Calculating God (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "I know, I know-it seemed crazy that the alien had come to Toronto..." (more)
Key Phrases: holoform projector, paleobiology department, fusion exhaust, Beta Hydri, Delta Pavonis, Burgess Shale (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Creationists rarely find sympathy in the ranks of science fiction authors--or fans, for that matter. And while Robert J. Sawyer doesn't exactly make peace with evangelicals on the issue, Calculating God has to be one of the more thoughtful and sympathetic SF portrayals you'll find of religion and intelligent design. But that should come as no surprise from this crafty Canadian: in the Nebula Award-winning Terminal Experiment, Sawyer speculated on what would happen if hard evidence were ever found for the human soul; in Calculating God, he turns science on its head again when earth is invaded by theists from outer space.

The book starts out like the setup for some punny science fiction joke: An alien walks into a museum and asks if he can see a paleontologist. But the arachnid ET hasn't come aboard a rowboat with the Pope and Stephen Hawking (although His Holiness does request an audience later). Landing at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, the spacefarer (named Hollus) asks to compare notes on mass extinctions with resident dino-scientist Thomas Jericho. A shocked Jericho finds that not only does life exist on other planets, but that every civilization in the galaxy has experienced extinction events at precisely the same time. Armed with that disconcerting information (and a little help from a grand unifying theory), the alien informs Jericho, almost dismissively, that "the primary goal of modern science is to discover why God has behaved as he has and to determine his methods."

Inventive, fast-paced, and alternately funny and touching, Calculating God sneaks in a well-researched survey of evolution science, exobiology, and philosophy amidst the banter between Hollus and Jericho. But the book also proves to be very moving and character-driven SF, as Jericho--in the face of Hollus's convincing arguments--grapples with his own bitter reasons for not believing in God. --Paul Hughes

From Publishers Weekly

Sawyer (Flashforward; Factoring Humanity), a Canadian, is one of contemporary SF's most consistent performers. His new novel concerns the appearance at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto of a spiderlike alien paleontologist named Hollus. The alien has come to Earth to study the five great extinction events that have hit our planet over the eons, the best known being the asteroid collision that wiped out the dinosaurs. When the museum's head paleontologist, Tom Jericho, consults with the alien, he is shocked to discover that Hollus has proof that her own planet and that of another alien race suffered a similar series of five catastrophic events at virtually the same times as Earth did. More surprising still to a 21st-century disciple of Darwin like Jericho, both alien races see this synchronicity, along with other scientific evidence, as proof of the existence of God. Much of the novel is relatively cerebral, as Jericho and Hollus argue over the scientific data they've gathered in support of God's existence, but Sawyer excels at developing both protagonists into full-fledged characters, and he adds tension to his story in several ways: Jericho has terminal cancer, which gives him a personal stake in discovering the truth of the alien's claims, and lurking in the background are a murderous pair of abortion clinic bombers who have decided that the museum's Burgess Shale exhibition is an abomination that must be destroyed. Finally, there's the spectacular, if not entirely prepared for, climax in which God manifests in an unexpected manner. This is unusually thoughtful SF. (June) FYI: Sawyer's The Terminal Experiment won the 1995 Nebula Award for Best Novel.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 334 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (June 3, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312867131
• ISBN-13: 978-0312867133
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (170 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #719,167 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating speculations, very sympathetic main character, June 28, 2000

By	B Singh (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

CALCULATING GOD is a terrific book. Sawyer's research is wonderful and far reaching. He has clearly gone beyond just popular science sources. The main character's struggle with cancer is the perfect subplot, for one does wonder how such injustice can exist. All Sawyer's characters come off well, alien or otherwise. I thought at first that the two fundamentalists were going to be given an unfair treatment, but they were seen being very competent at what they set out to do. And, as a Sikh, I must applaud Sawyer's use of a Sikh character in a nonstereotypical role. Very well done! I enjoyed the aliens very much, from the affable Hollus to the almost incomprehensible Wreeds. I do not know the Royal Ontario Museum, where Sawyer sets his book, but I do know the politics of other museums and what he writes has the ring of real truth about it. A fresh and welcome contrast to the ridiculous portrayal of how a museum really works in for instance THE RELIC by Preston Child. CALCULATING GOD should be enjoyed by science fiction readers (I loved it) and by those who don't read sf (my wife loved it as well).

25 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Poor science, poor character development, awful ending, May 5, 2002

By	James Ryley "jamesriii" (San Antonio, TX USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Calculating God (Mass Market Paperback)

I have to say that I am stunned by the 5-star reviews of this book - not to mention the people calling Sawyer the best Sci-Fi writer alive. This book is poor fiction, and it is certainly poor SCIENCE fiction.

The discussions of science are superficial fluff -- Sawyer throws in a lot of stuff as if to show that he is aware of its existence, but the book doesn't have any logical, in-depth discussions that are germane to the plot, or that make any sense.

For example (do not read this if you don't want to know about the plot): One of the mysteries of the book is where several other intelligent species have gone. They are evidenced by ruins discovered on various planets, but no living representatives of these species can be found. The main character "resolves" this quandry by "figuring out" that they have all uplodaed themselves into computers and are living in a virtual world now. The only problem is that there is NO evidence to support this. It is pure conjecture (and not even likely conjecture in my opinion), yet the remainder of the book seems to treat it as fact. A lesson in critical thinking this book is not...

Here's another example of a "scientific" discussion lacking all rationality: One of the alien species in the book does not have the ability to count higher than about 45. Further, it isn't just that they can't assign numbers to more items than that, it is that they really don't recognize the difference, so 100 might as well be a million. A discussion ensues about why this might be, and the supposed explanation is that since the Wreeds (the aliens in question) have a societal structure where they live in small clans of no more than 20 or so, they have never needed to be able to count higher than that. Come on... I won't bother to list the numerous evolutionary disadvantages that not being able to count past 45 would have. Not that it couldn't happen perhaps, but that's not the point. The point is that the book puts forth some silly explanation that doesn't hold water and acts like the issue has been explained. That happens far too often about all sorts of scientific matters.

In addition to the poor science, the characters are very poorly developed. (And to those who would say otherwise, as some do in their reviews, I ask this: Why does it take half the book to find out Hollus is female, and 4/5 of the book to find out she has children? Answer: Because up to that point there are no discussions of a personal nature of any depth).

And finally, the ending in an IMMENSE let-down. The ending is the final straw in a parade of non-sensical "scientific" events or explanations. DO NOT READ IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO HAVE PLOT REVEALED: A God who won't respond to any radio messages or any other means of technological communication, but will talk to one of the alien races telepathically? A God who apparently can't survive the collapse of the universe, but can make a child out of DNA that can? This book is a big let-down.

28 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fine book by a fine SF writer, August 27, 2002

By	John S. Ryan "Scott Ryan" (Silver Lake, OH) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Calculating God (Mass Market Paperback)

Those of us who have been reading science fiction for more than a couple of decades are notorious for complaining that so few modern writers in the genre live up to the old masters. Well, I'm happy to report an exception. Robert J. Sawyer writes excellent stuff, and this book seems to be as good a place as any to start (both reading and reviewing).

I tend to evaluate SF writers/books along two dimensions -- one for the techie stuff, as measured against James P. Hogan (one of my two favorite living SF writers), and one for the humaneness of the characterization and plot, as measured against Spider Robinson (my other favorite). It's hard to find anybody who does well at both; Charles Sheffield, for example, rates pretty high on the first axis but not too high on the second, and Connie Willis is approximately the reverse.

Well, Sawyer measures up well along both dimensions. His plots include both plausible extrapolations from current science and his characters are always interesting and engaging. And he writes very well; it's hard to put one of his books down once you've started it.

This one is no exception, and it's one of his more ambitious efforts to date. The plot: a non-Terran spacecraft sets down outside the Royal Ontario Museum, and an eight-legged alien (named, as it later emerges, Hollus) walks into the museum and asks to see a paleontologist.

The paleontologist on call happens to be Tom Jericho, who happens to have cancer. And when he learns that on Hollus's planet, scientists think it's just _obvious_ that the universe was designed by an intelligent God, he finds that he has to deal with his own reasons for not believing in God. ("If there were a God, cancer wouldn't exist." The Oncological Argument?)

Most of the plot is devoted to scientific and philosophical discussions between Jericho and Hollus. These are well done; Sawyer is right on the money in his characterizations both of the shortcomings of Darwinian theory and of the "fine-tuned" nature of the universe. (Check out Michael Denton's _Evolution: A Theory in Crisis_ and _Nature's Destiny_ for good discussions of all this stuff.)

Sawyer's own speculative resolution of these issues probably won't please too many traditional theists and I think it's questionable on other grounds as well. But hey, that's what speculative fiction is about, and Sawyer's speculations are veeeeeery interesting even when they're not altogether convincing. (I won't spoil things by giving away any details, but I think I can mention that the Oncological Argument does receive an answer in the end. Not a Pollyanna-ish one, either, but still a hopeful one.)

So why did I deduct a star? Partly because Sawyer's two "fundamentalist/evangelical" characters are such stereotypical caricatures, and partly because I think he rushes his ending a little.

But he's a fine writer and very much in the same class as the old masters of the genre. SF has _always_ (a) dealt with tough theological issues and (b) proposed speculative solutions that depart from both the religious and the scientific mainstream. Sawyer continues this tradition and adds lots of new twists of his own.