Rating: 
Summary: Sawyer delivers with Big Ideas
Review: Very well thought out book. Sawyer is very convincing, and his main character, Tom Jericho, is nicely done. All the characters in this book were well done, with the exceptions of Hollus, who didn't strike me as alien enough, and the two creation extremists, who seemed extraneous.This book is well paced and nicely plotted. Recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Difficult themes explored sensitively
Review: So you're a scientist, a rationalist and an atheist. And fate deals you a cruel hand: you're only 54, but you've got terminal lung cancer. Just 1 year to live. Can you stay rational, and can you stay an atheist, while you face your own mortality? That's the human story in Robert Sawyer's CALCULATING GOD, and it works wonderfully. I hope Sawyer himself has never battled cancer but his story of someone doing so seems absolutely accurate to me. Of course there is also an SF story here, about aliens visiting Toronto and the search for scientific verificiation of the existence of God. It is a theme I have seen Sawyer touch lightly on before (in ILLEGAL ALIEN) but here he expands on it and it is captivating. What WOULD humans do if aliens showed up who thought they had proof for the existence of an intelligent designer? Sawyer explores that in depth, and he explores it well. A great book.
Rating:
Summary: Standard Sawyer --- meaning it's terrific!
Review: Robert J. Sawyer has written another first rate book with CALCULATING GOD. His characters are absolutely believable and his aliens are likewise very realistic. But this isn't reallya story about aliens, it's a story about HUMANS and that most human of all questions, what, if anything, is the meaning of life. Sawyer doesn't write escapism, and he doesn't write for kids. He writes serious science fiction (although this book is very funny when it's appropriate for it to be so) and he makes you THINK. Tom Jericho is a fully believable character, well rounded and detailed, and, as SCIENCE FICTION CHRONICLE observed this month, quite personable. I am always impressed by the depth of Sawyer's research and his ability to squeeze real drama out of philosophical issues. CALCULATING GOD is, so far, my favorite novel of the year 2000. I am still thinking about it and still talking about it a week after I finished reading it.
Rating: 
Summary: A good read if you ignore a couple of unrealistic episodes
Review: I loved the start of the book, where the alien makes first contact by asking a museum security guard for directions. That was the hook that kept me reading. The book intelligently discusses some new (to me) ideas on intelligent design and the existence of a god. The idea that evidence for a creator might someday come from science itself is thought provoking. I was annoyed however with the extraneous subplot with the creationist terrorists and the book's ending where it reaches for an entirely unnecessary crescendo. Sometimes SF books try to answer so many big questions that none of them are addressed adequately. I wish the author had given more space to the questions about how intelligent life comes about and where it leads. The book takes the protagonist's hypothesis for these questions as facts without giving any proofs.
Rating: 
Summary: Standard Sawyer
Review: If you've read Sawyer and like him, you'll probably like this. If you've read Sawyer and didn't like him, you'll probably hate this. He hasn't changed a bit. If you haven't read Sawyer, here is my detailed opinion: It's not worth the paper it's printed on. This is _not_ a deft weaving of Creationist and Evolutionist perspectives. This is not a balanced treatment. This is a Creationist Apology based on every commonly advanced pseudo-scientific idea currently in vogue. (Everything but Last Tuesdayism, really, but that's not even pseudo-scientific.) The main thread of the book is a group of advanced aliens telling us how silly we are not to realize that God exists. Many minor threads are the advanced aliens conveniently espousing whatever ethical stance the author wants them to. You'll be happy to know that we are all idiots for not coming to immediate and intuitive and "correct" understandings of the burning questions of our time, such as abortion. The biggest problem with all of this is that it is very difficult to accept "wisdom" of this sort from advanced and intelligent aliens who never really manage to rise above room temperature IQ. It's a little like listening to a nine year old lecturing me on my love life. The narrator isn't much better. And beyond all this-- the bad arguments, the unabashed preaching, and the vapidity of the characters one and all, it's just plain old not _good writing_. The plot lurches along more or less in one direction until about two thirds the way through the book, at which point it loses all focus and derails in a fashion even less logical than the first part. It was a book I had to finish, just to see how bad it was going to get.
Rating:
Summary: Thought Provoking Escapism
Review: My introduction to Robert J. Sawyer impressed me. For readers of science fiction who enjoy character-driven plots, Calculating God will not disappoint you. Sawyer creates a scientifically advanced race that has proven, at least to their own satisfaction, the existence of God through science rather than relying on mere faith. Thomas Jericho, the protagonist of the story and a devout atheist, has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, and so is tormented to either hold on to his life long disbelief in a deity, or accept, on faith, this alien race's proof of the existence of God. Sawyer writes with intelligence and his characters are believable. Several subplots will keep the reader turning pages, although the two terrorist creationists who plot to blow up a fossil exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum could have, and should have been left out - they merely serve to annoy and detract from the central theme of the whole. Don't let the title deter you from purchasing this fine novel - it is not a study of theological ideals, and it does not attempt to convert non-believers. While compelling and thought provoking, and while it deftly explores one man's efforts to come to terms with his impeding death, it is still escapism.
Rating: 
Summary: Well-written, but muddled thinking
Review: I have to respectfully disagree with some other reviewers regarding this book. The author attempts to achieve balance, but simply ends up presenting many differing points of view, some of which are obviously flawed, logically or theologically inconsistent, and simply not worthy of our attention. (No, I'm not talking about the actions of the fundamentalists.) For example, one of the first dialogues with Hallus is a clear example of applying the anthropic (hmm, probably not the best term in this case) principle to science in an inappropriate manner: [Human]life has a purpose, life entails certain antecedent conditions, those conditions must have existed by design, "design" entails a designer, and therefore there is a designer who has a purpose for life. A bit tautological and unworthy of an "advanced" race. The book is well-written, however, and the characters are great.
Rating:
Summary: A Zero Sum game!
Review: I read Calculating God about 1 month ago and still think about it, but not for the reasons I would have predicted. The arguments for the existence of God were great and well constructed but in the end it's the main character I remember. The book itself swings from great humor to true sadness; in this regard the author is merciless.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Book of Ideas.
Review: This is my first Robert Sawyer novel.... As such, and as apracticing evangelical Christian who personally knows (but does notnecessarily agree with) many creationists I was surprised at how sensitively and accurately Sawyer dealt with the pro and con evidence for evolution and intelligent design. Sawyer has obviously drunk deeply from the well of Michael Behe and the like. However, I think the portrayal of the two Arkansas fundamentalists was rather harsh and stereotyped--while I can understand fundamentalists getting violent over abortion, I don't think even the most extreme fundamentalist will kill over creationism. Nevertheless, I think the characterization was deftly handled and probably the most convicing "conversion" of an atheist to an albeit mild theist I've seen yet. The conflicts Jericho (a very appropriate name) faces about truth and his impending death is a great dramatic setup. Hollus still thinks too humanly and comprehensibly for me to believe that (s)he is truly alien, despite a fairly alien appearance, but overall she serves as a good foil to Jericho, the unbeliever. In conclusion, this is probably not going to overthrow "The Sparrow/Children of God" and "A Canticle for Leibowitz" as my favorite religiously themed SF novels, but it's a worthwhile contender. I think the constant pop culture references to Star Trek, South Park, and the like will date this novel considerably in the years ahead, unlike the other two books. (They were funny, though.) Anyway, I'm going to lend this book to my creationist and intelligent-design believing friends--I think the latter will get a real kick of it in particular, since the book more or less accepts the ID view as fact! I'd be interested in what Gould or Dawkins would say about this book . . . .
Rating:
Summary: Worth getting in hardcover!
Review: I waited until the paperback to by Sawyer's last, but liked it so much, thought I'd spring for the hardcover this time out and I'm glad I did. The ideas in this book are HUGE. Most people are talking about the God stuff here, but I found the stuff about the Fermi paradox (how come we don't detect any other civilizations in the galaxy) just as interesting and just as mindblowing. I wonder if Sawyer is right .... Anyway, a great book with great characters. I'm going to have my book club do this one (though they WILL insist on waiting for the paperback ... cheapies <grin>), 'cause there is SO much to talk about and debate after reading this one.
| 
