Douglas Preston's Blasphemy is a whodunit wrapped in a thriller infused with the ultimate questions (of Life, The Universe, and Everything) and sprinkled with cutting-edge science. And, it's a fun, fun read, a real page turner that'll have you hooked from the first page to the last. I read the 400+ pages in two evenings, and I probably haven't read that quickly since I was a teenager.
I don't want to even come close to spoiling it, so I'll just outline the opening chapters. The U.S. has built the world's largest supercollider by brokering a deal with the Navajo Nation to use Red Mesa in northeastern Arizona. A team of the best physicists, engineers, and computer scientists has assembled to begin ramping up to full power. Their plan is to investigate theories about the Big Bang, black holes, dark energy & dark matter, and possibly reveal new ways of producing energy. The president has championed the project and, facing a re-election battle, his reputation is on the line. A prominent televangelist sees this as an opening to promote the agenda of the religious right and take his ministry to new heights, by attacking the project. Navajos are getting upset that they are seeing little benefit from the giant project and are organizing protests against it. Washington insiders are taking advantage of both sides for political gain. In the first trial runs, an unexpected problem arises when a mysterious entity begins communicating with the scientists....
Is it a hacker, as is first suspected? Is it an alien intelligence, transmitted through the tiny rift in space-time that the immense energies of the supercollider are creating? Is it the first artificially intelligence, emerging through their computers, the world's most powerful supercomputer? Or is it... could it be... God????
It is light on the science, but that's not a fault. Instead, you do get very concise descriptions of the big unsolved mysteries in cosmology. And some occasional thoughts on the struggle of science versus religion, whether they are truly opposites, or at the deepest level, different approaches to uncovering truth.
But most of all, it's a great read.
