Blasphemy: A Novel (Wyman Ford Series Book 2)

I was introduced to Douglas Preston's books with his Agent Pendergast series (Relic, et al.) and really enjoy how he introduces some "other-natural" aspect into his stories that grabs one's attention and moves the story along.

He does that again here, this time with a high energy accelerator whose controlling computer starts talking to them when its energy level approaches 100% and the generation of a central micro-black hole starts to manifest, suggesting a doorway has been opened to another place in time and space.

This is a thoroughly entertaining read, incorporating the ongoing theme of people using religious beliefs to further their own respective agendas. In typical Preston style, the characters have depth and believability that naturally leads to their behavior, causing you to care about what happens to them.

Highly recommended.

Once again Douglas Preston explores a topic that is so relevant to our times and he does it using science. He always does his homework. The overzealous, mob-mentality of the 'true believers' is truly frightening and characterizes the current climate in America and elsewhere in the world. I will continue to read his books.

Douglas Preston's Blashphemy is a story that moves rapidly, is simply hard to put down and for me, ended too quickly. Blasphemy is certainly not anti-christian. I found that Preston's story certainly reaffirms why relegious tolerance is so important. The book provides a gripping story that revolves around some simple yet (unanswerable?) questions - Why are we here and what lies ahead? After reading the book, I've decided to improve my math and science skills. How can you get a definitive answer when you use pi? I need to cover my bases. Enjoy the read.

I suspect I may have some long dormant Puritan genes hidden somewhere. If so, then Douglas Preston's Blasphemy certainly brought them to the surface.

Anytime someone accuses an author of "Christian bashing" I usually roll my eyes. I've never been a cheerleader for organized religion ... especially the right-wing version of it. But Blasphemy was the first book I've ever read that made me wonder if such bashing was more than just a paranoid fantasy of the right wing.

The book begins promisingly enough with a main character getting sent to investigate vague "problems" at a massive super collider in the Southwestern desert. Eventually he learns that something claiming to be God is communicating with the scientists through the machine. So far, so good. It makes for an interesting if not totally original concept.

Then Preston goes over the top by introducing the story's antagonists. There's a televangelist whose ministry is just beginning to recover from a prostitute scandal. There a missionary on the nearby Navajo reservation who grows more deranged every time he appears. There's an amoral Washington lobbyist who uses the televangelist to stir up sentiment about the project so that he can increase the fees he charges to a Native American Tribe for his services.

It's not that the scientists fare any better. They are, for the most part, damaged and deeply flawed in some way. Definitely not the group you'd want in charge of a hugely expensive piece of equipment.

But it's the Christians who bear the brunt of the scorn. By the time the climatic confrontation begins you'd be hard pressed to find a Christian character who could justifiably be called a good guy. Perhaps the man sent to investigate comes the closest, but as the deranged missionary tells him, he isn't really a Christian because he's Catholic and therefore an idolater.

Even with my somewhat skeptical views on religion I have to admit to wincing several times while reading this book. For me, Blasphemy was a reading experience more to be endured than enjoyed. I wish I had a way to discuss the ending of the book without giving it away, but perhaps perhaps the best thing I can say is that it left a very sour taste of cynicism behind.

Great writing and suspense but I did still much prefer Wyman Ford book 1 to 2. This one was just a bit too far out in left fired for me with the religion. I prefer something a little closer to history and science.

*Spoilers ahead. Do not read if you have not read the book.*

This book starts out great and once you get to the Isabella section is really interesting. However, once you get to the part where thousands of people start to gather once they read a post on the internet, I mean come on.

It's just not realistic and ruining what could have been a good book.

This is a decent science fiction novel about scientists making a machine that talks to God. It's got some faults. A bit slow getting started (the page-turny-ness cranks up after the first 100 pages), some thin characters, and a SciFi idea that stumbles toward the end and could have been pushed farther. But by the end, it's strengths win out - it's a rollicking read that recovers nicely with a satisfying resolution, that has the added plus of possibly upsetting a few radical Christian fundamentalists. An enjoyable SciFi ride and it's Good Fun!

This is a decent science fiction novel about scientists making a machine that talks to God. It's got some faults. A bit slow getting started (the page-turny-ness cranks up after the first 100 pages), some thin characters, and a SciFi idea that stumbles toward the end and could have been pushed farther. But by the end, it's strengths win out - it's a rollicking read that recovers nicely with a satisfying resolution, that has the added plus of possibly upsetting a few radical Christian fundamentalists. An enjoyable SciFi ride and it's Good Fun!

I have read everything by Douglas Preston-solo efforts as well as Preston & Child collaborations. This book takes the cake! He goes where everyone else is afraid to go, bringing up questions (and answers) to those things nobody wants to face or accept. This scenario makes the DaVinci Code look like a fairy tale. If you choose to read it be prepared to scratch your head and start questioning what you think you know about religion.

Douglas Preston is a talented writer who once again demonstrates his skill with his latest book. Blasphemy is a fast read that is fun, intriguing, entertaining, and gripping. It is a story that causes you to think a little. It has a great final twist that makes it all the more interesting. You simply can't go wrong with this book.

The negative reviews for Douglas Preston's books amaze me, considering that Preston AND Lincoln Child are probably the brightest, most interesting writers to reach popularity within the last ten or fifteen years.

Consider this: Blasphemy (the cover colors remind me of L. Ron Hubbard's books, by the way, which I think is no coincidence) deals with the fanatical right, but also the fanatical left, creating, as his main plot point, a matter/anti-matter showdown not only from the super-collider, but between the two extremes.

The novel is a page-turner, and although the protagonists seem to be the scientists, they are also the antagonists, as is the theme of many of Preston's books.

Preston is definitely a beloved rabble-rouser of the finest caliber, with an educational and experiential background that supports his own beliefs and research that makes the fiction plausible.

Personally, this is the first writer to interest me in thrillers, because I'm not a fancier of Clancy-like books. However, in both Preston's and Child's books, I've been enjoying the refreshingly intelligent writing and the stirring of thought generated, even when I disagree with the premise at times.

Definitely worth the money and time. I don't waste either with bad writers.

Having a novel published should be more challenging for the writer. It has none of the features advertised. Not a page turner, it is predictable, the characters are amateurishly developed as is the plot and the details.

Anyone with a curious mind will find this book intriguing. It's based on the idea that you can see the face of God the closer you get to pure science. Compared to a novel by the likes of say, Stephen King, the characters in this one are one-dimensional, but the plot is just as good. I got goosebumps reading it.

This book is hard to put down. Do yourself a favor and don't crack it open until you have an uninterrupted evening.

A couple of fascinating non-fiction books that explore the connection between religion and science are Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence by Carl Sagan and The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Sagan and Ann Druyan.

Pablum. The synopsis/teaser on the jacket was a much better read than the book. Great premise, lousy execution. Talk about pulp fiction. Character development on par with a soap commercial. There was literally not one moving or compelling thought conveyed in this sophomoric attempt at a "science meets religion" story.

While the author has apparently done well in establishing a studio he seems to be a one-trick pony. All his headshots are on a white background and he almost always deliberately cuts off the top of their heads. He says that's his "style" and if it works for him that's fine, but for a photography book I expected a bit more variety and flexibility.

There is very little discussion of lighting or other techniques. I would not recommend this book to anyone.

I purchased this book hoping to experience life inside a particle accelerator with scientific insight into the experiments, philosophy and purpose of spending billions of dollars on these projects. Instead I read a book about religion and a poor one at that. The author doesn't know about Christianity or the true beliefs, instead he just takes the worst examples and perversions, then exaggerates them, until you hate every Christian. What is the "Blasphemy"? God spoke and BIG BANG! Do you think everything just fell into place randomly? The premise of the book is ridiculous! God talking through a computer and the "words" of God are ridiculous. The ending is even more ridiculous. Confirming that reading this book is a big waste of time!

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.

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.

By now you probably have some idea of the overall story. A select group of scientists is secluded in the arid high mesa area of the Navajo reservation at a government, underground, highly secure, supercomputing, particle accelerator. Built to recreate conditions at the time of the "Big Bang," the machine (named Isabella) is not functioning as intended. Enter a covert government operative who is tasked with finding out what is the problem. I suggest reading this book from the perspective of seeing how each of the story lines come together to create the "big bang" ending. Overall, I thought this was really well choreographed and intelligently done by the author. I might add that this is the first book I've read by Mr. Preston.

Interesting to me was how physics, mathematics, etc., Washington D.C. politics, certain literalist/fundamentalist/evangelical interpretations of Christianity's end of times prophecies, and Navajo perspectives were rather neatly drawn into the final conflagration. To be sure, the author has the final say as to the next phase of humanity's development. Some critics sort of scoffingly refer to this as the author's "new age" point of view. However, my reaction was that Preston struggled mightily to express and create the possibility of a more expansive space for humanity to step into. Well done Mr. Preston. Thank you.

Douglas Preston takes on a rather interesting examination of the distinguishing between religion & science in "Blasphemy" a book that almost seems like it could be taken from the headlines of today. In Arizona, an equivalent of Switzerland's Large Hadron Collider, Isabella is testing the ability to look for the origins of the Big Bang. While scientists like project leader Gregory North Hazelius think this will do just that there rare others out there who think this could be nothing more than an attempt to discredit God & the Bible itself. When Isabella starts coming up with output stating it is God then things get interesting from there. Preston examines both the scientific & religious aspects of this device & the controversy around it by creating characters that are realistic. You also have the intervention of the US Government & a televangelist who almost comes across as cult-like as the idea to put stop to Isabella comes to a head. The references to end times & the Anti-Christ also seem appropriate as the real question in all of this becomes - can science replace religion. Throughout this fast-paced story that answer is ultimately left up to the reader & is something that can be very thought provoking indeed.

Somehow this book manages to make japanese role playing games look well written. Or more accurately it is indistinguishable from a japanese role playing game in story and sneering idiocy. As I say in the title, it appears the author is constantly at war with the collector's plate protestantism of his youth. Which somehow despite him having less than a second grade understanding of even the potestant heresy, still managed to teach him enough right and wrong that his subsequent mistakes in life causes his conscience to burn at him constantly.

Everything in the book is then written from this perceptive of him thinking that sneering at God will make his conscience go away. Why I expected better that complete banality from what amounts to a one-and-done airplane novel, I have no idea. That's on me.

It is really a work of fiction from the view of a modern pagan, one that co-opts "science" in the same way the old pagans used to use jewels or bonfire to dazzle fools. To paraphrase Fulton Sheen, they feel that denying God will help them deny their shame, missing that their shame is natural because what they do is unnatural. They then sneer at virtue because it makes their vice uncomfortable.

To then quote Fulton Sheen further on the subject:
"As all men are touched by God’s love, so all are also touched by the desire for His intimacy. No one escapes this longing; we are all kings in exile, miserable without the Infinite. Those who reject the grace of God have a desire to avoid God, as those who accept it have a desire for God. The modern atheist does not disbelieve because of his intellect, but because of his will; it is not knowledge that makes him an atheist…The denial of God springs from a man’s desire not to have a God—from his wish that there were no Justice behind the universe, so that his injustices would fear not retribution; from his desire that there be no Law, so that he may not be judged by it; from his wish that there were no Absolute Goodness, that he might go on sinning with impunity. That is why the modern atheist is always angered when he hears anything said about God and religion—he would be incapable of such a resentment if God were only a myth. His feeling toward God is the same as that which a wicked man has for one whom he has wronged: he wishes he were dead so that he could do nothing to avenge the wrong. The betrayer of friendship knows his friend exists, but he wished he did not; the post-Christian atheist knows God exists, but he desires He should not."

Well, maybe the 12 disciples and the new religion theme is a bit extreme, but when the press dubs as "God Particle" the Higgs boson, and the designation sticks maybe even the religion theme is not as extreme as it looks. Reading "Blasphemy" and "Massive" by Ian Sample side by side a reader could theorize that the plot of "Blasphemy" was rooted in "Massive," except that the fact-based "Massive" appeared two or so years after the fictional "Blasphemy." Personalities and behaviors ascribed to the fictional characters in "Blasphemy" are not so different from the personalities and behaviors of the real-world people we meet in "Massive," especially as CERN's Large Electron-Positron Collider (LEP) was set to phase out at the bitter end of the 20th century. There are vivid parallels between the circumvention of safety systems at Blasphemy's fictional accelerator and the hell bent for leather approach of scientists toward the end of the LEP's operation. And the catastrophic accident that consumed the accelerator in "Blasphemy" is not so fantastic in light of the real world accident that stopped CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) for a year just as it was about to debut. Sometimes truth is as strange as fiction. Any reader of "Blasphemy" who thinks that its depiction of scientists' behavior is just too bizarre should pick up a copy of "Massive" and read it and then reflect on it for quite a while. As a scientist myself, I have always found unattractive the "little boys playing with big and dangerous toys" aspect of many accelerator scientists' behavior. And the massive obsessions to "win the race" that overtake large groups of intelligent people at accelerator facilities and elsewhere for that matter seem unhealthy. Competition is constructive, obsessions can so often be destructive.

Science verses religion. That's the big question. This book points out all the wrong things that people can do to corrupt religion. It has a paster of a mega church who is only concerned with the power and wealth that he can gain through deceiving his congregation. A scientist who's goal is to have people look to science for their answers of creation. A delusional paster who believes he knows the will of God. And Wyman Ford who is trying to straighten out the whole mess. Although I don't think any of the characters even came close to discovering or proving how the universe was created of who and what God is, the story was very compelling and interesting to read.

This is a novel by Douglas Preston.

Looking through the reviews on the store.com, one sees a spectrum of opinion. This is one of those kinds of books. I find myself all over the place about it.

I found that the book started off very slow and is a choppy read in many ways, but reads better nearer the end. It is hard to tell in some ways what Preston's message might be.

I won't go into details so as not to spoil the book for people who have not read it, but the book is really about God, the meaning of life and maybe even science versus religion. Preston depicts certain Christians in a truly bad light in the process and may even suggest in some way (I think unfairly) that most are like them. The "alternative" presented in the book seems to be based on a sham, but then it is hard to say if that is truly the case as well. Read the book, and this will make sense. Again, it is hard to tell exactly what viewpoint Preston meant to support, but it seems he leans toward the new religion depicted, if anywhere.

I got mad at Preston at several points in the book - parts of the book seemed divisive and unfair. But then he would back off a little and I'd continue. He would then present some rather appealing ideas.

Suffice it to say, I have an educational background in science, engineering and the law and do not find that science and religion have to be at odds. Maybe the Big Bang and the expanding universe is how we perceive an unfolding thought of God. Maybe evolution is another of these unfolding thoughts or part of a bigger one. That seems easier to me to accept than the alternatives. I think that Preston might even agree with me that God is behind what science is discovering; he might also agree with me that we should be careful about how we interpret what we read in the Bible. I think that I am just more respectful of more traditional religious beliefs (even if I disagree) and those who hold them.

Take a look at the book if this sort of thing sounds to your liking.

In the southwest desert of the United States, a team of scientists have built the world's largest particle accelerator with the hope of seeing exactly what happened in the first moments of the Big Bang. However, the machine is not working properly and the $40 billion project is behind schedule. Add to that an angry Navajo nation because the accelerator was built on their land and fundamentalist Christian groups who believe the scientists are trying to disprove the existence of God, and the president who funded the project is getting worried. So they send in an ex-CIA agent now working as a PI, to go undercover and discover what's gone wrong with the machine or the scientists or both. What he finds defies explanation. Then when a televangelist speaks out against the project his followers begin to protest. They are eventually whipped into a frenzy by the pastor of a failing mission on the Navajo reservation who believes that the lead scientist, a charismatic genius, is the anti-Christ.

The pros for Blasphemy are that it is a fast-paced read, especially from about halfway through. If you are interested in science and religion this story is a different take on it. It took a little time but eventually Preston had me hooked and I wanted to see how it all ended. The cons would be very cliched characters from a Russian who drinks too much to a televangelist who is only in it for the money. The ending was a let-down for me as well. When the ghost in the machine is finally revealed I thought, "Really, that's it?" Overall though I enjoyed Blasphemy for what it was, a thriller that told an interesting story.

Blasphemy is one of those fast-paced reads that lets you disappear for a few hours. Nothing earth-shattering, but enjoyable. The normal corrupt government, etc. The plight of the Native Americans (which is an important issue). Though like most of the current crop of religious-thrillers, it's kind of simple on the religious end. Preston's book has been accused of being anti-Christian, and perhaps it isn't, but with every religious stereotype you can think of (including the hero,a nominal, confused Catholic), perhaps Preston doesn't always come across convincing in his claim. He writes in the note that the book is antifundamentalist, indeed his stereotypes of tv evangelists are warranted, but his claim would be more believable if he didn't reference some fundamentalist atheists (Dawkins and Harris) in the acknowledgments.

Perhaps he should done some research of Christian scientists and scholars. He would have learned that the Big Bang was first presented by a priest and that many Christians consider the Big Bang (creation from nothing in the finite past) in exact agreement with Genesis. The immense fine-tuning of the Big Bang also makes it the most powerful design proof. Like many skeptics or deists, Preston and his characters have a hard time with a "God that eternally damn to hell anyone who fails to adopt their exact beliefs." Sorry folks, but this isn't a Christian belief, but a false argument or misunderstanding by nonchristians. God gives us every possible chance and knowledge of himself through the Bible, nature and Christ. It is us, knowing these things, that make the decision. Does that make God cruel or us?

Christianity is indeed the "faith of that seeks truth through observation...that doubts and struggles, but perseveres despite it all." And if Preston truly believes that the "universe revealed through science is a vastly more beautiful and interesting place than Christianity every envisioned" then Preston is reading a different Bible, and different nature, then everyone else. Perhaps people interested in exploring the side of the story Preston didn't include should check out The Creator and the Cosmos: How the Latest Scientific Discoveries of the Century Reveal God,Why the Universe Is the Way It Is and The Reason for God.

I have enjoyed several of the Preston/Child novels. And I nearly always enjoy action/suspense/apocalyptic novels as long as there is a central set of characters that are believable and interesting. The main problems with this Blasphemy are that
1) none of its characters rise above the level of outline - all of them came from central casting.
2) And Preston clearly has a problem with the "historical" religions.

Most thrillers which plop a "secret agent" hero into the middle expect them to act heroic. Ford has some back story, but does nothing but observe. He had plenty of opportunities to act as if he had a clue and acts decisively, but he doesn't. The highlight of his story is when he falls off a horse...

The bulk of the book flips back and forth between the group of cookie cutter scientists (really - when they describe the Russian computer guy, I couldn't help but picture the evil Russian computer guy in Golden Eye) and a group of cynical D.C. politicos and televangalists. And surprise - the only truly heroic guys are Navajo. (BTW, inexplicably other than for political correctness, Preston creates a minor character who looks like a drunken Indian, but really was a math major at Columbia who gets Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from fighting in Iraq)

The possibly unintentional problem with this book is that Preston wants to set up the false conflict between God and Science. The core of the book is an argument that humanity must move beyond the "historic" religions which Preston believes are just so much superstition. While he does this, he has one character who starts as a weasly mission preacher but develops into a fire brand charismatic fundamentalist who quotes extensively from Revelations. This leads to a confrontation between the stupid Christians and the noble Scientists. What Preston does, though, is to create an ending that actually supports the End of Days ideas.

This is not a bad summer read, but there are many, many books that better deal with religion in an entertaining and questioning manner.