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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
What more could one possibly look for in a great novel?, May 2, 2004
In Naples, Italy, in 1764, fourteen year old Sigismundo Celine witnesses the murder of his Uncle Leonardo, on Easter, while he's about to perform the mass. This begins the coming of age story of young Sigismundo, in wanting to prove his manhood, discovering the world is far more sinister than he was lead to believe. Sigismundo adventures into the world of music from unknown Johann Sebastian Bach, befriends the Monster, the wunderkind Wolfgang Mozart, he even meets the hermetically inclined Dr. Frankenstein - or one of them. All the while, everyone from the Freemasons, the Rossi, Alumbrados, the Carboni, and even the MAFIA want seem to want him to 'learn their secret handgrips and join their very own special conspiracy' (pg. 134). The characters are brilliantly entertaining, from Sigismundo himself who is 'the most brilliant young musician in all Italy since Antonio Vivaldi, in the estimation of only the two people whose opinions mattered, himself and Uncle Pietro' (pg. 14), to clever Uncle Pietro who spares him time and time again, naļve Maria whom Sigismundo is hopelessly in love with - and terrified of, to Sir John ('"Yes," Sir John said wearily, with a strange, crooked grin. "I do not know what to believe. I have read too much and traveled too far. Certitude belongs to those who have only lived in a place where everybody believes the same thing"' (pg 315). The chapter headings loosely follow cards of the Tarot (the Fool, the Empress, the Magician, the Priestess, the World, the Hanged Man, the Devil), but out of order. Obviously influenced by Aleister Crowley, Masonic ritual and occult thought with Wilson's characteristic 'maybe logic' philosophy evident even in this early work. Any fan of the any branch of Illuminati or secret society lore will immediately find this book appealing. Brilliantly written, clever, funny, and with more than a hint of intrigue, what more could one possible look for in a great novel.
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Earth Still Shaking, December 28, 2005
I read this book back in the late 80's when it was printed by a mass-market publisher (Signet, I think) containing two abridged volumes; The Earth Will Shake and The Widow's Son. I loved it then and was never able to find Nature's God. Now I have all 3 books. After re-reading this edition, I've enjoyed it twice as much!! There is still yet an unpublished forth book, "The World Turned Upside Down" and we're all awaiting this gem to be published. Earth Will Shake is a coming of Age novel set in the enlightenment era where a murder happens in church during an Easter mass. From that point on it's a roller coster ride of wicked but serious fun. You are enlightened by the sheer weight of the subject matter that continues to this day. In these works you meet diverse characters who are historically real. I.e., the young Mozart, Count Cagliostro and Casanova, just to name a few. Dan Brown though entertaining, is comparatively an amateur hack when writing about the Illumniati (see for yourself and read this. You won't be disappointed). When the Da Vinci Code got ALL the attention, there was no mention of this work and I find that a sad reality though parr for the course in these "shaky" times. Remember, "reality is what you can get away with"...
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37 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Back at last! Move aside, Dan Brown..., June 15, 2005
In the early 1980's, I lived in San Francisco. I knew actual members of the OTO, mysterious avant garde musicians, punk rockers and performance artists, bicycle messengers, typesetters, cabinet makers and optical laser artists. My life was going to hell on drugs and alcohol. I regret not a moment of it, but several things got me through the bad time. One was a book by Robert Anton Wilson called THE COSMIC TRIGGER. He somehow manages to mix mysticism and skepticism and pragmatism and wit. This Robert Anton Wilson is a metaphysician, good for the angst that might take your very life.
He had also written the famous ILLUMINATI! trilogy, the Schrodinger's Cat series,but had not yet started the series that begins with this very book.
This book is a prequel to the Illuminatus trilogy, in exactly the same way that Neil Stephenson's QUICKSILVER preludes CRYPTONOMICON, only in a much more profound vein.
Meet Sigismundo Celine (obviously the ancestor of the pirate Hagbard Celine we meet in Wilson's earlier/later tale) he is Parsifal, and his tale begins with the death of his father, or not his father, but then he kills his own father. Get out your secret decoder ring, kids--Wilson was on a deeper plane here than either Dan Brown, the aforementioned Stephenson, or even George Lucas--yet mining much of the same territory.
Magic and Madness. Sin and Redemption. Conspiracies and Initiation. If you are smart enough to read this book--the next one is a real doozy--certainly the best book Wilson ever wrote.
Then there was a break of more than a decade. Every time I heard Wilson on the radio (KPFK in the dead of night--he has a fan base out here in California)I would call and beg him for the third book. When it did arrive it was excellent but had lost the wind, somehow. Possibly it was me. Readers are half the reading.
But these books are the REAL MAGILLA. If you understand what RAW is saying here--it will enter your mind like a virus and it will change you. This is not just fiction. You are warned.
Sixteen years ago I appeared in a play by Robert Anton Wilson called WILHELM REICH IN HELL. It was in a small nightclub in Long Beach--but I got to meet the great man. As Tim Leary once said of him, Wilson was glowingly sane. (or was that what wilson said of leary???) The proof is on the page, and this one waits for YOU.
(Robert Anton Wilson--if you read this review, please write us the fourth book. I have read nearly every word you have ever written, even magazine articles and this is the one to leave us gasping--if you can't, I understand. We face tomorrow unafraid and carry the meme of freedom. Persevere.
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