Rating: 
Summary: Better job by the narrator than by the author
Review: I have now listened to a substantial number of books in audio form. Some are almost unintelligible, others are great. The text of this book is an excellent example of pedanticism: the use of language for its demonstration of the author's erudition rather than the conveyance of story and information. The rendition of the work by the reader is as good as any I have heard. Without the reader, I would have junked it. It isn't that the story is bad, it is a good story. The plot is novel, meaning new, science fiction-fantasy (though the author would be horrified by this description) and interesting. The clearly excessive, even in this abridged version, of language for language's sake is daunting and distracting and then, ultimately, boring.
Rating: 
Summary: Orgasm in the traffic jam!
Review: I read the book! One of the greatest books I have ever read. A book that I started and finished the same day. I live and work in Brussels, the capital of Europe. But unfortunately, I spend a couple of hours a day in a traffic jam. With these audio tapes, the traffic jam is never long enough. I really adore the way this book is been narrated. These tapes brought me the exciting times of reading the book. If you are a templars adict like me, order these tapes!!!
Rating:
Summary: It took two attempts but I think I finally got it!
Review: The plot of this book detailed in the wide-ranging exploration of the Knights, et al, as well as the activities and delusions of the supporting characters present the reader with a variety of thematic conclusions. For me, the central lesson Eco teaches is that we are confronted by various realities (or unrealities) in life and that the paths our lives will take reflect the reality (or unreality) to which we subscribe.
Rating:
Summary: Several stories in one including mine
Review: To correct a factual error in my previous review: I had read The Name of the Rose and was fascinated with Eco's scholarship, so when Pendulum was published in 1989, I was the first (only?) on my block to read it. The book fast became an obsession with me. At 3:30 AM one March morning, surrounded by reference books, which included Latin, Italian and Greek dicitionaries, a 1939 (pre-most-technology) edition of the Encyclopedia Brittanica, an atlas, a history of the Crusades, notepads and pencils, I realized that the game had drawn me into it. I was, in a small way, an unscripted character in Eco's opus. Though I found the climax to be too fantastic for my taste, one coincidence is still foremost in my mind: the day, March 19, 1989, I read about the execution of Jacques DeMolay by Philip IV was the 675th anniversary of the event. I recommend this book for anyone interested in the Knights Templar, in empires gained and lost, and in tricks and tricksters, both major and minor. Though this book was a large seller and a good one, I fear it adorned more mantelpieces than reading desks - the Glitterati of the Illuminati by the Interior Decorati.
Rating: 
Summary: deeply gripping-hard to put down, enjoyable yet dense
Review: I highly reccommend this to anyone who enjoyed the Illuminatus trilogy by Robert Shea/Robert Anton Wilson. This book is to the Illuminatus Trilogy like The Hobbit is to The Trilogy of the Rings. Esoteric history and good character development make this a good read ....
Rating:
Summary: Several stories in one (including mine).
Review: I had read The Name of the Rose and was fascinated with Eco's scholarship, so when Pendulum was published in 1989, I was the first (only?) on my block to read it. The book fast became an obsession with me. At 3:30 AM one October morning, surrounded by reference books, which included Latin, Italian and Greek dicitionaries, a 1939 (pre-most-technology) edition of the Encyclopedia Brittanica, an atlas, a history of the Crusades, notepads and pencils, I realized that the game had drawn me into it. I was, in a small way, an unscripted character in Eco's opus. Though I found the climax to be too fantastic for my taste, one coincidence is still foremost in my mind: the day, October 13, 1989, I read about the execution of Jacques DeMolay by Philip IV was the 675th anniversary of the event. I recommend this book for anyone interested in the Knights Templar, in empires gained and lost, and in tricks and tricksters, both major and minor. Though this book was a large seller and a good one, I fear it adorned more mantelpieces than reading desks - the Glitterati of the Illuminati by the Interior Decorati.
Rating:
Summary: Not your average Conspiracy Theory
Review: Umberto Eco's book is fascinating, intriguing. Filled with chapters-full of offbeat interpretations of history and wildly enjoyable connections, it is a highly entertaining book. Not only concerned with conspiracies, Umberto Eco quietly pans publishers such as Signor Garamond, whose line "Water--don't tell me it's not a metal," still causes laughter in me. Though it is not usually read for its characters, some of them are quite memorable. Belbo and his comic or tragic observations of life in his files stored in Abulafia the Computer. Diotevalli, the would-be Kabbalist. Lorenza, Belbo's belligerent, out-of-control girlfriend. The levelheaded Lia. Mysterious Dr. Aglie whose occasional slips of the tongue (on purpose?) indicates something is not normal about him. The comical portrayal of Professor Camestres and his abhorrence of the OTO (which is...? asks Belbo) Tapir-faced Bramante. But most enjoyable of all is their rewrite of history, their Ordonation...which turns out is true...Or is it? "A rollercoaster ride through a world of ideas...", like the dust-jacket says. Then of course are Eco's on-point observations about modern life. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. Comic and Tragic at the same time. Enjoyably weird, but not too weird. This book is, however, not for the THEY'RE OUT TO GET ME school of conspiracy-theorists. If you enjoy gratuitous violence and idiotic assumptions that the black helicopters are after YOU!!! then, this book is definitely NOT for you. This book has more refinement than that. Read it, you'll like it.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: I'm 100 pages from the end, and the fascination factor just keeps increasing! I was warned by several friends that it was impossible to read. Here's the secret -- only the first chapter is a hell-read. The rest is just gobs of fun. Hack your way through chapter one and you're set.
Rating:
Summary: An engrossing story, large in scope...
Review: I didn't expect to be drawn into this tale of cosmic associations and reveberations as much as I was, but then good books have the tendency to sneak up on you. This is like the Illuminati series, but for people who don't consider themselves "conspiracy theorists" and who appreciate a writer who can "name drop" without name dropping, whose command of European history (as well as cultures abroad) is vast in depth and scope. This book made me want to visit my local science museum, where Foucault's Pendulum swings free, unencumbered; it made me want to sit and have coffee with my rabbi and chat about cabala; to see out fellow med students who are Muslims and discuss their religious beliefs and to rejoice in the existence of the Mysterious... I didn't rate it a 10 because at times, this novel definitely makes the reader feel like an ignoramus. I'm not an Oxford trained philosopher or semiologist. I'm consider myself to be a fairly broadly read 25 year old medical student. But certainly, many (heck, most!) of the names dropped in this text sail over my head and I cringe in hearing the dull thud as they splat against the wall behind me. Too bad paperbacks don't have imbedded HTML links to footnotes or a mini encyclopedia of history. I woulda felt less like an imbecile. If you've ever seen the show Connections (where inventions, politial movements, etc. are all linked together throughout time so that the host can describe this historical arc from horses to horsepower, from turbans to turbines...), then you have some idea on how the interconnections in this book are arranged...
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating
Review: I kept finding myself in the library looking up everything from the Knights of the Templar, to stories about the Holy Grail, cults and anything else having to do with Umbertos crazy novel. Probably one of the most interesting books I have read- and the most fun too! Superb!
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