
from the tbr pile (well, actually, this one was an audio cd):
Soooooooooo many people at Amazon really hated this book that I was a bit concerned before I started listening to it. But you know, what most of them disliked was the idea that Preston puts across that fundamentalist Christians are so sure of themselves that when they're told to do something, and that their very souls depend on their actions (in this case, no matter what), that they rise up and follow the herd. Now, I can see their side a little bit, because there are a couple of scenes where I was reminded of a scene in the original Frankenstein movie where the townspeople came to burn the castle Frankenstein with their torches blazing, etc. etc. But in that case (the movie), it seems to me that the townspeople had seen with their own eyes what damage the monster had caused (you know, like death), whereas in Preston's novel, the fundamentalists were doing their thing based on the word of an overzealous pastor who sent out an email. Sheep behavior -- it's a truth of life.
anyway...on with the book
Remember -- it's just a book and it's fiction!
I picked up this book because I liked the character of Wyman Ford (former CIA operative and former monk) from Tyrannosaur Canyon, although I certainly wasn't prepared for what came next. Ford is called upon to look into what's going on with the Isabella Project, a particle accelerator worth $40 billion from the government and hidden underground in the Arizona desert at Red Mesa. There have been delays and problems with the Navajos. The ostensible point of Isabella is to prove the Big Bang theory. But when Ford arrives, he realizes that something's being kept hidden among the scientists -- it seems that someone's hacked into the computer and causing it to seemingly speak to the scientists on its own. But those are not the worst of the problems facing the scientists -- it seems that an overzealous fundamentalist evangelical preacher whose ratings are dipping on TV needs something to perk up his broadcasts, and decides to take on the Isabella project. After all, as he notes, the government gave the project $40 billion to prove the truth of the Big Bang Theory, but you'd never see the government giving Christians $40 billion to prove the truth of God. Thus begins a story that will hold you until the end.
I do have to say the biggest criticism of this book (at least on Amazon) was Preston's handling of the whole fundamentalist-Christian-rabble-rousing, following-the-herd-blindly thing, and to people who say that he's got it all wrong, just turn on your television set or read the newspaper, or look at society today. While Preston's portrayal may be a bit over the top, there's no denying that with access to the internet or television, information, even false information, may be disseminated to those who receive it as gospel. All I have to do is to look through my email and find stuff my friends send me that I know isn't true, and yet they believe it wholeheartedly.
I had a good time listening to Blasphemy, and while it may be a bit larger than life, it kept me entertained for hours.










