Search for the Alien God

I found the concept wildly exciting, which is why I requested the book from the Goodreads giveaway (thanks for selecting me, btw!). I received no compensation for my review.

Alas, the book did not live up to its promise at all. It was too preachy, with not enough story. It was too obvious, and gave no reasons to care about the characters or the plot. It had too much telling and not nearly enough showing. The plot twists were easy to predict, as was the conclusion. It was very choppy, jumping around from here to there with no continuity and barely a plan. Periodically, the author would remember that the book was supposed to be interesting and stop preaching to throw in a fight scene or a physics discussion. Unfortunately, those tactics generally did not raise the level of excitement. What is fascinating in an essay is not necessarily interesting in a novel.

It contained inaccurate doctrine, especially of non-Catholic faiths (such as the blatant characterization of Mormons as non-Christians and similar to Muslims, neither of which is true). It's not that I mind someone arguing that their church is the true one. Go for it! However, if you're going to use a religion's doctrine as an argument against its truth, at least use the real doctrine, or it isn't a real argument. It quickly dismissed 99% of Christianity with barely a thought, since the two branches of Catholicism are OBVIOUSLY the only religions worth considering. (Yes, I'm being sarcastic, but the book wasn't.)

The entire book comes off as a conversion tract inadequately disguised as a sci-fi adventure novel, but the sci-fi and religious aspects are poorly integrated and both are ineffective. Even Heaven and Hell were boring.

I am very sorry, but I find that I cannot recommend the book.