Rating: 
Summary: Definitely food for thought.
Review: When David Tennant was assingned to Project Trinity by the US President himself, he never suspected life and existance as he knew them would be over soon. And why should he, he's just a doctor who had decided to take on a project a little diferent than what he was used to. He had recently emerged from a terrible depression caused by the death of his wife and daughter and he was not practicing medicine, but he levels of morality where science is concerned are unsual, broad, yet high.
So he decided to join the team of 6 top scientist in quatum physics, neurology and others, toward achieving the goal of creating the first form of artificial intelligence, a computer capable of thinking on its own and even feeling, but not as strongly as us humans, a computer named Trinity. But when David and another top notch scientist decide to oppose project Trinity based on morality issues, all hell broke loose, and now David is running for his life.
Joining David, is Rachel his psychotherapist, who thinks him crazy at best, schizophrenic at worst. Despite this she gets involved and now she as well must run with David in order to stay alive. And to top it all off David has been having strange dreams/visions since his brain was scanned for project Trinity.
A fairly number of characters appear in the book to make the story more intrecate. This other characters help shape the main character as well as the story and at the same time, they give us, as readers, a more broad view of human nature in all its glory. The good, the bad and the ugly.
David's, or rather the author's view of God is a rather non-common one, might border on plain scary.
The struggle between science vs God presented here was thought provoking. Wether you are more leaned toward one than the other, this book is worth a try and worth some analyzing right after you are done with it.
Major kudos for Iles, for bringing such an intricate, yet simple novel, for "biting nail" good suspense, and for trying to push his readers to anilyze and re-think our view on the magnificence of science and the mightiness of God.
Highly recommend.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing work of philosophy...
Review: Without even thinking about it, I expected this to be a great book. With every effort, Greg Iles has continued to be an innovative, entertaining and unique author. Footprints of God is definitely innovative and is different than any of Iles other novels. You will have to read this entire book before you form your own opinion, because the entire book is written for the end.I believe Iles came up with a premise in his mind and then constructed a novel in a way that he could write about a certain subject. This isn't necessarily bad, but in my opinion, this is Iles' worst novel ever. First of all, the summary on the book jacket tells entirely way too much about the novel, yet it still isn't what the story is about. Dr. David Tennant and several other gifted scientists are working on a top secret computer called Trinity for the US Government. Problems arise and a co-worker is murdered and soon Tennant and his pshychiatrist are on the run. The most intriguing aspect of the novel (and ultimately the most disappointing) is the fact that Tennent keeps having dreams about Jesus Christ. These dreams manage to convince Tennant that the dreams are actually memories and Tennant goes to Israel to find answers. I imagine most readers have an understanding of the story of Jesus regardless of their belief in God. I'm not a theologian so I'm not sure how Iles' explanation of Tennant's dreams relates to theology, but for me it was a let down. The climax of the book involves a showdown between Tennant and the super computer Trinity. He throws in the threat of nuclear war as part of the suspense but it seems out of place when for the entire book we've been led to be expecting a showdown with Trinity, a computer with the ability to think a million times faster than humans. I kept waiting for Iles to reveal some sort of secret or mystery but instead he rambles on about his theories on God and the universe. To me, they were just far enough out of the mainstream to make me not like this novel. In conclusion, Iles does a good job of explaining the science behind Trinity enough for me to believe it. But he fails in providing any action or intrigue. He started out promising with tying science to religion but veered off in the end where it seemed he was spouting his own opinion on the nature of man and the fate of the universe.
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