Customer Reviews

The Book of God and Physics: A Novel of the Voynich Mystery

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

This book is being marketed as another "Da Vinci Code". It isn't. The "Code" is a much faster, more exciting book with short chapters. "The Book of God and Physicks" is a much deeper, more complex book. It was hard going, not because it wasn't an interesting story but because there was so much in it which took time to understand. I suppose if you really like Astronomy or Math, it will be much easier going.

I didn't find any problems with the characters except that I never realized that Jesuits had such flexible lives. No wonder they keep getting into trouble with the Vatican. The book contains a couple of conspiracy theories and if you like that sort of thing, you will be in wonderland.

Its really hard to recommend this book except to say I liked it, and its worth a go at reading it. If you need to stop, oh well. I've done that before and, at least you tried.

I was eager to read this book because my friend and much lamented colleague Curt Zimansky was fascinated by the Voynich Manuscript, sometimes called the most mysterious book in the world. Despite the efforts of some of the greatest cryptanalysts using the National Security Agency computers, it has defied interpretation. In The Book of God and Physics (the orginal Spanish title El castillo de las estrellas is apter for a book featuring astronomy as well as a castle in Spain), the narrator, a Jesuit priest and prep school science teacher named Hector, teams up with two other Voynich enthusiasts he meets on the internet, a Cambridge astrophysicist named John and a beautiful and rich Mexican woman named Juana (I imagine Salma Hayek). John and Juana quickly become attracted when they meet, but Juana dumps John because he is an atheist and she is an evangelical Christian. Even worse, she seems to be a spy for a "religious right" secret society (sort of a "Fundamentalist" Opus Dei one reckons) whose leader, Thomas, wants to get hold of the interpretation of the Voynich MS because he believes it was written the biblical Enoch in the language of the Garden of Eden, presumably to prove the truth of "Creationisn."
Large parts of this book read like an undigested history of science lecture with a good deal of popular astronomy thrown in. I learned much more about Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler than I ever wanted to know, though I enjoyed remaking my acquaintace with the 17th-century Jesuit polymath Athanasius Kircher. (I wish Joven were aware of Kircher's designs for an ark which would have enabled Noah to house every species of animal known in Kircher's time), who apparently once possessed the Voynich MS.
Unfortunately Joven has no gift for characterization. Hector is perpetually bright eyed and bushy tailed whether his is lecturing his students on astronomy or the reader on the history of the Society of Jesus, but he has no inner or spiritual life. The head of the "Creationist" (of course "Intelligent Design" and "Creationism" are the same thing for Joven) secret society turns out to the cartoon character that sophisticated secular intellectuals imagine evangelical Christians to be. Of course he also a fascist and a sexist, which makes it hard to figure out how a woman as beautiful and independent as Juana would ever have fallen under his spell. John remains a cipher throughout, pining for Juana but with no distinctive presence.
As an intellectual puzzler this book deserves one star; as a novel and as a thriller it falls quite flat. And the author's "solution" ends up being a tease. We are left in the dark as to whether the Voynich MS is a real repository of forgotten lore or an elaborate hoax. Maybe if someone else solves the mystery, Joven can write a sequel and give Hector credit for the discovery.

This recalls Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum (a group of friends delve into the occult), but the broad scholarly grounding of that novel - which made it bearable, at least for some - is here replaced by repeated and tedious descriptions of google searches (because none of us ever do those), its half-baked attempts at plot and character development and a style that I can only imagine was much much better in the original Spanish, leaving a stilted and implausible narrative that limps along. The author, an astronomer, clearly knows some of this stuff well, and there is one sweetly evocative description of a school class staying up all night to view planets - it's just a shame that the structure and style (at least in English translation) seems to obstruct or distract from that potential.

Checked this book out from the Public Library because it looked interesting....in fact, it's not a compelling read, and I stopped after 55 pages..appreciate the other negative reviews that helped seal the deal...

Just having finished Joven's book I am flustered and dissapointed. While the topic centers on the Voynich document, it leads nowhere. This is an enfeebled attempt to cash in on the da vinci code book. Don't waste your time, don't read it, don't look at it. Pure crap beginning to end.

book was in excellent condition, shipping was quick and hassle free! Will be using this seller again!

The Book of God and Physics: A Novel of the Voynich Mystery
To be published in USA on June 30, 2009 by William Morrow Publishers (NY)
Title: The Book of God and Physics. A Novel about the Voynich Mystery.

Rights sold to: Harper Collins/William Morrow (USA), Il punto d'incontro (Italy), Livanis (Greece), AST (Russia) and Hainaim Publishing (Korea).

* Press releases:

Rene Alegria at William Morrow bought world English rights to Enrique Joven's Castle of the Stars. This suspense novel is narrated by a Spanish Jesuit physics teacher who attempts to unravel the mystery of the Voynich Manuscript, an artifact that first appeared in the court of Rudolph II (1583-1612) of Bohemia.

[...]

***

An astrophysicist by training, Enrique Joven recently published in Spain El castillo de las estrellas ("The Castle in the Stars"; Roca Editorial, 2007), a captivating novel about Johannes Kepler, arguably one of the most influential astronomers of all times.

From Criticas Magazine, 06-01-2007
Why They Do It Better? - Spain and the Historical Novel
By Andrea Montejo
[...]

***

Written by astrophysicist Enrique Joven, The Book of God and Physics (Castle of the Stars, publishing Roca) has at its center the mysterious Voynich Manuscript, an actual book written in an indecipherable language that could possibly hold the scientific and mathematical secrets of Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler, Copernicus, and Galileo.

Héctor, a Spanish Jesuit high school science teacher and the novel's narrator, belongs to an online group of Voynich enthusiasts who try to uncover the truth behind the document. Their investigation is impacted by the publication of a popular science book, Heavenly Intrigue (Doubleday, 2004) by Joshua and Anne-Lee Guilder, which suggests Kepler murdered Brahe to take credit for hismaster's mathematical discoveries. Héctor then finds out that the solution to the Voynich Manuscript mystery may lie closer to home than he ever imagined.

When his Jesuit superior tells him that a foreign real estate speculator has been scheming to close the prep school, Héctor learns the speculator is interested because the Voynich Manuscript may have been hidden in the catacombs beneath the church next door to the school. As the plot thickens, more and more Voynich enthusiasts come to light, many of whom have connections to religious, quasi-religious, and political organizations based around the world, including in the U.S.

From Publishing Trends (March 2007 issue)
[...]

Plot summary:

Héctor is a Jesuit teacher who works in a small Spanish town, but his interests go further than his job. He belongs to an Internet group of investigators that try to unveil the secrets of a book known as the Voynich Manuscript (an actual book of unknown authorship that is currently housed in the Yale University Rare Books Collection). The story of this historical manuscript has been linked to the biggest astronomers of all times and its contents have never been deciphered since it appeared in the court of Rudolph II, nephew of Philip II and Emperor of the Sacred Roman Empire.

John (a British scientist) and Juana (a Mexican millionaire) are Héctor's closest online friends. Together, they discuss the many hypothesis that try to find the meaning of the darkest parts of the text as a way to escape from daily routine. Besides, their investigations bring them closer to their admired masters Brahe, Kepler and many other brilliant scientists. Could the manuscript perhaps be the codified findings of either of these two scientists, written in a special language to conceal their scientific discoveries from the Catholic Church and its Inquisition?

But the publication of a book about the manuscript in the US (Heavenly Intrigue, again, a real book by Joshua and Anne-Lee Guilder, Doubleday, 2004), and the mysterious interest of a big American corporation to acquire the plot where Héctor's school is built will prove that there's much more people tracking the enigmas of the Voynich Manuscript, and that not everyone does it for the sake of science.

The investigations of the young Jesuit and his two colleagues, along with those of one of his students at school, lead to unsuspected discoveries and dangers throughout the novel, involving not only themselves. It turns out that for many years the mystery of the Voynich Manuscript has interested a number of religious and quasi-religious organizations, some of them with extremely powerful political connections. These organizations include the actual Society of Jesus, which in fact had been the unknown guardian of the manuscript during a long period. They also include an organization in the US known as the Discovery Institute, with ties to the Government and with the explicit agenda of promoting the theories of Creationism. What possible interest, however, could they have in deciphering the Voynich Manuscript?

The Book of God and Physics (Castle of the Stars) is a novel of science and intrigue, but one based upon much less fiction than it would appear. Although it is filled with the speculative relationship between the death of Brahe and the composition of this uncanny Voynich Manuscript, the work is centred around a basic issue of our times: Is contemporary society correct in opposing the concepts of faith and reason, religion and science?