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Tuesday the 13th of July, 2004

Rule of Four

Ok, I have to admit that it’s hard for me to get into audio books.  I’ve been listening to a few here and there with my drive to and from work.  But this week I’ve started a new book, “The Rule of Four” which has captivated my attention.  I find myself driving slower than normal just to afford myself more time to listen.

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 Poliphili 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 Poliphili 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.
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The text has become very intriguing to me.  I haven’t enjoyed reading/listening to a book so much since I read A Density of Souls by Christopher Rice in less than a day.  As the story progresses, it becomes more involving to me.  I can’t stop.  I’ve found myself sitting in the driveway listening to the remaining chapters on a cd.

I’ll leave another comment after I’ve finished the text.  I highly recomend it at this point if you enjoy a novel with an aire of mystery.

R

Posted by rtkenmore at 11:46 PM on the 13th of July, 2004.
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