Either Heresy or Fantastic Orthodoxy

It's been twelve hours since I finished the book, and I'm honestly still not sure which. Spinrad gets a bit dry, or hard to follow, at times, but more than makes up for it with the depth of his thinking. He presents a environmentally destroyed world similar to David Brin's Earth, published a couple years before Deus X. Like Brin, he predicts the onset of the world wide web with astonishing accuracy. But whereas Brin goes towards a Gaia-New Agey solution, Spinrad is solidly within the Christian traditions in his work.

This is the first Science Fiction book I've found that deals directly with the ideas of the soul. Terraforming Earth considered what eternal life is, but Deus X does it better, with more theological depth. And to be honest, of the books I've read, Deus X is probably the best book *of any sort*, fiction or non-fiction, for grappling with the concept of the soul. I had certain thoughts on the possibilities of computerized souls before reading this book, and those thoughts are now challenged.

The best of Science Fiction calls us to reconsider our world on the basis of what might be. The best of theology raises more questions than it answers. Deus X does both. I would recommend this for anyone who wants some serious SciFi, and every seminary student. ( )

A boring, long-winded philosophical debate and diatribe aimed at the Roman Catholic Church. The first sentence/paragraph is fantastic, but the book goes downhill from there. I would not wish this book on my worst enemy. ( )