A review by barium_squirrel
Calculating God by Robert J. Sawyer

3.0

This was a clever and thoughtful book about death, life, evolution, and God. The "God" referenced is not the Christian God; instead, the book tells the story of a Canadian paleontologist named Thomas Jericho who meets extraterrestrials with indisputable evidence that the world was created (and is still maintained) by a powerful and intelligent entity. Thomas, a lifelong atheist, struggles to reconcile this information with his own convictions, and with his impending cancer diagnosis. Also, there are some crazy American fundies who don't really contribute anything except making it clear that the book doesn't endorse Christianity. The book would be better if their subplot had been cut out entirely, but it's still very well-written and thought-provoking.