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The God Patent Paperback – January 1, 2009

by Ransom Stephens (Author)

3.9 352 ratings

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Sex, drugs, and quantum physics collide with artificial intelligence, faith and free will in this perspective-altering story.

The memo said they'd get bonuses for submitting patents, so why not? Money came easily during the dot-com boom. Concealed in engineering jargon, Ryan McNear submits a patent for the soul disguised as a software algorithm and his best friend Foster Reed rewrites Genesis and calls it a "power generator."

A few years later, amid the fallout of a ruptured technology bubble, his career ruined and family shredded, a desperate Ryan discovers that a company headed by his old friend Foster is developing his patent. What he thought was a joke is generating stacks of money amid claims that it will provide a source of limitless energy and prove the existence of God.

Willing to try anything to rebuild his life, Ryan stakes a legal claim to the patent. He soon discovers a sinister undercurrent in the venture. Racing against time and aided by a motley group of assistants that includes an attorney/conman, a beautiful and passionate physicist and a death-obsessed adolescent math prodigy, Ryan gets caught in a battle between hard science and fundamentalist religion that threatens his sanity, his freedom and his son. Before long Ryan will test the limits of faith and free will, evaluate the nature of desire, and comprehend the human soul in a way that requires a single step, rather than a great leap, of faith.

Print length

298 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Numina Press
Publication date

January 1, 2009
Dimensions

9.02 x 0.67 x 5.98 inches
ISBN-10

0984260005
ISBN-13

978-0984260003
See all details

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This book is truly amazing. It combines philosophy, theology, science, humor, and great characters all in one outstanding story. This is that rare book that makes you seriously reconsider and reevaluate your idea of what the universe is all about. It is engrossing and fascinating, the kind of book that makes you sad when it's over and you want to read it all over again." --Miles Dylan, singer/songwriter, philosopher/sage

"The God Patent really drew me in, not just because of the hard-charging plot and the vivid characters but also because this story is wrapped around one of the central conflicts of our time: faith in science versus faith in religion. Ransom, to his credit, avoids easy or didactic answers. Instead he pulls readers into a dense and nuanced argument that leaves us buzzing with questions." --Tamim Ansary, bestselling author of Destiny Disrupted

"Every time I finish a really good book, I get depressed because I'm loath to leave behind the characters that I've come to know and love, and the world in which I was immersed. I've had that feeling since reading The God Patent. I feel altered, and I'm sad to leave that world. The book inspires one to seek excellence, to be a better person. To choose life. What more can you ask for?" --Ann Clark, Founder Sacred Wilderness

"When software engineers ruled the world...The heart of this tale is a science-versus-religion battle over a couple of patents that promise to unlock the secrets of the universe and turn the power of God into an ExxonMobil wet dream. On one side is Ryan and a new batch of quirky friends that includes a heartless lawyer (is that redundant?), a dedicated scientist who is sexy enough to lure Ryan back from the dark side and a teenage whiz kid.... The other side includes the usual suspects: the evil government in cahoots with an evil corporation in cahoots with an evil university run by a rightwing religious megalomaniac. Just your typical Houston suburb barbecue crowd. Ransom Stephens skillfully weaves together multiple plot lines and characters in a fast moving story that kept me hungry for the denouement and some baby back ribs. I loved hating the bad guys in The God Patent.... Ransom Stephens got it right. The Petaluma scene. The suspense software. The dark side in all of us that is battling our hardwired angels." --Tim Noun at Book Case, for the Petaluma Argus-Courier

"This story of life, physics and spirituality will blow your mind. You won't put it down until the last page, and when you look up, you will see the world in a totally different way." --Joe Quirk, bestselling author of Exult.

Every time I finish a really good book, I get depressed because I'm loath to leave behind the characters that I've come to know and love, and the world in which I was immersed. I've had that feeling since reading The God Patent. I feel altered, and I'm sad to leave that world. The book inspires one to seek excellence, to be a better person. To choose life. What more can you ask for? --Ann Clark, Founder Sacred Wilderness

When software engineers ruled the world...The heart of this tale is a science-versus-religion battle over a couple of patents that promise to unlock the secrets of the universe and turn the power of God into an ExxonMobil wet dream. On one side is Ryan and a new batch of quirky friends that includes a heartless lawyer (is that redundant?), a dedicated scientist who is sexy enough to lure Ryan back from the dark side and a teenage whiz kid.... The other side includes the usual suspects: the evil government in cahoots with an evil corporation in cahoots with an evil university run by a right wing religious megalomaniac. Just your typical Houston suburb barbecue crowd. Ransom Stephens skillfully weaves together multiple plot lines and characters in a fast moving story that kept me hungry for the denouement and some baby back ribs. I loved hating the bad guys in The God Patent.... Ransom Stephens got it right. The Petaluma scene. The suspense software. The dark side in all of us that is battling our hardwired angels. --Tim Nonn at Book Case for the Petaluma Argus-Courier

This story of life, physics and spirituality will blow your mind. You won't put it down until the last page, and when you look up, you will see the world in a totally different way. --Joe Quirk, bestselling author of Exult

The God Patent really drew me in, not just because of the hard-charging plot and the vivid characters but also because this story is wrapped around one of the central conflicts of our time: faith in science versus faith in religion. Ransom, to his credit, avoids easy or didactic answers. Instead he pulls readers into a dense and nuanced argument that leaves us buzzing with questions. --Tamim Ansary, bestselling author of Destiny Disrupted

"...the first debut novel to emerge from the new paradigm of online publishing. What distinguishes this classic battle between faith and free will is its unusually deft infusion of legitimate but accessible science... An ambitious first novel that uses Stephens' experience as a particle physicist, director of patents, public speaker and single father in a narrative that sings of the heart and the scientific method as two parts of the same song." --San Francisco Chronicle

From the Publisher

The Future of Science in Literature, not science fiction, not allusions to science and extrapolation (e.g., Michael Crichton), and absolutely never poorly informed inaccurate pseudoscientific plot twisting. This is the real thing: Fiction that incorporates authentic science like quantum physics and relativity in a way that is integral to the plot and the passions of the characters, is accurate, fascinating, and in a setting where it feels real, but with enough tension that readers can use as much (or as little) of their brainpower to understand it as they want without getting lost in the narrative.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Numina Press; First Edition (January 1, 2009)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 298 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0984260005
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0984260003
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.5 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.02 x 0.67 x 5.98 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #8,580,480 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,688 in Religious Science Fiction & Fantasy (Books)
- #11,424 in Technothrillers (Books)

Customer Reviews:
3.9 352 ratings

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Ransom Stephens
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Author, speaker, and physicist, Ransom Stephens writes fantasy, science fiction, and popular science. He writes novels built on big ideas that feature characters who face difficult decisions. His goal is to make you think, make you laugh, and make you cry -- or at least two out of three.
His latest, The Book of Bastards, is a rollicking, bawdy fantasy of chivalry and revenge.
In Too Rich to Die and The 99% Solution, three keyboard-wielding musketeers take you around the world on thrill rides that will leave you questioning centuries of world history; The Sensory Deception is a story of environmentalism and idealism gone wrong; and his first novel, The God Patent, is a perspective-altering story of science and religion.
His popular science book, The Left Brain Speaks The Right Brain Laughs: a look at the neuroscience of innovation & creativity, is an irreverent take on how our brains work and how we can work them better.
If you've read one of Ransom's books, please post a review at your favorite book site, like this one. Whether a sentence or an essay, he'll appreciate the boost as much as the advice.
You can follow Ransom’s Rants on writing, science, politics, and beer at all the usually places, plus if you'd liked to receive the famous*, life-changing* Ransom’s Notes--in which he provides amusement* and insights* into how* and why* we live, in addition to updates on his latest books (and get a free e-copy of one of his novels!)--hie thee to
https://subscribe.ransomstephens.com (cut and paste the link).
(* Your experience may vary. Average results: 29% life-altering, 53% useful, and now just 18% boring!)
Ransom is represented by Laurie McLean, Founding Partner of the Fuse Literary agency.
Bookbub: bookbub.com/authors/ransom-stephens
Friend: facebook.com/ransomstephens
Like: facebook.com/RansomsBooks
Watch: www.youtube.com/user/DocRansom
Contact: ransom at ransomstephens.com
Stalk: @ransomstephens
Web: ransomstephens.com
See more on the author's page
Ransom Stephens PhD
Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.
Author, speaker, and physicist, Ransom Stephens writes fantasy, science fiction, and popular science. His high concept fiction puts characters that make you laugh and cry at the center of conflict. His latest, The Book of Bastards, is a rollicking, bawdy fantasy of chivalry and revenge. In Too Rich to Die and The 99% Solution, three keyboard-wielding musketeers take you around the world on thrill rides that will leave you questioning centuries of world history; The Sensory Deception is a story of environmentalism and idealism gone wrong; and his first novel, The God Patent, is a perspective-altering story of science and religion.
His popular science book, The Left Brain Speaks The Right Brain Laughs: a look at the neuroscience of innovation & creativity, is an irreverent take on how our brains work and how we can work them better.
If you've read one of Ransom's books, please post a review at your favorite book site, like this one. Whether a sentence or an essay, he'll appreciate the boost as much as the advice.
You can follow Ransom’s Rants on writing, science, politics, and beer at all the usually places, plus if you'd liked to receive the famous*, life-changing* Ransom’s Notes--in which he provides amusement* and insights* into how* and why* we live, in addition to updates on his latest books (and get a free e-copy of one of his novels!)--hie thee to
https://subscribe.ransomstephens.com (cut and paste the link).
Ransom is represented by Laurie McLean, Founding Partner of the Fuse Literary agency.
Bookbub: bookbub.com/authors/ransom-stephens
Friend: facebook.com/ransomstephens
Like: facebook.com/RansomsBooks
Watch: www.youtube.com/user/DocRansom
Contact: ransom at ransomstephens.com
Stalk: @ransomstephens
Web: ransomstephens.com
See more on the author's page

Customer reviews

3.9 out of 5

352 global ratings

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Kindle Customer

Delightfully intriguing surprise of a read it gets double a WOW from me!

Reviewed in the United States on July 26, 2012

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I was lucky enough to interview Ransom Stephens for Podioracket.com. I was so intrigued with his story concept I ran right over to Amazon and bought The God Patent not wanting to wait for the audio version to be released at Podiobooks.com. From page one this story was a blend of science and biblical extremism that makes for a plot I could really wrap my head around. The big question, "Does man have a soul or a spark that we call GOD?" This was a thought provoking read steeped in well developed characters and a plot that had me rooting for them.
Ryan the damaged techy captured my interest not because he was lost in his troubles but because his troubles were lost within him. Bad choices and non-ownership of those choices build this character into someone worthy of a second chance at life. Oddly enough, Katarina is that chance, the goth/hippy skate rat headed for trouble after the loss of her father to death and her mother to grief surprises even the renowned particle physicist Emmy with her brilliance. Dodge the greedy landlord/lawyer works the angles for personal gain and he is a character you will love to hate right along with the evangelical nut bags who are playing at being god.
Ransom took his time developing the characters, but I loved that about the read. I felt like I knew them or that they could be people I have known. I feared I would be in over my head with the quantum physics aspects we had discussed in the interview but the way in which Stephens created this story even made that easy and the ending was a total surprise.
Defiantly worth the read.

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Brian J Boyle

A highly readable first in a virtually unexplored new genre: neither Science nor Fiction nor "SF" but "Science-in-Fiction"

Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2016

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OK, to be clear, if you're looking for the satiric wit of Literary Nobelists Shaw or Sinclair Lewis, the intellectual complexity of Bergson, Camus or Bertrand Russell, the depth of character of Faulkner, Pearl Buck or (Toni) Morrison, the narrative power of Hemingway, Steinbeck or Virginia Wolfe, the explanatory scientific lucidity of James Gleick or Tracy Kidder or (Philip) Morrison, or even the intricate speculative web of yarns spun by Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke andthe rest of the alphabet of SF greats... you’ll not find what you're looking for.

But I doubt any of these is a primary goal of Ransom Stephens' engaging, informative and (most critically) thought-provoking first novel, "The God Patent." Instead it seems at home in a rarer realm already populated by Literature-Nobelist Lewis’ “Arrowsmith,” Royal Astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle’s “The Black Cloud,” beloved Carl Sagan’s “Contact,” or the five novels of biochemistry-Nobelist Carl Djerassi in the domain he coined as “Science-In-Fiction,” including “Cantor’s Dilemma,” “Bourbaki Gambit” and “NO” – or the more recent online salon of “Lab(oratory) Lit(erature)” at www.lablit.com, “The Culture of Science in Fiction and Fact.”

As a practicing professor of particle physics, Stephens notes in his Amazon.com autoblurb, “My books are shelved in science fiction, but my science is accurate, cutting edge, and I work hard to make it accessible and fascinating without taking up so many pages that it slows down the story.” In "The God Patent" (and his equally insightful second effort, “The Sensory Deception,” which is “built on the relationship between the senses and the mind,”) he succeeds admirably in this stated goal. Emmy Nutter, a main character in "The God Patent" is a thinly disguised 21st-Century version of early 20th-Century mathematician/physicist Amalie Emmy Noether, of whose talents even David Hilbert and Felix Klein were in awe, best known for her eponymous Theorem proving that every differentiable symmetry of the action of a physical system has a corresponding conservation law, later employed indirectly by Richard Feynman to develop his Nobel-winning QED (Quantum Electrodynamics.)

In being “shelved in science fiction” he tacitly echoes the exasperation of practicing scientists doing “hard-SF” like Robert L. Forward, Stephen Baxter or, most recently, Andy Weir and explicit complaint of Kurt Vonnegut: “I have been a soreheaded occupant of a file drawer labeled 'science fiction' ever since, and I would like out, particularly since so many serious critics regularly mistake the drawer for a urinal.” In "The God Patent" Stephens manages to address one possible answer to The Eternal Question of Life, the Universe and Everything (which all Douglas Adams fans know is “42”) by exploiting the symmetry argument between soul and science.

As a once-practicing scientist myself (who kept a teenage vow to drop whatever I was doing if I ever reached the ancient age of 60 and become a public high-school science teacher,) I lament the paucity of such offerings in this “Science-In-Fiction” domain – teachers’ tools to help young cynics see that studying STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) is not merely a path to comical Big-Bang nerdiness nor to Frankensteinian madness but what Feynman extolled as “The joy of finding things out.” Having especially focused on what we teachers call ‘The Gender Cliff’ – where girls outscore boys in Math AND Science until the 7th or 8th grade and suddenly turn away towards more obviously social, relevant and seeming more “joyful” pursuits – we search for the empowering stories behind such female scientific role models like Emmy Noether, Marie Curie, Margaret Mead, DNA co-discoverer Rosalind Franklin and SETI director Jill Tarter, the model for the radio astronomer Ellie Arroway, the main character in Sagan’s novel, “Contact,” and the role played by Jodie Foster in the film. (In fact, the main focus of “The God Patent” is the intellectual coming-of-age of self-contained, skateboarding, archetypically cynical rebellious teenage girl, a diamond-in-the-rough death-obsessed math prodigy named Kat.)

Some reviewers were obviously drawn to the quasi-religious (or at least philosophical) explorations of the souls and selves, of identities and information theory while others were equally un-moved. As a soul in search of such “Science-In-Fiction” offerings (and ambivalent target of friends and colleagues pushing me to follow suit) I find my sentiments somewhere in between. As a scientist I follow Feynman’s dictum that “Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt,” but am as put off by strict reductionist nihilism as I am by “quantum woo” (such as Deepak Chopra’s nonsensical misappropriation of actual scientific concepts into empty buzzwords like "energy field", "probability wave", "wave-particle duality," “vibrations” or other Emperor’s NewAge Clothes.) But fans of hard SF AND good science writing – like many working scientists that were inspired by the genre – will admit that actually Doing Science is rarely an elementary Holmesian exercise in pure deduction but more often an intertwined double helix of one strand of proven fact (Newton’s “shoulders of giants”) and another, complementary strand of intuitive speculation and the classic hypothetical “What If?” of good science fiction.

Stephens and his forerunners in “Science-In-Fiction” lovingly supply the sweet deoxyribose backbone on which the strands are scaffolded, the engaging technothriller’s vivid, believable characters we care for enough to keep turning pages, acknowledging the final Feynman maxim: “Physics isn't the most important thing. Love is.”

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Cliente de Amazon

interesting plot, flawed characters

Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2010

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I am reading it and I find some undeniable achievements in the plot, even I have found some scenes brilliant, such as the negotiations between hero's attorney and corporate. The science content is think-provoking and well founded so that they could resemble a good scifi story, instead of the typical best selling. That's certainly to be appreciated. However there is an evident weakness in the author's ability to provide psychological soundness to the characters and relationships. The sentimental plots (among hero, teenager and scientist), apparently intending to become a valuable part of the story, seem to be taken from a bad TV hospital series. This makes some chapters embarrasing or irritating. Good read, but to get an idea, not reaching by large the corresponding references of the kind, such as eg. the Andromeda book by M.Crichton.

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Dan B

Savor every page -- this is a fine book

Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2010

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Two guys, who work for a company that will pay for any patents they can own, have some fun writing two clever and absurd patents. One is some artificial neural net mumbo-jumbo, claiming to invent the soul, and the other is for an infinite power source that God used to create the universe. But the joke goes too far: the patents are granted and some dangerous people take them with deadly seriousness.

Can something special be made out of this nutty plot? The answer is 'yes'. This is a most unusual book. The author, Ransom Stephens, fills it with very appealing characters, including the hero, Ryan, who has to navigate this crazy situation to get his life back; Emily Nutter, a physicist modeled on the actual physicist/mathematician Emily Noether, who proved a theorem relating symmetry to conservation laws that is at the heart of modern particle physics; her brother, an outrageously devious lawyer who is always able to find an angle that best suits him; and a wild 13-year old mathematical genius. The tale moves forward as Ryan gets deeper and deeper into the mess, with everyone working at cross-purposes.

Stephens, an experimental particle physicist, obviously has great fun with the entire situation, using his characters to argue all sides of the eternal controversies -- physical, religious, philosophical, digital. He even manages to include Feynman diagrams in the story, perhaps a first for a novel. It all miraculously hangs together, and I enjoyed every page. There are very few novels that I would read twice, but this is one of them.

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Top reviews from other countries

Deborah B. Leitch

Unique

Reviewed in Canada on February 25, 2014

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This book brings out a unique perspective, there is great character development, lots of action, and it is well researched. Overall a good read.

Kindle Customer

The God patent

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 30, 2013

Verified Purchase

great story, could not put it down, fantastic first novel by Ransom Stephens. Would recommend to everyone and looking forward to reading more from the same author.

4 people found this helpful

Uncle H

Many twists and turns

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 27, 2014

Verified Purchase

A good read and none that posed many questions of morality in the human race, left me questioning some of by base philosophies.

One person found this helpful

Carole_S

Creationism meets the patent office

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 14, 2014

Verified Purchase

The story has an intersting premise. Two young engineers generate nonsensical patents for a bit of cash and forget about them.
A few years later, the circumstances of bot engineers have changed and the patents assume much larger significance when the US government and big oil get involved.
The story uses a vaguely plausible set of ideas and circumstances to make a telling commentary on the state of US politics in regards to energy/defence policy, the stresses between the scientific "community" and the devoutly religious, the nature of consciousness and the soul.
However, I thought the story ran out of steam, as it must do if it were not to degenrate into pure fantasy, with an unsettling and unsatisfying ending.

4 people found this helpful

Mrs. J. E. Reeve

Interesting take

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 23, 2013

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Interesting book. Way outside my usual genre but very good read. Not sure I would recommend it but if you like Sci fi you might enjoy this.

2 people found this helpful

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The God Patent Paperback – January 1, 2009

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