Review: The Rule of Four

The Rule Of Four by Ian Caldwell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Just before reading this book, I read The Lost Symbol. Before I reached the end, I'd researched the ending. While I sometimes do that with a movie that I don't really care about, this was the first time I'd done it with a book.

As I listened to The Rule of Four, I have several books on Audio that I listen to while driving, I was confused by the plot. While I knew that the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili was central to the story, the jumping back and forth in time was odd at times and I couldn't grasp what I needed to care about this old book.

Than I reached the end, I smiled not only at the actual ending, but in understanding.

The confusion I felt was due to everything being shown from Tom's point of view, who spends almost all of the story being confused by his past and future colliding. So much of his life was filled with a love/hate relationship with the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, that became melded with the death of his father AND a sense of both wanting to finish what his father had started, but not BE his father.

As an adult who's lost a parent before 30 [older than Tom was, but in many ways still in a developmental stage], I understood the sense of being torn between who they wanted you to be and who you are...

I was saddened when I finished and came over to write the review and saw so many negative reviews. This isn't in the same caliber as a classic, but in my eyes... Dan Brown could learn a thing or two on research from this book.

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