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22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Great Concept, Middling Execution, September 8, 2007
I wanted very much to enjoy THE REINCARNATIONIST, but I had some serious problems with it.
While some reviewers have openly compared this novel to THE DA VINCI CODE, I felt that THE REINCARNATIONIST was not nearly as well plotted. For the most part, this novel lacks a real sense of narrative drive. Whatever you think of Dan Brown's writing skills, he knows how to produce a novel with a tight plot and a lightning fast pace. THE REINCARNATIONIST's pace is largely placid, with a multitude of flashbacks that slow the action down even further.
An even more serious problem with THE REINCARNATIONIST is the characterization, which lacks depth. Throughout this novel, Rose repeatedly jumps from character to character, and from time period to time period, and I couldn't care less about any of the major players in the story. Josh Ryder, the main character in this book, is something of a cypher. He has very little personality outside of his reincarnation memories, and I didn't find him even remotely interesting as a person.
Lastly, this book teaches nothing new about the concept of reincarnation. The whole novel's plot revolves around a set of "Memory Stones" that may allow the holder to reach back to their past lives. But as Rose admits in her afterword, these stones are a complete fiction and have no historical basis in fact. So if you're expecting to learn something new and profound about reincarnation, lower your expectations.
Rose does do a good job, however, of painting a picture of Ancient Rome and how the pagan religions operated during that time. I thought the flashback scenes in 391 AD were the best and most interesting part of the novel. I wish she had spent more time on this aspect of the plot, as opposed to the less interesting modern-day story.
In short, THE REINCARNATIONIST has some interesting and clever moments, but I just didn't find it particularly suspenseful or compelling. I would recommend this novel only to people with a strong pre-existing interest in the subject matter it explores.
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Karma, Karma Chameleon, February 3, 2008
Every once in a while a good audio book provides me with the motivation I need to spur on my daily cardio exercise. When I saw M. J. Rose's "The Reincarnationist" available as a download for my iPod, the type of story (thriller), its theme (reincarnation) and its overall length seemed to fit the bill.
I wasn't disappointed--not really although the reader's usage of the same Italian accent for both male and female players did grate on my nerves somewhat. Ms Rose tries extremely hard to provide her reader (in this case, listener) with a plotline filled with the inevitable twists and turns necessary to categorize "The Reincarnationist" as a tale of suspense. As I am not aware if Rose herself has a belief in the complicated and controversial topic of reincarnation, I trust she has a healthy interest in it as she explores it in a meandering questing manner through the burgeoning enlightenment of her main character, photographer Josh Ryder that suggests like most of us she has more questions than answers.
Josh seems to be a believer, or is he? After a near collision with death during the detonation of a terrorist bomb, Josh is endowed with the ability to see auras over the heads of certain subjects as he views them through his camera lens. Although he cannot capture this nimbus effect on film, he does sense that it is indicative of a vital mystery of which he specifically needs understanding. In the same sense, sadly, Rose does not imbue Josh with any great insight regarding the hows and whys of reincarnation. He muddles along attempting to understand what is happening to him, but like Rose or anyone else, never quite puts it all together.
To move the story along, Rose increases the frequency of his fugue states--blackouts of a sort where he actually finds himself reliving an event in a different time from the vantage point of another body. When he isn't in the modern day, Josh inhabits the body of the pagan priest Julius, who in 391 AD is compelled by the mandate of the Emperor Theodosius the Great to cease and desist from practicing his religion and embrace only Christianity. Julius, bound in a passionately intense relationship with Sabina, a vestal virgin, knows all too well that the discovery of their forbidden affair means that his lover could be buried alive. Driven by a disastrous spiraling of events that puts everything he holds dear in jeopardy, Julius must concoct a plan of great connivance to save Sabina, himself, and the supernatural treasure trove the vestals have been guarding since their inception. Rose does a magnificent job of recreating this time period; her descriptions of temples, the life of the vestals, their terror with regard to the encroaching threat of Christianity makes for a thoroughly believable reenactment.
Unfortunately, this is not the case for the present day story that contains so many extra characters whose tales are told from a bewildering third person perspective, that the reader (listener) wonders just what purpose they serve in the overall scheme of things. Encumber this with a murder, a theft and a kidnapping that diverts the audience from the main theme of reincarnation to pursue a rather mundane mystery of which the perpetrator is known pretty much from the start of the novel. Multiply the complexity of all this with characters that also have past lives and we encounter a veritable labyrinth of intrigue that perpetuates to the nth power. Well, maybe not to that extreme, but believe me, many of the author's seemingly helpful additions merely lead to a bird's nest of confusion rather than yielding any epiphanies regarding reincarnation.
The main thrust remains the increasingly recurring and more detailed memories of the priest Julius which Josh analyzes with the help of the Phoenix Foundation, an organization headed by the intriguing Malachai Samuels, a man desperate to experience the flashbacks of remembrance first hand. Dispatching Josh to sniff out information regarding the legendary Memory Stones of ancient Egyptian origin found at the site of a dig on the outskirts of Rome, he craves to at least see the artifacts so that he can not only careen backwards with his soul in time but, become the master controller of the power that the stones contain.
During his Roman holiday, Josh concludes that he is searching for the lost Sabina, reincarnated now in the present day. Perhaps he can fulfill his karmic duty, shrug aside the failures of the past and save her, the stones and recapture his own sanity. As he races from Rome to New York, thwarting the Italian police, amazingly wealthy men who make it their business to acquire artifacts legitimately or not and flustered souls reborn from the past hell-bent on accomplishing what they did not succeed lifetimes ago, he eventually reaches a too-fast climatic cliffhanger of an ending that makes sense, but ultimately seems a fast and easy conclusion that does not provide the insight that this reader desired.
Bottom line? M.J. Rose's "The Reincarnationist" is an ambitious novel that keeps the pages turning, but in the long run fails to deliver a complete and satisfying story. Much of the prose seems over done, as is the inclusion of so many miscellaneous characters whose motives are never quite explained from a virtual timeline perspective. The main player remains mystified to the very end, and even then his moment of revelation seems underdeveloped and he, not accepting of his fate. Recommended to any who want a fast-paced read and do not mind trite phrasing and too many comments regarding Italian accents. Overall a pleasant audio experience.
Diana Faillace Von Behren
"reneofc"
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16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Reincarnationist - Two-parts History, Two-parts Fiction, Ten-parts Suspense..., August 30, 2007
After photojournalist Josh Ryder nearly loses his life in a Rome terrorist bombing, Josh finds himself plagued by flashback-like hallucinations. When the episodic flashbacks can't be medically or emotionally explained, Josh looks into a metaphysical cause. Allied with the Phoenix Foundation in New York, an organization dedicated to the study of past-life regressions in children, Josh concludes that the perplexing images are actual scenes from the past lives of Julius, a pagan priest in 391 A.D. Rome, and Percy Talmage, a 19th century New York City tormented patrician. Piecing together the message behind each vision, along with their connection, however, is going to be infinitely more difficult.
Following an eerie return to Rome, Josh is swiftly thrust into a world of murder, mystery and mayhem. What was supposed to be a foundation-funded visit to an archaeological site searching for mythical memory stones rumored to invoke past-life regressions, ends up being the catalyst to unraveling Josh's hallucinations. And it all begins with a vision romantically linking Julius with the archaic remains of a Vestal Virgin.
With each new flashback coming to virtual life for Josh, comes a new revelation related to present day events. And with each revelation, a new threat to Josh, the foundation, and those involved with the dig is revealed. Enemies abound with the Roman Catholic Church stopping at nothing to prevent evidence of reincarnation coming to light and mysterious "other" players striving to achieve their own end, all forming an intricate web of intrigue with Josh at the epicenter of the turmoil. It's only a matter of time before all the players reveal themselves and their true motives. Can Josh uncover the truth behind his visions before someone else is murdered... namely him?
M. J. Rose cleverly intertwines historical fact and dramatic fiction into what can only be described as a "novellic movie." With the action playing out with such sobering reality, every scene described with intimate precision, and each character's emotions personified with such unfettered intensity, the reader will undoubtedly walk away from THE REINCARNATIONIST feeling the events portrayed are credible pieces of history.
The romantic relationship between Julius and the Vestal head priestess, a liaison punishable by death, acts as a crux for the novel's main storyline. The foundation of bitter poignancy and longing, with barely any hope for a happy ending, breeds the perfect combination of suspense, shock, and hope. Riding the waves of emotion evoked by THE REINCARNATIONIST, the reader can't help but sympathize with Josh's incessant commitment to scientifically verify the whys behind his past-life images. But there comes a point in the novel when the reader not only accepts all of the transcendental coincidences inherent with the basic tenets of reincarnation, but faithfully follows the intrinsic flow of each revealed clue, resulting in the reader ultimately searching for the same truth Josh seeks.
Two-parts History, two-parts Fiction, ten-parts Suspense, M. J. Rose's THE REINCARNATIONIST has all the trappings of the next craze. This is a must read.
Chris (Courtesy of Romance Junkies)
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