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30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Jewish mysticism (kabbalah) meets modern physics, March 7, 2005
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.
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27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Like a brilliant supermodel...with acute halitosis., September 7, 2004
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
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting, but Not Always Thrilling, February 24, 2004
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.
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