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3.97 AVERAGE
3.97 AVERAGE
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I was not smart enough to enjoy reading this book.
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
the appeal of the plot wasn't enough to get me through the absolute drudge of eco's tangents about religious history...
Glancing through recommendations and descriptions will likely give you the impression that this is a murder mystery set in a 14th-century abbey full of monks. Thinking of it like that, you might expect something a bit like The DaVinci Code, where lore and setting and history all act as clues for the mystery at hand. But actually, the opposite is true here: This is a 14th-century abbey full of monks set in a murder mystery.
The focus here is less on the Holmes-ian elements and more on the verisimilitude. Many chapters are devoted to arguments among monks from different schisms and perspectives about the world, the church, and the scriptures. To have these discussions, they will quote philosophers, psalms, emperors, scholars, and anything else they have handy to make their point—often in long, unbroken monologues. They will also speak Latin ad nauseum (with no footnotes). Many of the conversations that come up will not further the plot, because the plot is secondary to this "worldbuilding." In this way, you're being walked through what could be thought of as a historically realistic wax museum of moving parts.
The mystery overall is not a strong one, but that works in the end. The author leans on a piece of thematic poignancy that, like the historical accuracy, is more important than having a comfy murder mystery.
So... I wouldn't recommend this for murder mystery fans. I also wouldn't recommend it to your average fiction reader. Strangely enough, even though this is fiction, it's fiction I would only recommend to non-fiction readers.
The focus here is less on the Holmes-ian elements and more on the verisimilitude. Many chapters are devoted to arguments among monks from different schisms and perspectives about the world, the church, and the scriptures. To have these discussions, they will quote philosophers, psalms, emperors, scholars, and anything else they have handy to make their point—often in long, unbroken monologues. They will also speak Latin ad nauseum (with no footnotes). Many of the conversations that come up will not further the plot, because the plot is secondary to this "worldbuilding." In this way, you're being walked through what could be thought of as a historically realistic wax museum of moving parts.
The mystery overall is not a strong one, but that works in the end. The author leans on a piece of thematic poignancy that, like the historical accuracy, is more important than having a comfy murder mystery.
So... I wouldn't recommend this for murder mystery fans. I also wouldn't recommend it to your average fiction reader. Strangely enough, even though this is fiction, it's fiction I would only recommend to non-fiction readers.
Huh. That was. Huh.
Maybe when I stop being confused and slightly annoyed, I'll write a better review of this book.
Four stars for the first half, two stars for the last half. The first half was great, I liked the descriptions and the debates, I like the way the mystery plot was woven in with the philosophical debates going on. The second half faltered when it started getting to heavily into theology, history, and long winded speeches by various characters about things with peripheral importance to the story thus far. It foundered altogether after the scene with Adso and the girl in the kitchens, and never managed to recover itself. It almost did at the end, but by the time I got to the last few chapters I was so ready to be done reading that I honestly didn't care anymore.
I'm also feeling confused not because it was a particularly difficult book to follow, but because I feel like there was a lot of bamboozling and misdirection happening that I didn't even notice until the ending conversation between William and the murderer. I don't know, it was just odd.
Maybe when I stop being confused and slightly annoyed, I'll write a better review of this book.
Four stars for the first half, two stars for the last half. The first half was great, I liked the descriptions and the debates, I like the way the mystery plot was woven in with the philosophical debates going on. The second half faltered when it started getting to heavily into theology, history, and long winded speeches by various characters about things with peripheral importance to the story thus far. It foundered altogether after the scene with Adso and the girl in the kitchens, and never managed to recover itself. It almost did at the end, but by the time I got to the last few chapters I was so ready to be done reading that I honestly didn't care anymore.
I'm also feeling confused not because it was a particularly difficult book to follow, but because I feel like there was a lot of bamboozling and misdirection happening that I didn't even notice until the ending conversation between William and the murderer. I don't know, it was just odd.
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
informative
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I tried reading this, I really did. After 10 days I hadn’t even made it to 200 pages. It’s not that it’s terrible, but that it’s so slow that I can’t read more than a few pages before nodding off, and reading it started to feel like a chore. That’s a good sign that it’s time to move on.
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
the papal and co. descriptions put me off at the beginning. however the author's note at the end about "having to pass through that mountain to get to the good stuff" does make a compelling case. has historical merit, and the more mysterious part are intriguing enough... the characters really are mouthpieces, and the philosophical aspect that gets raved about this novel doesn't fly very high.