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Illuminatus! #2
The Golden Apple
WAS IT LUCIFER Saul Goodman was after? He was beginning to almost believe it was.
But Goodman was a New York cop; only juries believed in fairy tales.
And this crazy case that had fallen in his lap—the Iluminatus; did it really exist, a great and dreaded secret cult, counting kings as members over the centuries, a colossus of crime and occult conspiracy?
Witchcraft or world blackmail, it was Saul Goodman's baby now, and even the President saw it his way, holding back the National Guard to give Goodman time to track down the evil behind Illuminatus—before it unleashed the anthrax plague that threatened to destroy all creatures great and small....
As weirdly wonderful as the best of Vonnegut, as suspensefully off-beat as Casteneda, here comes Part II of ILLUMINATUS, a vulture's eye view of the dark side of human comedy.
But Goodman was a New York cop; only juries believed in fairy tales.
And this crazy case that had fallen in his lap—the Iluminatus; did it really exist, a great and dreaded secret cult, counting kings as members over the centuries, a colossus of crime and occult conspiracy?
Witchcraft or world blackmail, it was Saul Goodman's baby now, and even the President saw it his way, holding back the National Guard to give Goodman time to track down the evil behind Illuminatus—before it unleashed the anthrax plague that threatened to destroy all creatures great and small....
As weirdly wonderful as the best of Vonnegut, as suspensefully off-beat as Casteneda, here comes Part II of ILLUMINATUS, a vulture's eye view of the dark side of human comedy.
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1975
About the author
Robert Shea
44 books184 followersRobert Joseph Shea was a novelist and journalist best known as co-author with Robert Anton Wilson of the science fantasy trilogy Illuminatus!. It became a cult success and was later turned into a marathon-length stage show put on at the British National Theatre and elsewhere. In 1986 it won the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award. Shea went on to write several action novels based in exotic historical settings.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 61 reviews
October 11, 2010
A sprawling, many-faceted, satirical series, Illuminatus! is difficult to rate and more difficult to review. There are so many aspects which one could address, so many points of divergence, ideas, philosophies, and influences, but at it's heart, it's a rollicking adventure story that, despite it's many political and social themes, rarely takes itself too seriously.
I can certainly say I liked it, but it's hard to say how much. Some parts were better than others, but there are many parts to be considered. Unlike other reviewers, I did not find the numerous asides and allusions to be distracting. If one piqued my interest, I looked it up and more often than not, learned something entirely new. Some didn't intrigue me as much, and I was happy to let them lie.
I treated the book like I treat life, following those threads which seemed, to me, to be the most fruitful, and refusing to become bogged down in the fact that I can't know everything. If a reader tried to track down every reference, they'd be going to wikipedia three and four times per page and likely lose the thread of the story entirely. The sheer volume of research behind the book is an achievement in itself, sure to keep the attention of detail-obsessed trivial pursuit players of the internet generation.
Others have also complained about the structure of the book, switching as it does in place, time, and character with no forewarning. Certainly these switches can cause a moment's uncertainty, but they hardly make following the plot impossible. The authors could have put more line breaks in, it would be a minor change. So minor, in fact, that I find it difficult to take seriously any claim that the lack of such breaks somehow ruined the story.
It was a deliberate effect by the authors, meant to impart information realistically and force the reader to take a more active role. In life, we are constantly inundated by information and it is up to us to decide what is important and where to make strict delineations. Likewise, in this book, the authors want us to take responsibility for our own parsing of data, refusing to spoon-feed it to us like so much propaganda.
The authors, themselves went through huge amounts of data to combine all of these conspiracy theories into a grand ur-conspiracy, too large and detailed to be believed and too ridiculous to be doubted. I've never had much interest in such theories, so it was nice to have them all in one place where I could enjoy them as part of a fun spy story.
I also admit a lack of interest in the beat poets, psychadelic culture, and World War II, so I'm glad to have gotten those all out of the way in the same fell swoop. This book is, at its heart, a chronicle of a certain point in American history, a certain mindset, a baroquely detailed conglomeration of the writings and ideas of the raucous sixties.
The book is at its least effective when it is taking itself seriously, particularly in the appendices. When it seems to believe in it's own conspiracies or Burroughs' bizarre understanding of history, it becomes a victim of its own joke.
It is at its best when it takes nothing seriously, least of all itself. The authors were involved in the flowering of the Discordian Movement, which has been described as a religion disguised as a joke disguised as a religion. The movement plays a large role in the text and is analyzed from all sides, but basically boils down to religion as imagined by Mad Magazine.
The revolutionary thing about Mad was not that it undermined authority, but that it simultaneously undermined itself. It's humor was the insight that you could trust no one and nothing to be the source of wisdom, but that you were perfectly justified in mistrusting everything.
Rather like the remarkable sixties series 'The Prisoner', the final message is that you must decide for yourself what is important, what is real, and what is misdirection. Also like 'The Prisoner', Illuminatus owes much to the spy books of the sixties, from their freewheeling sexuality to their ultra-modern secret bases and high-stakes secret missions. There is even an overt parody of the Bond franchise running through the books.
Unfortunately, it also seems to fall into the Boys' Club atmosphere of spy stories. Though it switches between narrators, all of them are men, and the focused sexuality of the book most often points toward women. There are moments where bisexuality, homosexuality, and feminist sexual power dynamics are explored, but these tend to be intellectual exercises while the hot, sweaty moments are by and large men acting upon women. I can enjoy porn, but I wish it were as balanced as the rhetoric to which the authors pay adherence.
Many male authors have shied away from writing female characters from the inside, despite having no compunction about getting inside them in other ways. I cannot reiterate enough the late Dan O'Bannon's insistence that the secret to writing women was writing men and then leaving out the penis.
He scripted 'Alien' without gender markers, all characters being referred to by last name, and Sigourney Weaver's portrayal of Ellen Ripley has proven one of the most realistic and unaffected of any woman in film. It was a disappointment to see Shea and Wilson so fettered by gender while simultaneously spouting the latest feminist sound bites.
In many ways, Illuminatus provides a bridge between the paranoid, conspiracy sci fi of Dick and the highly referential, multilayered stories of Cyberpunk. Conceptually, it represents a transition from Dick's characters, always unable to escape destruction at the hand of their vast, uncaring society, and Cyberpunk characters who are able to adapt to their distant, heartless society and thrive where they can. The language of Illuminatus is flashier and cooler than Dick's, but has not yet reached the form-as-function linguistic data overload of Gibson or Stephenson.
And as you might expect, the writing here is good: crisp, witty, evocative and mobile. Far from the accusations of being a text 'written on an acid trip', it is lucid and deliberate, even if it does take itself lightly. There certainly are those aspects which are inspired by psychadelic culture, including the free-wheeling structure. The authors invite comparison between moments, events, and characters which, in most other books, would be separated by the strict delineation of the page break.
But then, the surest sign of genius is the ability to synthesize new data from the confluence of apparently disparate parts, as Da Vinci did one day while studying the eddies in a stream for a painting, finding himself suddenly struck by the notion that the heart would pump blood more efficiently by forming such swirling eddies in its chamber instead of working as a simple pump. In the the past decade, internal body scanners have proven the accuracy of his small corner sketch. By inviting you to make such comparisons and synthesize your own conclusions, the book respects the potential intelligence of its reader.
But it is not all such conceptual exercises, and the lesson Cyberpunk authors learned was that a fast-paced, flashy shell can sugar even bitter pills. What delighted me was the realization that at its heart, this is a story of Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos.
Outside of Lovecraft and Howard, very few of the stories set in that universe are even passable, but this one comports itself ably, taking to heart the notion that an overabundance of data can break the human mind. Which dovetails nicely with the cautionary lesson of conspiracy theory: it seems vast, inexplicable beings of unimaginable power can also be human, and have cults just as Unaussprechlichen.
Overall, the series is interesting, unique, informative, humorous, and entertaining. There are moments where it bogs down, but overall, it is well structured and well written. There aren't many books where you get a fun spy story, a harrowing Cthulhu story, and a rundown of the zeitgeist of a part of American history all in one, but there's certainly this one.
Unless you're a teenager looking for a counterculture to believe in, its conspiracy mish-mash probably won't be a life-changing revelation, but it might be food for thought. Conspiracy fiction is big business these days with 'The Name of The Rose', 'Foucault's Pendulum' and 'The Da Vinci Code', while the originator of the genre gets comparatively little mention.
But this book is not designed to be easy to digest. You are not meant to internalize its message thoughtlessly. It's funny, contradictory, and self-aware, and it's hard for people who take themselves seriously to get caught up in a book that, for the most part, doesn't. I could say this book deserves to be more than a cult classic, but at its heart, this book is a cult classic, and its cultural influence will continue to seep in with or without grander acclaim.
I can certainly say I liked it, but it's hard to say how much. Some parts were better than others, but there are many parts to be considered. Unlike other reviewers, I did not find the numerous asides and allusions to be distracting. If one piqued my interest, I looked it up and more often than not, learned something entirely new. Some didn't intrigue me as much, and I was happy to let them lie.
I treated the book like I treat life, following those threads which seemed, to me, to be the most fruitful, and refusing to become bogged down in the fact that I can't know everything. If a reader tried to track down every reference, they'd be going to wikipedia three and four times per page and likely lose the thread of the story entirely. The sheer volume of research behind the book is an achievement in itself, sure to keep the attention of detail-obsessed trivial pursuit players of the internet generation.
Others have also complained about the structure of the book, switching as it does in place, time, and character with no forewarning. Certainly these switches can cause a moment's uncertainty, but they hardly make following the plot impossible. The authors could have put more line breaks in, it would be a minor change. So minor, in fact, that I find it difficult to take seriously any claim that the lack of such breaks somehow ruined the story.
It was a deliberate effect by the authors, meant to impart information realistically and force the reader to take a more active role. In life, we are constantly inundated by information and it is up to us to decide what is important and where to make strict delineations. Likewise, in this book, the authors want us to take responsibility for our own parsing of data, refusing to spoon-feed it to us like so much propaganda.
The authors, themselves went through huge amounts of data to combine all of these conspiracy theories into a grand ur-conspiracy, too large and detailed to be believed and too ridiculous to be doubted. I've never had much interest in such theories, so it was nice to have them all in one place where I could enjoy them as part of a fun spy story.
I also admit a lack of interest in the beat poets, psychadelic culture, and World War II, so I'm glad to have gotten those all out of the way in the same fell swoop. This book is, at its heart, a chronicle of a certain point in American history, a certain mindset, a baroquely detailed conglomeration of the writings and ideas of the raucous sixties.
The book is at its least effective when it is taking itself seriously, particularly in the appendices. When it seems to believe in it's own conspiracies or Burroughs' bizarre understanding of history, it becomes a victim of its own joke.
It is at its best when it takes nothing seriously, least of all itself. The authors were involved in the flowering of the Discordian Movement, which has been described as a religion disguised as a joke disguised as a religion. The movement plays a large role in the text and is analyzed from all sides, but basically boils down to religion as imagined by Mad Magazine.
The revolutionary thing about Mad was not that it undermined authority, but that it simultaneously undermined itself. It's humor was the insight that you could trust no one and nothing to be the source of wisdom, but that you were perfectly justified in mistrusting everything.
Rather like the remarkable sixties series 'The Prisoner', the final message is that you must decide for yourself what is important, what is real, and what is misdirection. Also like 'The Prisoner', Illuminatus owes much to the spy books of the sixties, from their freewheeling sexuality to their ultra-modern secret bases and high-stakes secret missions. There is even an overt parody of the Bond franchise running through the books.
Unfortunately, it also seems to fall into the Boys' Club atmosphere of spy stories. Though it switches between narrators, all of them are men, and the focused sexuality of the book most often points toward women. There are moments where bisexuality, homosexuality, and feminist sexual power dynamics are explored, but these tend to be intellectual exercises while the hot, sweaty moments are by and large men acting upon women. I can enjoy porn, but I wish it were as balanced as the rhetoric to which the authors pay adherence.
Many male authors have shied away from writing female characters from the inside, despite having no compunction about getting inside them in other ways. I cannot reiterate enough the late Dan O'Bannon's insistence that the secret to writing women was writing men and then leaving out the penis.
He scripted 'Alien' without gender markers, all characters being referred to by last name, and Sigourney Weaver's portrayal of Ellen Ripley has proven one of the most realistic and unaffected of any woman in film. It was a disappointment to see Shea and Wilson so fettered by gender while simultaneously spouting the latest feminist sound bites.
In many ways, Illuminatus provides a bridge between the paranoid, conspiracy sci fi of Dick and the highly referential, multilayered stories of Cyberpunk. Conceptually, it represents a transition from Dick's characters, always unable to escape destruction at the hand of their vast, uncaring society, and Cyberpunk characters who are able to adapt to their distant, heartless society and thrive where they can. The language of Illuminatus is flashier and cooler than Dick's, but has not yet reached the form-as-function linguistic data overload of Gibson or Stephenson.
And as you might expect, the writing here is good: crisp, witty, evocative and mobile. Far from the accusations of being a text 'written on an acid trip', it is lucid and deliberate, even if it does take itself lightly. There certainly are those aspects which are inspired by psychadelic culture, including the free-wheeling structure. The authors invite comparison between moments, events, and characters which, in most other books, would be separated by the strict delineation of the page break.
But then, the surest sign of genius is the ability to synthesize new data from the confluence of apparently disparate parts, as Da Vinci did one day while studying the eddies in a stream for a painting, finding himself suddenly struck by the notion that the heart would pump blood more efficiently by forming such swirling eddies in its chamber instead of working as a simple pump. In the the past decade, internal body scanners have proven the accuracy of his small corner sketch. By inviting you to make such comparisons and synthesize your own conclusions, the book respects the potential intelligence of its reader.
But it is not all such conceptual exercises, and the lesson Cyberpunk authors learned was that a fast-paced, flashy shell can sugar even bitter pills. What delighted me was the realization that at its heart, this is a story of Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos.
Outside of Lovecraft and Howard, very few of the stories set in that universe are even passable, but this one comports itself ably, taking to heart the notion that an overabundance of data can break the human mind. Which dovetails nicely with the cautionary lesson of conspiracy theory: it seems vast, inexplicable beings of unimaginable power can also be human, and have cults just as Unaussprechlichen.
Overall, the series is interesting, unique, informative, humorous, and entertaining. There are moments where it bogs down, but overall, it is well structured and well written. There aren't many books where you get a fun spy story, a harrowing Cthulhu story, and a rundown of the zeitgeist of a part of American history all in one, but there's certainly this one.
Unless you're a teenager looking for a counterculture to believe in, its conspiracy mish-mash probably won't be a life-changing revelation, but it might be food for thought. Conspiracy fiction is big business these days with 'The Name of The Rose', 'Foucault's Pendulum' and 'The Da Vinci Code', while the originator of the genre gets comparatively little mention.
But this book is not designed to be easy to digest. You are not meant to internalize its message thoughtlessly. It's funny, contradictory, and self-aware, and it's hard for people who take themselves seriously to get caught up in a book that, for the most part, doesn't. I could say this book deserves to be more than a cult classic, but at its heart, this book is a cult classic, and its cultural influence will continue to seep in with or without grander acclaim.
May 19, 2021
This book practically reviews itself.. no wait thats not right, it actually reviews itself :P
“Listen to this: ‘a pair of nursery Nietzsches dreaming of a psychedelic Superman.’ And this: ‘a plot that is only a put-on, characters who are cardboard, and a pretense of scholarship that amounts to sheer bluff.’ But this is the crusher; listen: ‘a constant use of obscene language for shock effect until the reader begins to feel as depressed as an unwilling spectator at a quarrel between a fishwife and a lobster-pot pirate.’ Don’t you think that will get quoted at all the best cocktail parties this season?”
“I suppose so. The book’s a real stinker, eh?”
“Heavens, I wouldn’t know for sure. I told you yesterday, it’s absurdly long. Three volumes, in fact. Boring as hell. I only had time to skim it. But listen to this, dear boy: ‘If The Lord of the Rings is a fairy tale for adults, sophisticated readers will quickly recognize this monumental miscarriage as a fairy tale for paranoids.’ That refers to the ridiculous conspiracy theory that the plot, if there is one, seems to revolve around. Nicely worded, wouldn’t you say?”
There's really no point leaving a gap between volumes of this, there's no gap in the story and its really just more of the same. Just great stuff, lots of weird fiction references if you know your Lovecraft, Machen, Bierce you'll be in good stead. Lot of good philosophising too its not all sex and Lloigors.
But the character and time switches are discombobulating to say the least. I think this made me stoned, can books do that? ;) ..no really, after a long reading session.. cause there arn't many chapter breaks... i was feeling just a tad woozy but wasn't going to mention it, till my cat came in.. his fur is SO soft you guys! I mean thats the softest fur ever... omg... definitely a little stoned... :lol
Proper review after volume 3.
“Listen to this: ‘a pair of nursery Nietzsches dreaming of a psychedelic Superman.’ And this: ‘a plot that is only a put-on, characters who are cardboard, and a pretense of scholarship that amounts to sheer bluff.’ But this is the crusher; listen: ‘a constant use of obscene language for shock effect until the reader begins to feel as depressed as an unwilling spectator at a quarrel between a fishwife and a lobster-pot pirate.’ Don’t you think that will get quoted at all the best cocktail parties this season?”
“I suppose so. The book’s a real stinker, eh?”
“Heavens, I wouldn’t know for sure. I told you yesterday, it’s absurdly long. Three volumes, in fact. Boring as hell. I only had time to skim it. But listen to this, dear boy: ‘If The Lord of the Rings is a fairy tale for adults, sophisticated readers will quickly recognize this monumental miscarriage as a fairy tale for paranoids.’ That refers to the ridiculous conspiracy theory that the plot, if there is one, seems to revolve around. Nicely worded, wouldn’t you say?”
There's really no point leaving a gap between volumes of this, there's no gap in the story and its really just more of the same. Just great stuff, lots of weird fiction references if you know your Lovecraft, Machen, Bierce you'll be in good stead. Lot of good philosophising too its not all sex and Lloigors.
But the character and time switches are discombobulating to say the least. I think this made me stoned, can books do that? ;) ..no really, after a long reading session.. cause there arn't many chapter breaks... i was feeling just a tad woozy but wasn't going to mention it, till my cat came in.. his fur is SO soft you guys! I mean thats the softest fur ever... omg... definitely a little stoned... :lol
Proper review after volume 3.
October 5, 2019
This one kept up the insanity of the first installment in spades. It's hard to even know how to describe these books. Everything from the plot to the narrative structure to the characters just defies any sort of normal convention. It's as much Joyce on acid as it is Douglas Adams on a conspiracy theory kick. Thought-provoking, hilarious, ridiculous—really excited to finish out the trilogy soon.
June 13, 2026
”Welcome to the fifth ring of the world’s oldest, continuous five ring circus! Prepare for death and rebirth.”
The middle book of the underground classic Illuminatus!trilogy, The Golden Apple continues the absurdist cacophony of fantastical conspiracy, twisted history, paranoid fantasy, drug induced, guided hallucinations, and explicit sex. It’s just at a slower pace, less funny, and kinda boring for long swaths. (The idea that anything this wildly outrageous could become boring is in itself a bit mind blowing.) There is a distinct feeling that the central, illuminating joke is stretching dangerously thin.
The book takes you on incredible journeys, from ancient Atlantis to Oz. It introduces you to characters such as Malaclypse the Elder, immortal, shape changing 4th century BC Erisian priest who posed as Jesus after he was crucified, and in that guise introduced the sacrament of bingo, and who now takes on guises as varied as Jean-Paul Sartre and Billy Graham. It allows you to ease drop on conversations of Carl Jung and H.P. Lovecraft as they expound on their involvement in these ancient, chaotic conspiracies of enlightenment. Yet, for all of this wildly creative nonsense, this volume comes across as disappointingly flat.
A big part of the problem is how the book is structured. It swings (without warning) between multiple perspectives of often ill-defined characters, between first and third person perspective, with wild and unannounced time skips, as well as abrupt shifts into dreamscapes and hallucinations. I feel that this structure was intended to add to the chaotic absurdity of the story, a kind of discordant, Harpo Marx stream of consciousness, but it is often more annoying and distracting than effective.
The middle book of the underground classic Illuminatus!trilogy, The Golden Apple continues the absurdist cacophony of fantastical conspiracy, twisted history, paranoid fantasy, drug induced, guided hallucinations, and explicit sex. It’s just at a slower pace, less funny, and kinda boring for long swaths. (The idea that anything this wildly outrageous could become boring is in itself a bit mind blowing.) There is a distinct feeling that the central, illuminating joke is stretching dangerously thin.
The book takes you on incredible journeys, from ancient Atlantis to Oz. It introduces you to characters such as Malaclypse the Elder, immortal, shape changing 4th century BC Erisian priest who posed as Jesus after he was crucified, and in that guise introduced the sacrament of bingo, and who now takes on guises as varied as Jean-Paul Sartre and Billy Graham. It allows you to ease drop on conversations of Carl Jung and H.P. Lovecraft as they expound on their involvement in these ancient, chaotic conspiracies of enlightenment. Yet, for all of this wildly creative nonsense, this volume comes across as disappointingly flat.
A big part of the problem is how the book is structured. It swings (without warning) between multiple perspectives of often ill-defined characters, between first and third person perspective, with wild and unannounced time skips, as well as abrupt shifts into dreamscapes and hallucinations. I feel that this structure was intended to add to the chaotic absurdity of the story, a kind of discordant, Harpo Marx stream of consciousness, but it is often more annoying and distracting than effective.
August 6, 2014
what's kind of amazing about these books is that amidst all the insanity there's actually some very interesting insight into human nature, politics, sociology, and history.
January 6, 2018
"Belief is the death of intelligence. As soon as one believes a doctrine of any sort, or assumes certitude, one stops thinking about that aspect of existence." Cosmic Trigger Volume I: Final Secret of the Illuminati
Above pretty summarizes it all. To read Robert Anton Wilson highly recommend I. All of it.
Sometimes you can die from laughter:
December 19, 2016
Who thought I could care so much about Atlantean conspiracies and the death of JFK? The obsession with masculinity and cuckolding by alternate races is satirized so hard in these novels within novels that I want to give this book to a modern American Nazi and watch their head explode.
November 10, 2020
Хотя на самом деле, конечно, то, что началось в шутку, и имеет больше шансов остаться в веках. Дискордианство как учение вполне держит воду до сих пор (в отличие, например, от пастафарианства, которое осталось пародийной религией и не выходит за рамки студенческого юмора).
С точки же зрения эстетики второй том еще больше напоминает песни Боба Дилана из тех, что подлинне'е (и по'длиннее). И здесь содержится еще несколько очень полезных анарходиректив.
Среди хайлайтов второго тома, конечно, "фнорды", и надо сказать, что статья об этом слове в вики - типичный фнорд, только этого никто до сих пор почему-то не заметил. Ну или не говорит вслух, но нам-то чего бояться, хотя на фнордах построена вся медиасфера вокрг нас сейчас. Почти полвека назад мир был устроен идеалистичнее, и это еще была диковина.
Из чарующий глупостей (еще в первый раз заметил, но уж запишу): самой большой бякой у русских авторы считают не то, что принято считать, а МВД. Именно эта организация шпионит за всем миром и чинит саботаж.
И кстати: местами заглядываю в имеемый русский перевод и должен сказать, что там, как минимум, прощелканы все шутки, пропала вся стилистическая лихость и звонкость и текст традиционно превратился в какую-то унылую жвачку - ну и бог весть что еще не угадано. По-хорошему, трилогию надо бы перевести заново, конечно; надеюсь, свежий переводчик "Кота Шрёдингера" справится со своей работой лучше.
С точки же зрения эстетики второй том еще больше напоминает песни Боба Дилана из тех, что подлинне'е (и по'длиннее). И здесь содержится еще несколько очень полезных анарходиректив.
Среди хайлайтов второго тома, конечно, "фнорды", и надо сказать, что статья об этом слове в вики - типичный фнорд, только этого никто до сих пор почему-то не заметил. Ну или не говорит вслух, но нам-то чего бояться, хотя на фнордах построена вся медиасфера вокрг нас сейчас. Почти полвека назад мир был устроен идеалистичнее, и это еще была диковина.
Из чарующий глупостей (еще в первый раз заметил, но уж запишу): самой большой бякой у русских авторы считают не то, что принято считать, а МВД. Именно эта организация шпионит за всем миром и чинит саботаж.
И кстати: местами заглядываю в имеемый русский перевод и должен сказать, что там, как минимум, прощелканы все шутки, пропала вся стилистическая лихость и звонкость и текст традиционно превратился в какую-то унылую жвачку - ну и бог весть что еще не угадано. По-хорошему, трилогию надо бы перевести заново, конечно; надеюсь, свежий переводчик "Кота Шрёдингера" справится со своей работой лучше.
November 9, 2011
The hardest thing about this book was 'picking up all the threads' where the last book left off after a few months passing in between. (Then again, I think it's so dense that trying to read all three books in a row would present other challenges.) Once I checked a few names, though, it wasn't too hard to get everything back in order. As in order as you can get anything in these books.
This book seems a little heavier on plot, with some of the major events finally coming together in a coherent fashion, even if there's still relatively little of it for a full-length novel. And there do still seem to be some extraneous bits. The first book actually makes more sense after reading the second one.
But what really keeps me invested is the philosophy. Every now and then the novel hits on a concept that blows me away. It often strikes eerily close to home with current issues, despite having been written in the 70's. I really think it's those eye-opening, forward-thinking moments that keep bringing me back. When you least expect it, this book makes you think about the world you live in and, perhaps, re-evaluate the way you view it.
This book seems a little heavier on plot, with some of the major events finally coming together in a coherent fashion, even if there's still relatively little of it for a full-length novel. And there do still seem to be some extraneous bits. The first book actually makes more sense after reading the second one.
But what really keeps me invested is the philosophy. Every now and then the novel hits on a concept that blows me away. It often strikes eerily close to home with current issues, despite having been written in the 70's. I really think it's those eye-opening, forward-thinking moments that keep bringing me back. When you least expect it, this book makes you think about the world you live in and, perhaps, re-evaluate the way you view it.
October 22, 2020
3.74 rating overall (just cuz its fun, or wait, should it be a multiple of 5?). A little easier to follow than the 1st one, but still times where you have to put the book down and step back a second and rethink what you just read lol. On to #3
May 11, 2021
DNF. The first book was the most entertaining of messes. The second is… more of the same… only less entertaining and more of a mess. The novelty has worn out, I don't do acid, and life's too short. Still, the trilogy gave us The KLF, and I'll always be grateful for that. Just not grateful enough to read all of it.
March 21, 2018
This should be on badreads.com
December 17, 2025
Reading fiction about the Dark Lodge and White Brotherhood (of which I am a member and will just have to leave it at that) reminds me of a Jerry Garcia lyric. Days Between was one of the last and greatest songs Robert Hunter wrote and Jerome ever played. I oft find myself singing this number while reading or hearing about the ongoing Bolshevik Revolution in America, not to mention the Ai Armageddon happening worldwide.
There were days
And there were Days
And there were Days Between.
Summer flies and August dies
THE WORLD GROWS DARK AND MEAN
Comes the shimmer of the moon
On black infested trees
The singing man is at his song
THE HOLY ON THEIR KNEES
The reckless are out wrecking
The timid plead their pleas
No one knows much more of this
Than anyone can see anyone can see.
Speak of the Devil (or the Ai Beast System, if you please) and He arrives. It was warm and sunny when I began this review, then in came the Stratospheric Aerosol Injections and all of the sudden it’s winter again here in the Dirty South. At high noon my world has literally become dark and mean. Alzheimer’s, Turbo Cancer, and Sudden Adult Death Syndrome all seem to be going around amongst my Pfizer Compliant friends and family. I am starting to wonder if the barium, strontium and aluminum particulate MIT admits is being used in the chemtrails is also part of the problem?
There are so many anti-Christ, anti-human events taking place it’s hard to keep them from being memory holed week after week. This week alone one of the 40 million military aged invaders Biden let cross our borders illegally threw acid on a Christian in Savannah. The vice president of Brown University College Republicans, Ella Cook, was murdered by yet another Trantifa mass shooter. Say her name. Ella Cook. Another far left antifa associated group in Los Angeles were arrested this week for plotting a terrorist bombing on New Year’s Eve. The invasion force of “mostly peaceful” Muslims continue raping young girls across occupied Europe, but only the parents of the victims who speak out are going to prison. France has closed many Christmas celebrations due to past terrorist acts and current threats by the NGO funded invasion force of pedophile, “infidel” raping Muslims. The similar aforementioned invasion force also opened fire and murdered at least 15 innocent Jews and Christians in Bondi Beach, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia this week to boot.
It’s almost as if Sarah Conner was right and the machines have already won. For instance, take the climate hoax and how us humans are continuously pressured to stop using carbon while they are ramping up unlimited energy production for Ai data centers. They are “vaccinating” cows with ungodly poisons to keep them from farting while spraying humanity with self-replicating nanobots, ostensibly to BLOCK OUT THE SUN. The Sun which has been literally worshipped longer than anything else on earth because it gives ALL OF US life.
Bill Gates and all of the Luciferian, Parasitical Class of Self-Proclaimed Elites are not shy about their depopulation agenda. It was literally carved in stone at the Georgia Guidestones which was commissioned by a man with the pseudonym Robert C. Christian. True Rosicrucians are Christian Mystics and we often write RC at the end of our signature which stands for the Rosy Cross. This charlatan is clearly a member of an Order that has been infiltrated by a Dark Lodge who use such invidious distinctions as “enlightened” and “illuminated”. The vividly Luciferian and first inscription carved in marble on the Georgia Guidestones was, “Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.” If 8 billion NPC’s weren’t in a trance state chasing blue thumbs on Facebook like William S. Burroughs chasing Persian White Skag or seriously “busy” being Amused to Death on Tik-Tok they would mayhap realize most of us are being targeted for elimination. They might could even stop making horrific decisions like taking never ending boosters and eating 3D printed “food” in a can.
These dark lodge, self-proclaimed elitists have infiltrated western governments and their intelligence agencies. They are all moving in lockstep under Operation Lockstep as witnessed by the ubiquitous lockdowns, muzzles and Pfizer mandates after they released their gain-of-function bioweapon in Wuhan, China circa 2019. Stratospheric Aerosol Injections, Nuremberg Code violations, highly incentivized, politically protected, replacement migration hoards, and Orwellian panopticon, permanent track and trace policies are omnipresent in all western nations. It’s like I always say, had I known I was going to live this long and live through the prequel to A Brave New World, 1984, Equilibrium and The Terminator, I would have quit drinking sooner and started yoga younger.
It is ironic how we were warned about the Allegory of the Cave 3,000 years ago and the synonymous Allegory of the Matrix in 1999 and then spent the next 20 years staring into our portable Cave. “A simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie.” Join the rebellion. Embrace God’s army. Pick up a paper book and carry it with you everywhere, like a baby with a pacifier. Put your digital minder down and read right now. Quit taking your digital dope dealer with you at all times. Civil disobedience is mandatory during this dangerous, post-apocalyptic tyranny. Don’t be like everyone or anyone else. Step away from the collective hive. “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” It’s time for all God’s children to stand up to the darkness. But be extra kind and loving to everyone while you Stand. Very few comprehend how autistic and lonely we have all become staring into screens for the last few decades.
There were days
And there were Days
And there were Days Between.
Summer flies and August dies
THE WORLD GROWS DARK AND MEAN
Comes the shimmer of the moon
On black infested trees
The singing man is at his song
THE HOLY ON THEIR KNEES
The reckless are out wrecking
The timid plead their pleas
No one knows much more of this
Than anyone can see anyone can see.
Speak of the Devil (or the Ai Beast System, if you please) and He arrives. It was warm and sunny when I began this review, then in came the Stratospheric Aerosol Injections and all of the sudden it’s winter again here in the Dirty South. At high noon my world has literally become dark and mean. Alzheimer’s, Turbo Cancer, and Sudden Adult Death Syndrome all seem to be going around amongst my Pfizer Compliant friends and family. I am starting to wonder if the barium, strontium and aluminum particulate MIT admits is being used in the chemtrails is also part of the problem?
There are so many anti-Christ, anti-human events taking place it’s hard to keep them from being memory holed week after week. This week alone one of the 40 million military aged invaders Biden let cross our borders illegally threw acid on a Christian in Savannah. The vice president of Brown University College Republicans, Ella Cook, was murdered by yet another Trantifa mass shooter. Say her name. Ella Cook. Another far left antifa associated group in Los Angeles were arrested this week for plotting a terrorist bombing on New Year’s Eve. The invasion force of “mostly peaceful” Muslims continue raping young girls across occupied Europe, but only the parents of the victims who speak out are going to prison. France has closed many Christmas celebrations due to past terrorist acts and current threats by the NGO funded invasion force of pedophile, “infidel” raping Muslims. The similar aforementioned invasion force also opened fire and murdered at least 15 innocent Jews and Christians in Bondi Beach, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia this week to boot.
It’s almost as if Sarah Conner was right and the machines have already won. For instance, take the climate hoax and how us humans are continuously pressured to stop using carbon while they are ramping up unlimited energy production for Ai data centers. They are “vaccinating” cows with ungodly poisons to keep them from farting while spraying humanity with self-replicating nanobots, ostensibly to BLOCK OUT THE SUN. The Sun which has been literally worshipped longer than anything else on earth because it gives ALL OF US life.
Bill Gates and all of the Luciferian, Parasitical Class of Self-Proclaimed Elites are not shy about their depopulation agenda. It was literally carved in stone at the Georgia Guidestones which was commissioned by a man with the pseudonym Robert C. Christian. True Rosicrucians are Christian Mystics and we often write RC at the end of our signature which stands for the Rosy Cross. This charlatan is clearly a member of an Order that has been infiltrated by a Dark Lodge who use such invidious distinctions as “enlightened” and “illuminated”. The vividly Luciferian and first inscription carved in marble on the Georgia Guidestones was, “Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.” If 8 billion NPC’s weren’t in a trance state chasing blue thumbs on Facebook like William S. Burroughs chasing Persian White Skag or seriously “busy” being Amused to Death on Tik-Tok they would mayhap realize most of us are being targeted for elimination. They might could even stop making horrific decisions like taking never ending boosters and eating 3D printed “food” in a can.
These dark lodge, self-proclaimed elitists have infiltrated western governments and their intelligence agencies. They are all moving in lockstep under Operation Lockstep as witnessed by the ubiquitous lockdowns, muzzles and Pfizer mandates after they released their gain-of-function bioweapon in Wuhan, China circa 2019. Stratospheric Aerosol Injections, Nuremberg Code violations, highly incentivized, politically protected, replacement migration hoards, and Orwellian panopticon, permanent track and trace policies are omnipresent in all western nations. It’s like I always say, had I known I was going to live this long and live through the prequel to A Brave New World, 1984, Equilibrium and The Terminator, I would have quit drinking sooner and started yoga younger.
It is ironic how we were warned about the Allegory of the Cave 3,000 years ago and the synonymous Allegory of the Matrix in 1999 and then spent the next 20 years staring into our portable Cave. “A simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie.” Join the rebellion. Embrace God’s army. Pick up a paper book and carry it with you everywhere, like a baby with a pacifier. Put your digital minder down and read right now. Quit taking your digital dope dealer with you at all times. Civil disobedience is mandatory during this dangerous, post-apocalyptic tyranny. Don’t be like everyone or anyone else. Step away from the collective hive. “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” It’s time for all God’s children to stand up to the darkness. But be extra kind and loving to everyone while you Stand. Very few comprehend how autistic and lonely we have all become staring into screens for the last few decades.
June 10, 2025
This translation of the second book in the “Illuminatus Trilogy” into German struck me as better than the first – or else my German is slipping enough that I don’t notice the awkward mis-steps and unfortunately literal interpretations of slang quite as much. Having always had the whole trilogy in a single volume, I had forgotten how this book serves as a bridge between the introductory wackiness of the first and the nonstop action of the third. This one is taken up with length sections of exposition which deliberately contradict the more “ordinary” conspiracy theories laid out previously. Includes the “Atlantis” movie, the book “Telemachus Sneezed” and the wild pro-Illuminati ideas of Mama Sutra. Harry Coin comes back to life and invents a game and Stella Maris tells us her version of Hagbard Celine’s biography. Maybe better on drugs, but reading it in German will have to suffice, at my age.
March 25, 2014
Pretty incredible how this book tends to hork up whatever subject has been independently on my mind, or the minds of those I spend my time with.
"Privilege implies exclusion from privilege... in the same mathematically reciprocal way profit implies loss. If you and I exchange equal goods, that is trade: neither of us profits and neither of us loses. But if we exchange unequal goods, one of us profits and the other loses. Mathematically. Certainly. Now, such mathematically unequal exchanges will always occur because some traders will be shrewder than others. But in total freedom--in anarchy--such unequal exchanges will be sporadic and irregular. A phenomenon of unpredictable periodicity, mathematically speaking.
"You will observe, instead, a mathematically smooth function, a steady profit accruting to one group and an equally steady loss accumulating for all others. Why is this? Because the system is not free or random, any mathemetician would tell you a priori. Well, then, where is the determining function, the factor that controls the other variables? ...the Great Traidition. Privilege, I prefer to call it. When A meets B in the marketplace, they do not bargain as equals. There is no more Free Market here than there is on the other side of the Iron Curtain."
UGH THIS BOOK IS SO FUN TO READ. Excited for the 3rd installment...
"Privilege implies exclusion from privilege... in the same mathematically reciprocal way profit implies loss. If you and I exchange equal goods, that is trade: neither of us profits and neither of us loses. But if we exchange unequal goods, one of us profits and the other loses. Mathematically. Certainly. Now, such mathematically unequal exchanges will always occur because some traders will be shrewder than others. But in total freedom--in anarchy--such unequal exchanges will be sporadic and irregular. A phenomenon of unpredictable periodicity, mathematically speaking.
"You will observe, instead, a mathematically smooth function, a steady profit accruting to one group and an equally steady loss accumulating for all others. Why is this? Because the system is not free or random, any mathemetician would tell you a priori. Well, then, where is the determining function, the factor that controls the other variables? ...the Great Traidition. Privilege, I prefer to call it. When A meets B in the marketplace, they do not bargain as equals. There is no more Free Market here than there is on the other side of the Iron Curtain."
UGH THIS BOOK IS SO FUN TO READ. Excited for the 3rd installment...
January 2, 2015
I think I'm more into it than I was with the first book. I'm gathering that it's a kind of whirlwind of ideas, perspectives, and theories to the end of both or either seeing what sticks in the reader's mind or teaching "agnosticism in all things" like I think the author said about it once. There's without a doubt an authorial stance during that uncharacteristically direct fuck-you to Ayn Rand towards the end, but other times it's harder to discern between speaker and author. If there was any character that Shea & Wilson find more sympathetic or closer to the truth than others, it's probably Hagbard Celine, but even he doesn't seem to have it all figured out. I guess what i'm looking for more than anything else is redemption or character growth to orient myself, but Illuminatus is a series that disorients the reader intentionally, as far as I understand it. There's definitely effort put into making this thing very difficult to "solve", with the modernist stream of consciousness, the postmodernist romantic irony, and the tremendous amount of semi-esoteric references to history, literature, and the occult. They had to be aware that most of this would go over their readers' heads. So, if the mission statement is to run me through the gauntlet of organize chaos, it's successful to some degree.
June 14, 2017
This book, like the other two in the trilogy, is a mess. Other reviewers have mentioned that there is more plot in this one than in the first volume. If so, I didn't notice it. If you go looking for a plot in this you'll work harder than the two authors did.
What there is is exposition. Tons of it, and full of contradictions. There is also satire, pornographic passages, and descriptions of drug use. The satire is sometimes pretty good. Ayn Rand and Ian Fleming are both targets, more for their writing style than for their opinions.
I found the books entertaining enough to keep reading, but the end result of reading them didn't add up to much. The books are supposedly about the Bavarian Illuminati and you'll read at least ten different conflicting descriptions of who they are and what they're up to.
What there is is exposition. Tons of it, and full of contradictions. There is also satire, pornographic passages, and descriptions of drug use. The satire is sometimes pretty good. Ayn Rand and Ian Fleming are both targets, more for their writing style than for their opinions.
I found the books entertaining enough to keep reading, but the end result of reading them didn't add up to much. The books are supposedly about the Bavarian Illuminati and you'll read at least ten different conflicting descriptions of who they are and what they're up to.
May 26, 2019
Proti prvnímu dílu trochu méně chaosu (nebo si zvykám?) a sexuální atletiky, pořád je to ale solidní trip, kouř z ganji je snad ještě hustší než v jedničce. Na protější zeď rozhodně nedohlédnete :)
Pochutnají si ti, kteří mají rádi Lovecrafta - počtete si v Necronomiconu, dozvíte se, kde schovává americká vláda Yog Sototha a čím ho krmí, potkáte Tsathogguu a dozvíte se i ledacos jiného. A samozřejmě pokračuje hloubkový kurs diskordiánského náboženství.
Ať žije Eris. Ať žije Discordia. Fnord?
Pochutnají si ti, kteří mají rádi Lovecrafta - počtete si v Necronomiconu, dozvíte se, kde schovává americká vláda Yog Sototha a čím ho krmí, potkáte Tsathogguu a dozvíte se i ledacos jiného. A samozřejmě pokračuje hloubkový kurs diskordiánského náboženství.
Ať žije Eris. Ať žije Discordia. Fnord?
May 30, 2012
In the second book, things start to coalesce into a plot. It's not a strong plot. It's more of a hallucination's version of a plot. Normally I wouldn't like a book without a clear direction with well-crafted mounting tension, but this was such a fun ride - like talking to a crazy manic uncle that you visit in the asylum.
I'm on to the third book. Wish me luck.
I'm on to the third book. Wish me luck.
September 13, 2012
You perhaps need to be a conspiracy buff to really appreciate these books. I personally do not buy into conspiracy culture, and differ politically with both Shea and Wilson. Still, I find this trilogy to be one of the great science fiction epics of the twentieth century. This is basically Pynchon without all the pretentiousness.
October 27, 2015
The Golden Apple lacks the zaniness of the first volume, so i cant score the second installment as high. It is by no means bad, but its not as edited as a "book" as much - just progression
Most of this book is the "secret history of the world" as told from multiple perspectives. Its a good gimmick that keeps the reader guessing.
Most of this book is the "secret history of the world" as told from multiple perspectives. Its a good gimmick that keeps the reader guessing.
January 16, 2019
A continuation of the first book: essentially, it is literally the same story as the first and continued on without pause. Fun read, dense and, for whatever reason, every time I go out in public with it, people talk to me.
March 2, 2020
More bizarre adventures from behind the veil. This book goes into greater detail explaining the symbology seen throughout the first book, and gives the detailed history of Atlantis and their civil wars.
August 20, 2008
I'm having a lot of trouble getting through these. A lot of pal's of mine love them though, so I'll motor through.
September 1, 2017
still waiting for it to actually go somewhere...
November 24, 2017
By the second book it follows a more linear story line, though still confusing as hell. Much more enjoyable if you're looking for more to grasp onto.
February 9, 2018
About the same as "The Eye in The Pyramid".Layers on layers of conspiracy.
November 5, 2018
Swirly whirly and fun. If you like stuff that's pretty trippy, this is up your alley. If not, maybe not?
December 13, 2018
Really good. The whole series is really starts to mess with your head. There are a ton of characters, so I sometimes have a difficult time distinguishing them.
October 21, 2020
It's out there and I'm not really sure where there is, but I enjoyed it.
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