Rating: 
Summary: An "Out There" Greg Iles
Review: I have been reading Greg Iles since Spandau Phoenix and I have loved all of his books, admiring his versatility. However, "The Footprints of God" was just a bit much for me. I felt like I was reading a hybrid of Steven Hawking/Michael Crichton/Robert Ludlum (still writing from the grave). The book centers around Dr. David Tenant, a doctor brought into the Trinity project for ethical monitoring. The Trinity Project centers around one man's vision for the development of artificial intelligience. Dr. Tenant finds his colleague, Dr. Fielding, murdered and he begins to fear for his life. The result is a plot filled with chases, hallucinations and a final showdown in the desert with a Max-style (2001: A Space Odyssey) computer. While I admire his flexibility in subjects, my desire is for Greg Iles to come back to the mainstream.
Rating:
Summary: Misses the Mark
Review: In "the Footprints of God", Iles may remove himself from the familiar home terrain of Louisiana and Mississippi that has hallmarked him as a writer of contemporary suspense, but his protagonists, in this case, Dr. David Tennant and love interest, Dr. Rachel Weiss, remain basically the same troubled smarter-than-average life-burdened humans already encountered in his other books.
Joined by an ensemble cast of other supposed media stars, like two Nobel winning physicists, a megalomaniacal computer hardware/software genius, the President of the United States, and an emergency war council responsible for the safety of the North American continent, Tennant, renowned in the field of medical ethics, and Weiss, the world's foremost Jungian analyst, fight off the baddies who want to turn a project developing the first real artificially intelligent computer into a game of global domination.
Despite some interesting details revolving around concepts of quantum physics and MRI-induced hallucinations experienced by Tennant where he relives the life of Jesus from a first person perspective, this 500+ pager falls sadly short of its intended mark---to entertain.
Burdened by the losses they have experienced, Tennant and Weiss just aren't interesting enough. Iles offers no revelations about them as people, nor does he tweak the usual formulaic chase scenes and behind the main action narratives where we get a glimpse into the minds of the opposition, with any intriguing plot twists. Iles touches on a few themes that could have changed the book's overall feel and tone, but like most thriller/suspense novels that capture the general public's attention, this one seems to move in the direction of adaptability to screenplay rather than a vehicle that could make us actually think.
And---its not as if Iles does not possess the skills, he has a moment where as Christ he answers a question with a riddle from St. Thomas' Gospel (Dead Sea Scroll): "Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up the stone and find me." If Iles really wanted to follow in the footsteps of God, why didn't he make a quantum physics connection to this cryptic statement? Most likely, the answer is a simple one---many of these new science based novels start out with a Big Bang of golly-wow information that peters out simply because the cutting edge technology spoken about isn't fully understood or isn't advanced enough to provide startling revelations.
On another level, the broad threat to international security scope of this novel was just too big to lend any insight into inner mystery. The focus on the disabling of nuclear warheads and the annoying worthless interplay between Geli Bauer and her father, the General, takes up more than half the book. In addition, the hokey ending ala 'Contact' meets "The Wiz" disappointed rather than impressed this reader. Tennant's enlightenment seemed, pardon me, an inexcusable Deus ex machina ; his grim demeanor counteracts his common sense message to the computer at the novel's denouement. While Ile's comments regarding the nature of Christ will surely supercharge Christian fundamentalists, they surely won't get the air-time of the more popular "DaVinci Code." Tsk,tsk---even when trying to be upbeat, Iles crumbles under his self-created burdens--putting too much action in what could have been a cerebral experience--- my overall rating is not even a C minus.
Rating: 
Summary: Hard to Put Down
Review: A tight story that held my interest until the last page. Don't start reading this book at bedtime, you'll be up all night reading!
Rating: 
Summary: Greg Iles' first dud
Review: I have been reading the books of Greg Iles for years and have considered him one of the best and most topical thriller writers. Well, he finally wrote a dud. It almost makes me feel like shaking him by the shoulders demanding what he was thinking when he wrote this awful work.
David Tennant is involved in a project called Trinity. The goal is to create a super computer-- the technology of which can change the world. He has doubts about the creation of something potentially so dangerous to mankind. When a fellow worker who has similar doubts is found dead, Tennant finds himself a marked man. He flees across the country with his psychiatrist, Rachel Weiss, to not only evade capture and death but to try to stop the activation of the computer.
What a mess! There appears to be a new sub genre of thrillers concerning the DNA computer. In fact, some of the best authors are writing about it including Michael Connolly and Michael Crichton among many others. This is the most preposterous one of all. Not only is this about the computer but somehow God figures into the equation as Tennant starts having dreams that he is Jesus. The conclusion is way beyond idiotic. However, Iles is a very good writer and until the last 75-100 pages manages to write a reasonably compelling novel He just didn't know when to stop.
Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: I wouldn't put much stock in the reviewers bashing this book. I enjoyed every page and had a hard time putting it down. I have read every one of Greg's novels and he hasn't disappointed me. I don't think he ever will.
Rating: 
Summary: This has been done before.. and better
Review: The initial idea of "The Footprints of God" is an intriguing one: to use an advanced MRI scan of the human brain to capture the brain's neurological model, which is then stored in a supercomputer to create the ultimate merge of mind and machine. Unfortunately, as the idea evolves, the story line diverges into into a hodgepodge of chase scenes, religious epiphanies, and supercomputer-gone-wrong crises that quickly get tedious. David Tennant, a scientist whose brain was scanned for the computer's neurological model as part of the government's top-secret Project Trinity, experiences neurological symptoms that cause him to experience narcolepsy and hallucinations, where he imagines himself to be Jesus. Because he begins to object to the project and is considered a threat to national security, he and his psychiatrist must flee for their lives. After visiting a holy site in Jerusalem and lapsing into a strange comalike state, Tennant claims to have gained a complete understanding of God and the nature of consciousness and the universe. The dialogue becomes preachy as he explains his revelations to his psychiatrist and then to the Trinity computer, and it seems out of place when plunked down in the middle of an action-oriented plot. The love story between Tennant and Rachel, his psychiatrist, seems unrealistic because she considers him deluded at best and insane at worst. The plot about an omnipotent, out-of-control supercomputer has been done many times before, such as in the movie "Colossus: The Forbin Project." Like in that movie, the Trinity computer decides to take over the world through the threat of a nuclear Armageddon. But frankly, "Colossus" was better conceived and implemented. The concept of a scientist on the lam from the government or technical evildoers because he poses a threat to a misguided project has also been done again and again. Greg Iles has bitten off more than he can chew with the religious and philosophical diatribe that leads nowhere. He has written far better and far more original thrillers. Try one of his other novels instead, such as "24 hours" or "The Quiet Game." Eileen Rieback
Rating:
Summary: Action-packed disaster of a novel
Review: What can one say after finishing the last page? Although it's been done about a zillion times previously, the idea of a man-machine creation taking over the world could have been somewhat entertaining if the author had not wandered all over the place. The action/mystery parts - the chase, Rachel, fighting bad guys and bad girls - was the best. The worst parts of the book - well, there were several. First there is the utter predictability of the plot. Mean old guys and gals at the NSA who murder on a whim, evil government and big business types, a Wizard of Oz talking head with whom one carries on discussions about metaphysics, the selection of the couple by the computer. And what in the world did the visions have to do with the narcolepsy? The Jesus connection was never explained and ridiculously, Jesus speaks in perfect King James lingo. Nay, Thou shalt not waste thy time reading this book from this moment forth! The incoming missles, the last-minute wheeling and dealing with the President and evil Generals, the proclamation of love on the edge of destruction - enough already. To top it off, the visions that were so important to the story and provided a kind of structure to the novel as well as guide their journey were nothing more than wild imaginations we find out at the last. Philosophical mumbo-jumbo of the first order...even the science is bad. How can an entity understand emotions or any concept whatsoever without sensory input? And is the ultimate end of evolution the merging of female and male into one being? Avoid at all costs.
Rating:
Summary: I've Read Better
Review: Iles makes an effort to reconcile several genres in this novel, but he doesn't quite pull it off. It's almost as if he said to himself: "All right, I'm going to write some science fiction -- which means I don't have to worry much about characterization. And everybody knows thrillers don't need interesting characters." Wrong on both counts. Where the heck was his editor? Iles tosses around some interesting ideas, but none that haven't been dealt with better by a variety of sf writers. But since he's "hot" right now, it's his book that will get the big sales, so matter what subject he takes on. Alas, I get the impression "TFOG" was written with an eye toward a big movie deal. It sure reads that way.
Rating:
Summary: Starts like a Ferrari; ends like a Chevy
Review: Greg Iles is a very gifted writer. As he has promised us, he will never write the same book twice. So one should expect a certain amount of unpredictability. The initial premise of creating an Artificial Intelligence computer based not on reverse engineering the brain, but by "cloning" the human mind into a machine is fascinating. The technology described does not seem far off, so the idea seems doable. I ran into problems (and I always run into problems with books that go this direction) when the main characters develop a "God" complex where they have mastered all knowledge and are all powerful. FOOTPRINTS reminds me of a 1970's movie where the computer takes over the world and no one knows how to stop the cybernetic creation. My eyes glaze over whenever a novel attempts to transcend the nature of man. That said, FOOTPRINTS is well written and it does keep you reading. I just didn't buy it after a while. You'll either like this one or hate it.
Rating: 
Summary: Iles takes a page from Dan Brown...
Review: For those who have read Dan Brown's THE DA VINCI CODE, Greg Iles latest, THE FOOTPRINTS OF GOD, may seem like a familiar theme. Not that FOOTPRINTS delves into the thick of basic religous tenets or a particular faith; rather, Iles, as has become something of his path, explore the supernatural as related to religous belief. Of course, Brown's DA VINCI became (and still is!) an unexpected bestseller by combining the excitement of an intellectual suspense novel with rather unorthodox pronouncement toward Christianity and, perhaps more importantly, Catholicism. Again, Iles doesn't trip this line but he does throw fodder into the literary pool with FOOTPRINTS. David Tennant, an M.D. and scholar of medical ethics, has been appointed by the president of the United States to the top-secret Trinity project. Trinity is the progeny of computer genius Peter Godin, a fiction contemporary of Seymor Cray. Trinity is funded by the National Security Agency and is as clandestine as any project can be classified. Trinity's goal? To reproduce a map human brain and literally "install" the map to a supercomputer, where it can operate at an exponential factor. Effectively, true artificial intelligence with a human factor. Coupled with the infinite mass of knowledge given the advent of the Internet, it could learn "anything." Anything, the reader soon learns, mean ANYTHING. As the story opens, there is a firestorm brewing at Trinity's research facility in N. Carolina. All members of the Trinity team have undergone a brainmapping exercise from a Super-MRI, one capable of creating such a brain map to attach to Trinity's supercomputer. However, all members of the team are experiencing strange side effects. While we eventually learn of the conundrum of these various effects, Tennant is having powerful, disturbing dreams. So much so that he has sought out psychiatrist, Rachael Weiss. Dr. Weiss is convinced these dreams are hallucinations born of his loss of wife and child. Concurrently, one of Tennant's colleagues who has been questioning the true reason and use of the Trinity project, is found dead, ostensibly from a stroke. Tennant doesn't buy the stroke theory. As Tennant begins to investigate what happened, he finds himself in the clutches of the NSA's security forces. After an assassination attempt, he and Dr. Weiss begin running, on the lam from the most powerful clandestine cabal in the U.S. spy arsenal. Tennant's dreams have focused on the life of Jesus, with whom he has come to identify. As the story unfolds with Tennant and Weiss one step ahead of the NSA, they risk a trip to Jerusalem. Why? Because one of Tennant's "dreams" told him he would find the answers to his dreams in the Holy Land. When he visits Golgotha, the scene of the Crucifixion, he has an immense seizure and falls into a what appears to be a deadly coma. However, true to his belief, he awakens with new insights into the mind of God. Although Tennant and Weiss have begun falling in love, Weiss fully believes his dreams are still delusions his brain has manufactured to deal with his personal tragedy. As the massive, run-on chase winds down, Tennant and Weiss find themselves in White Sands, New Mexico for a final showdown with a fully operational Trinity. What ensues in the rather long climax is stuff of fantasy and fear...a true recipe for a great novel. If you're an Iles reader and have enjoyed his past books, FOOTPRINTS will be no different. For those who read too much into a novel (i.e. "that can't really happen"), you'll be sorely disappointed and left saying the same thing many of Dan Brown's pundits have been saying of DA VINCI...it is too fairy tale. As for me, I read fiction to be entertained. FOOTPRINTS didn't disappoint.
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