An uneven book. In the beginning, too many undifferentiated characters are introduced. The puzzle-solving aspects are not particularly interesting, as there’s no hope for the reader to generate the required ciphers, and she doesn’t have the original text to apply it to. The action sequences near the end perk up the interest a little, but they aren’t terribly well-written, and the ending is way too flat to be enjoyable.

8.2004
6/10 Stars

picked up on word of a bookseller i trust, but got bored w/ it. lost of princeton anecdotes, but i never caught the story—plus, i could never pronounce the freakin’ book!

Didn’t like it as much as the much-compared-to Da Vinci Code.

A coming of age, puzzle thriller. Tries to be too much and doesn’t succeed at sustaining the interest. Some good action segments broken up by some attempts at character development and some long sections on decoding the work central to this book. Not nearly as entertaining as the DaVinci Code.

Great book, a nice medium read. Deep enough to have satisfying characters, but not so much that it can’t be a summer read. I won’t hold it up as one of my favorite books, but I was very pleased with it. It focuses on the relationship between the friends working on the book instead of the mystery of the book itself. There is still enough information about the mystery to satisfy the conspiracy and code fans, but not so much as to bog down the casual reader.