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Calculating God

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Calculating God

Written by: Robert J. Sawyer
Narrated by: Jonathan Davis, Robert J. Sawyer
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In this Hugo-nominated novel, 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, 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.

BONUS AUDIO: Author Robert J. Sawyer explains how the creationism vs. evolution debate informed the writing of Calculating God.

©2000 by Robert J. Sawyer (P)2008 Audible, Inc. First Contact Science Fiction Space Opera Fiction Funny Natural History
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What the critics say

"Is Sawyer Canada's answer to Michael Crichton? Very possibly yes." ( Montreal Gazette)
"Jonathan Davis...is one of our very best narrators and this is a fine performance. I was rapt the entire time, and even near tears at one moment in the book." (sffaudio.com; named an SFFaudio Essential)
"Jonathan Davis portrays a thoughtful and quietly introspective Jericho....As the conversation with Hollus continues, Davis keeps a steady pace and reflects the intellectual engagement of both characters. He presents the alien's speech as lightly studied, a fitting style for a non-English speaker who coordinates his speech between two mouths." ( AudioFile)
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While there are many very interesting ideas explored in this novel, I feel that I would have enjoyed it more and been able to suspend my disbelief longer had some basic plot holes been thought out with more care.

Without giving too much away, I found myself distracted by how casually the arrival of aliens had apparently been received by the world, as well as "little" things like how minimal the museum security was considering that there were aliens on site, and the inconsistent application of the rules of physics.

There is also a distracting subplot that could have been removed with no other effect than making the novel a solider read.

The narrator does a great job, and I have really enjoyed other novels by Sawyer which I believe have been better executed.

Interesting premise patchily realized

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Can't just start another book right away after finished this one! Mind needs processing time...

Mindblowing

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Another great book by Robert Sawyer, who takes efforts to ensure scientific accuracy, however, misses ensuring the pronunciations and accents match the environs (Canadian in this case) in this audiobook. Unfortunate for a Canadian author.

If the narrator mashed scientific terms you’d cry foul.

If the intelligent aliens showed up from outer space with a moronic hillbilly drawl instead of an elegant British lilt you might cry foul. 🤔

Well, that goes for Canadian accents and pronunciations also. Our bible thumping hicks don’t hail from the Deep South so they don’t speak as such, but have their own inbred Ontario twang.

Good, Canadian accents aside

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I really enjoyed this book. Good story line and character development. I liked the narrator as well. However, I was very disappointed with the ending. I found it a poor conclusion to the story and just unexpected but not in a good way. Not a well thought out ending in my opinion. Otherwise, a great book.

Enjoyable but...

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An outstanding piece of Science fiction with many profound Science facts embedded within. I came away from it with awe and a new appreciation for the complexities of life as we know it.

Profound

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