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The Book of God and Physics: A Novel of the Voynich Mystery
“Joven has put together a fine recipe for a thriller.”
—Washington Post
A novel of the Voynich mystery, The Book of God and Physics is a gripping, fascinating, and eminently intelligent literary thriller akin to the genre-bending masterworks of Michael Gruber and the “secret histories” of Dan Brown (The Da Vinci Code et al). Author Enrique Joven centers his compelling, fast moving story around a very real historical artifact—the indecipherable Voynich Manuscript—and spins an extraordinary tale that asks whether legendary scientific figures (Brahe, Koeppler, Galileo, Copernicus) might have hidden some of their secrets within its pages.
—Washington Post
A novel of the Voynich mystery, The Book of God and Physics is a gripping, fascinating, and eminently intelligent literary thriller akin to the genre-bending masterworks of Michael Gruber and the “secret histories” of Dan Brown (The Da Vinci Code et al). Author Enrique Joven centers his compelling, fast moving story around a very real historical artifact—the indecipherable Voynich Manuscript—and spins an extraordinary tale that asks whether legendary scientific figures (Brahe, Koeppler, Galileo, Copernicus) might have hidden some of their secrets within its pages.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published October 7, 2007
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311 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 92 reviews
September 9, 2011
I wanted to like this book.
I slogged through it and did not find it rewarding despite being about Kepler and Brahe in part, which predisposed me to like it,
sigh
I slogged through it and did not find it rewarding despite being about Kepler and Brahe in part, which predisposed me to like it,
sigh
July 12, 2013
I had hoped for a lot with this book, but I was disappointed. Kept reading right to the end in the hope it might turn around, but alas it did not.
July 28, 2013
Decided not to finish it. Interesting historical basis but terrible writing.
May 13, 2009
Hard to say if the original is so flat or the translation is bad, but this one is a by the numbers historical thriller with a great premise but poor execution
September 22, 2009
I read about 100 pages of this and gave up (or cut my losses), as nothing had happened. I'm prepared to accept that a fair amount of exposition is necessary, but it was excessive here and, as far as I could tell, not necessary for what may or may not have happened later. The use of the student as a foil to tell a historical story that appeared to have too many (false) leads was a silly narrative device. Some balance between history and the present "story" might have made this readable, but I gave up after I kept hoping things would finally start happening...and they didn't.
October 3, 2011
Blah....the only interesting thing was learning that there actually is such a thing as the Voynich manuscript. The mystery was plodding, difficult to follow and full of arcane details.
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October 21, 2019Esta novela me ha gustado y disgustado por la misma razón: es un 20% novela y un 80% ensayo.
La trama central es el manuscrito Voynich, con varias subtramas satélite sobre astronomía en general y Tycho Brahe y Johannes Kepler en particular, también desfilan Galileo, Kircher, John Dee...Demasiados melones abiertos, para mi gusto.
Me encanta la astronomía, la historia de la astronomía y sus astrónomos y me hubiera encantado en un ensayo dedicado a este tema, porque el autor lo cuenta bien, de un forma clara y amena. Pero esta novela no es el momento ni el lugar para me cuenten con pelos y señales, la vida de estos hombres desde que nacieron hasta que murieron.
El autor se ve en la obligación de explicar con todo lujo de detalles, cada término, cada lugar por el que pasan los protagonistas, cada cosa que ven y hasta cada cosa que comen. Esto lo que consigue es ralentizar de forma exasperante la trama novelesca, que no avanza porque cada 4 o 5 páginas nos mete una perorata sobre cualquier cosa que se le ocurra. Eso sí, luego el final lo resuelve en unas pocas páginas deprisa y corriendo y de muy mala manera.
Además, tanta profusión de detalles y explicaciones puede llegar a ser incluso un insulto a la inteligencia del lector, porque el autor está asumiendo que no sabemos nada de nada. No necesito tantas explicaciones, buen hombre, dame unas pinceladas y si quiero saber más ya lo buscaré en "San Google" o en "Santa Wikipedia" o en otros libros, tu céntrate en la historia que estás contando y no te disperses tanto.
En fin, como el mismo autor dice en los agradecimientos, "soy un astrofísico metido a novelista" y de escribir ficción, le queda muchísimo que aprender, espero que mejore porque promete, pero tiene muchas aristas que pulir.
La trama central es el manuscrito Voynich, con varias subtramas satélite sobre astronomía en general y Tycho Brahe y Johannes Kepler en particular, también desfilan Galileo, Kircher, John Dee...Demasiados melones abiertos, para mi gusto.
Me encanta la astronomía, la historia de la astronomía y sus astrónomos y me hubiera encantado en un ensayo dedicado a este tema, porque el autor lo cuenta bien, de un forma clara y amena. Pero esta novela no es el momento ni el lugar para me cuenten con pelos y señales, la vida de estos hombres desde que nacieron hasta que murieron.
El autor se ve en la obligación de explicar con todo lujo de detalles, cada término, cada lugar por el que pasan los protagonistas, cada cosa que ven y hasta cada cosa que comen. Esto lo que consigue es ralentizar de forma exasperante la trama novelesca, que no avanza porque cada 4 o 5 páginas nos mete una perorata sobre cualquier cosa que se le ocurra. Eso sí, luego el final lo resuelve en unas pocas páginas deprisa y corriendo y de muy mala manera.
Además, tanta profusión de detalles y explicaciones puede llegar a ser incluso un insulto a la inteligencia del lector, porque el autor está asumiendo que no sabemos nada de nada. No necesito tantas explicaciones, buen hombre, dame unas pinceladas y si quiero saber más ya lo buscaré en "San Google" o en "Santa Wikipedia" o en otros libros, tu céntrate en la historia que estás contando y no te disperses tanto.
En fin, como el mismo autor dice en los agradecimientos, "soy un astrofísico metido a novelista" y de escribir ficción, le queda muchísimo que aprender, espero que mejore porque promete, pero tiene muchas aristas que pulir.
February 26, 2017
I very much enjoyed this. The Voynich Manuscript really exists (currently housed at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University), and since its first appearance at the court of Rudolph II of Bohemia in the 1500's no one has ever been able to crack its code and translate it. The intrepid trio in this novel are working on doing just that, and not without serious (and sinister?) competition, and some personal peril. Written by a physicist, the book teems with mathematics and physics, astronomy, and other sciences, all fields utterly beyond this humble reader, but once deciding to just read the story, it became a cracking good tale that I couldn't put down. Plot and structure, characters and events, narrative and pace, and a fine denouement all contribute to a book I heartily recommend.
February 24, 2011
If The DaVinci Code was based in solid fact, and if Dan Brown possessed any writing skills whatsoever, I suspect that The DaVinci Code would have ended up being a great deal like this novel. The two novels are similar in that both plots revolve around a mysterious religious text. In this case, however, the mysterious text in question is actually real, and is kept at Yale University.
The Voynich Manuscript is a set of handwritten pages from sometime around the early 1400s. It is written in an unidentified language and an unknown script, and has thus far defied every attempt to translate it. Ancient scholars tried, and modern cryptographers and mathematicians and computer scientists have also failed. The manuscript is full of detailed illustrations, and seems to cover many topics, from astronomy to biology to medicine.
The Book of God and Physics is fairly unique, since a great deal of the people and objects and locations in the novel are very real. The only fabrications for the story are the three central characters. The main character is a young Jesuit priest, Hector, who lives in a monastery and teaches physics and math at a Jesuit high school in Spain. In his free time, he joins hundreds of other people around the world in an online community devoted to solving the Voynich Mystery. Along with two friends, Juana from Mexico and John from England, he begins to piece together clues to the manuscript. Over time, they find that the manuscript is very much a part of the Jesuit Order's history. Along with working on the manuscript, Hector must help his fellow priests in saving their monastery from being bought by developers and destroyed to make room for a parking lot. With one of his students, Hector also gets swept up in a research project involving Johannes Kepler and Tycho Brahe, the very famous astronomers of old. The three separate plotlines eventually come together.
I have only a few complaints about the book. The pacing was a little too slow. However, I am at a loss to explain how this problem might be fixed. The issue is that the story involves a very large amount of explanation, including a detailed history of the Voynich Manuscript itself, and a very very detailed history of the lives of Kepler, Brahe, and other historically significant people of their day. As a rough estimate, I would guess that somewhere between 30% and 40% of the book is devoted to historical background. Unfortunately, a great deal of this background is necessary to understand the intricacies of the plot itself. So, if you have little to no interest in people like Kepler and his contemporaries, this is most likely not the book for you. I wish the ending had been a little clearer, and I wish that we'd get to see what the translated Voynich Manuscript says, but since the real manuscript hasn't been deciphered at all, I think it was probably a safe choice to leave that to the reader's imagination. Finally, I feel like something might have been slightly lost in translation, as some of the dialogue occasionally feels artificial. However, that's a trait I notice in most translated works that I read, so I don't consider this to be a significant issue at all.
As for the plot itself, I thought it was nicely developed and I felt like the mystery unfolded well. There were no huge shocks, but nor was it a predictable plot. The main character, Hector, is well developed, and certainly feels like he could be a real person. His friends Juana and John are somewhat less well characterized, but they have far fewer scenes than Hector. In John's case, I don't think the slight lack of development is an issue, but in Juana's case, I could perhaps have used a little more background, especially in light of the directions taken by her character in the latter third of the story.
The intersection of history, science, and religion is very nicely explored in this book. Written by a Spanish astrophysicist with a Ph.D., there is a lot of talk of astronomy and some talk of math and physics. None of this drags the story down; rather, the science nicely accents the plot without dominating. Since Hector is a Jesuit priest, there is the constant backdrop of his religious order, but the religion doesn't dominate the story, and Juana and John are from different religious backgrounds themselves (Juana is evangelical Protestant, and John is an atheist). For those of you who don't know, the Jesuit order in the Catholic church is a brotherhood devoted to education and science. There is some exploration of Protestantism vs Catholicism, but not a great deal and mostly at the end. Unusual for this blog, this book's story and the history explained in it could be one argument for how religion isn't always trying to destroy science. The Catholic Church, under John Paul II, was very accepting of Darwinism and evolution, and the Big Bang Theory, describing the origin of the universe ~14 billion years ago, was actually developed by a Jesuit priest and cheerfully accepted by the Vatican.
In short, if you're interested in physics and astronomy, or in ancient mysteries, or in the Jesuit order, or in people like Kepler and Brahe, this is recommended reading. If you don't care for these topics, though, it could prove to be a ponderous, slow read! Definitely a book for a specific target audience.
"Actually, it is noteworthy that this theory of evolution has gradually entered the investigators' spirits, due to a series of discoveries in diverse fields of knowledge. The convergence of results, in no way intended to provoked in studies conducted independently, is a significant argument in itself in favor of this theory." ~Pope John Paul II, in support of evolution and Darwinism. Qtd page 337 in The Book of God and Physics
4/5 stars.
The Voynich Manuscript is a set of handwritten pages from sometime around the early 1400s. It is written in an unidentified language and an unknown script, and has thus far defied every attempt to translate it. Ancient scholars tried, and modern cryptographers and mathematicians and computer scientists have also failed. The manuscript is full of detailed illustrations, and seems to cover many topics, from astronomy to biology to medicine.
The Book of God and Physics is fairly unique, since a great deal of the people and objects and locations in the novel are very real. The only fabrications for the story are the three central characters. The main character is a young Jesuit priest, Hector, who lives in a monastery and teaches physics and math at a Jesuit high school in Spain. In his free time, he joins hundreds of other people around the world in an online community devoted to solving the Voynich Mystery. Along with two friends, Juana from Mexico and John from England, he begins to piece together clues to the manuscript. Over time, they find that the manuscript is very much a part of the Jesuit Order's history. Along with working on the manuscript, Hector must help his fellow priests in saving their monastery from being bought by developers and destroyed to make room for a parking lot. With one of his students, Hector also gets swept up in a research project involving Johannes Kepler and Tycho Brahe, the very famous astronomers of old. The three separate plotlines eventually come together.
I have only a few complaints about the book. The pacing was a little too slow. However, I am at a loss to explain how this problem might be fixed. The issue is that the story involves a very large amount of explanation, including a detailed history of the Voynich Manuscript itself, and a very very detailed history of the lives of Kepler, Brahe, and other historically significant people of their day. As a rough estimate, I would guess that somewhere between 30% and 40% of the book is devoted to historical background. Unfortunately, a great deal of this background is necessary to understand the intricacies of the plot itself. So, if you have little to no interest in people like Kepler and his contemporaries, this is most likely not the book for you. I wish the ending had been a little clearer, and I wish that we'd get to see what the translated Voynich Manuscript says, but since the real manuscript hasn't been deciphered at all, I think it was probably a safe choice to leave that to the reader's imagination. Finally, I feel like something might have been slightly lost in translation, as some of the dialogue occasionally feels artificial. However, that's a trait I notice in most translated works that I read, so I don't consider this to be a significant issue at all.
As for the plot itself, I thought it was nicely developed and I felt like the mystery unfolded well. There were no huge shocks, but nor was it a predictable plot. The main character, Hector, is well developed, and certainly feels like he could be a real person. His friends Juana and John are somewhat less well characterized, but they have far fewer scenes than Hector. In John's case, I don't think the slight lack of development is an issue, but in Juana's case, I could perhaps have used a little more background, especially in light of the directions taken by her character in the latter third of the story.
The intersection of history, science, and religion is very nicely explored in this book. Written by a Spanish astrophysicist with a Ph.D., there is a lot of talk of astronomy and some talk of math and physics. None of this drags the story down; rather, the science nicely accents the plot without dominating. Since Hector is a Jesuit priest, there is the constant backdrop of his religious order, but the religion doesn't dominate the story, and Juana and John are from different religious backgrounds themselves (Juana is evangelical Protestant, and John is an atheist). For those of you who don't know, the Jesuit order in the Catholic church is a brotherhood devoted to education and science. There is some exploration of Protestantism vs Catholicism, but not a great deal and mostly at the end. Unusual for this blog, this book's story and the history explained in it could be one argument for how religion isn't always trying to destroy science. The Catholic Church, under John Paul II, was very accepting of Darwinism and evolution, and the Big Bang Theory, describing the origin of the universe ~14 billion years ago, was actually developed by a Jesuit priest and cheerfully accepted by the Vatican.
In short, if you're interested in physics and astronomy, or in ancient mysteries, or in the Jesuit order, or in people like Kepler and Brahe, this is recommended reading. If you don't care for these topics, though, it could prove to be a ponderous, slow read! Definitely a book for a specific target audience.
"Actually, it is noteworthy that this theory of evolution has gradually entered the investigators' spirits, due to a series of discoveries in diverse fields of knowledge. The convergence of results, in no way intended to provoked in studies conducted independently, is a significant argument in itself in favor of this theory." ~Pope John Paul II, in support of evolution and Darwinism. Qtd page 337 in The Book of God and Physics
4/5 stars.
Read
June 22, 2021I enjoyed this one a bit more after more experience with Jesuits and theories of particle physics. It seems as though there is just a little too much of the research incorporated into the narrative to really take advantage of the naturally exciting parts which there in any kind of library-related mystery! Still, that’s a small complaint.
August 24, 2019
Un muy buen libro, lo tienes todo, te engancha desde la primera página y además de eso aprendes muchas cosas con él. Los personajes muy logrados sobre todo héctor, me ha encantado el jesuita.
December 18, 2021
Me ha costado mucho terminar esta novela que no parece tal cosa, sino más bien una especie de "disertación" novelada que no resulta entretenida ni por la parte de "disertación" ni por la parte de "novela".
Los diálogos no resultan creíbles, las situaciones son a menudo inverosímiles, las emociones que se nos dice que tienen los personajes nunca les impiden abandonar un elaborado discurso sobre el asunto que toque, siempre convenientemente enlazado con el discurso anterior de otro personaje, como si ellos y sus situaciones fueran simples interrupciones en el desarrollo de una conferencia de historia. Y la ciencia ficción no la veo por ninguna parte.
Los diálogos no resultan creíbles, las situaciones son a menudo inverosímiles, las emociones que se nos dice que tienen los personajes nunca les impiden abandonar un elaborado discurso sobre el asunto que toque, siempre convenientemente enlazado con el discurso anterior de otro personaje, como si ellos y sus situaciones fueran simples interrupciones en el desarrollo de una conferencia de historia. Y la ciencia ficción no la veo por ninguna parte.
August 12, 2013
"Anything that can be explored should certainly be interpreted."
This quote from Max Planck, the German physicist certainly encapsulates the theme of this novel.
After this epigraph, we're introduced to the protagonist, a young Spanish Jesuit, Father Hector. He teaches math and physics in a Spanish high school. He also has a deep interest in astronomy. He and other of his colleagues [on the outside, as he puts it] are attempting to decipher a mysterious manuscript from the late Renaissance, the so-called Voynich manuscript. It has copious illustrations. It is written in an unidentified alphabet and language. It's possibly in code and no one can decipher it. What does it say? Or is it a hoax designed to fool Rudolf II, King of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor? The manuscript actually exists and is at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University--MS408.
Father Hector and his friends, John and Juana, try to solve this mystery. Their quest leads them to Rome then back to Spain. The novel was a real page-turner; I could not put the book down. There are clues galore, red herrings, some blind alleys and some breakthroughs. Father Hector teaches us along with his class some elementary physics, geometry, astronomy, about the astronomers Tycho Brahe, Johann Kepler and Nikolaus Copernicus, among others, and their importance. When he and his friends visit a Spanish castle, we learn a little Spanish history. It was a little comical to me, as an American, where the author spoke about American popular culture, he had to footnote each reference for his Spanish readers. A bright student of Father Hector's helps him in finding information, and we learn from him, too. Father Hector is a likeable, intelligent person.
I thought the choice of title for the U.S. edition was unfortunate. I hope people won't judge the book by the U.S. title or by the cover, which was pretty insipid, and they won't turn away. The Spanish cover showed a hand holding an astrolabe. The Spanish title: "El castillo de las estrellas" [The castle of the stars] conveys much more the atmosphere and theme of the book. The castle could refer to the one Brahe built at his science research center, Uraniborg, on the Isle of Hven. His castle was named Stjerneborg [Castle of stars]. Or it could mean the Spanish castle.
This was an intelligent mystery and certainly worth reading. The author stated only Father Hector and his friends were fictitious. I'd add to that his high school class and his community of Jesuits. All else was factual. The ending may not have answered all my questions, but considering the circumstances, I think the author tied up loose ends as well as he could. Highly recommended for those interested in literary puzzles and astronomical mysteries!
This quote from Max Planck, the German physicist certainly encapsulates the theme of this novel.
After this epigraph, we're introduced to the protagonist, a young Spanish Jesuit, Father Hector. He teaches math and physics in a Spanish high school. He also has a deep interest in astronomy. He and other of his colleagues [on the outside, as he puts it] are attempting to decipher a mysterious manuscript from the late Renaissance, the so-called Voynich manuscript. It has copious illustrations. It is written in an unidentified alphabet and language. It's possibly in code and no one can decipher it. What does it say? Or is it a hoax designed to fool Rudolf II, King of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor? The manuscript actually exists and is at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University--MS408.
Father Hector and his friends, John and Juana, try to solve this mystery. Their quest leads them to Rome then back to Spain. The novel was a real page-turner; I could not put the book down. There are clues galore, red herrings, some blind alleys and some breakthroughs. Father Hector teaches us along with his class some elementary physics, geometry, astronomy, about the astronomers Tycho Brahe, Johann Kepler and Nikolaus Copernicus, among others, and their importance. When he and his friends visit a Spanish castle, we learn a little Spanish history. It was a little comical to me, as an American, where the author spoke about American popular culture, he had to footnote each reference for his Spanish readers. A bright student of Father Hector's helps him in finding information, and we learn from him, too. Father Hector is a likeable, intelligent person.
I thought the choice of title for the U.S. edition was unfortunate. I hope people won't judge the book by the U.S. title or by the cover, which was pretty insipid, and they won't turn away. The Spanish cover showed a hand holding an astrolabe. The Spanish title: "El castillo de las estrellas" [The castle of the stars] conveys much more the atmosphere and theme of the book. The castle could refer to the one Brahe built at his science research center, Uraniborg, on the Isle of Hven. His castle was named Stjerneborg [Castle of stars]. Or it could mean the Spanish castle.
This was an intelligent mystery and certainly worth reading. The author stated only Father Hector and his friends were fictitious. I'd add to that his high school class and his community of Jesuits. All else was factual. The ending may not have answered all my questions, but considering the circumstances, I think the author tied up loose ends as well as he could. Highly recommended for those interested in literary puzzles and astronomical mysteries!
September 10, 2009
This is a great book!
The author takes an obscure, but at the same time well-known, manuscript and weaves a tale of mystery and suspense around it. Of course it helps that the manuscript in question really does exist, sits in the archives a collection at Yale University, has never been successfully translated (not even one little bit!), disappeared for a couple of hundred years, and has Roger Bacon and John Dee as possible authors.
Sure it's not as high on the pop culture scales as Leonardo, but if you read into the tale and pay attention, it's just as interesting --- perhaps even more so.
The book uses all of the known facts about the manuscript to embellish its "place" in the novel. That coupled with some added zest regarding the history of the Jesuits and their role as both archivists and missionaries makes this a superior read.
The author takes an obscure, but at the same time well-known, manuscript and weaves a tale of mystery and suspense around it. Of course it helps that the manuscript in question really does exist, sits in the archives a collection at Yale University, has never been successfully translated (not even one little bit!), disappeared for a couple of hundred years, and has Roger Bacon and John Dee as possible authors.
Sure it's not as high on the pop culture scales as Leonardo, but if you read into the tale and pay attention, it's just as interesting --- perhaps even more so.
The book uses all of the known facts about the manuscript to embellish its "place" in the novel. That coupled with some added zest regarding the history of the Jesuits and their role as both archivists and missionaries makes this a superior read.
September 2, 2018
It's late and I just wanted to finish this because it's overdue already.
The beginning was slow at times (filled with lots of historical information but gets boring at times like I get the feeling of "can we get back to what happens next?") then towards the ends things are just rushed hence, a couple of loose strings.
I tried to give it a chance when I wanted to give up already but as expected, I was left disappointed at the last page of the book. I kinda saw it coming though because I knew that the Manuscript hasn't been deciphered in reality.
It's a good book if you have no other reads or you just have time to kill.
The beginning was slow at times (filled with lots of historical information but gets boring at times like I get the feeling of "can we get back to what happens next?") then towards the ends things are just rushed hence, a couple of loose strings.
I tried to give it a chance when I wanted to give up already but as expected, I was left disappointed at the last page of the book. I kinda saw it coming though because I knew that the Manuscript hasn't been deciphered in reality.
It's a good book if you have no other reads or you just have time to kill.
September 1, 2018
Interesting mix of history, science and cyber sleuthing. Poor version of The da Vinci Code. Ends with a thud. No resolution. And what’s the significance of Simon in the story?
Interesting also since there are reports that the mystery of the Voynich has been resolved. Which makes for an interesting backdrop.
Interesting also since there are reports that the mystery of the Voynich has been resolved. Which makes for an interesting backdrop.
February 4, 2018
The subject matter was fascinating and it was well researched but the writing - or perhaps the translation - did not flow well. The phrasing and conversations were frequently awkward and it was overly didactic and expository - at one point even explaining what Wikipedia is.
December 28, 2009
From the thrill of the chase to the mystery of the unknown outcome. An excellent read.
October 29, 2021
this book was so far from thrilling. the last 30 pages were pretty exciting though. would recommend if you're curious about somewhat obscure european history.
January 16, 2022
Wiele osób bardzo negatywnie oceniło ta książkę. Jednak ja uważam inaczej. Autor przedstawia nam dość łagodnie historie manuskryptu Wojnicza z niewielka fabuła. Prowadzi zagadnienia historyczne za pomocą trzech postaci, którzy chcą odkryć tajemnice manuskryptu, a przy okazji dość zawile przedstawia historie wydarzeń co tak naprawdę działo się z owym dziełem aż do dziś. Sprawia to, że czytelnik wie o czym rozmawiają postacie podczas swojej przygody. Jest to pewnym rodzaju edukowanie się czym tak naprawdę była ta księga za pośrednictwem dopełnienia swojej wiedzy na dany temat oraz przyjemnie wtapiamy się w fabułę, która nie jest dla nas mecząca. Jeśli lubisz książki, które maja w sobie treści historyczne, to ta książka jest dla Ciebie. Ale jeśli nie lubisz czytać o historii to nie sięgaj po nią, bo uznasz, że jest nudna i będziesz męczyć się przy każdej stronie. Tak naprawdę jest to wstęp aby dowiedzieć się co to jest manuskrypt Wojnicza i warto zajrzeć po tej lekturze do źródeł historycznych, jeśli Ciebie to mocno wciągnęło.
November 16, 2024
Una historia historico-técnica-fantasiosa sobre una posible resolución del manuscrito Voynich. En líneas generales es un libro con una trama que engancha, pero una ejecución a todas claras de iniciado en la escritura. Este libro contiene serias deficiencias literarias que despistan y te sacan de la historia, pero que más o menos se cubren en función del interés del lector (en mi caso mucho) en las explicaciones técnicas e históricas que en este caso están sobradamente más conseguidas.
Es evidente que Enrique Joven es mejor científico y divulgador que escritor, lo cual no lo digo con ánimo de menosprecio.
Dicho todo esto, he disfrutado del libro. Pero una pena la inconsistencia del libro y que el final haya sido tan atropellado. Con ganas de meterle mano a El templo del cielo :)
Es evidente que Enrique Joven es mejor científico y divulgador que escritor, lo cual no lo digo con ánimo de menosprecio.
Dicho todo esto, he disfrutado del libro. Pero una pena la inconsistencia del libro y que el final haya sido tan atropellado. Con ganas de meterle mano a El templo del cielo :)
February 26, 2020
O livro é lento. Cheio de informações e fatos reais, o que tanto pode ser um acerto como um erro. Mas o maior erro foi meu - de ter começado a leitura esperando uma ficção. Por causa disso, o final me foi absurdamente decepcionante. Não pude acreditar quando li aquela última página, porque me senti esperando por uma continuação, como se esse fosse o primeiro livro de uma série cansativa. No mais, a construção do personagem principal e seus colegas, é incrível. Questões políticas e históricas postas lado a lado. Gostei, mas foi uma leitura cansativa e bastante pesada, pela quantidade de informações apresentadas - o que, por si só, é impressionante.
May 10, 2018
It's rare for me not to finish a book but I could only get through a few chapters of this one. The premise is interesting but the beginning was so slow I couldn't stick with it (and I read a lot of 19th century literature, so that's saying something!). It feels as if the author just wanted to complain about other scholars, kids these days, the Spanish government, and anything else he could think of. I also think the translation was not great, so there were many awkward, hard to understand sentences that made the pace even slower.
December 30, 2018
Not sure if something was lost in translation, but framing all the history of the manuscript with a fictional story felt very forced; nothing happened with the plot until the last chapter or so, and the info at times seemed rather random and out of sequence. It’s like the opposite of ‘weaving’ fact and fiction. Lots of tell instead of show, way too much exposition, maybe he should of just written a NF book.
The wikipedia page for the Voynich manuscript was fascinating though, 5 stars for whoever wrote that.
August 31, 2022
Me he llevado una grata sorpresa con este libro. Me gustan aquellos libros en los que, además de contarte una historia, hacen referencia al contexto histórico y a curiosidades de todo tipo. Pues bien, en este caso, es más bien al contrario: una gran parte es contexto histórico y curiosidades, y alrededor pulula una novela... Resulta interesante la forma en que está escrito, no se hace pesado y te deja con el gusanillo de querer saber más acerca del tema. Seguiré la pista de este autor en el futuro.
March 29, 2024
La temática es muy interesante: la búsqueda por todo el mundo de un libro de claves para poder traducir un extraño manuscrito antiguo. Una especie de búsqueda del santo grial.
Ahora, la manera en la que está narrada hace que la lectura pierda todo el interés y se vuelva totalmente anodina.
Jamás recomendaría está lectura.
📖❤️
Ahora, la manera en la que está narrada hace que la lectura pierda todo el interés y se vuelva totalmente anodina.
Jamás recomendaría está lectura.
📖❤️
August 6, 2020
El manuscrito Voinich, astronomía, jesuitas, personajes históricos... Una lectura entretenida para verano. Muy inspiradora para buscar un montón de información por Internet y pasar el rato entretenido. Si te gusta Dan Brown seguramente te guste también.
March 24, 2022
Over 100 pages in and nothing has happened….extremely boring. I quit!!!!! Not sure how some reviews gave it 5 star. They must be more boring than me.
Also the author wrote in first person which I do not like. “I did this…..I did that….”
Not my style
Also the author wrote in first person which I do not like. “I did this…..I did that….”
Not my style
November 6, 2022
Trata sobre el "Manuscrito Voynich" (todavía sin descifrar). Basado en hechos y personajes reales (excepto el narrador de la historia y sus amigos).
A gente de ciencias o interesada en la historia le puede gustar. Yo esperaba otra cosa. Le sobran páginas.
A gente de ciencias o interesada en la historia le puede gustar. Yo esperaba otra cosa. Le sobran páginas.
December 29, 2022
La història en sí és interessant. Està bé el misteri. Però és que a estones se m'ha fet molt pesat. Que sí, que està bé explicar la història, però sovint hi havia diverses pàgines seguides que me les llegia en diagonal...
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