more thoughtfully crack open those books and discover how Kant and even Hume have shown the "pure scientific" path to be founded on irrationality, ignorance, and arrogance.
Preston Takes on Fundamentalism in this Provocative Thriller January 9, 2008
21 out of 30 found this review helpful
I read a lot of thrillers, and I think Douglas Preston is one of the best writers in the genre. His best known work is the highly successful "Agent Pendergast" series, which he has been writing with Lincoln Child since 1995. There are currently eight novels in this series, and they're a bit like Michael Crichton mixed with Clive Cussler: a highly entertaining blend of action, adventure, history, and science.
Preston also writes science-based thrillers on his own, and has produced a rough trilogy of sorts: THE CODEX, TYRANNOSAUR CANYON, and now BLASPHEMY. These novels are all separate stories, and can be read in any order, but feature some of the same characters.
BLASPHEMY is easily the most controversial novel that Preston has written. In this book, he tackles the whole "Science v. Religion" debate, and he doesn't hesitate to make some severe criticisms of religious fundamentalism. If you're a fan of novels such as LEFT BEHIND, you will probably find much in this novel to dislike.
The novel takes place in the Arizona desert, where a powerful particle accelerator has been constructed. A team of scientists are trying to use the supercollider to reconstruct the conditions that caused the "Big Bang" phenomenon which allegedly created the Universe as we know it. Something has gone wrong with the project, and former CIA agent Wyman Ford (from TYRANNOSAUR CANYON) is sent to do an undercover investigation.
Before long, Ford learns that the supercollider has opened up a window to an artificial intelligence of some kind. This AI claims to be the voice of God, and the team realizes it may be on the verge of the greatest scientific discovery of all time.
In the meantime, a corrupt TV evangelist and a high powered corporate lobbyist learn about the supercollider, and manipulate some dim-witted evangelical Christians to protest the project. Unfortunately, the manipulation spins out of control, and a mob of homicidal evangelicals convince themselves that the supercollider is the work of the anti-Christ. They descend upon the supercollider project with murderous intent, killing anybody on site who refuses to convert to their religion.
Overall, I found BLASPHEMY an exciting read. Preston is a very skilled writer of prose (he reportedly does most of the actual writing for the Pendergast books), and he knows how to construct an intelligent, entertaining page turner. This book starts slowly, but it has an exciting finale.
The major flaw with BLASPHEMY, however, is that Preston is a much better at plot than characterization. Most of the characters in this book merely exist to push the plot forward, and have little depth or personality. Preston writes in very short chapters, and likes to switch points of view constantly, and I felt this prevented me from really getting to know any of the characters.
The main character of Wyman Ford, for example, is earnest enough, but is rather a bland hero, and his romantic interest is even less interesting. Most of the members of the scientific team are rather sketchy and underdeveloped, with the exception of their charismatic leader Gregory Hazelius.
Furthermore, all of the evangelical Christian characters in this novel are quite cartoonish and lack any complexity or nuance. The televangelist character, Don T. Spates, is an absolute toad of a human being, a shyster who sleeps with prostitutes and takes money under the table. The other main religious character, Pastor Russ Eddy, is a true believer, but is portrayed as a simple-minded person who uses religion as a crutch to escape his own failures as a human being.
The major theme of this book is that far-right religious fundamentalism is dangerous, and can lead to murderous violence. While this is a legitimate point, I think Preston is ultimately too one-sided and heavy-handed in his criticisms. Of course, you can make the same criticism about the LEFT BEHIND novels, so I suppose turnabout is fair play.
Overall, however, I think BLASPHEMY is an entertaining, thought-provoking read. I also loved the ending, which is delightfully cynical. While this book probably isn't going to change anyone's minds, I give Preston credit for tacking some big issues with this novel.
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