Customer Reviews

Pythagoras' Revenge: A Mathematical Mystery

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Masterfully written gripping plot with unexpected ending.
Fully suspenseful all along.
Mathematically instructive even for the novice.
Philosophically challenging.
Technically well documented.
Historically substantiated.
Vividly depicting numerous colourful characters, old and recent times and obscure places.
Highly recommended.
A literary jewel.

Anyone with some knowledge of mathematics is familiar with the Pythagorean theorem, for a right triangle the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the sides. What is probably not known is the history of Pythagoras himself. Born in the sixth century BC he developed during his lifetime into a philosopher and mathematician, leader of a group of followers obsessed with the idea that through numbers one could explain the concepts of the world. He left no written record of his philosophy. The fictional account here details the action of various groups seeking a so called manuscript written by Pythagoras. The well written narrative with its many twists and surprises will keep readers eager to follow its development. There are digressions intermingled with the story introducing various mathematical concepts.

This is an original and entertaining math-thriller. Its strength is the care and detail that have gone into the historical elements, and into the threading of the various plot lines. It is a peculiar novel; it reads like an action thriller for teenage boys, but the main protagonist is an aging, and rather unsympathetic academic. And at it its heart, one has to suspend disbelief over two rather indigestible tenants: that the key figures would play along with the notion of reincarnation, and that the modern day Pythagorean sect would be so powerful. But these are completely consistent with the Pythagorean theme, and the book displayed a remarkable coherency. I hesitated between rating it 4 or 5, but was convinced by the appendices, notes and bibliography. The author put a lot of effort into this book. If you like math-fiction, you will very likely enjoy this. I did.

Every high school mathematics student thinks they know everything about Pythagoras, as soon as they master the formula for finding the hypotenuse of a right triangle if you know the two sides. Hardly any go on to learn that Pythagoras founded an important school of philosophy, one that has implications even to today's considerations of vexing questions in mathematics and science.

This fictionalized account of the search for a particular artifact that will reveal even more truths about the world is a fun way of absorbing what is actually known about Pythagoras, and what is suspected.

As a work of fiction this doesn't hold up---it's merely a badly written pastiche of earlier secret society novels. Dan Brown comes to mind. Now Dan Brown is by no means a literary stylist but he does have the formula for a page tuner. Here the author doesn't really have a decent plot. PythRev is just a disconnected collection of episodes with stock cardboard characters--padded with info from wikipedia about few math topics and a bit of classical history. The math is not developed to the point that would convey any of its depth. What I find most shocking is that a distinguished university press--Princeton--would publish such obviously clumsy, amateur junk(as in 'junk food for the mind'). The author is a mathematician. He should have stuck to abstract formal systems and left writing to the writers.

Basically, as admitted by the author in the preface, the book is not a mystery, but a popularized account of the life of Pythagoras and the school/cult he founded. The only "mystery" is why anyone would care who is the reincarnated Pythagoras.