Rating: 
Summary: ...Wonderful Speculative Fiction...
Review: An initial concern of mine before starting the book was whether I would actually buy into the English-speaking alien concept. Would the author explain it in a way that was believable? Though the concept was explained very simply, I didn't have a problem believing it because Hollus was utterly charming. This book was a wonderful read throughout. There was never a point in which I felt the story slow or hesitate. The conversations and interactions between Tom Jericho and Hollus were alternately theortically interesting and emotionally heart warming. I also found that the book was able to float between evolution and creationism without crashing into either. I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in the evolution/creationism debate or just plain interested in good speculative fiction.
Rating: 
Summary: Definitely a good read...
Review: The first thing i'd like to say about this book is that i found the main character very distracting. Some of the details about his life make his seem more real, and make the book more believable, but his illness was, to me, a distraction. Other than that minor problem, this was definitely a good read. The discussion of both the flaws of evolution as well as the flaws of creationism (especially hard creationism, with the 'young earth' theory etc.), compared neatly so that the author did not take a stand on the issue but instead compared the two though the eyes of a man who has always believed in evolution. The search for god spurred by the new awareness of sentient, intelligent aliens is a very interesting idea, something you never see in Star Trek or other sci-fi bits of popular culture. I half expected to be grossly offended by the religious subject matter in this book, but i think Sawyer handled it in such a way that believers and non-believers alike can still enjoy reading it.
Rating:
Summary: Speculative fiction that truly explores the possibilities
Review: Although I am not a reader of science fiction (the plots and colloquial terms that sci-fi authors often invent for their settings often confuse me), I have to highly recommend this book for exploring the fantastical possibilities of polar opposites such as creationists and evolutionists coming together. While the book falters and gets a bit hokey at the end (no, it shouldn't be enough to turn you off from the book), the majority of this terrific book focuses on the philosophical arguments between Hollus, a representative of the Wreed species from a nearby galaxy and the stubbornly hard-core evolutionist Tom Jericho, Hollus' paleontologist guide to Earth. The debates, friendly and professional between them (Hollus is a scientist on her own home planet as well) showcase the support that both Jericho and Hollus can make for their positions, and also each other's characters: Jericho, adamantly holing to belief in evolution; Hollus calmly refusing to be dissuaded. The deadlock between them demonstrates how the possibilities of both opposing ideas may not have to be so particularly far-fetched for the other camp. This book is also largely character driven, so it should appeal to other people like me who may not be into sci-fi but are looking for a good book of speculation on the intriguing possibility of evolution and creationism, so philosophically and seemingly irreconcilable, being able to come together.
Rating: 
Summary: Not high art, but a fun story anyway
Review: This book may been more interesting and successful if had been given in-depth, serious nonfiction treatment. I say that because the most interesting parts, for me, were the expository sections. The fictional elements were shallow and amateurish, I thought. Throwing in references to contemporary pop culture does not add to a novel's realism, it just cheapens it. The "thriller" elements seemed to be hacked in as an afterthought, perhaps at the prodding of an editor looking to increase sales. They certainly added nothing to the story. A third-person point of view would've made more sense. As it is, the story is told by a scientist who tells his story in a rather dime-store fashion, all the while bemoaning the "dumbing down" of the Museum's exhibitions. The thoughts he shares with us reveal a guy who knows a lot of neat stuff, but is not a very interesting person to spend over 300 pages with. The actual story deserved to be given a much more serious treatment, by a more gifted writer. I found Sawyer's attempt at down-to-earth, regular-guy banter to be insulting. He assumes I am going to catch his references to Star Trek and Star Wars, and that that will make me like his main character. Seems a cheap trick, to me. The ramifications of First Contact with an alien culture, the realization that close-to-lightspeed travel is possible, the religious beliefs of the aliens, and even weightier matters, are not given realistic treatment. I don't know...give me Molly Gloss or Gene Wolfe any day. Good science fiction CAN be well-written and intelligent. But this isn't it.
Rating:
Summary: Impressive science fiction!
Review: About one or two years ago, I discovered the books by Robert Sawyer and by now I've concluded that all the platitudes about Sawyer are correct: he is the best SF writer alive, he wonderfully manages to combine hard science with believable characterization and he does get better with every book he writes. In Calculating God, an alien arrives at a museum in Toronto and asks for a paleontologist. After an extremely funny start, the major part of the book consists of a lively discussion between the alien, who is gathering additional evidence to prove the existence of God, and Tom Jericho, a paleontologist who is diagnosed with cancer and starts to wonder about some very basic questions. Sawyer manages to squeeze in fascinating discussions about cosmology, paleontology, biology and evolution (Sawyer seems to be equally at ease with all these subjects!), and at the same time uses the alien to present some interesting perspectives on such issues as morality and abortion. Calculating God is a truly intellectually satisfying and fascinating read. It kept me up for a couple of nights, I found myself laughing out loud and quoting funny dialogue to colleagues at work and recommended it to lots of people. On the last morning, with just a few pages to go, I quickly fed my daughter, left her to her mother, and proceeded to finish the book. I ended up still in my bathrobe when mother and daughter left home and needed to hurry to get to work at a reasonable time... So, it if safe to conclude that I enjoyed the book tremendously. While the story didn't convert me, it did really make me think (and still does...). Having said all this, I'm a bit surprised at some of the criticism from previous readers on this site. For instance, I noticed the inconsistency about Jericho's thoughts about cilia, but I just interpreted them as different musings at different times and why should they be consistent? And what's wrong with the ending of the book? I absolutely loved it! It is admittedly on a very grand scale, but it fits the book and is definitely better than the mystic hoopla in 2001. And taking the trouble to write a review and say that it should be This Kiss instead of The Kiss... Naturally, I really couldn't understand the reader who couldn't get through the book. But, hey, different people, different tastes. I absolutely loved the dialogues, the jokes, the science, the various musings and the great eye for detail. Absolutely wonderful. The only thing that bugged me a (little) bit, was that at several places in the book Sawyer mentions that Hollywood has always had a very limited idea of what an alien should look like. That they are definitely more alien than the movies show. But at the same time, he made his alien into a very human character, making human jokes ("this side up", indeed!) and acting very much like a human. To me, that's a bit strange and contradictory and I feel that the alien should be more alien. Of course, I realize that that would complicate the conversations with Jericho considerably, but nevertheless.... Anyway, in my opinion Calculating God is an impressive achievement and from now on I'll buy every new book by Sawyer as soon as it appears!
Rating:
Summary: A superb read!
Review: This is one of those books that made you remember why you started reading science fiction in the first place. My first science fiction book was Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End back in 1984. After that I never looked back, ploughing through mountains of science fiction books. Calculating God is one of those books that made me think as I raced through the book to its climax. It's filled with many thought provoking moments (with just the right sensitivity)that are so rare in today's action-packed fiction and movies. Read it and see for yourself.
Rating:
Summary: Science is bang-on accurate; philosophically stimulating
Review: One (anonymous) reviewer below tries to take Sawyer to task for discussing flagella (the whipping apendages on cells) in two different contexts, acknowledging not only Michael Behe's concerns about irreducible complexity, but also Lynn Marguilis idea that complex cells formed from various simpler life forms working in concert (an idea Sawyer himself explored in a very different way in his wonderful STARPLEX [Ace, 1996]). But looking at both sides like this is the WHOLE POINT of CALCULATING GOD. Sawyer's goal is clearly to promote dialog, and to show the strenghts and weaknesses both of intelligent design (not creationism, as the other reviewer wrongly stated) and neo-Darwinism. That he can engage in such a dialoge while still telling a literate, captivating story is very much to Sawyer' credit. This book is Hugo Award calibre, and I'd be surprised not to see it on next year's ballot.
Rating: 
Summary: Exciting ideas but it goes nowhere (and flawed science!)
Review: This is a well-written book that tries to deal with serious issues. The main achievement of Mr. Sawyer in Calculating God is character development. All his humans and aliens are complex individuals with depth and feelings. They are often painful reminders of our strenghths (intelligence, compassion) and weaknesses (mortality, self-delusion) as a sentient species. Unfortunately, the science behind the main premise of this novel, that a God-like creator has directed the evolution of our species, is fatally flawed. In trying to strengthen his case, Mr. Sawyer takes it many steps too far. The idea that God would direct our evolution by throwing big rocks at our planet at the right times (which happens to be the same time in several different planets) is preposterous. At several points in the book the main character questions his former belief in evolution as we more or less know it and wonders about all the "unexplained facts" in the theory. For example, how did flagella appear? Flagella are tiny whip-like molecular machines that cells use to move around. They are so complex that, the main character and many real-life creationists claim, they cannot have evolved gradually by natural selection. But the author writes some pages later, when dealing with a different subject, that flagella are probably endosymbiotic (that means that they may have been a swimming bacterium originally captured and assimilated by a primitive cell). Isn't this a non-creationist explanation for how flagella appeared? I know that science fiction is fiction, but the author deserves criticism for all this fuzzy science because he is presenting his fantastic hypotheses in a way that says to the reader that these are real scientific possibilities within the very heated cultural wars around evolution. Finally, the coincidences pile to high, including fundamentalist terrorists, contact with alien species, and cosmic mayhem. And the genetic rapture of the chosen at the end is silly and yucky.
Rating:
Summary: An absolutely fabulous book --- highly recommended!
Review: I really, really, really liked this book. Did I mention that I really liked it? Well, I did. Science fiction sometimes is dismissed as being too cerebral --- too much for the mind, not enough for the heart. I have never seen both aspects so well balanced as in this book. Yes, Sawyer makes you think --- the book is mind-expanding, mind-blowing, and so on. But he also makes you feel. I cried several times (I also laughed out loud, even on the subway, something I rarely do). But I find myself constantly thinking about the book, and talking about it with friends. I don't think I will ever forget Tom Jericho or Hollus. I recommend this book highly.
Rating:
Summary: Occupational Health issues for paleontologists?
Review: This is speculative fiction at its very best. Sawyer addresses fundamental questions with a clarity rarely approached by today's fiction writers. Why are there 'forces' in nature which exceed all logic? We've accepted gravity and electromagnetism for centuries. The strong and weak nuclear forces have been deduced. None of these forces truly make sense. They can be measured, but they can't be known. Atomic nuclei should fly apart and the issue of light as wave or particle remains unresolved. So why do these abnormal phenomena exist? Whell, it turns out that's what the Sprite used to make Nature work. Sawyer has updated the old philosophy of Deism. Concerned by their inability to reconcile Biblical dogma with what was being observed in nature, 18th Century thinkers simply pushed the Judeo-Christian god further into the background. The god had wound up the clock of the universe, then sat back observing what transpired. Sawyer has adapted this idea to accommodate the findings of modern scientific revelations. It's an impressive achievement. His research is visible on every page - either he has a stunning library, or owes a bag of money to the local public one. Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Timothy Ferris are all here along with Gregory Paul and Earl Cox [Beyond Humanity - read it]. Even Terry Pratchett puts in an appearance. Sawyer's science is solid - it's clear he's no amateur. He doesn't have to make anything up - the realities of Nature are bizarre enough. He merely stirs in some fresh ideas about possible alien life forms and lifestyles. And what they might be like if the whole shebang was actually initiated by The Sprite instead of a random singularity. There's some heavy irony and a few anomalies here. Occupational Health and Safety issues for a paleontologist? It used to be limited to rattlesnakes and mosquitoes. Jericho is facing the Great Mystery, but the issue of an afterlife remains unresolved. If The Goggle Box and radio broadcasts don't cover science well enough, why is Hollus a walking Cambridge Catalog of stellar bodies? The Wreeds and Forhilnors managed to escape a nuclear holocaust, but no mention is made of why they came so close. Do those two alien races have nations like on Earth? Jericho never thinks to ask Hollus for a universal translator of his own. He could have become President of the Earth. The Christian vandals at first appear to be a non- sequitur. They don't seem necessary in the story, but Sawyer has a subtle use for them. If humanity will become immortal and The Sprite really exists, paleontology will become irrelevant. It's an interesting prospect. These aren't flaws in the book, merely more thought experiments we should all consider performing in assessing real human values.
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