9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Worse than Dan Brown, August 18, 2009
This review is from: The Book of God and Physics: A Novel of the Voynich Mystery (Hardcover)
The writing is turgid. The author is proud to announce that Wikipedia (and Amazon.com) are his primary sources. There is no conclusion. I finished it only because I assumed the author was going somewhere with it. I was wrong.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A good read, but only if you're into astronomy, July 26, 2010
I expected much more from this book than i received. Based on the jacket, I expected an adventure-like combo of neat history and weird religious stuff intertwined, but it ended up being much more of an exposition on all things astronomy, particularly its historical evolution. If you like astronomy, you'll probably enjoy the ad nauseam detail it provides; if you don't, you'll end up being bored as I was. There were a few instances where i did get excited, but only to be let down; there's a whole bit about catacombs and hidden passages under a building that never quite went anywhere (despite its potential), and neat trips throughout Italy, that also failed to produce anything remotely adventure-ish. Also, the ending was terrible; this story demands a meaty conclusion that offers something of value to justify the reading experience. Rather than telling you anything worthwhile, it merely points to what i hope is a not-to-be developed sequel. Overall, while my review sounds harsh, it was a pleasant read, just not particularly memorable.
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2.0 out of 5 stars
The Mystery Remains a Mystery, September 9, 2010
Somewhere at the end of the 15th century a several hundred page manuscript was written. In the early 20th century, Wilfrid Voynich, a book dealer, purchased it from Italian Jesuits. The manuscript, now known as the Voynich Manuscript, or VM, and now being housed at Yale University, has never been translated. VM consists of two major parts - text of some 170,000 characters and drawings. The drawings are loosely categorized as astronomical, herbal, and biological. Because the lettering appears without erasures or rub-outs and because the drawing are quite crude, it has been assumed that VM is really a copy of an earlier text. Furthermore, because the pages do not seem in logical order, appear to have been taken from a bound volume, and because there seems to be no translating key, it has been assumed that the extant VM is really only a portion of the original manuscript. Some of the great minds of the past century-plus have attempted and failed to translate the VM.
The Book of God and Physics by Enrique Joven, PhD in Physics, links the VM, and more importantly, its purported missing code, through the Jesuits and ultimately to the Vatican. His primary characters, a Spanish Jesuit, an atheist English astronomer, and a wealthy Mexican woman, believe that VM is the product of two English charlatans. They link the VM to Johannes Kepler, the student and supposed murderer of the Italian astronomer Tycho Brahe and it and possibly the missing code to the 17th century Jesuit, Athanasius Kircher.
First off, the reader must understand that The Book of God and Physics is a NOVEL! Meaning that it is meant to entertain the reader and most certainly not meant to provide a solution to this five century mystery. So, does it work as a NOVEL? The author spends inordinate time ensuring that the reader fully understand his thesis - that the Jesuits were deeply involved in either the creation or interpretation of VM. The physics part of the book that deals with supernovas and eclipses reflects the author's technical background in astrophysics. The god part of the book deals not only with the Jesuits but also with the possibility that VM actually IS the word of God, transcribed in Enochian by the 16th century charlatans. In truth, the VM characters bear little resemblance to Enochian. Other reviewers have hammered the author for relying heavily on Wikipedia for his background material. IMHO, I think this helps cement the basis for his thesis. Where else can you find details about Enochianism?
Is it a good read? It is pedantic, plodding, repetitive at times, and perhaps less scary than it should be. In the end, the novel is perhaps best appreciated by true technical Voynichians.
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