Rating: 
Summary: A monster
Review: This is a thought-provoking thriller. The plot on its own has enough twists and turns to at least keep one up at night, if not mess with one's head.The thought-provoking aspect is most interesting to me. What are rumors? What is myth? What is knowledge? Can we have any knowledge? Is knowledge a good thing? When does fiction affect reality? These are important questions that the book brings up in my mind. There are the arcana of esotericism and hermeticism, the real intrigue is in how this corresponds to the way humanity has built civilization.
Rating: 
Summary: ...
Review: Eco's main character, Casaubon, is also named after Issac Casaubon, who in 1614 dated Hermetic writings as Christian-era works, thereby single-handedly bringing an end to the Renaissance Magus. Eco wants to have the same dampening effect on his reader's enthusiasm for the esoteric. His plot is largley cribbed from Blavatsky, and much of it reads like a carelessly assembled collection of encyclopedia entries. There are huge passages of exposition, and the characters are roughly sketched. He couldn't have trivialized women more, leaving them brief cameos where they assume the role of virgin/... or child chalice. Other cliches include non-sequitur droppings from Finnegan's Wake and the Odyssey, in case you weren't impressed by his untranslated blurbs from arcane sources. By the end, he mentions Sam Spade on practically every page. Ultimately, it looks like the book is an excuse for the author to break out with his tired WWII stories. Eco's characters reminisce against the background of civil unrest in the 60s and spiritual awakening in the 70s, and he pits his lost generation against those born after after the war, insisting that even a cowardly kid ducking Fascists is a better character than those braving the barricades a generation later in Paris. As for the history, it's not that difficult to follow, but it's not worth the effort. Eco even tires of it by the end and wraps up his story with an insufferable bit of moralizing and nostalgia. If you want a pop tale interwoven with conspiracy and esoterica, read the Illuminatus Trilogy instead.
Rating:
Summary: Absorbing, maddening, fulfilling.
Review: Once I got past the mental masturbation of following the references and the connections, I was struck by the borrowed movements found in other works of great importance. The cave in Italy, the witches in the field, borrowing other Walpurgis Night imagery - the entire work touched undercurrents that run rampant in Euro-Judeo-Christian culture. However the greatest accomplishment of the work was the way in which I deeply wanted to identify with Causabon, but in the end found myself one of the Diabolicals that the book in many ways satirizes. The gist of this work is that the Diabolical and the religious are in fact one, and Eco's own secular humanism is the true way, albeit doomed to the cross.
Rating: 
Summary: 3 months later...
Review: It took me a while to get through this. The book is densely written and goes in more directions than a spider's web. The breadth of topics is impressive even though most of the depth is manufactured. The last 150 pages I just wanted it to end...for there to be some resolution to the seemingly endless diversions on almost every subject. Instead there is only something about truth or beauty or something else that really doesn't bring the book to a close. But most of the book is entertaining. I'd give it 3.5 stars if I could.
Rating: 
Summary: not really worth the effort
Review: Before picking up this tome I was under the impression that I was reasonably well-informed on the subject-matter. Having read fairly widely about conspiracies in general I thought my working knowledge of the Illuminati, Priory of Sion , Albigensian Heresy and the like would give me an advantage in penetrating the dense, often confusing and poorly translated prose. Sadly not. I doff my cap to the other reviewers whose descriptions of a racy romp through paranoia certainly do not tally with my miserable plod through this stodgy dirge of a book. I have never found obscurantism particularly entertaining, and having made it to the end only experienced relief that the ordeal was over. Eco's gentle ridicule of the farther reaches of 20th century belief systems may cause some to reassess their irrationality, but I fear it may inspire more to read Baigent and Leigh's nonsense to find out what on earth this semiologist chap was banging on about. If anybody can direct me to somebody who pretends to understand half of one percent of the obscure allusions I will be glad to pay homage. Eco is almost certainly a towering intellect, but by defying comprehension over several hundred pages I fear he may well become the next Stephen Hawking- his work prominently displayed on the bookshelf and universally lauded but nobody ever gets past page 23. Sad, really.
Rating: 
Summary: Superstition brings bad luck
Review: This is a very difficult book to read and can at times be tedious. Various foreign languages (Hebrew, Italian, German, lots of French) are sprinkled throughout with no translation, leaving you thinking "what'd he just say?" It touches upon so much history and so much supposed history that you begin wondering what is the truth and what is fiction, what is myth? Which I suppose is kind of the theme of the book. A good book for skeptics and atheists. Fascinating book but it does drive you a little whacky. My head was spinning for a week after reading it and I'm not sure I'll ever fully recover. Like the main character, I felt compelled to go to a shrink and tell him everything, just to spill it all out of my over-stuffed mind. But then I might have some occultists coming after me! Shhhh...I don't know nothin'!
Rating:
Summary: Intellectual joke turns dangerous
Review: Three Italian intellectuals who work for a prestigious publishing house in Milan, get acquainted with authors who write about occultism, secret societies and cosmic consipracies. As an elaborate intellectual joke, they invent a complex plan "plotted" by the Templar Knights seven centuries ago, and kept secret to this day. Using a computer, they spread the game, but someone will take it seriously. As the "conspiracy" get out of control, the three men will get involved in a nightmare of passion, death, satanism and preversion, that will take the action to Brazil. The book is a thriller, as well as an ironic mock on people who believe in these conspiracy theories, but also a mix of love stories, strange and surreal. The two female characters are fascinating: Lorenza and Lia exemplify frivolity and humanity; snobbism and sense; sensationalism and the warmth of simplicity. Certainly a demanding reading, it is very rewarding and entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: Dense, compelling, and imaginative
Review: Caveat emptor! This book is not for the faint of heart, weak of mind, or deficient of time. This is a Sam Spade novel for antiquarians, medievalists, esoterics, and anyone with a cranium fill with trivia. The story is a bit hard to discern, but such is life. Three editors at a boutique history publishing house come across a story aobut the Kinghts Templar from a crackpot colonel. Though they dismiss the colonel's tale as fantasy, coincidences and disappearances quickly cause the three to think that something is amiss. Is there some grand mystical conspiracy? Is there a war being fought on such an epic scale that we cannot begin to comprehend it? Is there an ineffable plan that even the players do not know of? This book has all the quirkiness of Tom Robbins mixed with the intelligence of Vidal. A knowledge of other languages is definitely helpful.. perhaps French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Latin, Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic, Ugaritic, and a working knowledge of all the base Indo-European proto-languages. If you do not know what Aramaic or Ugaritic are, this might not be the right book for you. This book takes effort to read, but the effort pays off. Read this book and take a ride through the looking glass of history.
Rating:
Summary: SIMPLY THE BEST
Review: I've read all of eco's books. He really makes research. Foucaults pendulum in his native language is just amazing. He touches every sense from the ocultism to the reality going through jacobd=s de molat and the templars, the rosicrucians, astrology , brazil and bleck magic...Of course everything vs scientific methods and reaL life. Also the picture of differtent cities is great.For me he gives thhe best description of the count of st germain.. the first 100 pages are not worth it but the whole explains it all
Rating:
Summary: great fun
Review: I just finished reading it for the third time and still love it. I understand why people don't - if you're not that interested in occult conspiracy theories, I imagine it's staggeringly tedious. If you are, though, it's great fun. My only problem is Lorenza. At no point was I given any reason why Belbo would have given her so much power over him. There was never a moment that she gave even the slightest indication of caring for him, so it was hard for me to see whatever he saw.
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