The Footprints of God by Greg Iles Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Footprints of God
Book Review: Reviews by Nan Kilar and Bobby Miller
Summary: 2 Stars
Dr. Andrew Fielding, a quantum physicist, is killed, although it's made to look like he died of natural causes. David Tennant, MD, assumes he's next. They are two of the six men in the inner circle of the scientific team funded by National Security Agency working on Project Trinity.
Trinity is a massive, secret (big surprise!) government-funded effort to build a supercomputer dedicated to artificial intelligence - a computer that thinks. David is on the team to keep the ethics in line, as he is a Professor of Ethics at the University of Virginia Medical School. He has been seeing a psychiatrist, Rachel Weiss, the past few months because of his narcolepsy, the side effect he encountered after undergoing his `superscan' into the Trinity computer. All six of the inner circle had been scanned and each had a different side effect. Thus, his crusade to find the cause of everyone's neurological symptoms.
David figures out who killed Dr. Fielding, so he and Rachel have to make a run for it. The story details their narrow escapes, David's realization of who is betraying him, and how he overcomes these difficulties. Who do you trust is really a big question. Trinity `goes live' and causes chaos and confusion around the world. David and Rachel play a big part in getting Trinity working for good, not evil.
This was a tad too sci-fi for my taste and too long, partly because of the detailed descriptions of David's hallucinations (where he sometimes sees himself as Jesus). If you're a computer nut and like technical subjects, you'll like this book.
Book Review: not as good as his other books
Summary: 2 Stars
This one just isn't as good as the rest. Iles is a great storyteller but this is not his best work.Book Review: Great book!
Summary: 5 Stars
First attracted to this book as a Christian, (title grabbed me) I was greatly surpised when I learned of the high-tech geeky subject matter as well, since I'm a geeky type.
Here's the thing, the editing of the story. The storyline, though interesting enough, dragged in some spots. Word economy is a big thing for me. I practice it everyday as a technical writer. Word economy can be practiced in fiction writing as well, and arguably must be.
With the internet alive and well, readers today have the attention span of gnats. Writers must pull their audience in tightly and hold them to the end, or the book gets put aside.
Sure, I saw things I'd seen before in other novels, but the spin here was different enough to keep it interesting. I loved all the characters, but some could have been sacrificed for economy.
Iles is a terrific writer, and I'll read more of his work.
Book Review: Greg Iles--The Footprints of God (2003)
Summary: 2 Stars
Greg Iles's scientific thriller "The Footprints of God" is a blend of "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "A Brave New World", tapping into the notion that America's technological advances may have the ability to take the human race to incredible heights, but also may embrace the power to completely destroy it. Coming off the success of "24 Hours" and "Dead Sleep", Iles travels to a world of prose that is not often challenged-the intermixing and knitting of the advancement of human intelligence through computers and religious credence; however, what begins as a nail-biting, enthralling drama morphs into a novella of computer jargon, military incompetence, and fanciful prophecies of the beginning of the human race, the universe, and God Himself.
"The Footprints of God" begins with Dr. David Tennant about to tell the world of the top-secret government technology project still in the making known as Trinity, which is a supercomputer that is being composed of MRI-scanned models of the human brain so it can actually think, feel, and react like a human. Hired by the President of the United States to observe the ethical implications of the secret project, Tennant and his colleague Andrew Fielding believe that the means of creating Trinity do not meet the ends and want to suspend the mission. When Fielding turns up dead, Tennant realizes that there is much more behind Trinity than he ever imagined and he is caught in a race against time to ensure that the project is not completed. Alongside his suspicious psychiatrist Rachel Weiss (who believes that David is hallucinating the entire Trinity scenario because of schizophrenia), Tennant embarks on a quest to escape the evil government agency that wants to keep the project's specifics under wraps from the public and is out to kill him, all the while trying to uncover the truth of the mysterious religious visions that he is dreaming while he sleeps. As David gets closer and closer to the certainty behind his apparitions (that consist of him believing that he is getting messages from God), a narcissistic, yet brilliant scientist is about to make Trinity a reality by placing his own brain model into the supercomputer, a former-army combat expert is hot on the trail of Tennant and his psychiatrist, and the President's Chief of Staff is desperately attempting to get the true story of the clandestine happenings of the project.
Iles does a fine job setting the stage for a hi-tech, tremendously intellectual caper full of mystery, intrigue, and knowledge; yet he seems to be imcomplacent about what stories he wants to tie together, what exactly he wants the agenda for "The Footprints of God" to be, and how the terrifying opportunity for a country to produce a supercomputer that has the artificial intelligence and weaponry capabilities to completely destroy anything that it wants to can truly be. Is the novel supposed to be about the special connection between Tennant and Rachel, who both endured incredible losses long ago? Is it about the terrifying implications that come from a nation's exponential technological advancement? Is it attempting to completely rationalize the world's existence and the logical stability of Christianity? Or is it trying to discuss the undying hatred that can consume someone when their father is unfaithful and abusive? Is it simply trying to tell us that the human mind is the central cause for all that is bad in the world? Iles attempts to incorporate all of these concepts into a single novel, but eventually "The Footprints of God" evaporates into a tactless, hurried effort that is so outrageous and preposterous that readers will want to just get through the climax to move onto something a little less confusing, more genuine, and more substantial. Rachel Weiss is the novel's most authentic, enjoyable character because of her unmatched wit and charisma, yet Iles seems to have simply forgotten her during the climax of the novel, focusing completely on the military aspects of the plot and forgoing the second lead protagonist's thoughts and emotions. Tennant is a fine character who has the heart of a lion and courage to save the world, but the continuous detours about his religious divinations don't fit well with the story. A somewhat disappointing grand-scale effort from one of the best up-and-coming suspense novelists. One can only pray that Iles's next novel may be more concise, deliberate, and entertaining.
Book Review: Awesome Desert Adventure
Summary: 4 Stars
A good thriller and science fiction novel. Will guarantee to spoil your boredom, like mine waiting for five hours in the airport lounge.
The plot mixes exciting actions along with the main protagonist's epileptic/seizure problems. Judging Greg Iles previously written and other other novels, I guess he has a medical training background, like Michael Crichton did. As most of thriller novels, eventually the doomsday has been thwarted, in the last few moments. Another predictable ending...
Though a quite well-written book, it is not among the best. I give four stars for this one.