Rating: 
Summary: Stick with it until the end
Review: This is one of the best books I've read. It is a non stop thriller taking you through the recesses of history in an atrtempt to track down and witness the occult and secret lives that have existed for centuries. The book takes you down the paths of many of these cults in an attempt to discover glory.Eco uses extremely descriptive, complex language (a dictionary is always handy), while using colourful, paranoid and witty characters throughout. The book rollercoasters to the end as you are left frantically grappling for the next page. A fantastic read and it is highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Gripping account of society's secret circles
Review: Though many reviewers try to argue about the 'pseudo-intellectual' quality of this work, I think it can be enjoyed by anyone who perseveres. The book is wonderfully written, although it may be felt that some of the compassion that was abundant in The Name of the Rose is missing. The book is intellectual for intellect's sake, and it is a great parody of the _real_ pseudo-intellectual type of mystic literature. A tough book, but you should really give it a try, if only to understand the book's title.
Rating:
Summary: Great book, but may not be what you think it is
Review: The trouble with the reviews that either praise the book as the best ever, or dismiss it as worthless, is that they didn't help me figure out if it's the kind of book I'd like to read. About half-way into it, I thought, "I wasn't looking for another detective story with a puzzle to solve," but after finishing it, the overall picture, I think, redeemed the effort. The big words, the pomposity, the big lump of detailed nonsense in the middle, and then the corny end of the chase are fitting. It inflates and then pops the cork. Even with all the detail, I found the book hard to put down and a quick read. The only way I can see the book being hard to read would be if someone thought they had to keep track of the detail to understand the ending. The narration itself seems to mock the book from the beginning, and Eco's digressions and witty (but still ambiguous) comments, seem to me the treasure of this book, even more than the pensive summary at the end. It keeps to its message through-and-through. It puts positivists in their place, dethrones scientists from their crusade of saving the world, deflates mystics who search for proof, and leaves an onion where Rilke might have put a rose. I'm not in that "business," but I think Eco the semiotician attempts to show us laymen how meaning is created, its slippery delusional character, and its endemic presence. I think he succeeds, even though I don't understand it on a cerebral level (the conspiracy wins, after all). I have two minor complaints. First, Eco seems to struggle sometimes while attempting to keep the characters interesting, and to avoid turning the whole book into a treatise, though I guess it's not surprising that a postmodernist text doesn't read like a Dostoevsky novel. Second, I either didn't see all that Eco offers in the windup of the book, or the "explanation" he ends with is no more than a "traditionally" postmodernist message, however human and down to earth. Or maybe, the ending just means to discredit itself, and claim its power elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: This is Umberto Eco, not Danielle Steel...
Review: If you are comfortable reading Shakespeare, Milton, Dickens, Whitman, Faulkner, Hemingway, etc... you will not have any trouble reading this book. Eco doesn't fare any worse than all the above. Those who claim that the book is too obscure for them, perhaps shouldn't bother to write a review. The fact that you don't understand something, doesn't mean that it is bad. Do you understand God, life, love, poetry, history and humanity? If you answer was no, does that mean that they're bad? This book includes a little bit of it all. It is by far one of the best works of contemporary literature. If there would ever be a definition of post-modernism, this book would be it.
Rating:
Summary: Tastes great, more brain-filling
Review: It's true: If you think that the Masons are those guys at the veterans day parade in funny hats, if the phrases 'Knights Templar' or 'Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion' mean nothing to you, and if all you know about Italian history is that they were on the bad guys' side in WWII, this book is going to be quite difficult for you. But, if you have ever been or lived with an occultist; if you got a kick out of Robert Anton Wilson's work and still remember some of it through the drug haze; if you are morbidly fascinated with what the religious impulse and the love of conspiracy theory does to the human mind, this is a must-read. This book is an example of perhaps the most difficult feat of all for a writer - the combining of a genuinely exciting and moving plot with a genuinely fascinating set of ideas. Where Eco does err, he errs on the side of too much idea and too little plot, but in the end, the balance comes out with a fantastic climax.
Rating:
Summary: One of the better books you are likely to buy
Review: This book was one of the best that I have ever read. I agree that the book stands apart not in its literature but more in the plot, the vast amount of work put into it (probably the most Eco ever did), and the lesson it teaches. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book throughout, and it showed us all that you do not have to use long and over-planned sentences to succeed in creating a masterpiece novel and probably one of the best endings ever written.
Rating:
Summary: I'll be reviewing the reviewers of this book
Review: What's the deal with this? A man can't even write an interesting book anymore without being accused of such dreaded things as being a "pseudointellectual" (oh this word is just so hip, it almost makes me feel like a pseudopseudointellectual to be using it), or being . . . gasp . . . "tedious and dull". Give the guy a break. If you didn't like it, then just say you didn't like it. And, by all means, why the hell take things so seriously?
Rating:
Summary: Conspiracy Theory Much Larger than JFK
Review: Eco magnificent as usual. This is the most ambitious conspiracy theory novel that western literature will ever produce. The presence of confusing loose ends makes this book great because it requires the reader to take from it what he or she inquisitively puts into it.
Rating: 
Summary: Too Much to be believed!
Review: I am a big fan of Umberto Eco. "The Name of the Rose" is one of my all-time favourite books, so I was looking forward to reading this one. Eco is an excellent writer. His craftmanship cannot be beat, but this book disappointed me. The premise was a good one, but to me it just didn't seem to get there. I didn't grow to care about the characters, and there was too much symbolism and "off the wall" ideas for my taste. I read the entire book because Eco is such a good author, and I thought I'd get the point, but I never really did, and was very disappointed at the end.
Rating:
Summary: Escutium loctotum
Review: A right riveting read! It is without doubt the best book I have ever read. I use it to as a benchmark to read others. Shame he is Italian...should have been written by an Englishman!
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