Customer Reviews

Dante's Equation

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I read this book because I am compiling a list of Jewish science fiction and fantasy (see my Trekmania list on that.) Frankly, I expected this to be one of those neo-pagan pulp-fiction things that I call "junk kabbalah." I was pleasantly surprised. The kabbalah parts are reasonably accurate (although a little too dependent on "The Bible Code" idea for my tastes), and the way in which the author combines them with concepts in modern physics is fascinating and accurate, at least as far as I can tell. (I know more about kabbalah than physics.) The author explains both the kabbalah and physics theories clearly, although it does help to have a detail-oriented mind. (Think "Michael Crichton" in this area.)

The basic idea of the book is that there are multiple planets and universes, each with its own proportion of Good and Evil. Earth is a world where Good and Evil are 50/50, but in other worlds, the proportions might be 30/70 or 60/40 or whatever, and this affects both the physical surroundings and the beings that live on those worlds. (Hence the reference to Dante, whose "Inferno" described a multi-layered "Hell" with different types of "worlds" suited to different sins. In "Dante's Equation," there are various types of "heavens" as well.)

The alternate worlds can be accessed through a mini-wormhole that exists just outside the fence around Auschwitz. During the Holocaust, a rabbi vanished there in plain sight of credible witnesses. Now both the mystics and the scientists are trying to find that extrance again. But the problem with this wormhole is that "like attracts like" and you end up in the world that is most similar to your own vibrations (or level of consciousness or whatever.)

"Dante's Equation" is the formula that not only predicts these proportions of Good and Evil but, with the right (?) laboratory equipment, the formula can actually ALTER the tendencies toward Good or Evil in a given area right here on Earth. Physicist Jill Talcott discovers this formula and creates the effect on a limited basis in her laboratory. Powerful stuff -- but is this a good idea? What if the military turns it into a weapon?

More than that would be a spoiler, except to say that that the book is well-plotted with lots of twists and turns. My one gripe is that the Orthodox rabbi character, Aharon Handalman, is the type of rigid stereotype that is becoming all-too-common in modern fiction these days. And not very accurate, either. The idea that Handalman would not let his wife even look at the printouts from his Bible Code arrays because they are "Torah" is utterly ridiculous. Where did the author get this absurd idea -- from watching "Yentl"? In real life, there would be no reason why his wife could not help him look for patterns in a computer printout. And she probably would. Ditto for going to the Yad VaShem library to do research. One could not even claim this was "Torah" -- it was "secular" scholarship about the Holocaust -- and there are plenty of Orthodox women who do Holocaust research. There is simply NO REASON why she would have to sneak there as she does in the book, except as a rather lame literary device to advance the plot.

As other reviewers have pointed out, the various characters are archetypes of personality traits, and each is out of balance in different ways. OK, I can buy that -- but why, Oh why, must my culture always be used to represent the attribute of rigidity? Not only ONE rabbi, but TWO end up on the "fundamentalist" planet -- in a culture that is more like the Spanish Inquisition than anything Jewish. Was this author even aware that the Inquisition was not a Jewish phenomenon, that Jews do not burn and torture heretics, that the Jews themselves were often the heretics BEING burned? Or is the author projecting "Old Testament" Christian theological stereotypes onto the Jews? At any rate, this part of the book did not ring true to me.

Later in the book, when Rabbi Handalman shaves his beard in order to disguise himself (for reasons I won't give away here), I could go along with that in a life-and-death situation. It is a standard axiom of Torah that most ritual laws may be set aside temporarily to save a life. But the implication was that he stayed shaved after the emergency was over, i.e., that in order to find "love" and "gentleness" he had to cease being Orthodox. For that I dock this book a star. It is perfectly possible to be BOTH an Orthodox Jew AND a compassionate human being -- the two are NOT mutually exclusive! I really wish more novelists would realize that. Still, the book was a good read if you can overlook these stereotypes.

Pardon the weak analogy, it's 2am in the morning, I just realized I'm out of Malt Balls, and, well, I might have women somewhere on my 30 year old mind.

Anyway. As evidenced in my rating of this book, despite its shortcomings (which I'll address shortly), this book is remarkable in so many ways by contrast with comparable books of its genre that it would be unfair to award it with anything less than 5 stars.

So, trolling for cool Sci-Fi du jour I happened upon this well regarded book, ordered it, looked it over superficially, then retired it to the bookshelf. I'm so glad that it found its way back into my reading circulation. From the first handful of pages I was hooked...and I don't hook easily. Jensen's use of creative and elegant prose to narrate the very different, very interesting lives of this books handful of characters had me turning the pages in ever increasing sessions.

At the highest level, and not giving anything material away, this story is about a technology that can manipulate the basic laws that govern our material AND "spiritual" universe. Ambitious? Very, but the author does an admirable job building an epistemological foundation that includes cutting-edge technology, relevant history, and in-depth philosophy. Combined, and against the backdrop of "what's going to happen if this tech falls in the wrong hands", you've got real nail-biting potential. And this book realizes allot of it; that is, for the first 2/3rds of the read. In fact, until that last 1/3rd, I was ready to call up Bezos and try to negotiate a special 6 star rating for this gem. Alas, all good things must come to an end...

...unfortunately, this good thing came to an end intra-book! Unfortunately, I would spoil the plot if I were to delineate why this is exactly, but for those who've read this book already, I was very dissapointed with what I thought to be some philosophical over-reaching (especially in the "other dimensions") as well as a convenient but, in my opinion, downright "wrong" ending (do you deal with problems open or closed-source?).

Don't get me wrong, overall, this was a fantastic book and a worthwhile read. I truly loved it, perhaps that's why I'm being so critical. This book came violently close to being a classic, but is worthwhile regardless.

Christian Hunter
Santa Barbara, California

As I write this review I feel just a little... torn. The truth is it took me about five months to complete the novel, and it was rarely a pageturner for me. But when it was, it really was.

Then there's the whole spiritual cosmology that Jensen offers, which is not only intriguing, but really makes sense. I know nothing of Kaballah (nor claim to, even after reading this book) but the tenets put forth that Jensen claims are Kaballah are extremely interesting. More than once I've brought it up in conversations with people, and they always agree that it makes a great deal of sense. Jensen provides a few charts describing this philosophy in the beginning of the book, and I referred back to it often during the novel.

My favorite character is Aharon Handalman, a Jewish rabbi who is fanatically devout to the point of coldness, but eventually finds a sense of freedom and love.

But the truth is he and maybe Denton Wyle are probably the only characters I didn't find at least a little hollow. As interesting as the premise for this book may be, there was just something missing, some element that would make the book seem more real.

"Dante's Equation" is a good read with a good premise, but not so good character development. It is still very recommendable.

I thought this book was one of the more thought-provoking I've read in a long time. The spirituality in the book affected me deeply. I find myself thinking about things in a different way - for example, when bad things happen, I am reminded that everything is 50/50 so there has to be something good about it, or if something looks enviable, reminding myself that nothing is perfect. I have not had a book impact my view of the world so much since Celestine Prophecy.

It is disappointing that this book did not get more recognition. Perhaps some people don't get it. Jensen based her four main characters on kabbalah sephirot. They are extremely unbalanced people. For example, the Jewish rabbi, Handleman, represents gevorah or gravity - he's pure, unmediated judgment and strictness. On the opposite side is Denton Wyle, who is all chesed or openness. He has no moral core whatsoever and just flits from impulse to impulse. I thought these depictions were right-on and they really helped me understand the sephirot. They are extreme characters and presented in a way that is sometimes comical and other times tragic.

I disagree with those who say that Jensen is stereotyping Jewish characters. The point of the Handleman character is that he is represents gevorah, which is judgment or restriction. He could have just as easily been an intolerant Christian evangelist or closed-minded Indian shaman. And, there are other sympathetic Jewish characters in the book that counter-balance. Critics do not report that the CIA operatives, female American professors or rich white magazine reporters are being unfairly stereotyped or denigrated. These other 3 characters are just as eccentric and extreme as Handleman.

The point of these characters is more evident in the second half of the book, when each is sent to a `heaven' or `hell' that is their reward for the way they lived their lives. We get to see an entire world that personifies that sephirot. Ever wonder what a world would be like if the fabric of the planet was all the way on the `openness' side with no rules or restrictions? Or, on the other end, a world where it was all gravity and restriction? Jensen does, with intriguing results. This part of the book is more challenging to intrepret. But the philosophy is fascinating and, again, it made me think about what kind of an after-world my behavior would create. After a bit of a struggle, I got into the new worlds and plots.

To summarize, I found this book highly entertaining with an original message. I've shared it with a half dozen friends. If you are intrigued about the meaning of life or such questions as why evil has to exist, read Dante's Equation.

This book grabbed me from the start with its fast-paced plot involving mysticism, science and nonstop action. I couldn't put the book down until I reached the middle of the book.

Suddenly, this book became another book, leaving me asking, "What the...?" The story plunges into heavy-duty science fiction, which may or may not be a good thing, depending on your taste.

After immensely enjoying the first part, I found myself utterly disappointed as the story became cumbersome and at times incoherent.

I finally gave up when the story turned into complete fantasy. This was not what I bargained for when I picked it up.

Too bad.

All in all, I found this book to be flat-out enjoyable.

But before I mention that, I'd like to address some of the elements that the previous reviewer brought up. This book is divided between four characters, each of who are written (in an excellent, albiet sometimes unbelievably extreme manner) to correspond with their atypical standard kabbalistic standing. In fact, to explain this, there's even a small diagram at the very beggining of the book that demonstraits this.
Characters come across not as steriotypes, but instead as being firm characterisations of their personality archtypes. Jensen writes these characters to focus not only on giving them believable personalities, but to epitomise the concepts in kabbalistic mythos. Although, I suppose this is easy to not understand...
And as for the comments on gay characters.. Ermm, I'm gay, and wasn't at all insulted. So I don't know what the previous reviewer was talking about with that.

Now, about the book itself. This book is an excellent exploration of hypothetical philosophy, with a vague concept of physics passed across two. The idea of physics and philosophy being one and the same is not new, it's been tackled before, but not in such a manner. Here, said philosophy takes the form of kabbalism, a form of conceptual mystical-science of jewish descent.
From this, the reader is presented (via the character of the scientist and the militant) with the idea that the philosophical concept of good and evil may be, in fact, a physical force - an equation. At the same time, two other characters (the hedonist and the religious-scholar) explore the storyline behind this discovery - the character of Kobinski, a polish jew and kabbalist scholar imprisoned in Auschwitz, who disapeared under mysterious circumstances. Through mysticism and science, both the teachings of the kabbalist scholar and the discovery of the equation lead to the sudden and unexpected journey into four other universes - four seperate heavens and hells for the characters.

It's a facinating book, and should be looked upon for it's theoretical concepts as much as it's literary merit.

I couldn't wait to get to the next page. I felt I understood each character and their motives so well. Going into such depth with each character gave me a sense of compassion for all of them. I don't think a book has ever made me feel compassion for every character.

The beginning of the book did not hook me as much as it did towards the middle when things started coming together.

It is so exciting just writing a review about the book it makes me want to read it again. It blows away the Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons. to me those books seem like Hollywood fluff compared to this book. Although I think if I hadn't read Dantes Equation first I might not have expected so much more.

I almost put it down several times over August, as I found it quite boring. The first 200 pages that is. Anyone reading the novel may or may not disagree. I guess the first part of the book really delved into the characterization and laying out the how's and whys that many of the characters acted.

It also helped tie the various characters together, while trying to explain the forces of good and evil as an actual physical law of nature, and how a Jewish Rabbi discovered these laws and was able to use them, along with microscopic black holes, to escape the horrors of the Auschwitz concentration camp near the end of WW2. A young scientist named Jill Tallcott and her assistant Nate Adros have stumbled upon this very same law, and she is determined to see what good can be made of it.

Three other Characters are caught up in the middle of it. A Soldier named Calder Ferris, who is out to learn what he can about this potential new technology, and a writer named Denton Wyle, who is hunting for the lost manuscript that was written by Rabbi Yosef Kobinski, in order to publish these lost works and make a fortune. Finally there is another Jewish Rabbi named Aharon Handalman, who's expertise with Torah code discover several very un-nerving names and phrases in the code, of which Jill Tallcott's name, and weapons of mass destruction are only part of it.

The novel, as I said, does pick up pace and quickly jumps into the realm of SF with the characters discovering these microscopic gateways to other universes.

I found that the very heart and soul of the novel was, if anything, more about finding redemption and changing the darker, uglier sides of ones identity and soul, and that no matter what has happened in the past, you can always change yourself for the better of not only those around you, but mankind.

Very confusing, but it did finally pick up the pace, and I am glad that I stuck with it until the very end.

I almost put it down several times over August, as I found it quite boring. The first 200 pages that is. Anyone reading the novel may or may not disagree. I guess the first part of the book really delved into the characterization and laying out the how's and whys that many of the characters acted.

It also helped tie the various characters together, while trying to explain the forces of good and evil as an actual physical law of nature, and how a Jewish Rabbi discovered these laws and was able to use them, along with microscopic black holes, to escape the horrors of the Auschwitz concentration camp near the end of WW2. A young scientist named Jill Tallcott and her assistant Nate Adros have stumbled upon this very same law, and she is determined to see what good can be made of it.

Three other Characters are caught up in the middle of it. A Soldier named Calder Ferris, who is out to learn what he can about this potential new technology, and a writer named Denton Wyle, who is hunting for the lost manuscript that was written by Rabbi Yosef Kobinski, in order to publish these lost works and make a fortune. Finally there is another Jewish Rabbi named Aharon Handalman, who's expertise with Torah code discover several very un-nerving names and phrases in the code, of which Jill Tallcott's name, and weapons of mass destruction are only part of it.

The novel, as I said, does pick up pace and quickly jumps into the realm of SF with the characters discovering these microscopic gateways to other universes.

I found that the very heart and soul of the novel was, if anything, more about finding redemption and changing the darker, uglier sides of ones identity and soul, and that no matter what has happened in the past, you can always change yourself for the better of not only those around you, but mankind.

Very confusing, but it did finally pick up the pace, and I am glad that I stuck with it until the very end.

Mixing the esoteric, the scientific and the the philosophic in a thriller exquisitely written, where ideas ase deeply explored and the characters are interestng and intriguing. A masterpiece!