Ingermanson, Randall 1958-

(Randall Scott Ingermanson, Randy Ingermanson)

PERSONAL: Born November 23, 1958, in Salina, KS; son of Carl (an army officer) and Anne (a homemaker) Ingermanson; married Eunice Yoo (a homemaker), August 15, 1982; children: Carolyn, Gracie, Amy. Education: Pacific Union College, B.S., 1980; University of California—Berkeley, M.A., Ph.D., 1986; postdoctoral studies at Ohio State University. Religion: "Nondenominational Christian." Hobbies and other interests: Reading, computers, archaeology.

ADDRESSES: Home—San Diego, CA. Agent—c/o Alive Communications, 7680 Goddard St., Ste. 200, Colorado Springs, CO 80920. E-mail—randy@rsingermanson.com.

CAREER: Writer, novelist, physicist, computer programmer, and public speaker. Ohio State University, Columbus, postdoctoral researcher, 1986–88; Maxwell Technologies, Inc., San Diego, CA, senior staff scientist, 1988–96, 1999–2000; Integration Partners, Inc., San Diego, technical lead, 1996–99; Q3DM, San Diego, senior scientist, 2000–.

AWARDS, HONORS: Best Book Published in 1999, San Diego Christian Writers Guild, for Who Wrote the Bible Code?: A Physicist Probes the Current Controversy; Writer of the Year, Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference, 1999; Christy Award for futuristic fiction, Christian Booksellers Association, 2001, for Transgression, and 2002, for Oxygen; San Diego Book Awards Association award, historical fiction category, 2003, for Premonition; bronze medal, ForeWord magazine science fiction category for best books of the year by independent publishers, and Best Suspense Novel of the Year award, San Diego Book Awards Association, both for Oxygen.

WRITINGS:

Who Wrote the Bible Code?: A Physicist Probes the Current Controversy, WaterBrook Press (Colorado Springs, CO), 1999.

"CITY OF GOD" SERIES; CHRISTIAN NOVELS

Transgression, Harvest House (Eugene, OR), 2000.

Premonition, Zondervan (Grand Rapids, MI), 2003.

Retribution, Zondervan (Grand Rapids, MI), 2004.

CHRISTIAN NOVELS

(With John B. Olson) Oxygen: A Mission Gone Desperately Wrong—and No Way out Short of Blind Faith, Bethany House (Bloomington, MN), 2001.

(With John B. Olson) The Fifth Man (sequel to Oxygen), Bethany House (Bloomington, MN), 2002.

Double Vision, Bethany House (Minneapolis, MN), 2004.

SIDELIGHTS: Novelist and physicist Randall Ingermanson is a scientist, researcher, and programmer who specializes in computational physics. In his first book, Who Wrote the Bible Code?: A Physicist Probes the Current Controversy, he applies a rigorous scientific analysis to claims of a code embedded in the text of the Bible that can, and has, predicted future events. "I wrote the book because I saw an opportunity…. I realized that very few people had both the technical skills to rigorously investigate the Bible code and the writing skills to create a book on the subject. I was one of those people, so I jumped on it," he explained in an interview on the Edenstar Web site. Although the code has stirred considerable controversy, and in some cases has appeared to be eerily accurate, Ingermanson concluded: "There is no reason to believe in the alleged Bible code."

Ingermanson's career and fiction are steeped in science, but his fiction is written from a Christian viewpoint. He does not find an insurmountable conflict between scientific pursuit and Christian faith. "A fair number of scientists have the audacity to believe in God," he stated in an interview on the Focus on Fiction Web site. "I have a Ph.D. in physics and I'm a pretty conventional Christian." Ingermanson further explained: "In my books, I often have characters wrestling with some sort of faith/science issue. I don't show these characters neatly resolving their questions and living happily ever after with some cheap and easy answer. Instead, I show them living with their questions, dealing with ambiguity. That's faith. Faith in science. Faith in God. It's possible to have both. I find both faith and science necessary."

Ingermanson's first novel, Transgression, offers a time-travel plot set in first-century Jerusalem, the time of the Biblical apostle Paul. His "clever thriller" centers around scientist Ari Kazan, a lapsed orthodox Jew who is close to perfecting a functional time machine, noted Booklist contributor John Mort. His love interest is Rivka Meyers, a brilliant messianic Jew who has been sent back in time by the villainous Damien West, Kazan's rival, as part of a plot to kill Paul and restructure history. Without Paul, West reasons, there would be no Christianity. Partly in agreement with West—Kazan believes that Paul is responsible for bringing down thousands of years of persecution on the Jews—he joins Rivka in the past. Eventually, the two time-travelers reconsider and work to save Paul from harm. Ingermanson displays an "amusing and original new voice, and his knowledge of the shadowy first century is amazing," Mort stated.

In Premonition, Rivka helps prevent the murder of James, leader of Jerusalem's Christian community. She also works to preserve herself as her "premonitions," fueled by a photographic memory of Hebrew history, begin to draw suspicion. Retribution involves Kazan and Rivka, still stuck in ancient Jerusalem, in a bloody conflict between Jerusalem and Rome, in which a haughty Roman emperor orders the random killing of hundreds of Jews in revenge for an insult. Rivka does her best to intervene and prevent more bloodshed among her ancestral people. "The end result is a captivating snapshot of an era that is not widely written about or known," observed Norm Goldman in Reviewer's Bookwatch. Ingermanson's work continues to show that he is "one of the best authors of biblical fiction today," commented Tamara Butler in the Library Journal.

Oxygen: A Mission Gone Desperately Wrong—and No Way out Short of Blind Faith, written with collaborator John Olson, follows the ill-fated first manned mission to Mars. Microbial ecologist Valkerie Jansen is happy to be part of the mission, but the other astronauts resent her presence since an existing team member was cut from the roster to accommodate her. Her outspoken advocacy of Christianity also irritates her fellow crew members. Governmental interference pressures the mission to launch in poor conditions, resulting in damage to the ship. NASA cost-cutting further endangers the mission. Valkerie's crewmate, Bob Kaganovski, begins to suspect sabotage, which the other crew members disbelieve, but when a bomb explodes and destroys much of the ship's power supply, the question of sabotage is moot—except no one knows who is responsible. When the crew discovers that their oxygen supply is running dangerously low—so low that the crew is unlikely to make it to Mars alive. A radical but feasible suggestion leaves the mission, and the crew's lives, directly in Valkerie's hands. The authors "draw their characters carefully, keep tension high, and introduce real spiritual dilemmas without being preachy," commented Mort in another Booklist review. Olson and Ingermanson "combine solid sf with an increasingly tense mystery for a fantastic addition to any collection," noted Library Journal contributor Melanie C. Duncan. Phillip Tomasso III, writing on the Curled Up with a Good Book Web site, called the book "a compelling novel, breathtakingly intense."

Double Vision centers on three characters exploring the mysteries and potentials of quantum computing. Dillon Richard is a programming genius who suffers from Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism that makes him a very literal thinker and that allows him intense powers of concentration. Rachel Meyers is a vivacious biophysicist and Keryn Wills is a writer and administrator in their startup computing firm. Together, the three race to complete a quantum computing project potentially worth billions of dollars while fending off treacherous interference from a rival firm and handling the emotional turmoil of a bubbling love triangle. Ingermanson "really knows his quantum stuff, and he makes it easy for us less enlightened folks to understand it, too, even as he entertains," commented Marie D. Jones in a review on the Curled Up with a Good Book Web site. Mort, in a Booklist review, called the novel "irresistible.

Ingermanson told CA: "I am a theoretical physicist interested in history, computers, archaeology, space, theology, codes, and many other things. When I was a kid, I always thought it would be fun to work as a code-breaker. Years later, when I heard of claims that a 'hidden code' could be found in the Hebrew Bible, I wrote my own software to investigate. The results of my research are revealed in my first book, Who Wrote the Bible Code?

"I always thought time-travel would be cool—which prompted my second book, a novel, in which a physicist goes back in time to kill the apostle Paul. That book, Transgression, won a Christy Award for excellence in Christian fiction.

"My third book, Oxygen, is about four astronauts on the way to Mars who don't have enough oxygen after an explosion. Accident? Or sabotage? Sorry, I'm not going to tell you!"

Ingermanson more recently told CA: "My writing process has made me famous. It is described on my Web site as the 'Snowflake method'. It is a way of designing a novel before you write it by building the plot and characters together organically. The web page describing this method has been visited over 100,000 times in the last year. Writers all around the world use the method for designing their own novels."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, June 1, 2000, John Mort, review of Transgression, p. 1854; June 1, 2001, John Mort, review of Oxygen: A Mission Gone Desperately Wrong—and No Way out Short of Blind Faith, p. 1844; January 1, 2005, John Mort, review of Double Vision, p. 818.

Library Journal, September 1, 2001, Melanie C. Duncan, review of Oxygen, p. 156; September 1, 2004, Tamara Butler, review of Retribution, p. 134.

Reviewer's Bookwatch, October, 2004, Norm Goldman, review of Retribution.

ONLINE

Curled Up with a Good Book, http://www.curledup.com/ (February 27, 2006), Phillip Tomasso III, review of Oxygen; Marie D. Jones, review of Double Vision.

Edenstar Books and Games, http://www.edenstarbooks.com/ (February 27, 2006), interview with Randall Ingermanson.

Focus on Fiction, http://www.focusonfiction.net/ (February 27, 2006), profile of Randall Ingermanson.

Randall Ingermanson Home Page, http://www.rsingermanson.com (February 27, 2006).