Where God Maybe Talks to the Scientists

Blasfemia by Douglas Preston
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

[I read this in Spanish. Slowly.] :)

Not to go out on a limb, but I thought this book was pretty okay. Middling. It had more promise than it delivered, but it was generally entertaining for most of the way.

The science scenes, with the supercollider and the strange happenings connected to it (to not get too spoilery), is the most fun. I thought we would get a lot more of that than we did in the end. Next best were the scenes with the local Navajo people opposed to the huge installation in their back yard. I was okay with the Washington stuff. But the scenes with the televangelist and the kinda crazy pastor were super boring and went on too long. Then most of the real action came from the movement they inspired, with hundreds of angry believers showing up to protest, rather than from the cool science thing going on under the ground. That part of the plot was straightforward running and fighting stuff that might translate well to video but was just average for this type of novel.

I was hoping for more Big Idea science fiction stuff, with the main conflict emerging from that, and instead got gun-toting extremist Christian mobs driving the action. That didn't do too much for me, which is why I give it only 3 stars, even though much of it was decently entertaining.

Overall, the action is a little more sluggish than I like, but as language practice--working on my Spanish--it was okay. I had enough fun to get through it in stages.

If you're stuck in a B and B in a giant rainstorm where it's too nasty to go out and the only book on the shelves in your room is this one, you should go ahead read it. You'll be fine. Better than nothing. In fact, some people liked it more than I did, and you might agree. In most other instances, IMO, you can do better.

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