$7.19  Angels & Demons - Book |
$10.50  Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation - Book |
$7.99  Deception Point - Book |
$14.97  The Da Vinci Code - Book |
$17.13  The Narrows: A Novel - Book |
 [Larger view] | The Rule of Four
| ||||||||||||
| |
Average user rating:  | |
 Affected writing, and overdose of Princeton | |
| Synopsys: Story revolves around the lives of four undergrads in their final year at Princeton University. Two of them are trying to interpret a 15th century text, Paul for his thesis and Tom to carry on the work started by his dead father. The text is composed of numerous riddles based on renaissance literature that are solved as the plot progresses. Positive: The basic premise of solving ancient puzzles to arrive at an unknown treasure hasn't worn its welcome ... yet. Negative: Far too detailed, often irrelevant, descriptions of Princeton buiildings, life, and traditions. I found them boring. The puzzles and riddles that are the highlight of this book are seldom worked through interactively for the reader's benefit. Typically, the brainy character (Paul) solves them on his own time and then launches into dull descriptions of what the encrypted text reveals when the solution is used as a cipher. In this respect "The Da Vinci Code" is far superior. The writing is often too pretentious, the kind with words from an SAT list and frequent metaphors for life and love. Example: "The butt of every triangle becomes the heart of another, until the roof of reality is a tessellation of love affairs. Taken together, they have the pattern of netting; and behind them, I think, is Love." | |
 Very unusual | |
| I was misled by the reviews -- but I'm not complaining! I picked up this book in the airport, of all places, because a friend had shown me a review in Esquire or People (magazines I don't usually read). I was expecting a lame-duck thriller, something that would barely hold me over between the in-flight movie and the airplane shopping catalog. Boy was I wrong! The Rule of Four breaks the mold. How such an intricate, beautiful novel became a bestseller is beyond me! This is really a coming-of-age story, using an ancient book as a broad metaphor to contain the violence, passion, and uncertainty of being at a particular stage in life. A couple of the characters did strike me as having a whiff of cliche to them, but I can't think of a "college novel" that doesn't roll out a few old chestnuts to please the reader's expectations - the rich kid, the genius, and so on. The pleasure here is that the writers weren't satisfied to let the characters stand as cliches. Each character is transformed by the end of the novel - even the ones who are only peripherally touched by the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (the Renaissance book at the center of it all). I admit that I couldn't follow all the riddles and codes in here, and it only contributes to my impression of the novel that even without appreciating those things, I was still bowled over by what I found. Some of the middle-age literary writers I've come across could take a lesson from these young authors. If this books sells anything like the number of copies sold of The Da Vinci Code, maybe there is justice in the universe after all! | |
 No Way Near The DaVinci Code! | |
| I purchased this book because it was tauted as The DaVinci Code for 2004. NOT! Where the DaVinci Code engaged the reader in the problem solving and code breaking, in The Rule of Four, the reader is spoon-fed the answers. I was very satisfied with the DaVinci Code, esp. when I would get the answers to the cyphers correct. I am so disappointed in The Rule of Four, that maybe I will just set it on fire too, though I doubt anyone would martyr themselves rescuing it... |
