Calculating God

ISBN: 9780312867133 :
ISBN: 0812580354 (pbk.)
ISBN: 0312867131 :
ISBN: 0312867131 (acid-free paper)
ISBN: 9780312867133
Physical Description: 334 p. ; 22 cm. print
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: New York : Tor, 2001, c2000.

Summary: The provocative new science fiction thriller from the Nebula Award-winning author of the Terminal Experiment, Robert J. Sawyer delivers a powerful and resolutely human speculation about genetics, human origins, and the existence of faith and God. An alien shuttle craft lands outside a museum. Out pops a six-legged, two-armed alien named Hollus who says, "Take me to your paleontologist." The paleontologist, Tom Jerico, helps Hollis investigate Earth's evolutionary history. It seem tat Earth and Hollus' home planet, and the home planet of another alien species traveling with Hollus, all experience the smae five cataclysmic events at about the same time, including events exactly like the meteor that wiped out dinosaurs. Both alien races believe this proves the existence of God: i.e., He's obviously been playing with the evolution of life on each of these planets. From this provocative launch point, Sawyer tells a fast-paced, morally and intellectually challenging science fiction story that just grows larger and larger in scope. Calculating God is science fiction on the grand scale and ending with a cataclysmic climax worthy of Arthur C. Clarke at his most cosmic.