Overview
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…
Synopsis
Some call it the greatest scientific breakthrough in history, others call it blasphemy
The Washington Post - Patrick Anderson
Blasphemy will be considered precisely that by many readers on the Christian right, and even a secular humanist would have to say its bad guys are cartoonish. But the scenes of howling Christians eagerly killing fellow Americans who don't share their views are chilling, and history reminds us that the more feverish advocates of most religions have been spilling innocent blood for centuries. The novel is entirely readable, and its satire of religious extremism, if heavy-handed, often strikes home.
Editorials
From the Publisher
Praise for Blasphemy: "This baby roars... the pages simply fly."—Publishers Weekly"Highly recommended... Preston joins Michael Crichton as a master of suspenseful novels that tackle controversial issues in the realm of science."—Library Journal
"An unusually alarming and thoughtful thriller... Clever and terrifying."—Kirkus “A superb read! Blasphemy is both thoughtful and flat-out entertainment—a page-turning thriller about science and religion in which good and evil collide at the speed of light. You'll be up all night with this book.”—Jeffery Deaver, New York Times bestselling author of The Sleeping Doll
"Science versus religion—the ultimate crunch. Douglas Preston has written The Novel of the Year, an extraordinary, unique, fascinating, wildly imaginative mix of thriller, satire, Sci Fi, and every other genre in the book. Blasphemy—you're going to love it."—Stephen Coonts, New York Times bestselling author of The Assassin
"Terrifyingly realistic. An electrifying page turner. Preston at his very best."—Nancy Taylor Rosenberg, New York Times bestselling author of Revenge of Innocents
"With Blasphemy, Douglas Preston has finally gone too far. One way or another, I'm afraid he may burn for this book."—Lincoln Child, New York Times bestselling author of Deep Storm “Blasphemy takes the latest theories of physics and pits them against the ancient religious beliefs that they now threaten, in an explosive, hell-bent and finally deeply moving book that I doubt I will ever forget. It literally made me pace as I contemplated the ideas that crackle through these pages, and it gave me pause as I realized that the physics here is so close to reality that the face of God that appears in this book may soon be, in real life, before us all.”—Whitley Strieber, New York Times bestselling author of 2012: The War For Souls “In Blasphemy, Preston rips the toga off God, and what remains is simply the answer to the most profound question of human existence...why are we here? A stunningly great read.”—W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O’Neal Gear, USA Today bestselling authors of People of the Nightland and the novels of North America's Forgotten Past
“Blasphemy is one hell of a good book. I couldn't stop reading, and at the end I had to force myself to slow down!”—David Hagberg, winner of three American Mystery Awards and USA Today bestselling author of Dance With the Dragon
“Preston has taken a fascinating concept and implemented it brilliantly. It's one of those books you think and talk about after you've finished it. I loved the characters. Even the sleazy ones were well-done. Science meets religion with a side order of politics. The mixture is explosive!”—Larry Bond, New York Times bestselling author of Dangerous Ground
“Can science discover God? Blasphemy is a stunningly ambitious novel that lives up to its goals. The theme is nothing less than the question: Is science the new religion?”—Barbara D’Amato, Edgar Award Winner and author of Death of a Thousand Cuts
Patrick Anderson
Blasphemy will be considered precisely that by many readers on the Christian right, and even a secular humanist would have to say its bad guys are cartoonish. But the scenes of howling Christians eagerly killing fellow Americans who don't share their views are chilling, and history reminds us that the more feverish advocates of most religions have been spilling innocent blood for centuries. The novel is entirely readable, and its satire of religious extremism, if heavy-handed, often strikes home.—The Washington Post
Publishers Weekly
Two wise decisions move this thriller up from the ranks of the ordinary: Scott Sowers's reading and a bonus interview with Preston by the editor-in-chief of Scientific American. Sowers, who has read Preston's work in the past with impressive results, adds a needed degree of calm and charm to this tangled tale of a giant superconducting supercollider particle accelerator called Isabella, located inside a 500-acre mesa on a Navajo reservation. Sowers gives all the characters instant credibility, from the physicist who created Isabella, to the ex-CIA man sent by the president to see what's taking so long, and especially a powerful televangelist who sees the project as blasphemy. In the interview, Preston admits he got the idea from the late L. Ron Hubbard. Sowers and Preston make this confrontation between religion and science surprisingly smart and new. Simultaneous release with the Forge hardcover (Reviews, Oct. 22). (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Library Journal
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 paragraph of this "ripped-from-the-headlines" story of science and religion clashing, with tragic results. In the Navajo lands of Arizona, a brilliant scientist has built the world's most powerful machine, nicknamed "Isabella." Its purpose is to bring science to the exact moment of the "big bang," the theory that explains the creation of the universe. Former CIA operative Wyman Ford is sent to the Isabella project to find out why it is far behind in producing results. What he discovers is much more than the government had bargained for: when Isabella is fully operational, a voice emanates from the machine that the scientists believe is God. It has answers to unanswerable questions and knows the innermost thoughts of many of the experts who created Isabella. While they are grappling with this astonishing discovery, a sleazy Washington lawyer and a powerful televangelist conspire to bring down what they consider to be the godless purpose of the Isabella project. 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. Highly recommended for all libraries. [Preston is the New York Times best-selling author of Tyrannosaur Canyon; Blasphemy is also available as downloadable audio from Audible.com.-Ed.]
—Joseph L. Carlson
School Library Journal
Like Isabella, a giant "superconducting supercollider particle accelerator," the thought-provoking new thriller from bestseller Preston (Tyrannosaur Canyon) takes a while to power up, but once it does, this baby roars. The ostensible goal of Isabella's creator, physicist Gregory North Hazelius, is to discover new forms of energy, but what he really wants is to talk to God. The project, located inside Red Mesa ("a five-hundred-square-mile tableland on the Navajo Indian Reservation"), is behind schedule, so presidential science adviser Stanton Lockwood hires ex-CIA man Wyman Ford to go to Red Mesa and find out what's causing the holdup. Meanwhile, a Navajo medicine man, a televangelist and a pastor who runs a failed mission on the reservation are gearing up to pull the plug on Isabella before she destroys the earth. Science has often tangled with religion in this genre, but Preston puts his own philosophical spin on the usual proceedings, and when he gets his irate villagers with their burning torches headed for the castle, the pages simply fly. (Jan.)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information