Rating: 
Summary: Science Dummies May Have Some Trouble
Review: Usually, I can squeak by in a Sawyer novel with the science. However, this one was beyond me at several points. Not helping was that the two lead characters, the paleontoligist and the alien, discuss some of these scientific points and a discussion of science was even harder for me to follow because of the inherent dry nature of such a presentation. Why do I give it 4 stars then? It's a brilliant book and the philosophy and religious issues, which I did fully understand, are so well handled. I would give it a 5 if I were not a science dummy myself. This is my only limitation with the sci-fi genre: if the science is too hard, that cuts into my total appreciation of a particular novel. Sawyer may have enough fans, however, who are not science dummies like moi. If he wants to widen his audience, however, he may have to make the science easier to understand. Nevertheless, he's still doing some of the most original writing found in fiction today of any sort.
Rating:
Summary: Calculating Sawyer
Review: I'll tell ya... it's very difficult for me to criticise this guy. Sawyer has the uncanny and almost un-SFish ability to combine theology, hard science fiction and immensely personal and (frequently tragic) beleivable stories. Sawyer's characters are fully fleshed out in a way that most hard SF writer's couldn't even empathise with.So... that said... this isn't his best work. It's not bad at all, and the more religiously inclined reader might find more in this book than I did. It almost seems formulaic this time; after feeling my brain roil with the contrasts of his tragic characters and the great plots of Flash-Forward and (especially) Factoring Humanity, this effort seems to have a slight wiff of a successful writer sticking with the comfortable format. I know, I know... I blaspheme. Sawyer shouldn't win the Hugo for this one (read Ken Macleod's Cassini Division if you want to see what would'a got my vote) but he WILL win one or more. He has few real peers and even fewer equals in the world of literary science fiction.
Rating: 
Summary: Should finally get Sawyer his Hugo ...
Review: Robt. J. Sawyer has frequently been nominated for the Hugo Award, and at least once he was robbed (for FACTORING HUMANITY) but this book should finally get it for him. Sawyer's research is far reaching and impeccable. He knows his Darwin, Dawkins, Gould and Eldrigde cold, as you would expect anyone writing about evolution today to, but he also knows the work of evolution's few legitiate (not nut-case) critics, such as Denton and Behe, and he combines it all together into a very effective series of arguments between a really engaging alien character and a very human human. One reviewer below nicked Sawyer for a star because he said not everyone would be satisfied with Sawyer's ending, but NO ending to a book about whether the universe might have been intelligently designed is going to please everyone. Still, this covers all the bases, and the ending is indeed spectacular. A must for Sawyer fans, evolutionists, Burgess Shale fans, and more. First rate.
Rating:
Summary: I saw God at a Tim Horton's
Review: What is God? It's risky to get within a mile of that question, and doubly so if you're a science-fiction writer. But in "Calculating God," Sawyer does an admirable job of creating Socratic dialogues that give even the most skeptical reader something to think about. What if another race fully incorporated the existence of God into its science? How would Earth react when presented with compelling evidence of this existence? Sawyer once again unapologetically brings his unabashedly Canadian sensibilities to his work -- which offers a refreshing perspective for readers in the United States, but can be at times disorienting as well. (You might want to look up the history of dinosaurs near Drumheller, Alberta, for instance.) Sawyer also makes no bones (heh) about expressing his opinions on the government of Ontario's massive cutbacks. But the prize here is Sawyer's engaging style of writing and his wry sense of humor. Star Trek, South Park, and Twilight Zone references abound, and his aliens can be caustically witty. The sheer spectacle of aliens landing in the heart of Toronto could be enough to fill a lesser novel -- but here it's taken almost as a given, with the much more engaging story of religion vs. spirituality vs. science taking center stage. Why not five stars? Sawyer's tale of galactic proportions may not resolve itself to the satisfaction of some readers. Without revealing the ending, it's safe to say that the film version of this book could use some very cheesy special effects and some very bad synthesizer music over the final scenes. But "Calculating God" is a reasonably quick, entertaining and provocative read, one whose questions you will no doubt ponder long after the spiderlike aliens get back from the video rental store.
Rating:
Summary: Starts cooking on page one and just doesn't let up
Review: This book has a fabulous and funny opening chapter. In fact, it's deceptively funny, because the topic of the novel (whether God exists) is serious, and the main character is (bravely) facing terminal lung cancer. I couldn't put it down after the opening and read it in two sittings (would have been one, but my daughter needed my help). I'm not a particularly religious person, but I enjoyed it, and I think the book is well balanced enough to be enjoyable by the whole spectrum, from devout to atheist. I very much enjoyed the NON-religious exploration of the question of whether the universe shows signs of intelligent design. First rate sci-fi that goes beyond the genre's normal limits.
Rating:
Summary: Great book, but if only it had 75 more pages...
Review: Sawyer does a fantastic job weaving the duality of creationism and evolutionism together in a spectacular loom. Sawyer keeps a very scientific look at a serious study of G-d's existence throughout the novel; he never wavers from some stances on omnipotence and omnipresence which clearly delineates his stance from other spiritualists and quantum physicists. My only complaint about the novel is that in true Grisham and Crichton form, Sawyer tends to underdevelop some of the events and/or characters in this novel, which could have had much more emotional impact while reading. At some times during the book I found myself clearly moved by some of the events transpiring in the narrator's life, and at others, I found myself wanting more detail regarding some events that occur. That being said, Sawyer has created a book that I'm sure I, as well as the friends I lend or refer the book to, will be talking about for quite some time. It truly is a spectacular look at a scientific look at religion, and one that can both entertain and inspire at the same time.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book tackles tough themes
Review: I am always leery when I see the word "God" in the title of a science fiction book .... but I like Sawyer, so I bought this .... and like it too! The theme of evolution vs. creationism is a very touchy one .... but Sawyer handles it very very well. I liked the characters a lot too. The alien Hallus, the human being Jericho .... both were very believable and very sympathetic. And Sawyer knows his evolutionary science and palaeontology .... any book with the Burgess Shale fossils in it is fine by me! You won't be disappointed by this one.
Rating:
Summary: Another home run
Review: Robert Sawyer has consistently impressed me with his ability toweave together a basketful of ideas into a coherent whole that doesnot seem overwhelming. His characterizations are rich and layered, with real people facing real problems. I was apprehensive when I heard the plot outline for this book, but Sawyer proves able to the task. This is a very entertaining book!
Rating: 
Summary: A fun read
Review: A spaceship lands on Earth, for the first time - outside the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. Not surprisingly, the book opens with incredulity "I know, I know - it seems crazy that the alien had come to Toronto, Sure, the city is popular with tourists, but you'd thing a being from another world would head for the United Nations - or maybe to Washington. Didn't Klaatu go to Washington in Robert Wise's movie The Day the Earth Stood Still?" (pg 13). Defying Hollywood alien-human contact mythology, one of the spacecraft's inhabitants, a six legged two armed alien, emerges from the craft, enters the museum, strolls up to the security officer at the front desk, and says, in perfect English, 'Excuse me, I would like to see a paleontologist' (pg 16). Assuming this is some kind of joke, the security officer calls Tom Jerico, resident palaeontologist specializing in vertebrae, and the book's narrator. Not only is this alien not interested in invading Earth, it - Hollus - is here to study Earth's fossils - and she's a theist, believing "'The primary goal of modern science...is to discover why God has behaved as he has and to determine his methods'" (pg 30). This fairly blows our narrator's mind, as he is, naturally, a scientific atheist. Dear Tom spends the rest of the book terrified he will recant his position and embrace this alien perspective. As Tom gets to know Hollus, the unlikely creature from outer space, a bit better they discuss each position, peppered with some grade ten chemistry and biology that makes for an intriguing, but, for me, ultimately unconvincing argument for the existence and nature of God. This book is decidedly Canadian, and makes every effort to express it, from the CityTV crew to the two CSIS operatives who arrive shortly after the crew set up. CSIS lose control of the situation and afraid of causing a scene, are quickly shooed away by spectators. The Prime Minister even made an appearance: "Prime Minister Crétien did indeed come by the ROM to meet Hollus...And several journalists asked Crétien, for the record, to give his assurance that the alien would be allowed to continue his work unmolested - which was what the Maclean's opinion poll said the Canadian people wanted. He did indeed give that assurance, although I suspected the CSIS operatives were always still around, lurking out of view" (pg 61). Even outside of the blatantly obvious, Sawyer also mentions little things that only a native would be likely to recognize such as descriptions of specific subway stops, street names, griping about Mike Harris, and even the Octagon restaurant in Thornhill, where I grew up, gets a mention. The familiarity of the sights and sounds mentioned are enough to put a smile on the face of any Torontonian. Calculating God is a fun read, easily accessible to the lay person in both science and theology, very Canadian and often very funny.
Rating:
Summary: Theo-philo-sci fi
Review: Interesting extension of the First Contact storyline. Alien spider lands in Canada and says take me to your paleontologist. It gives nothing away to say that the aliens are investigating mass extinctions that happened simultaneously on their world and ours 5 times in the last few hundred million years, and that the aliens believe that this is evidence for the existence of a creator, i.e., God, and the aliens are searching for him. Sawyer bolsters this hypothetical scenario with the very real arguments behind the anthropic principle (e.g., that the values of the fundamental constants of physics have been precisely adjusted to make our universe suitable for the existnce of matter, energy and life as we know it) plus some other ones having to do with the properties of water (that clearly only apply to life that is very much like ours) to explain why the aliens are so sure that there must be a God.
All of this is laid out quite early in the book and the premise is great. But the execution leaves a little to be desired. The writing is fine and the two main characters, the alien and the paleontologist, are well drawn and fleshed out, and Sawyer makes the reader care about them.
But there is an interesting subplot involving the the explanation for the disappearance of all the other intelligent races that the aliens have encountered in their search, and the palenotologist's battle with cancer that are not handled or resolved so well. And the ending is also wanting.
But there is enough here to warrant a read, and I will certainly try another of Sawyer's books.
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