Rating: 
Summary: Like a brilliant supermodel...with acute halitosis.
Review: Pardon the weak analogy, it's 2am in the morning, I just realized I'm out of Malt Balls, and, well, I might have women somewhere on my 30 year old mind.
Anyway. As evidenced in my rating of this book, despite its shortcomings (which I'll address shortly), this book is remarkable in so many ways by contrast with comparable books of its genre that it would be unfair to award it with anything less than 5 stars.
So, trolling for cool Sci-Fi du jour I happened upon this well regarded book, ordered it, looked it over superficially, then retired it to the bookshelf. I'm so glad that it found its way back into my reading circulation. From the first handful of pages I was hooked...and I don't hook easily. Jensen's use of creative and elegant prose to narrate the very different, very interesting lives of this books handful of characters had me turning the pages in ever increasing sessions.
At the highest level, and not giving anything material away, this story is about a technology that can manipulate the basic laws that govern our material AND "spiritual" universe. Ambitious? Very, but the author does an admirable job building an epistemological foundation that includes cutting-edge technology, relevant history, and in-depth philosophy. Combined, and against the backdrop of "what's going to happen if this tech falls in the wrong hands", you've got real nail-biting potential. And this book realizes allot of it; that is, for the first 2/3rds of the read. In fact, until that last 1/3rd, I was ready to call up Bezos and try to negotiate a special 6 star rating for this gem. Alas, all good things must come to an end...
...unfortunately, this good thing came to an end intra-book! Unfortunately, I would spoil the plot if I were to delineate why this is exactly, but for those who've read this book already, I was very dissapointed with what I thought to be some philosophical over-reaching (especially in the "other dimensions") as well as a convenient but, in my opinion, downright "wrong" ending (do you deal with problems open or closed-source?).
Don't get me wrong, overall, this was a fantastic book and a worthwhile read. I truly loved it, perhaps that's why I'm being so critical. This book came violently close to being a classic, but is worthwhile regardless.
Christian Hunter
Santa Barbara, California
Rating: 
Summary: extremely exciting thriller
Review: Physicist and Kabbalah Rabbi Yosef Kobinski suddenly disappears from Auschwitz in a flash of light. No on knows what happened to the Jewish mystic. He left behind his work, The Book of Torment, in which he claims that he uncovered the physical law of good and evil. His mathematical mystical masterpiece of metaphysics is buried.Five decades later at the University of Washington, Dr. Jill Talcott and her lab assistant Nate Andros are on the brink of a similar breakthrough with their research into energy waves. At the same time Rabbi Handalman and investigative reporter Denton Wyle separately seek Kobinski's The Book of the Torment. Soon these four individuals will find their paths converge at the site where Kobinski allegedly vanished with the Feds on their trail as only the government fully understands the strength of the force that Kobinski and now Talcott have discovered. This extremely exciting thriller is at its strongest during the horrifying Holocaust descriptions, describing the mysticism of the Kabbalah, and explaining energy wave physics all inside a solid science fiction tale. When the story line turns otherworldly it loses much of its strength and ends up leaving the audience a bit disappointed. Jane Jensen provides a deep exciting and complex novel that will please speculative fiction fans especially those who enjoy a taut (for the most part) cutting edge thriller. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: extremely exciting thriller
Review: Physicist and Kabbalah Rabbi Yosef Kobinski suddenly disappears from Auschwitz in a flash of light. No on knows what happened to the Jewish mystic. He left behind his work, The Book of Torment, in which he claims that he uncovered the physical law of good and evil. His mathematical mystical masterpiece of metaphysics is buried. Five decades later at the University of Washington, Dr. Jill Talcott and her lab assistant Nate Andros are on the brink of a similar breakthrough with their research into energy waves. At the same time Rabbi Handalman and investigative reporter Denton Wyle separately seek Kobinski's The Book of the Torment. Soon these four individuals will find their paths converge at the site where Kobinski allegedly vanished with the Feds on their trail as only the government fully understands the strength of the force that Kobinski and now Talcott have discovered. This extremely exciting thriller is at its strongest during the horrifying Holocaust descriptions, describing the mysticism of the Kabbalah, and explaining energy wave physics all inside a solid science fiction tale. When the story line turns otherworldly it loses much of its strength and ends up leaving the audience a bit disappointed. Jane Jensen provides a deep exciting and complex novel that will please speculative fiction fans especially those who enjoy a taut (for the most part) cutting edge thriller. Harriet Klausner
|
