Or "Take Me To Your Paleontologist." This is a good read, not only because it gives some compelling scientific arguments for believing in G-d, but because it deftly shows the silliness of the ever-raging battle between creationists and evolutionists. Neither side is telling the whole truth. Each could benefit from a fair reading of the other. In any case…
Robert J. Sawyer is an easy-readin’ writer, but this one ain’t all smoothness. The ending is a bit disappointing. The main character suddenly turns into a family-deserting rat. I also got tired of the Up With Canada hoorah and the constant belittling of American health insurance. Barry should meet this guy. But I know the Canucks have their insecurities.
One gripping plot-point is when Betelgeuse goes supernova and Earth is threatened. It’s quickly resolved. (Read to find out how.) Then, an hour after finishing the book, I wander over to FoxNews and see a headline about the real Betelgeuse maybe getting ready to explode. Yipes. Quick Googling reassures me that, at six hundred light years away, a supernova there would just be a nice light show. Leaving me to wonder: aren’t SciFi writers supposed to be concerned with versimilitude? And Sawyer won a Nebula. To which book, The Terminal Experiment, I shall nevertheless venture next.
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 