Friday, January 31, 2014

Calculating God

by Robert J. Sawyer

There's been a couple of times that I've wondered why, if there is creation science out there, have I never seen any creation science fiction? Well, Robert Sawyer has addressed that issue... sort of. Calculating God is a tale of first contact, of aliens coming to visit Earth. The aliens are strange to human eyes, as one might expect. (Though their personalities were refreshingly pedestrian.) But what was most odd to the protagonist, Dr. Thomas Jericho, was the fact that these advanced aliens believed in God. As the story progresses, Dr. Jericho and the alien Hollus discuss the latter's beliefs and Jericho wrestles with his own atheism. Mr. Sawyer does a good job of presenting some of the evidence that I've heard creation scientists cite, and his alien theists come across as credible representatives of real world believers. The weakest part of the book is the subplot with the fundamentalist Christian terrorists. And the story itself is far from Mr. Sawyer's better works. Still, I'd recommend checking it out.

LibraryThing link

Labels: ,


Sunday, January 26, 2014

Lieutenant Hornblower

by C. S. Forester

One more Hornblower novel on my shelf. A great, entertaining read.

LibraryThing link

Labels: , ,


Friday, January 24, 2014

The Church History

by Eusebius, translated by Paul Maier

For my latest history fix, I decided to go way back to the first 300 years after Christ. (Of course, having received this book for Christmas influenced this decision somewhat.) It was interesting and amusing to read about the first centuries of the Christian Church, reading of controversies and heresies that have been revived almost 20 centuries later. Once, Eusebius gets to the years of his life, however, and speaks of the persecutions that some faced, I was reminded that American Christians, at least, live in a very different world.

Keeping it on my shelf
LibraryThing link

Labels: ,


Sunday, January 05, 2014

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

by Sherman Alexie

This is the second book by Sherman Alexie that I've read. Like the first, he does a wonderful job of creating a whole world and drawing the reader into it. I found that very appealing and was reminded of how I loved reading biographies of the Marx Brothers back in my youth. Guess I must have a ghetto fetish. Weird. Anyway, I didn't enjoy this collection of short stories as much as The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. It has some beautiful and poignant moments, but I guess I prefer the longer plot and characters. Or maybe Diary had a touch more hope in it? I forget. Perhaps I should re-read both again.

Check it out.
LibraryThing link

Labels:


This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

Subscribe to Posts [Atom]