Rule of Four [Paperback]

Ian Caldwell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 17, 2005

Tom Sullivan is about to graduate from Princeton. He's intelligent and popular, but haunted by the violent death several years earlier of his father, an academic who devoted his life to studying one of the rarest, most complex and most valuable books in the world. Since its publication in 1499, "The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili" has baffled scholars who have tried to understand its many mysteries. Coded in seven languages, the text is at once a passionate love story, an intricate mathematical labyrinth, and a tale of arcane brutality. Paul Harris, Tom's room-mate, has deeply personal reasons of his own for wanting to unveil the secrets the book hides. When a long-lost diary surfaces, it seems the two friends have found the key to the labyrinth - but when a fellow researcher is murdered only hours later, they suddenly find themselves in great danger. And what they discover embedded in the text stuns them: a narrative detailing the passion of a Renaissance prince, a hidden crypt, and a secret worth dying to protect.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Caldwell and Thomason's intriguing intellectual suspense novel stars four brainy roommates at Princeton, two of whom have links to a mysterious 15th-century manuscript, the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. This rare text (a real book) contains embedded codes revealing the location of a buried Roman treasure. Comparisons to The Da Vinci Code are inevitable, but Caldwell and Thomason's book is the more cerebral-and better written-of the two: think Dan Brown by way of Donna Tartt and Umberto Eco. The four seniors are Tom Sullivan, Paul Harris, Charlie Freeman and Gil Rankin. Tom, the narrator, is the son of a Renaissance scholar who spent his life studying the ancient book, "an encyclopedia masquerading as a novel, a dissertation on everything from architecture to zoology." The manuscript is also an endless source of fascination for Paul, who sees it as "a siren, a fetching song on a distant shore, all claws and clutches in person. You court her at your risk." This debut novel's range of topics almost rivals the Hypnerotomachia's itself, including etymology, Renaissance art and architecture, Princeton eating clubs, friendship, steganography (riddles) and self-interpreting manuscripts. It's a complicated, intricate and sometimes difficult read, but that's the point and the pleasure. There are murders, romances, dangers and detection, and by the end the heroes are in a race not only to solve the puzzle, but also to stay alive. Readers might be tempted to buy their own copy of the Hypnerotomachia and have a go at the puzzle. After all, Caldwell and Thomason have done most of the heavy deciphering-all that's left is to solve the final riddle, head for Rome and start digging.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School–A compelling modern thriller that cleverly combines history and mystery. When four Princeton seniors begin the Easter weekend, they are more concerned with their plans for the next year and an upcoming dance than with a 500-year-old literary mystery. But by the end of the holiday, two people are dead, two of the students are injured, and one has disappeared. These events, blended with Renaissance history, code breaking, acrostics, sleuthing, and personal discovery, move the story along at a rapid pace. Tom Sullivan, the narrator, tells of his late father's and then a roommate's obsession with the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, a 15th-century "novel" that has long puzzled scholars. Paul has built his senior thesis on an unpopular theory posited by Tom's father–that the author was an upper-class Roman rather than a monk–and has come close to proving it. While much of the material on the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili is arcane and specialized, it is clearly explained and its puzzles are truly puzzling, while the present-day action is compelling enough to keep teens reading. There is a love interest for Tom and a lively portrayal of Princeton life. This novel will appeal to readers of Dan Brown's TheDa Vinci Code (Doubleday, 2003) but it supplies a lot more food for thought, even including some salacious woodcuts from the original book as well as coded excerpts and their solutions.–Susan H. Woodcock, Fairfax County Public Library, Chantilly, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Random House (February 17, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0099451956
• ISBN-13: 978-0099451952
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.3 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1,234 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,625,949 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

86 of 95 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars YAWN, March 16, 2008

By 

D. Meyers (Grand Rapis, MI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Rule of Four (Mass Market Paperback)

I have to admit - after two thirds of the book, I could go no further. I put it aside never to return. The plot was a little cliche, riding the tails of other books about mysterious discoveries that shed truth on cultural history. That would be OK. The plot, however, got lost in the personal and sophmoric antics of college students that were frankly uninspiring. However, if all the padding about Princeton were taken out, there would be little left. The pace was too sloooow and the writing not tight enough to make it interesting. The discoveries of protagonist were too infrequent and the impact was lost. I also heard some of this book on tape. The reader was excellent, but it was clear that he was even straining to generate some interest in the listener.

93 of 104 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars All Hype and No Action, February 29, 2008

By 

Christine K. Potter - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Rule of Four (Hardcover)

According to the press reviews, this looked like my kind of book: a scholarly, erudite, well-written thriller. At the moment, I'm trying desperately to make it to page 150, constantly irritated by inconsistencies and downright idiocies. Here are a few examples.
1. The opening scenes take place during an April snowfall. While this is not improbable, it's described as the first snowfall of the year. Give me a break, no snow in New Jersey during January, February, or March?
2. Arcangelo Corelli is referred to as "a slightly obscure Italian composer". As a musician, I found this a strange statement coming from the mouth of a character supposedly named after Corelli, who is not obscure in the least.
3. Another character is portrayed simultaneously as suffering from a heart murmur and as being an athlete and football player. Not impossible, but a potential contradiction which demands some explanation, such as "Despite his heart condition . . . "
4. In one of the events taking place in the 15th century, an "illiterate pickpocket" is hired to break into a residence and copy some documents. How someone illiterate could copy anything written is beyond belief.
And these are just a few. Even without such inanities, the book is poorly written. It sounds just like what it is, the product of a couple of pretentious Ivy League undergrads. What I don't get is the enthusiastic reception it got from the critics. Did they actually read this nonsense?

57 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Just Flat Out Boring, March 28, 2008

By 

ZMoney (Colorado) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Rule of Four (Mass Market Paperback)

This book was written in a style of older fiction and you could tell the authors were trying was to hard to do so. Never have I seen so many classic literature references in one book. It was like the authors were trying to prove they were well educated. The story was also very boring....no action mainly just character developement for characters that I never really cared about. Don't be fooled by the comparisons to Dan Brown because these guys are nowhere near him. The only similar thing about them is that the book they were researching in the story was old...thats about it. Don't waste your time on this one.