The Rule of Four is a novel written by two authors; Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason. The back cover has a comment from Nelson DeMille; "If Scott Fitzgerald, Umberto Eco, and Dan Brown teamed up to write a novel, the result would be The Rule of Four." Having read Dan Brown's books, I was intrigue by the comment. Also, I saw this book was featured in a couple of bookstores. I decided to buy the book. It took me a while to read and finish it.The story in the book is about a mysterious Renaissance text called Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. This text has seduced many people. Marriage went cold. Friendship was broken. Even murder!
Messages were coded in the text by using steganography and cryptography at the same time. To get the actual message(s) you have to solve some riddles. A student took this text as his thesis at Princeton. Needless to say, there were problems and fiasco. Can he finished his thesis and solve the mystery behind the text?
I love reading books with code and hidden messages, but this book is dancing around it. It doesn't give the actual text to see how difficult it is to write (and break) the riddles. The rule of four itself is only introduced at the end and is only used a little. Why the title bears it, I don't know. Why four? It could be the rule of five for all I care. They should explore more into the rule of four. I've got the feeling that the end of the book was written in a hurry. But, what do I know? I am not a writer.
For some reasons, I found the book difficult to read. Maybe it's because the book uses many references to the Renaissance era which I am not familiar with. It's just difficult for me to memorize the names and events. It goes fast forward dan flashback creating a jumpy flow, in my opinion. Because of that, I'll give 4 stars out of 5.
Comments
Having said that, I might check out this book by Caldwell and Thomason. Thanks for the review.
so it is wise to avoid this one, if you are expecting another hidden message-treasure hunt story.
the other thing that is interesting about the book is that, the two authors is a bestfriend since they were kids, one went to princeton and one to harvard, and they finish the book just after they graduated
... but a novel about life in an american ivy league that interest me
well, having went through a north american university i can tell you that i went through some of the things that were told in the novel. different, of course, but the gist is similar. those were the days indeed.
maybe one of these days i'll write a novel about that :p
If anything , these kind of novels tell you which places are best to hang out in town. That is if the places still exist which unfortunately not true most of the times.
Budi: yes, why don't you write one..Of course, there's a strong competition out there..
I came to your seminar just today at Aryaduta. Cool stuff :) I just wonder why information security in Indonesia is more socialized by people from Electrical Engineering than Informatics Engineering. Not that I'm dissapointed or anything. But anyhow, it was quite inspiring. Looking forward to hear more good things from you (including the presentation materials :)).
(I am still tired from the trip back to Bandung. Just got home less than an hour ago.)
Pak Budi, what about the life on that campus in Bandung hehe, I found so many interesting events, characters and stories to tell there. :D
Campus life in Bandung sounds like novels waiting to be written. I know ITB has produced some great literary figures, but I'd like to see quality pop novels (oxymoron?) with ITB settings. With fictional characters based on real students and lecturers (ehm) or even alumni, maybe. It'll be fun also to hear what the characters say about my campus. On second thought, maybe not ;-)