Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fast moving and fun read, 9 Jun 2004
This is a book that delves into a fascinating historical period and illuminates one of the greatest british conspiracy theories. It is brilliantly paced and creates its own sense of murky reality throughout. The plot evolves continuously and is never predictable. Very hard to put down and I read it in three sittings. Although some simplicity of character is present I believe the book achieves well what it sets out to do - tell an exciting piece of history in a vivid and fun manner. Recommended.
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5 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
If you can't equal them, involve them as characters . . ., 21 April 2004
Shakespeare, Marlowe, and Bacon all feature in this novel whichregurgitates some of the controversy surrounding the true authorship ofShakespeare's plays, and speculates about Marlowe's other career as spy.
In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Puck daubs the eyes of a sleeper with ajuice that makes them fall in love with the first thing they see onwaking. I assume the same was used on the editor, as this book is in direneed of pruning, especially the last chapter jumping to 2012 (with I hopea non-serious allusion to Orwell's 1984. Just a suspension of disbelieftoo far).
Despite the wealth of material available in this period for characters,intrigue, action and drama - it all falls horribly flat. The action isn'tvery well described, the intigue is tedious and the central character ofGresham and his attendants (manservant and wife) are dull stereotypes:Gresham is always more cunning, intelligent and even though we're supposedto believe he has a nasty side, his inner thoughts verge on the saintlymost of the time. His wife, the beautiful yet plucky herione narrowlyavoiding a "fate worse than death" and the simple yet competent andreliable manservant.
Compared to the historical characters mentioned and the plays they wrote,quotations from which are scattered throughout the text in a ratherartificial manner, this novels fares a poor second.
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2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
If heaven were a book..., 31 Aug 2006
Having read the prequels to this literary masterpiece, i could not be blamed for expecting great things and wetting my pants in anticipation, and i was by no means disappointed...
My hands trembled as i picked up the book for the very first time. Such was the excitement and ecstasy that oozed from my unworthy body, a flow of euphoria erupted from my soul like creamy fudge from a hot cake.
My weak fingers turned the first page and I was greeted with a visage so radiant my body was overwhelmed with a joy so powerful, my mind and spirit reached new levels of enlightenment that only Tibetan Monks can have experienced, following years of meditation. His eyes stared out at me, like some divinely beautiful, benign big brother, guiding me. The following months were but a blur...
Truly my soul was touched. When the final page was turned, I wept. I wept tears of joy, for I felt truly alive for the first time. I wept bitter tears of recrimination for the lost, empty boy I had been before I picked up this book. I was lost. I was blind. Now I see a future, through the guidance of Martin Stephen. Even his name evokes such a passion from my loins and excites my wavering mind.
I urge you, no, I beg you, all of you reading this review to pick this book up and experience a phenomenon that elevates your mind and soul to a previously unreachable utopia.
Thank you Martin, you have breathed life into a corpse and ripped of the shackles of oppression that had restricted me from finding myself. If heaven were an inanimate object, it would be this book.
God bless you sir,
Your faithful affectionate servant,
Odin
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