I was intrigued by the blending of science fiction and religion in this title.
While it took a while to fully keep my attention, I appreciated aspects of the story including how a future society built on the absence of religion would have people seeking it out.

Along with the integration of Catholicism and tenets of the faith, the author creates an interesting future world where going into large space communities is the solution for the damage done on Earth.

If someone is very anti-religion then I can see how this title would not be a favorite by any stretch. There is too much woven into the story to easily skip over those sections. Plus, it is woven into the reason why the one printer ends up dead.

Like one of the reviewers, who skipped parts of the book that dealt with religion, I too skipped parts of the book, going backwards and forward for a few to several pages, because I was confused about what was going on and hoped something in the book would help me out. In fact, I began it three times, each time reading over what I had originally read because I was sure that I had missed something. In the story, a young priest is recruited to figure out who murdered another priest who had been living in a futuristic world, developed by mysterious 3-D printers, incognito. The recruited priest has a background in AI, mostly due to his years in the USMC working with AI and 3-d printers. The plot was interesting, even though I felt lost a lot. The characters were also well-developed and interesting. I guess I could not get into it because I seldom venture into Sci-fi books and have not ever gone into the realms of AI in Sci-Fi. I guess this one was just not for me. If you like this sort of stuff, as the reviews I read indicate, this is a well-done, fascinating story that you should give a try. I thought I would like it but could not get into it. I received this form NetGalley to read and review.

This has a bit of a slow start. Instead of starting with the murder, we are with the one man who can reason with the human-like printers. Then we backflash and jump heads a bit. It isn't so much confusing but quite disturbing to the reading flow. I wasn't gripped by this story because the characters didn't seem full-blown, living color to me at first, so I didn't care about the murder or the man who was going to solve the mystery.

However, the story grows on you. If you keep at it you'll find some literary gems that lend a good flavor to this story. There's a brief moment when I was transported back to my college campus movie night, blankets on the grass, the smell of mosquito repellant and the strains of <i>2001 Space Odessy</i>, and Hal's voice ringing into the night air. Those are the almost human Printers that brought that memory back.

This is more a study in human condition than a murder mystery, in my opinion. I wanted to read it because of the mystery. Found a different kind of story, and it was enjoyable, just different.

Received this book from Netgalley. This is my honest opinion.

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Father John Francis McClellan, is a 34 year old parish priest from Boston and a retired US Marine Corps expert in the artificially intelligent three-dimensional printers that built the new world. When a young Dominican priest, who was on a space colony, living under an assumed name and job, is murdered, McClellan is sent to the station to find out who murdered the priest, why the priest was murdered, and what the priest was doing on the station, especially at the time he was murdered.

The setting is 2088 with flashbacks to the last days of McClellan's time with the Marines. Something happened then to change Father McClellan, to cause him to seek out a life as a priest when before, he'd had no faith and also caused him to give up his career as a programmer of these very intelligent printers. Now McClellan is being called to solve this murder, specifically because he is a priest but also because of his exceptional programming skills.

The world that we are set in is in turmoil. It's not a safe world and it's crucial that evil forces in the world do not have access to the printers that are able to print anything that man can envision. As bleak as this new world is, Father McClellan's faith leads him to have hope, keep hope, and spread hope. After I finished the book and remembered the title of the book, I came to understand what the title of the book really means...such a good choice of a title. .

Thank you to W. L. Patenaude, Izzard Ink Publishing, and NetGalley for this ARC.

Interesting concept... with flaws.

Several things are missing to really bring the reader into the story. Exactly what do printers look like? How do they work? Who developed the magic-like technology of turning dirt into anything you want, and how did they do it just a generation or two beyond now?

How did the "Sals" manage to go from a murderous drug cartel to an international superpower?

What is the geopolitical power structure on Earth, and more important, what is the government structure on New Athens?

Why do programmers require both a key and a coupler? What do they look like; how do they work; and why aren't they combined into one device? Why do they need a "story"?

How could the construction of monstrous generation ships be kept secret? Who is paying for it?

And finally, the ending grates on anyone who isn't Roman Catholic. Why isn't the priest appalled at the idea of "printing" new humans? Why doesn't he have existential questions about whether or not they would have souls? Does the Church consider the artificial intelligences in the printers to have souls? The priest-protagonist seems to think they do, and tries to "convert" them.

And finally, are we supposed to believe that giving the intelligent printers the Bible will teach them how to create a peace-loving civilization, free from violent conflict? Has that kept Christians--even fellow Catholics--from butchering each other in the past? Why don't the printers know about Christianity already, since they seem to have knowledge of human behavior and psychology?

I received a free copy of this from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I finished this book three or four days ago and have deliberately held off writing the review for fear of overstating how much I loved it. Set in a near future with a space colonisation scenario that has a back story eerily well aligned with current events and with an apparent binary caste system in place to support the artificial intelligence of the 3D printers that are building the colony efforts.. There is a weird but organically consistent merging of the US Marine Corps and the Catholic Church. The story involves a murder that takes place on one of the space colony stations and involves an investigator who is a priest and a former "combat programmer".

Well written and engaging, this book sits well in the sci-fi pantheon with Arthur C Clarke or Asimov; the back story elements add colour to the near future scenario and the characters in the story grow as the story progresses.

I will have my eye out for the author's future work, this is excellent.

Un-put-downable. I have a non-stop addiction to this plot.