Blasphemy

By: Douglas Preston

Narrated by: Scott Sowers

Length: 13 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

In Douglas Preston's Blasphemy, the world's biggest supercollider, locked in an Arizona mountain, was built to reveal the secrets of the very moment of creation: the Big Bang itself.

The Torus is the most expensive machine ever created by humankind, run by the world's most powerful supercomputer. It is the brainchild of Nobel Laureate William North Hazelius. Will the Torus divulge the mysteries of the creation of the universe? Or will it, as some predict, suck the earth into a mini black hole? Or is the Torus a Satanic attempt, as a powerful televangelist decries, to challenge God Almighty on the very throne of Heaven?

Twelve scientists under the leadership of Hazelius are sent to the remote mountain to turn it on, and what they discover must be hidden from the world at all costs. Wyman Ford, ex-monk and CIA operative, is tapped to wrest their secret, a secret that will either destroy the world…or save it.

The countdown begins…

©2007 Splendide Mendax, Inc. (P)2008 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

“Listeners are in exceedingly capable hands - Sowers never lets us down. He weaves together the complex subplots of what happens when science and religion collide.” —AudioFile

“When a talented reader narrates a spellbinding story by a consistently powerful author, great things happen in the audio world. Scott Sowers nails the suspense of Preston's latest novel; listeners will be grabbed from the very first line of this 'ripped from the headlines' story of science and religion clashing, with tragic results...Preston never fails to deliver a first-rate thriller, and with Sowers providing the outstanding narrative, listeners are in for a non-stop - and thought-provoking audio experience.” —Library Journal, starred review

Great suspense & science

I was pleasantly surprised with Blasphemy. The science behind the particle accelerator descriptions and the religious twist behind the discoveries combined to make the perfect mix. An easy listen that was hard to put down.

Meh

The plot is semi interesting. what ruins it for me is the Narrator, Scott Sowers. Man! He must be the worst narrator in the world. His intonation sounds like a bad actor reading a script out loud.

Listen to the sample before buying this.

Can't be more enthusiastic

Would you try another book from Douglas Preston and/or Scott Sowers?

I do not know if I would listen to another book written solely by Preston. This is too bad because I like the Preston/Child duo. Sowers was decent narrator, had good pronuciation on most words I knew.

If you’ve listened to books by Douglas Preston before, how does this one compare?

It was too easy for me to guess the premise of the story and who was responsible for the

Which character – as performed by Scott Sowers – was your favorite?

None of the characters engaged me. As mentioned by previous reviewers, the characters were stereo-typed.There was no real hero, although I suppose there were distinct villians.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

I would not bother to see this if it were made into a film.

Outstanding

The best book I've read by Douglas Preston, Religion at it best and worst. An ending never expected and the authors interview at the end gives food for thought

Interesting setup, disappointing finish.

Setting aside the discussion of science vs religion, the story started with some interesting characters, but quickly turned predictable. I'm kind of disappointed.

Slow Start, Didn't Like Reader... But got better

I really should have listened to the sample before I started this book. The reader had very little in the way of expression for most of his character voices and thus they sounded so much the same that in any scene with several people in it, it was hard to know which one was talking. (and there were many scenes with lots of people together).

The story started slow.... and I was tempted to start a different book several times. But somewhere before half way through, it began to get more interesting and I stuck with it.

From the point where it picked up and through the few last chapters moved fast and it was hard to put my ipod down to go to bed. I found these chapters exciting and felt they were worth the wait.... But the ending was predictable. I was let down to discover I guess the correct villain at like chapter 3. I just expected something more witty & innovative. But it might not have been the entirely the story's fault. I really believe I would have enjoyed this book a lot more with a different reader.

All in all, I would say it is an alright book to listen to, so long as you can deal with the reader and don't mind a slow build up to the exciting apex... then to be let down by the ending you knew it would have from the beginning.

Mikki

Who is the editor?

Just missing the pronunciation of basic terms in the book was incredibly annoying. These are common words

Malware doesn't start out like a place you go shopping.

There is no reason for christians to be upset

Well, I agree, this book might be a hard one to swallow if you believe in god or if you are a christian in particular. Crazed christians are presented for what they are, our taliban. And really, what is the difference between crazed christians and taliban? None, except that they are a couple of hundreds of years appart. What christians did to us, atheists, is exactly the same what taliban does today. And christians would still be doing the same to us if we did not tame them. We tamed them with the power of reason and that's why we, the atheists, must repeat again and again that it is unreasonable to believe nonsense untill one day, so called believers are a minorty safely isolated in various psychiatric institutions.

The book shows exactly what can happen when our polititians, or society for that matter, waits too long to call the crazed christian mob for what they are. We are lulled into political correctness and we do not repeat often enough and we do not say loud enough that what christians believe is a bunch of nonsense and dangerous nonsense at that. "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit attrocities" as Voltaire wisely observed.

And there is no reason for christians to be upset. The book only shows what they are.

English is not my native language, but I hope I conveyed my opinion clearly.

Characters

I appreciated the work of the narrator given all the characters. The characters were interesting and developed adequately.

Really good book

It was a bit slow to start but the plot / character set up was no more than what turned out to be needed. It is well worth sticking with and I lost several hours sleep because I couldn't put it down. I liked it so much that my next audio book is going to be another in Preston's Wyman Ford series.