MATHEMATICAL FICTION:

a list compiled by Alex Kasman (College of Charleston)

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The Shiloh Project (1993)
David R. Beaucage
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This is a Christian science fiction novel with mathematical undertones written by an author with a doctorate in mathematics. In it, a Jewish math teacher falsely accused of sexually abusing a student travels through time and converses with biblical figures finding, among other things, support for the Christian faith.

One of the reviews of the book claims "He's written about faith without being preachy, love without being mushy, and math without being DULL." I guess each person is entitled to their own opinion. As I attempted to read the book, I found quite the opposite to be true. The book appears to be very amateurishly written, with the science fiction and romance elements being insipid and cliched. It may be difficult for anyone who does not share the author's religious views to read the book as it was quite `preachy'. Finally, as far as math goes, I think that what he writes is going to be meaningless to someone who doesn't already know a lot of math (what is a mathematically naive person to make of a brief description of multivalued logarithms from path integrals in the complex plane?) but not sufficiently original or eloquent to interest someone with real mathematical training.

Apparently the book was intended to be the first in a series called `Mathematicians in Love', but I have been unable to find a sequel.


Thanks to Vijay Fafat for bringing this book to my attention.

More information about this work can be found at www.amazon.com.
(Note: This is just one work of mathematical fiction from the list. To see the entire list or to see more works of mathematical fiction, return to the Homepage.)

Works Similar to The Shiloh Project
According to my `secret formula', the following works of mathematical fiction are similar to this one:
  1. Doctor Who: The Turing Test by Paul Leonard
  2. Atomic Anna by Rachel Barenbaum
  3. Mister God, This is Anna by Fynn
  4. Gentzen oder: Betrunken aufräumen [Gentzen or Cleaning Up Drunk] by Dietmar Dath
  5. Singer Distance by Ethan Chatagnier
  6. Oracle by Greg Egan
  7. Cap and Gown by Eric Flint
  8. The Smithsonian Institution by Gore Vidal
  9. The Elusive Chauffeur by David H. Brown
  10. False Witness by Randy D. Singer
Ratings for The Shiloh Project:
RatingsHave you seen/read this work of mathematical fiction? Then click here to enter your own votes on its mathematical content and literary quality or send me comments to post on this Webpage.
Mathematical Content:
3/5 (2 votes)
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Literary Quality:
2/5 (2 votes)
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Categories:
GenreHistorical Fiction, Science Fiction,
MotifTime Travel, Math Education, Religion,
TopicAnalysis/Calculus/Differential,
MediumNovels,

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Exciting News: The 1,600th entry was recently added to this database of mathematical fiction! Also, for those of you interested in non-fictional math books let me (shamelessly) plug the recent release of the second edition of my soliton theory textbook.

(Maintained by Alex Kasman, College of Charleston)