John Connolly is well known for his crime books, and probably even more well known for his fantasy novel, The Book Of Lost Things. In The Gates, he has stayed with fantasy, but this time aiming his book at a younger audience. However, as with all the great YA books, this one will have the adults fighting to read it too. See for yourself:
“Chapter 1: In which the Universe forms, which seems like a very good place to start. In the beginning, about 13.7 billion years ago, to be reasonably precise, there was a very, very small dot. Footnote 1:scientists call it the Singularity. People who are religious might call it the Mote in God’s eye. Some scientist will tell you that you can’t believe in the Singularity and the idea of a God or Gods. Some religious people will try to tell you the same thing.
Still, you can believe in the Singularity and a God if you like. It’s entirely up to you. One requires evidence, the other-faith. They are not the same thing, but as long as you don’t get the two mixed up, then everything should be fine. And footnote: whatever you call it, this dot, which was hot and incredibly heavy, contained everything that was and everything that ever would be, all crammed into the tiniest area possible, a point so small that it had no dimensions at all.
Suddenly, the dot, which was under enormous pressure due to all that it contained, exploded and it duly scattered everything there was or ever would be across what was now about to become the Universe. Scientists call this The Big Bang although it wasn’t really a big bang coz it happened everywhere and all at once.
Just one more thing about this Age-of-the-Universe stuff. There are people who would try to tell you that the Earth is only about 10000 years old, that humans and dinosaurs were around at, more or less, the same time, a bit like in the movies Jurassic Park and 1 Million Years BC, and that evolution-the change in inherited traits of organisms passed from one generation to the next, does not and never did happen. Given the evidence, it’s hard not to feel they are probably wrong. Many of them also believe that the Universe was created in 7 days by an old chap with a beard, perhaps with breaks for tea and sandwiches, This may be true, but if it was created in this way, they were very long days, about 2 billion years long for each, give or take a few million years, which is a lot of sandwiches”.
A real page-turner…in an audio format here.
