Blasphemy
by Douglas Preston
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Book Reviews of Blasphemy
Book Review: Extremely Disappointing
Summary: 2 Stars
I hope Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child never stop writing together. The Agent Pendergast stories are engaging and contain fully developed characters interacting with plausible story-lines and plots. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Blasphemy.
Overall, Blasphemy presents the argument that science and religion cannot coexist in society. I was a little leery of this book from merely reading the dust jacket summary- the fate of religion in the world rests in the hands of an ex-monk/CIA agent? How clever. The story and plausibility goes downhill from there.
There are holes in the plot large enough to distract from any plausibility to the story. Characters make drastic, overly-dramatic actions without explanation. Only Ford (marginally) and the director of the supercollider, Hazelious are fully developed as characters. The characters Preston obviously disdains - political consultants, Christians from all walks of life - are one-dimensional caricatures without reason or sensibility. Tragedies occur because precious national resources are tied up in a "war in the Middle East." The oily televangelist character has a lawyer with a last name of Dobson. The lobbyist character makes a point of not wanting to end up like his best friend, Scooter Libby. Little asides and tangents like those immediately take the reader out of the story because the author had to "make a point!"
The main antagonist, a podunk Christian Fundamentalist minister, is comically ineptly portrayed. ******Possible Spoiler****** This character magically summons the Christians of the United States and transforms them into a killing mob, hell-bent on receiving The Rapture. It's at this point that Preston takes pot-shots at the series Left Behind. No one argues Left Behind was well written, but Preston's view of Christians' overreaction to Isabella is no less close-minded and ridiculous than theories of "end times" presented by the Left Behind authors. According to Preston, Christians, as a result of a simple email, turn into a murderous horde. This is without prevocation and the kinds of people that are Christians and respond to the call are remarkably similar: gun-toting, judgmental, anarchistic, militaristic, right-wing nutzos. The "good" Christian, Ford, is the one character that repeatedly questions his faith. It's good to know what Douglas Preston really thinks. *******End of Possible Spoiler*******
But all of the above could be excused if the book was well-written. Alas, no such luck. The plot has holes large enough to drive through. A central tenet of story-telling is to show the reader, don't tell the reader. Well, the reader is "told" things throughout the book. Ford (the miraculously conveniently placed ex-monk/CIA agent) is in the story primarily for expository purposes. Instead of creating an unfolding story line, characters just talk to Ford to move the plot along. The inevitable "twist" at the end comes at the expense of the tired cliche "bad guy confesses his plan to the good guy." How did these plot holes and failures of story-telling get past an editor?
This book would not have been so disappointing had not Lincoln Child and Douglas Preston set the bar so high together. Hopefully, the next time Preston writes a book with Child, he will focus more on story-telling and less on "making a point!" about society-at-large. His readers would be better off for it.
Book Review: A good read but no need to be outraged
Summary: 4 Stars
I have to admit that I do not understand the controversy about the book. In the beginning, Blasphemy is about power politics and how fundamentalist Christians, here embodied in a sleazy televangelist, can influence politics in D.C. Only then does the narrative shift to a point where the various characters stand for a certain necessity to believe, either in a god or in science. The fundamentalist pastor and the televangelist are unable to accept science, which only reflects the attitude of some Americans who are as unable to accept scientific findings such as the theory of Evolution.
Thus, the so-called anti-Christian message of the book is only a critical perspective on Christian fundamentalism and the disconcerting attitude of these fundamentalists who seem to be sure to know what is right (i.e. the will of God) and what is wrong (i.e. Scientific theories about the origin of the universe). Do not forget that even the Navajo chant cited in the middle of the book ponders the questions of existence. It also becomes clear that scientists who believe to know what is right (i.e. the theory of the Big Bang) and what is wrong (i.e. believe in God) must be regarded as critically. Many scientist prefer the idea that it is very hard to be certain of anything, as Kate explains in the novel. Kate admits that scientists have no clue why the Big Bang happened or how it came about and she explains about science's weird notion of time that forbids certitude. The overly clever Hazelius is as bad as the pastor or the televangelist.
As a reader from the north of Europe, I have to say that the anti-Christian debate does not concern me much. Religious fundamentalism is more at home in the US, where a war-mongering Born-Again-Christian such as George W. Bush could be re-elected due to his "Christian" values. This has irritated much of Europe. The theory of Evolution is taught at our schools, nor does Creationism play a role here. The idea that we cannot not know everything seems to be more acceptable here, so that the need for a god is less urgent. Therefore, the discussion about the book in the US is indeed a reflection of the attitudes of the people depicted therein. Both scientist and fundamentalists can find fault at the message of the book, and that is fine by me.
However, I must not forget to discuss the book itself. There are strange plot elements, such as the fact that the supercollider is operated by a boy's club of not more than a dozen people or that an alleged anthropologist is sent out to pacify the natives. Incidentally, the former anthropologist is not only an ex-FBI agent but also the ex-lover of the project's deputy director - a bit much of a coincidence. The scientists even brawl about the operation of the supercollider like children would about the use of s beloved toy. Sometimes, the whole effort seems to be a bit forced.
However, Preston's narrative usually flows easily and entertainingly, despite his use of one or two clichees to many. The book is a good read and has made many people think. For these reasons, Douglas Preston has awarded himself four stars and I agree. It is certainly not a great book, beyond par even compared to many Preston/Child novels, but better than average.
Book Review: A Novel of "Big Ideas" that comes up short
Summary: 3 Stars
Douglas Preston, along with his frequent collaborator, Lincoln Child, has written some of the more memorable science-based thrillers of the past decade. The novels involving their very original protaganist, FBI Agent Pendergast, usually are well plotted, expertly paced, and written with scares and some of the supernatural in mind. With Blasphemy, Preston's third major novel without Child, the ideas and the plot is there, but the pacing is weak and the story a bit much even for a Sci-fi fan like myself.
The novel centers around a former CIA-agent turned monk turned PI with the unlikely name of Wyman Ford. He is tasked by the President's Science Advisor to investigate what is happening at Isabella, the largest Superconducting Supercollider in the world, a project that the President has hung his legacy on and that has cost the US taxpayers billions of dollars. Isabella, it seems, is not working as it should, and Congress is threatening to pull funding. Unless Ford can get the team of scientists at the site to admit what the real problems are, the project may be doomed.
The Isablla project is run by the enigmatic Dr. Hazelius, a super-genius who is trying to recreate the conditions of the Big Bang so that science can learn more about the creation of the Universe, and other big scientific questions. Hazelius is probably the best written character in the novel, as all of his motivations and actions, as they are revealed, make a very good logical sense. He feels like a real person, not just like a character in the book.
The problem with Blasphemy is that Hazelius is the only really well-defined character. Ford, essentially spying on the scientists, is at first only in it for the money, but his heart changes when he discovers the ex Love of his Life is one of the chief researchers. His character acts mostly as a sounding board for the other characters to run through the philisophical and theological arguments that come up in the book.
The theological elements are also a problem. The book is trying to start a debate about how and if religion and science can coexist. The Isabella project is under verbal assault from a televangelist who feels like a cross between Jim Bakker and Jerry Falwell, and who never seems like more than a cipher than a real character. He's obstensably the villian of the piece, but he's such a caricature it's hard to take him seriously or what his actions lead to seriously either, and since his actions spur the last third of the book, I found my interest in the novel waning. The religion vs. science debate is a debate worth having, but Preston makes the mistake of setting up strawman arguments for the science side to strike down, and then escallating the religious wackos into militant crazies by the final act.
There are too many threads running around and the message that Preston is sending, while noble in my eyes, is lost in the poor characterization and motivation for both the hero's and the villains. The action is well described and the book reads quickly, but I would recommend a visit to the library for this one over a purchase. Preston may have a great novel in him yet, but this is not it.
Book Review: An uninformed, arrogant cliche
Summary: 1 Stars
The first half of Blasphemy had me hooked. The latter half would have been outright boring if it wasn't so inflammatory and offensive. Preston takes a thrilling, creative idea and ruins it with characters who are absurdly, offensively stereotypical idiots. Preston's portrayal of the hypocritical televangelist is as tired as discarded socks.
This could have been a good book if Preston had studied the evangelical people he lampoons so viscously, and had portrayed his extremists as just that--a radical fringe. Unfortunately, Preston betrays his disdain for Christians by portraying his hateful, psychopathic, murderous mob as typical of most mainstream American believers. If Preston had stopped with the televangelist he would have been guilty of being unimaginative and unoriginal, but by portraying an entire group of religious people as ignorant, intolerant lemmings, he demonstrates an attitude that would best be described as racist if only the mob had been united by color rather than creed.
In an interview with the author recorded at the end of the audiobook edition, Preston makes several arrogant statements that show just how little he understands religion and science. He says "Science for the last two centuries has been systematically disproving the central tenants of the world's religions. For example, where did we come from? Evolution has shown that we're not created by God. We evolved from animals. The question of how the universe was created. These are questions that religion used to deal with and religion answered and answered wrongly and now science is answering these questions correctly."
This paragraph is not a review of the book, but this statement begs an intelligent rebuttal. Modern science has its own language. It is precise, observational and linear. To assume that religious texts, several millennia old, were written in the language of modern science and were written to answer modern questions with modern specificity is extremely arrogant. It's like asking a question of someone who speaks a different language and declaring them wrong because their babble makes no sense to you. For example, Genesis was written for a people who had emerged from ancient Egypt where they had been slaves. The Egyptians worshiped the Sun, Moon, oceans and animals as gods. THE POINT OF GENESIS IS THAT GOD CREATED THE SUN, MOON, etc. It is futile to try to understand Genesis in terms of modern science. Science can no more discredit God as Creator than it can disprove the idea of life after death. Science will inevitably cause shifts in religious interpretation but some questions will always be beyond its reach.
Remarkably, Preston addresses many of these questions and mysteries in Blasphemy and does so in thought provoking ways. There is a conversation between a scientist and a medicine man about the similar origin problems of what caused the big bang and where did God come from. I think Preston could have found a more effective way to bring his story to a climax. It's a shame to have turned what could have been fascinating and provocative book into an obnoxious rant.
Book Review: A superb thriller that is DEFINITELY destined for mixed reviews!
Summary: 4 Stars
Isabella is a giant superconducting supercollider particle accelerator, the most expensive and probably the largest scale scientific experiment ever devised by man, designed to examine the state of the universe at the very moment of its creation, mere millionths of a second after the explosion of the Big Bang. Isabella is supposed to be the poster child achievement of a president in the final months of his first term in office so it's a major political concern when it consistently fails to operate as it's supposed to. Presidential science advisor, Stanton Lockwood, sends in ex-CIA agent Wyman Ford undercover as an anthropologist to root out the problem and report back. So what would one expect from the pen of the likes of best-selling author Douglas Preston - nothing less than the supercharged, high speed, dynamic, breathless thriller that he has consistently produced for his fans. "Blasphemy" doesn't let them down!
If one bothers to look at a novel like "Blasphemy" with a literary eye, an English major might suggest the over-riding them is "conflict" - the perennial dispute between science and religion (fundamentalist right wing Christians led by bible-thumping southern televangists call the scientists "secular humanists" who believe that the universe was created by accident without the guiding hand of an all-powerful God); the ongoing difficulties between North American aboriginal peoples and white politicians with the endless string of broken promises, broken treaties, land disputes and governance problems; and, of course, the endless conflict between big budget science and the exigencies of modern life's demands on politics and politicians.
I enjoyed Preston's homespun philosophy and his attempt to portray the possibility that science may ultimately BE the modern religion of choice. His suggestion that the Big Bang was not in conflict with creationism and the existence of God, that the Big Bang was only the obtuse and perhaps ultimately inscrutable method chosen for creation by a God whose motives and philosophy are beyond our ken, certainly matched my own thinking. But Preston certainly will not have created any friends among the fundamentalist Christians. His portrayal of their religion as a collection of fanatical wild-eyed zealots willing to label even Roman Catholics as idolaters destined for the endless torment of Hell because of their reverence for Mary was perhaps a trifle overbearing.
If this review can help, I'll make a suggestion. If you class yourself as a member of the fundamentalist Christian movement in North America, do yourself a favour. DO NOT READ THIS BOOK! It will only give you an ulcer.
That said, Preston has produced one heck of a thriller that doesn't fail to pull its readers from one page to the next for even the briefest second. Highly recommended.
Paul Weiss