The
year is 2040. The Republican Party is now the Conservative Party,
largely under the influence of the religious right. The Democratic
Party has become the Alliance Party, a coalition of liberals and
moderates.
Rev.
Pawlings is the leader of the religious right. His great dream is to
turn the U. S. into a religious state. They need the right man as a
presidential candidate and they settle on Jarett Hailey, a well known
paleontologist who believes in creationism.
The
well laid plans of the religious right begin to falter when another
scientist accuses Hailey of saying he believes in creationism but yet
admitting that there is absolutely no scientific evidence for it.
The
novel is the story of the controversial candidate as he struggles
with his own beliefs and others try to manipulate him for their own
gain.
Unfortunately,
I cannot recommend this novel. There is a considerable amount of
unacceptable language and immoral behavior. The Christians are
portrayed as manipulating, swearing, unethical, immoral and horrible
people. And the novel is not about creationism and science at all.
As the author says at the end of the book, he is not an expert in
either paleontology or paleobiology. “As it turned out, this
mattered little, because the novel is not a story about either
of those sciences. It's about a man who finds himself torn between
science and religion.”
One
would think there would have been something about fossils and
creationism in the book, but there was not. There was just lots of
swearing and sex and a man who sold himself out to politics.
You
can find out more about this book at
http://haileysparadox.com/index.html
Arnold
Simon was born in Manhattan and raised in Belgium. He was an
anti-submarine specialist, electrical engineer, and partner in a law
firm before becoming a full time author. His first novel was A
Break in the Storm.
I
received a complimentary copy of this book from Westwind
Communications for the purpose of this review.
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